Catania to Napoli

We left Sicily at 19:40 on the good ship Partenone, not many many people on board, but the ship is a lot cleaner than the one we took coming down to Sicily, in fact it even smells clean. The company TTT lines has 2 ships and they simply do the route Napoli, Catania and back.

 Sailing out of Catania into the Ionian Sea and turning left to sail up to the straits of Messina

Lots of tourists, mostly Germans and a few Italians, and some truck drivers. Dinner was a very simple affair, 2 pastas, 2 mystery meats, some salad, bread and water, good but simple. It also seems that in Italy, on ferries dinner is served early and ends early, usually by 20:45 it is all done. Then everyone goes to the lounge for coffee and a drink.

 Catania with Mount Etna in the background barely visible hidden by clouds, only the slope is visible.

As we left the port of Catania we made a sharp left turn into the wind, we are having squalls tonight up the coast of Sicily and the boat is experiencing some rolling, despite the fact that it weighs 7000 tons. We were also able to get a dramatic view of Mount Etna though is was partilly hidden by low clouds it still occupies a good part of the immediate horizon, that is how big it is and how it dwarfs the city of Catania. We are not far off the coast, you can see clearly the lights of each little town as we go up to Messina and in fact you can also see the cars on the highway. Messina is the narrowest point with the toe of the Italian boot, to cross to Reggio Calabria is only 20 minutes at that point. After Messina we are back into open sea all the way up to Napoli. Hopefully the sea will be calmer after that point.

In all the trip takes 12 hours. On arrival in Napoli we will take the highway up to Rome and should be in Rome in under 3 hours time tops.

 Vesuvius in the early morning as we enter the port of Napoli.

On the Blue Star Ithaki

So this morning we sailed from the Port of Pireaus to Mykonos on the Blue Star ferry, Athens was cloudy and rainy when we left, there’s a huge weather system over the Greek Peninsula at this time and for the next 3 days. Meaning that the weather may not be ideal for Mykonos or Santorini but we are here to get away from it all. This was how this package was presented to me and that is what I wanted for me and Dad.

The Blue Star line are huge boats, carrying up to 900 cars and have 6 decks of passengers, business class and first class, restaurants and shops and television. At this time of the year, the boat is half full, we are entering the low tourist season. Everyone on staff is nice and things are quiet.

Mykonos port, Blue Star Ithaki

Greek television showing news, talk shows, weather, looks like rain everywhere. We had to get up pretty early this morning but this is the last early morning of this trip. Every other day will be at leisure. So far things are going well.

We made stops of a few minutes in two other islands before we arrive in Mykonos. Finally here we are, the weather is grey and because we are off season the place is deserted, most hotels have shut down for the winter and only one big cruise ship is in port.

Our hotel is quite nice on St-Stephan beach, a white and blue building with little cottages, a pool and a nice view of the bay.

We had lunch at Kapari, the restaurant of the hotel, Dad had fresh grilled sardines with a puree of fava beans and capers.

Grilled Fresh Sardines with white Fava bean purée and capers.

I do hope the weather improves in the next day or so, the sky looks uncertain, but what is nice, is the calm and quiet of this place. Now is the tranquil part of the vacation, nothing to do but read and write up on the computer.