Siracusa, Sicily part of Italy

Not far from Malta the Island of Sicily as part of Italy was only 60 miles away so we left at 10:30 pm at night from Malta. We are tendering in Siracusa only the third time on the whole world cruise to tender but we will tender in the next four or so ports, a pain compared to docking. Our destination today was the old city of Noto south of Siracusa. Noto is an old city that was totally destroyed by an earth quake in 1690 and rebuilt by the Catholic Church as a planned city with streets and Churches laid out to their desire. A nice place with hordes of Touristico's all in groups following their designated leaders. We were back in Siracusa by noon and found a little lunch spot. We wanted two little personal pizza's and some white local wine. With the language barrier we had two big pizza's and a bottle of red wine. Oh well, it was all good. Back to the ship to start packing. Packing? Oh shit! Yes it's that time of this long world cruise as all good things must come to an end. We ship our bags our by FEDEX in Monaco and must sort through the assorted purchases and clothing to figure our what ships and what stays for the three days on the new ship Muse and then three days in Rome in our three bedroom apartment on the fourth floor with no elevator. The weather has been about perfect with the lows in the morning starting out at about 64 degrees and warming to around 70 for great walking around temps. Tonight we have a special dinner with the Captain but it really is our turn to go as a small group and have dinner in the crew mess in the officers quarters, should be fun. Following that we are invited to a surprise Birthday Party for Rendir, the wife of Dr. Barry from England just prior to 9:30 pm They are both sweethearts as they helped both Dawn and out with tooth problems on the ship. Dr. Barry Abrams is a long time Dentist from England and Rendir was a technician

Local Sicilian wine

Church door in Noto

A Church in Noto

Church in Noto

The Gate of Noto

Noto Church

Noto Church, Did I mention that the Church rebuilt Noto?