Some island cruising - The Canaries and Sicily, then Milan

[RooFlyer]

Afternoon tea of some Sicilian bites



Dinner in the main restaurant as evening fell





I bought this - Etna red ... of course!



Entrée of Beef Polpette and main of lamb loin.

 

[RooFlyer]

Overnight transit to Lipari, main town of the Aeolian Islands off the NE coast of Sicily. Really looking forward to this day, as in the afternoon/evening we will be 'cruising past Stromboli' - Stromboli being a permanently erupting volcano island.



This was a busy visit. We moored off the town and took the vessel's lifeboats into a wharf in the town (this is the usual way of tendering in).









We had to walk 15 mins or so through the town as the coaches can no longer reach the wharf.

 

[RooFlyer]

We were ging to do a tour clockwise around most of the island.

First stop gave this fantastic view, from the east of Lipari near Pianogreca south-east towards Vulcano island - pretty appropriately named!





Dunno about the volcano, but check-out that massive landslip immediately behind the town.



Further on, we got a view over to Salina Island.





And furth on still, a tantalising peek north-east past Panarea Island through the gloom to Stomboli!



Onwards to the end of the road, Acquacalda (~ Hot water). A video showing the road and some of the commentary (not the best this time) - and a view of Stromboli.

There used to be hot springs here until an earthquake, so now its just a fishing town. But for me, the other thing about it was the pumice deposits (pumice: that very light, air filled volcanic rock that can float) - mined for ages for the pumice which was used for 'stone washed' denim and beauty products. Now closed.



But did we stop for a look? We did not. The bus did a 5 point turn and we headed back.

 

[RooFlyer]

We returned to Lipari town to visit the Citadel, and the museum there. The history of the town and island mirrors Sicily as a whole, but there is a rich history here going back to the Neolithic period, bronze and iron ages, the Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians (many wrecks from this period, and objects in the museum), Arabs, Normans, then the Hohenstaufen Kings, followed by the Angevins, and then the Aragonese, whose line became the Spanish monarchy, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. etc etc. You know the score by now.:

But then (Wikipedia)

In 1544, Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa ransacked Lipari and enslaved the entire population. Five French galleys under Captain Polin, including the superb Réale, accompanied Barbarossa's fleet on a diplomatic mission to Sultan Suleiman in execution of the Franco-Ottoman alliance. French priest Jérôme Maurand lamented about the depredation to his Christian fellow men during the campaign at Lipari: "To see so many poor Christians, and especially so many little boys and girls [enslaved] caused a very great pity." He also mentioned "the tears, wailings and cries of these poor Lipariotes, the father regarding his son and the mother her daughter... weeping while leaving their own city in order to be brought into slavery by those dogs who seemed like rapacious wolves amidst timid lambs".

A number of the citizens were ransomed in Messina and eventually returned to the islands.

Charles V then had his Spanish subjects repopulate the island and build the massive city walls atop the walls of the ancient Greek acropolis in 1556.

The citadel, with the Cathedral





Walk up to the entrance through the customary old narrow streets



Showing the 16th century fort atop old Greek walls.







Inside the ciadel walls, excavations have unearthed ruins from the Roman period,



Greek and prior (the cathedral tower further on)





and buildings from 2,300 - 900BC (bronze age)

 

[RooFlyer]

St Bartholomew's Cathedral, as usual for Sicily, was built on the site of a Greek temple, a Muslim mosque, several earlier church and monasteries in the Norman period, which were destroyed by invaders, and this version dates from the mid 16th century under Charles V.

I visited this by myself, going ahead of the group, who were stuck in the museum, being shown every pot and artifact there, it seemed.



Bell tower from the late 1700s; the façade was re-built in 1861 after a lightning strike.





The vaulted ceiling, painted with Biblical scenes - eg parting of the Red Sea top 1/4 (upside down) and worship of the golden calf (below it, right way up)





Leaving the site down the steps in front of the cathedral.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've skipped the museum, as it was just more of what we've seen before (Nand will see again).

So, we left Lipari and headed for Stromboli - to be one of the top highlights of this cruise for me (amongst many!). To view (hopefully - cloud permitting) an active volcano from the sea, right in front, had me drooling.

First, lunch to dispense with. Pizza.



Then afternoon tea. Cannelloni make an overdue appearance (I wasn't that impressed).



Passed Panarea and minor islands



Then we approached Stromboli.



Clouds . hmmm, but plenty of time yet (we'll be there in the night).



We approached the south-west flank of the island, where a town was. The action is on the north-western side.





The places don't look too bad.



Can't see it very well, but this landslide feature seemed to still be losing rock, with dust being kicked up.



The clouds cleared a bit and we crept around to the north.





But alas, the seas got up a bit and we went back to the lee of the island where we approached from. We had the Captain's coughtail party that afternoon followed by a Gala dinner, so they wanted a calmer platform.

 

[RooFlyer]

coughtails and snacks in the late afternoon








The dinner menu. This Gala Dinner had the cruise Celebrity Chef Danny Imbroisi presiding over the oven. "Best Italian Chef in Paris".



Well, maybe. It was a very nice dinner, with some fancy Chef touches but I made he comment in later Feedback that I didn't think he added anything to the cruise, and the ship's own Master Chef did very well. The guy doesn't speak English - apparently, only deigned to address folk in French. B/S of course, but that's the type of guy he apparently is.

Anyway, dinner out the way, I took up station in the front Observatory Lounge, eyes glued on my phone and GPS position and awaited the next phase of the evening.

 

[RooFlyer]

And waited. Although sea, clouds and wind looked OK, we maintained position for an hour or so and it turned out that we were also maintaining position for the Cruise Director's entertainment night in the main lounge.





I had taken a dislike to this Cruise Director - well away the worst I had encountered on previous cruises. He didn't engage, wasn't approachable and seemed to delegate much of what a CD usually did to the Smithsonian guy I mentioned early on. My dislike intensified as we stayed put.

 

[RooFlyer]

Then, at last we started moving north-west.



and kept going north-west! At the extremity we were sort of front-on, but over 10km away,



I was pretty devastated. The seas and wind on Windy continued to look OK and there was only a little cloud on the volcano.

So .. what did I see. These pics are iPhone enhanced. Like auroras, it didn't look anywhere near like this to the naked eye, especially as we sailed further away!

This first one was taken from the side - there appeared to be quite a big eruption go off, within the clouds.







The wind was getting up a little bit, but no worse where we had sailed to compared to the front of the volcano.



I went to bed, but just before midnight we started heading back, and, hoping they may swing a little eastwards on this return leg, I got up and went to the lounge again. Nup. We headed straight back on the course we went out on. The closer we got, the more side-on we got.

Not. Happy. Jan.