Heading for Naples

After pulling away from the dock at Sicily, I was surprised to find the ship was going to head East again. I was sure we were going to sail around Sicily heading West because I didn't think there was enough room for the ship to go through the tiny strip of water between the island of Sicily and mainland Italy. As it turns out, we sailed through the straights of Messina. I felt like we were going between the islands up north on Forest Lake! Messina was rather flat and sloping to the sea but at the tip of the toe... of the country of Italy, it is very mountainous! We were on the top deck talking with people and I didn't have my camera so one regret I have now is that there are no pictures of the straights. Peg and I watched the sunset from our room. Later in the evening we passed by the Stromboli Volcanoe in the dark. There wasn't a lava flow but the red ash was spewing into the air and made for a fireworks like display. The ship pulled to within hundreds of yards of the shore for all to see.

We found directions for how to get to a train in Naples that will take us to the ruins at Pompei, so that is our plan for the day. Hopefully, we will have some good pictures by the end of the day.