Sailing through the Strait of Messina

We settled into our lovely state room on the ship yesterday after spending the previous night at Rome Airport’s Hilton Hotel. Our home for the next twelve days, Celebrity Edge, has all of the same constituent parts as our three previous cruise ships; state rooms, long corridors, lifts, restaurants, cafés, bars, fancy shops, a large swimming pool, various jacuzzis, art work on the walls, a spa, a casino and a theatre. As relatively seasoned cruise people we soon found our way around the ship. By the time we sailed out of Civitavecchia at 5 p.m. we were on deck, drinks in hand, watching the land slowly seem to glide past as we headed southwards. 

I didn’t sleep very well as a result of eating too much the night before; so I was already awake and sitting out on our balcony at about 6 a.m. as we sailed past Stromboli. I woke James because I knew that he would want to see it too; the island was a dark grey mound in the pre-dawn light with wisps of darker grey smoke trailing from the top, and we could see tiny patches of glowing lava at the top. 

By breakfast time we were sailing through the Strait of Messina, which is between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western tip of Calabria in Southern Italy. We have done this before on a previous cruise but oh boy it’s amazing; we saw the pilot boat speeding up to the side of our ship to drop off the (mandatory) pilot to assist the ship’s captain through the narrowest and busiest part of the Strait. As well as being busy with lots of ferries and fishing boats, it is very beautiful; the shores are dotted with little towns and there are hills and trees behind them. Soon the pilot was collected and the little boat sped off again, and we emerged into the Ionian Sea, turning eastwards towards Crete, where we will arrive tomorrow morning.