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Published: September 9th 2008
Our last days on QV: Sicily, Rome and home!
Friday 5th September: Today, we arrived in the port of Messina on Sicily, an island off the southern coast of Italy.
We all got up early and boarded our tour bus for the resort town of Taormina, about an hour's drive from the port. Taormina is situated high on the cliffs above the sea and is known as the "diamond" of the Italian Riviera. It is very much THE destination for Sicilians and is serviced by very good highways. Much like Queensland's Noosa, this is an ideal weekend getaway for Sicilians. Indeed, this picturesque town truly embodies all that is charming about this region. When we arrived, every shopfront's window glass was being cleaned until it sparkled by conscientious shop assistants who refused anyone entry before opening time of 10 am. Doors were thoughtfully barricaded with mops and brooms and customers dutifully ignored as only the Europeans can do!
We had yet another couple of wonderful Italian espressos and their summer favourite "granita" which consists of frozen espresso blended until it resembles a slush puppy. And of course, the local delicacy "Canoli" - crispy light pastry rolled around
a cheesey custard - delicious!
This town is quite old and consists of a number of city gates which each lead into different parts of the town. The views are truly amazing - some very glamorous restaurants make the most of this and have established truly beautiful premises which only open for dinner. Shops stay open until 11pm in the summer and I'm thinking that sales must be pretty good when the patrons have had a bottle of wine or two to drink! Judging by the prices of some of the wares, they don't have too much trouble selling them.
It was hard to leave this delightful cliff-top medieval town but leave we did, to return to the ship at 1pm for an afternoon of soaking up the sun (or shade) on the deck by the pool with a lovely Mediterranean breeze keeping us just cool enough. We sailed away at 5.30pm to the usual sounds of the band playing, followed by a song indicative of the country we just visited. In this case, "Andrea Bocelli" singing "Time to say Goodbye" For us - it was very poignant as we knew that this was our last "sail away"
TAORMINA, SICILY
Yet more quaint streets full of beautiful shops.for the cruise. Tomorrow, we arrive in Rome and disembark very early.
This evening was our final evening as a group. Sandra had been asked early on if she would give a 'concert', as the tour group which consisted of Peter's radio listeners knew that she was a singer. At first, Sandra had envisaged doing just one or two numbers however this soon became a 45 minute set with the extremely affable English piano player in the ship's Commodore Club. Sandra had written some lyrics to the tune of "My Way" and renamed the song "Our Way" as well as writing further lyrics to the tune of Slim Dusty's famous "I love to have a drink with Duncan" - featuring instead some of the names of our tour group.
By the end of the 45 minute set, at the commencement of "Our Way" there wasn't a dry eye in the house, however, Sandra's quirky and comical lyrics soon had them laughing instead of crying to mark the end of a very memorable tour. We had got to know lots of people, all of whom were so kind and engaging towards PJ, being the only child on the tour.
TAORMINA, SICILY
A view through one of the town's medieval gates into the town square. Peter had done a wonderful job making sure he spent time with all 94 of the tour guests at some point durin the 12 nights on board and they were all very grateful for his efforts. You will see a few pictures of our 'farewell' night in the Commodore Club and John Gill has kindly digitally recorded the whole concert if anyone wants a copy as a memento.
Saturday 6 September: The day finally came: We had packed our suitcases the night before and placed them in the hallway in front of our cabin by midnight for transfer to Deck A, ready to be loaded onto the coaches which would take us to our hotel in Rome. We enjoyed a last breakfast in the Lido and then met in the Card Room prior to disembarking. PJ was very sad at not getting to see his favourite buffet waiter, Kervin, before we left. He had already said his goodbyes to his good friend, Joey Holmes, the night before.
As our hotel rooms were not ready till the afternoon, we were taken on a flying bus tour of Rome's most famous sights. We were able to spend a half hour
TAORMINA, SICILY
Detailed mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary" under thge archway of one of the town's gates. in St Peter's Square, in the Vatican, then on to the Colosseum. Sandra opted out of visiting this place again when she clapped eyes on the number of tourists thronging around the place, so stayed on the bus instead. She's already had the privilege of visiting the Colosseum in the winter of 1987 when there were barely a few people on the site - a much more enjoyable and memorable visit.
From there, on to the famous Fountain of Trevi. Again - 1000s of tourists thronging this square. Absolute mayhem with everybody wanting to throw a coin over their shoulder - I'm surprised more people weren't the victim of an accidental punch in the face given their proximity to each other and the jostling for a position at the front of the fountain. The place is over-run with unlicensed vendors selling all manner of rubbish toys. This really takes away from the absolute magnificence of the fountain, once the main water source for the city of Rome, its water traveling hundreds of miles by means of viaducts ingeniously built by the clever Romans and which still lie under the city today. In fact, the entire city is virtually built
on ruins of some sort of other. Our hotel even showed pictures of excavations revealing Roman ruins under the basement level.
It was very hot in Rome - 37.5 degrees - so it was not pleasant to be in the square where no breeze could penetrate. From what we saw that day, Rome is largely a messy, and un-charming city. Rich in history and amazing ruins of great architecture - but now dirty and smelly in its city streets. Unlike Paris, it does not excude a sophisticatd air or glamour at all. How this chaotic, messy city can produce the world's greatest designers is such a paradox!
After a quick lunch from a cafe, we headed happily back to the air-conditioned bus and then on to our hotel. This is of course the scene of further comical chaos.
About half of our 94 strong tour group was staying at this particular hotel, the Venetian Palace. The other half went to a second property. Upon arrival, it appeared our bus wasn't able to access the street in order to unload the baggage into the foyer. Between about 50 people, we had well over 100 suitcases as well as
TAORMINA, SICILY
View down to the swimming beaches below. hand-luggage. The bus parked at the end of the street, about 100 yards from the hotel's entrance, and the porter was sent for. You cannot imagine how amused we were when a lone porter appeared, pushing a trolley towards us! The poor man would have been there till nightfall had we not all 'mucked in' and pulled our own suitcases to the hotel. To make life even more interesting, there were four stairs to negotiate! Naturally, one of my cases failed to make an appearance, however, after a tense few hours, it reappeared at my door, having stayed on the coach and travelled to the next hotel.
PJ and I enjoyed a very steamy Turkish bath in the basement of the hotel, before venturing out with the rest of the group for dinner around the corner. Unfortunately, it was too hot and humid for poor Sandra and she took this opportunity to take PJ back to the hotel and enjoy the airconditioning.
Sunday 7th September: Today, we were up very early to board our coach to Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Italian chaos reigned supreme here! Despite the large volume of suitcases, we were not able to have
any trolleys and it was nearly bloodshed with the Italian 'trolley-guard" warding our tour leader off from his collection of trolleys which had been 'reserved' for some other lucky coach-load of travellers. So, managing 8 pieces of luggage between 2.5 people, we joined the very long and slow queue for the check-in counters, of which there were only 3 for Singapore Airlines. After 1.5 hours in said queue, we finally checked in and divested ourselves of our 3 large suitcases. The guitar, however, had to be taken to the 'outsize baggage' section, manned by two very miserable and lazy young Italian men who took great joy in pointing and gesturing for us to do this and that with the guitar while all the while standing idly where they could easily have helped us or actually done their job and handled the baggage! Even my brightest "Bongiorno" couldn't elicit anything vaguely resembling a smile from these fellows who would obviously rather be downing espressos and canolis at the nearest cafe-bar! Arriverderci Roma!!
Finally, into the departure lounge, from where we had to board a bus out onto the tarmac to board our 12 hour Singapore-bound flight. After a 3 hour
break for a shower and refreshments, we would board another aircraft for our final destination, Brisbane, only a 6.30 hour flight.
This was it - the moment had finally arrived - we were leaving Europe's shores for the last time - and such an ignominious end to the journey, despite all the wonderful memories on board the QV and onshore at so many different destinations.
A lot of happy memories - a lot of stories to tell - a lot of new friends made.
Farewell Europe - until next time!
Peter, Sandra and PJ
xxx
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