Carnival Horizon Review: Day 13 – Sicilyfeatured
Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
Before our Carnival Horizon arrived in Messina, my knowledge of Sicily was limited to the following references:
- The above quote from the Godfather, via You’ve Got Mail
- Picture it. Sicily, 1922 (via the Golden Girls)
That’s it. I knew nothing about Sicily. Our previous travels to Italy took us to the historic capitals of the country (Florence and Rome) and to the aspirational beach spots (the Amalfi Coast), but one of the biggest plusses for this itinerary to us was the opportunity to explore two new Italian ports in Messina (Sicily) and Cagliari (Sardinia).
There were a bunch of shore excursions we mulled over for our day in Sicily. I really wanted to go to Mount Etna because how often can you tell people that you stood on an active volcano? I wanted the bragging rights, I wanted the pictures, I wanted to see magma. Stephanie wanted to go to Taormina, a coastal town overlooking the volcano. She refused to entertain anything else. She told me I’d never get anywhere close to the top of the volcano, that I’d never see magma and that all my pictures would be a gray mass. I told her to sell me on Taormina. And then she showed me a picture of the granitas at Bam Bar and, well, she won. More on that later.
Thankfully, our days of early wake ups to meet our shore excursions were over and our tour didn’t meet until 9:15 AM, leaving us to have a later wake up and a leisurely breakfast on Ocean Plaza, which, though limited in offerings, offered the peace and quiet I need to bring myself up to functioning levels while my body waited for the caffeine to kick in.
Just as we were finishing breakfast, the ship began to dock in the Port of Messina, so we went outside to the Lanai to check out the city around us. The port is located in the city center, with plenty of sites and cafés to visit if you’re looking for a low-key kind of day. Messina is a modern city, not entirely unlike Rome (you know, just without the ancient ruins, religious epicenters and, like, infinitely smaller), and from our views from the ship (and our drive through the city later on), it seemed pretty walkable.
Our tour met in the Liquid Lounge, apparently at the same time as just about every other tour. We grabbed some seats right near the doors, which gave us a primo people watching spot. We’d reached the part of the cruise where everyone was vying to be the first person off the ship, which meant they were crowding at the doors. The staff wouldn’t have it, though, and insisted everyone have a seat. So they crowded in the stairwell to the upper level of the theater. And when numbers were called? It was like what I imagine it’s like at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona – just a bunch of people running and pushing and, you guys, it’s just a tour! Like, here’s the thing: I’m just as guilty as anyone else of wanting to get to the bus quickly so I can get off the ship and into these cities pronto, but the things I won’t do to not get stuck with a seat on the last row of the bus include (but are not limited to) cutting, pushing or getting into fights in line. All things we observed daily when we were taking tours.
Even in the rush, we were quickly on our bus and it wasn’t long before we were on our way to Taormina. Emanuela was guiding us to Taormina and I hesitate to call her our guide because, well, she accompanied us on the bus ride and facilitated our ride back, and she gave us some interesting tidbits and recommendations on the way, but this was very much a self-guided tour. We’d have four and a half hours to do whatever we wanted in Taormina – we could shop, we could eat (everyone from Emanuela to Cruise Director Mike to every blog post we read before we left said we had to have cannoli and granita), we could visit the ancient amphitheater (built by the Greeks in the third century B.C.) – the options were only limited by the time we had to spend there.
Much like, well, just about every bus ride we went on this trip, at some point, the motion of the bus put me to sleep and when I woke up, we were driving up the winding hills to Taormina. The drive wasn’t as treacherous as the drive up to Amalfi, but a big bus and a thin, winding road is never a good combination and we definitely had a few hold-on-to-your-seat moments on the way up.
Our bus driver, Mario, left us on the bottom floor of a parking garage, where the bus would be waiting for us at 2:30 PM for the drive back. Emanuela sent us up in the garage’s elevators and to the meeting spot for our return, where we had a great view of Mount Etna, the volcano I would not be hiking.
We set out on the Corso Umberto, the main street running through Taormina. Our bus arrived early enough that we could observe the town in relative peace and really take in it’s beauty, with tall, colorful buildings punctuated by steep staircases decorated in ceramic pieces and fresh flowers. This was a blessing — by the time we were leaving, it was a sea of people wall-to-wall.
With the streets relatively clear of tourists, we could have taken our time and snapped some more pictures (hindsight is 20/20, after all), but we were girls on a mission and that mission was an authentic Sicilian breakfast. And we knew what we wanted and where we wanted it: granitas at Bam Bar.
Granitas are flavored ices, usually fruit, but coffee and nut flavors are also popular. Think of it as a cross between ice cream, frozen ice and sorbet. In Sicily, they’re topped with fresh whipped cream and served with a dense brioche roll (which you use to scoop up some of the cream and the granita – it’s beyond words good). They’re everywhere in Taormina – from cafés to street carts. But Bam Bar, a café Stephanie found on Instagram, serves some of the best. And, pro, it’s hidden away on a side street off the Corso Umberto, so it wasn’t crazy busy. I ordered off of our server’s recommendation to combine at least two flavors, ordering coffee and almond, topped with cream and obviously, a brioche to go along with it. It was so sweet it really could have been a dessert, but we were in Italy and life in Italy is all about la dolce vita – the sweet life. Life doesn’t get much sweeter when your days start like this.
After our Sicilian breakfast, we power shopped our way up and down the Corso Umberto. Ceramics are a specialty in Taormina, and there are dozens of shops with handmade items. There are tons of generic souvenir shops, too, as well as many clothing boutiques and jewelry stores. And the food stores. Don’t get me started on the food stores! We brought back biscotti from a local bakery, locally produced chocolate bars, sauce mixes, oils, even flavored salts. I wouldn’t have an excuse to not cook at home with all of the gourmet goods I was bringing home with me!
We all agreed we needed a caffeine pick-me-up and stopped at a nearby sidewalk café for a round of cappuccinos. And when you’re in Sicily, you don’t just have a cappuccino – you have to order some cannoli, too. I’m pretty sure it’s, like, travel law or something. Cannoli are another much-loved treat we can thank Sicily for, and there were no less than a dozen bakeries selling them on the Corso Umberto. The sun was starting to finally peek out from the clouds and we sat out on sidewalk patio, with our cappuccinos and cannoli, an arm full of shopping bags on the chair next to me, and I just thought to myself that this was the sweetest day I could have asked for, and a pretty sweet life to get to experience other cultures like this. I’m a pretty lucky girl to work at a company that allows me the flexibility to explore life outside of my little Midwest bubble and travel and experience these different countries and cultures.
I had so many shopping bags that we had to make stop into Antica Sartoria, a boutique we’ve found in just about every Italian city we’ve visited, that sells brightly colored clothing and accessories. They also sell really cheap tote bags that can hold a ton of stuff, and we started buying a new one every time we had too many bags to hold.
We continued our path up the Corso Umberto, stopping at Chiesa di San Giuseppe, a church that overlooks the main square. Two musicians were leading passersby in a round of Volare and we stood at the steps of the church, looking out over the square, with Mount Etna looming in the background, and I just wanted to bottle this all up, take it home with me and pull it out the next time I had a bad day. I’ve said before that when I’m in Italy, I feel like a better version of myself. A calmer one, one who takes the time to absorb the world around me and the details that make it so beautiful. I wanted to sit there forever, to take it in until I could recite each detail from memory.
Forever doesn’t exist when you’re traveling on a cruise ship, so we coursed onwards, stopping for fruity popsicles outside of the Duomo di Taormina, a thirteenth century church built in honor of Saint Nicholas of Bari. There were so many gelato stands around us, but those popsicles were calling my name.
We wanted to have a formal, sit down lunch of pasta or pizza or…something Italian…but by the time we got close to the meeting point, we were down to 45 minutes of free time. And back home, that’s fine. You tell your server you’re in a hurry and you can finish a sit down meal in 45 minutes – I’ve certainly done it plenty of times. But that rush to finish something without properly enjoying it – that doesn’t really exist here. Meals are not meant to be finished in the shortest amount of time. They’re meant to be slow, drawn out, savored. So in absence of time to have a formal lunch (and, lets be real, we’d been grazing all day and I don’t know how we would have found the wherewithal to eat a full meal), we came across a cafeteria, Europe’s version of a counter service restaurant, that offered pizza, sandwiches and arancini to go. I’ve only had arancini on cruise ships, never in Italy, so I couldn’t resist. And they had a bunch – filled with mushrooms or salmon or beef. The one calling my name was filled with mozzarella and spinach and oh my God, oh my God you guys I don’t think I’ve ever tasted something so good. The fried outer shell gave way to soft rice, flavorful spinach and thick, melty strings of cheese. Paired with a fruity Italian soda, it was the perfect lunch. We sat on some steps across from the cafeteria with our arancini and our sodas and we just took it all in. Our time in Taormina was drawing to a close, and we could have easily stayed for days more.
Our group had a meeting time of 2:30 PM near some carnival equipment on the top of the parking garage. We arrived early enough to get in some more face time with that volcano (because how cool was it to be so close to an active volcano?!). Emanuela was just about the only tour guide missing, so Stephanie and Mom went down to the bus to see if she was there. As our luck would have it, she arrived in time to tell us to go down to the bus just as Mom and Stephanie got to the bus, so I met them downstairs where we all hopped on and I stayed awake long enough to watch our bus driver, Mario, try to navigate this big honking tour bus down the thin, curving streets leading out towards Messina.
I woke up to Mom tapping me on the shoulder – we were arriving at the port. I didn’t even remember falling asleep, so waking up back at the ship was a little disorienting. I tried to convince Mom and Stephanie to go to a wine shop across the street or to a café facing the ship, but they just wanted to get back onboard, so we hopped in a long line to go through security and rejoin the ship.
The Horizon was scheduled to set sail around 5:00 PM, so we headed down to deck 5 forward, which isn’t so much of a secret deck, but rather a deck that many didn’t know about, and took in as much of Sicily as we could before we left it.
We left port a little late – I could only assume a late tour returning, but that’s just speculation – and we stayed out on deck to watch the captain navigate us out of the Port of Messina, around the golden Madonna statue that guards the city and all who visit it and out towards the Strait of Messina.
Because we wanted to watch the sailaway, we headed to dinner a little later than we normally do. The menu for the evening was a new one, featuring a few old favorites (like Stephanie’s favorite turkey dinner) with some brand new dishes.
Every night after dinner, we’d go out for an hour or two and then end up at the room, intending to go out and then falling asleep. We decided that, since we didn’t need to have an early wake up for Malta, we’d go out. The Piano Bar, maybe – we hadn’t been there yet. Or maybe back to the Pig & Anchor, where they had such great live acoustic sets. Mom was asleep by 9:00 PM, and Stephanie was dozing in and out while I filtered through my work emails. Mom was out for the count, but Stephanie and I rallied and made it out to the 80s Rock and Glow Party, long enough to enjoy multiple renditions of Thriller and all of the neon goodness.
We visited the late night buffet to check out the new options. I wasn’t much of a fan – the options seemed a little – odd. Very particular flavors and seemingly odd choices. We grabbed a couple of cookies and headed back to the room to watch more Vacation Creation, a Carnival-produced series where they send families on cruises. We looked up things to do and places to visit in Malta and fell asleep to some shifty seas.
