"Are these underwear yours?" DIS Viking Italian Sojourn 2018 TR *COMPLETE* 10/14 New TR Link!

Wow, I am in total awe of your Vatican pictures. What an amazing experience. Though I have to plead ignorant that I had no idea that the Sistine Chapel was in the Vatican. I think someone is going to pull my Italian card :scared1:

I can't believe someone has a dining reservation system more convoluted than Disney. When you are "guaranteed" something with your cruise you wouldn't think it would be such a hassle. But glad to see your meal was well worth it. Definitely nothing like the one Royal Caribbean cruise I've been on :P
 
Haha, I remember at the start of ever tour it was like an event to get everyone with their headsets working right - though we didn’t encounter the “trying to listen withough headphones” situation

I’d say those pictures of Mt Vesuvius from the bus are pretty darn good!

Glad you had a good guide for this - definitely found the quality of your guide played a huge role in how much you enjoyed each tour - we definitely had some that were better than others

DH was killing himself laughing over the people trying to listen with no earbuds! It could definitely be described as an event! And the one time our guide accidentally gave us the wrong channel number...It was so hard to get everyone on the right page that time!!

He's gotten pretty good at getting those quick shots out the window of a moving vehicle! This trip gave him a lot of practice.

The guides were a huge factor in how much we did or didn't enjoy an excursion. Roberto was amazing! So relaxed and funny.

Very cool. We got to see Pompei on our trip - and I have to say that was the biggest + surprise of the trip. I was feeling very "meh" about seeing it, but I really, really enjoyed that tour.

It was one of the excursions I was actually the most excited about because it was really the only one that I had somewhat of an idea of what it would be like. Others we booked, all we had to go on was the description on the Viking website and maybe a quick Google search. We had some surprise hits along the way, but this was a great way to start our cruise trip! It was an awesome excursion.

Wow, I am in total awe of your Vatican pictures. What an amazing experience. Though I have to plead ignorant that I had no idea that the Sistine Chapel was in the Vatican. I think someone is going to pull my Italian card :scared1:

I can't believe someone has a dining reservation system more convoluted than Disney. When you are "guaranteed" something with your cruise you wouldn't think it would be such a hassle. But glad to see your meal was well worth it. Definitely nothing like the one Royal Caribbean cruise I've been on :P

The Vatican has SO much more than I ever realized, so don't feel bad for not knowing about the Sistine Chapel being there! It's got such a huge reputation on its own, I can see why that would be. Definitely an amazing experience! We have been so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit twice.

Yes, many of us kept commenting throughout the cruise that they didn't seem to understand the definition of the word "guaranteed." It was incredibly frustrating, even though it did seem to work out for most of the folks we were traveling with in the end.
 
DH wanted to stop and look at the Viking exhibit they had on board, but I wanted to play on my phone, I guess.

Probably crushing the leaderboard on Disney Emoji.:rotfl2:



We kept running into them on the ship or out at ports and would chat with each other. Then one time walking through one of the dining rooms, we saw them eating with another couple from the DIS group, and it was kind of funny as we waved towards them, both couples waved at us, then turned to each other and seemed to be asking how the other knew who we were. By the end of the cruise, they were up hanging out with us in the Explorers Lounge at night!

That's too funny. Sounds like you all were encountering a lot of people who were surprised by the DIS and its knack for bringing strangers together.:rotfl:


That's interesting about the exurcsions and how you could be separated from friends if the group fills up at that spot. Guess in the end you all were going to the same sights so it didn't really matter, but still...

Glad your guide knew of that free bathroom! My worst nightmare is being out and about and forgetting my coin purse full of 50 cent pieces! I never go anywhere without potty money. :laughing:


Interested to read more about Pompeii, especially since you seemed to have a great tour guide!
 
Great pics as you sailed into Naples!

Gelato at the buffet?? Nice!!

I can already tell it's going to be a great tour! Can't wait to hear more about it!
 


Probably crushing the leaderboard on Disney Emoji.:rotfl2:

Honestly?? I probably was playing Emoji Blitz!!! :rotfl: I actually had a heck of a time jumping ahead a few days before we left for this trip to do the first Food Fight challenge so I could be done before we left since I didn't know how our wi-fi would be. I've never left a challenge unfinished, and I wasn't about to start on this cruise!!!

That's too funny. Sounds like you all were encountering a lot of people who were surprised by the DIS and its knack for bringing strangers together.:rotfl:


That's interesting about the exurcsions and how you could be separated from friends if the group fills up at that spot. Guess in the end you all were going to the same sights so it didn't really matter, but still...

Glad your guide knew of that free bathroom! My worst nightmare is being out and about and forgetting my coin purse full of 50 cent pieces! I never go anywhere without potty money. :laughing:


Interested to read more about Pompeii, especially since you seemed to have a great tour guide!

It's so true! It was so weird for people to understand, but to us it was just so normal!

Yes, we didn't realize how the excursions worked until that morning. So we knew a couple doing the same excursion at the same time, but we didn't know to arrive together and didn't end up in the same group. We saw them a couple of times as our paths crossed in Pompeii but that was about it.

I did my best not to have to pay for restrooms on this trip, and was pretty successful! I think I only paid maybe 3 or 4 times the whole trip. When we got home and picked the kids up from my mom to make the drive home and DD said she had to stop to use the bathroom, it was such a relief to be able to just run into a gas station and go!

Coming up!

Great pics as you sailed into Naples!

Gelato at the buffet?? Nice!!

I can already tell it's going to be a great tour! Can't wait to hear more about it!

It was beautiful sailing into port every morning! The Italian coast is truly picturesque.

Oh man, did we ever take advantage of that buffet gelato...

Coming up!
 
Day 4 Continued: Sunday March 25th

After touching the tree at the entrance for some energy, we were ready to start our tour of the Pompeii ruins!

The first area we walked into was the gladiators barracks and training grounds.


Next we went into one of the 3 theaters in Pompeii, the Large Theater, where we happened upon a school choir that was there visiting and entertained us by showing off their sound with the acoustics.


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After checking out the theater, we walked down a walkway with some graffiti that Roberto pointed out to us.


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I think this one was a ship


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As Roberto said, “This is a man, and that’s not a big fish he’s holding.”

Across the street from the theater was a bar, so that people could have a drink after seeing a show.


Then we basically walked a good ways down what would have been the main road. Sorry, I didn’t take great notes for some of this.


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I remember this next one is a bakery because this is the oven.


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I remember this one would be a home of a rich person.


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Roberto asked if we wanted to go to the red light district, and of course everyone wanted to! First he pointed out the pharmacy, which was near the brother and had an interesting image to designate it as a pharmacy…


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Then into the brothel, which was also quite interesting. There were some images painted on the walls with…suggestions??


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The beds looked SUPER comfortable.


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After the brothel, we were walking and listening to Roberto tell us about a special ring of his. He actually worked on the excavation of Pompeii in college and kept a piece of material that he had made into a cameo and set into a ring. I don’t think he was supposed to keep that so please don’t tell anyone I told you that. Lol He passed his ring around for everyone in the group to see, and someone ahead of us ended up setting it down on this stone for some reason.

We were towards the end of the group, and I noticed the last person left it there on the stone, so DH and I went back to get it and kept a hold on it until we were able to get back up to Roberto later in the tour. I’m glad we were paying attention because otherwise it would have just gotten left there.

This was a drinking fountain. If you can kind of see the notch in the stone to the left of the fountain, Roberto demonstrated that it was from people leaning over and putting their hand there to stick their head into the stream of water and drink.


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Mosaic floor


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Next we visited the temple of Jupiter, which was kind of the main square at the time.


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Bust of Jupiter

Continued in next post...
 
Day 4 Continued: Sunday March 25th

Then we went over to see the petrified items, including bodies. Roberto told us the eruption happened during the afternoon siesta time, so many people were sleeping. He said this one was identified as a slave because of the chain around his waist to keep him from escaping.


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This guy was covering his face with his scarf


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A toddler
I had been interested in seeing these prior to going, but seeing them was really jarring and emotional. It really put into perspective how terrifying of an event this must have been for the people and animals.

They created these by pouring plaster into the empty spaces between the skeletons and the ash.

Roberto pointed out some stones that looked like Legos so I thought that would be a fun photo for DS.


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And this sweet Pompeiian kitty.


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Next we went to check out the public baths.


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The only remaining original ceiling in the Pompeii ruins


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The baths consisted of 3 rooms, the cold bathing room, the steam room, and the hot bathing room.


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We saw the Apollo sanctuary.


Then we went to the site of the basilica and saw the interesting shape of the bricks used to create the columns.


Eventually we ended up at that overlook with the statue Roberto had pointed out before we had started the tour.


We walked back down to the cameo store to use the restroom again, but this time before we dispersed, Roberto asked the woman in the front of the store to give us a quick explanation of how they make the cameos.


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Then we had a little time to look around the showroom, and despite how beautiful everything is, it was just too expensive for something I probably wouldn’t wear very often.

We got back on the bus for the ride back to the ship, and like most times I was on a bus for this trip, I fell asleep.
We made it back at the perfect time, as we got through security and onto the ship really quickly, but someone posted a pic on our Facebook group that the line had grown tremendously just before the all aboard time!

Continued in next post...
 


Day 4 Continued: Sunday March 25th

Once back in our room, we freshened up for the DIS meet the podcasters had organized for us that was starting at 5:45.

DH snapped a couple of pictures of our sail away from Naples.


Unfortunately, we somehow didn’t get any pictures of this! Thankfully @WebmasterKathy took plenty, and was kind enough to let me steal a few!


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There’s Kevin back there!


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Ryno & Eli


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The meet was about 15 or 20 minutes and it seemed like most of those in the group were there, though we heard later from a few people that Viking hadn’t delivered their invitations to the meet until the following day so they missed it. We got a chance to chat with some old friends as well as meet some new ones and talk about what people had done that day. Kevin and John had gotten pins made of the same design they used for the magnets and they were handing those out. It was a fun meet! But pretty quickly Pete came around to tell everyone that Viking was basically kicking us out because they had double booked the space.

DH and I were ready for dinner as we headed out, and when we hopped on an elevator we were with 2 other DIS couples, Angie & Eva and Steve & Kathy, and they were going to dinner at The Restaurant too, so we decided to go together and get a 6-top. It was one of the best dinners all trip! We had so much fun talking and getting to know each other, and there was never a lull in the conversation. And it’s always a plus to be with a group of people who don’t really know you, but yet don’t think it’s weird at all that you’re taking pictures of your food!

Tonight for our appetizers, DH and I both had the jumbo crab cake.


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We split up on entrees, with him getting an oriental style noodle dish with scallops and lobster.


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I got one of the menu staples that was there every night, the steak.


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And for dessert, we both had the chocolate soufflé.


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For our first meal in the main dining room, it was incredibly delicious, the service was great, and we were looking forward to more meals there!

After dinner, we went back to the stateroom and dropped off the camera, then passed through the buffet to get some gelato for DH. I was still stuffed from dinner, but this became almost a nightly occurrence for him.

We checked out the second level of the Explorers Lounge but no one was up there. As we were about to give up and go to bed, we met up with a few DISers settling into a corner of the first floor of the lounge to have some drinks, so we stayed down there for awhile. We knew Chris & Chuck from our ABD, but there were some new faces in Chandra and Patty, then a few more people wandered over and expanded the group to include Kevin & Kate and maybe Will and Karen? We got to hear a lot of interesting and funny stories from the big China ABD trip that the DIS had done and most of those in this group had done.

We went back up to the room after hanging out with them for a bit to shower and get ready for bed. We decided the next morning we’d take advantage of the room service breakfast, so we picked out what we wanted and hung it out on our stateroom door, then got to bed.

UP NEXT: On to Sicily
 
So many amazing pictures! It really sounds like an awesome tour and experience! Thank goodness you were paying attention and returned Roberto's ring!

Your dinner looks delicious! Glad you were able to spend time before and after dinner with other DISers!
 
Very cool, looks like the tour you got was very similar to ours - you maybe did one or two things more at the end than we did. We were told the pictures in the brothel were the "menu", since many sailors visiting didn't speak the same language, they would just point to the picture to say what they wanted. As I said in an earlier post, Pompeii was way more impressive than I expected - the sheer size of the site was amazing.
 
Great update! Thanks for sharing all those amazing pics of Pompeii! And also the ones from the ship. Looks like you had a great time. I'm glad you saw the ring and returned it to your guide.
 
So many amazing pictures! It really sounds like an awesome tour and experience! Thank goodness you were paying attention and returned Roberto's ring!

Your dinner looks delicious! Glad you were able to spend time before and after dinner with other DISers!

It was a great way to start off the cruise. Most of our excursions ended up being really great, but Pompeii was one of the best ones! Yeah, I would hate to think what would have happened to the ring had it just been left there.

Hanging with other DISers was one of the best parts of this cruise! We met so many amazing people and it made the evenings so much more fun to be able to hang out with people other than just each other. lol


Very cool, looks like the tour you got was very similar to ours - you maybe did one or two things more at the end than we did. We were told the pictures in the brothel were the "menu", since many sailors visiting didn't speak the same language, they would just point to the picture to say what they wanted. As I said in an earlier post, Pompeii was way more impressive than I expected - the sheer size of the site was amazing.

Yes, a menu! I think he said something similar, but I didn't write it down. lol Definitely describes it perfectly.

I really didn't know what to expect going into this tour, and it definitely was impressive. I had no idea it would involve so much!

Great update! Thanks for sharing all those amazing pics of Pompeii! And also the ones from the ship. Looks like you had a great time. I'm glad you saw the ring and returned it to your guide.

Thank you! It was an awesome tour. We really enjoyed it even more than I had thought we would. It was one of the highlights, for sure.
 
Loved the update! I think seeing Pompeii would be very interesting but sad at the same time. Hard to imagine that whole scene. Hmmm Viking forgetting to send some of the invitations and kicking your group out of the space......overall were you happy with your Viking experience?
 
Loved the update! I think seeing Pompeii would be very interesting but sad at the same time. Hard to imagine that whole scene. Hmmm Viking forgetting to send some of the invitations and kicking your group out of the space......overall were you happy with your Viking experience?

I'm sure Kristy will chime in, but we enjoyed Viking quite a bit. The ship was beautiful. Aside from Chef's Table, the food was a step up from DCL. The rooms were a big step up from DCL. However, without a group of people, I can see the ship being a rather quiet in the evenings. Many spaces around the ship were empty. Compared to DCL in the evening, it may be a bit too quiet for us if we were sailing on our own. Also, I don't know if this applies to all Viking's itineraries, but our cruise had no sea days. Maybe this comes from Viking's river cruise style of a port every day. It was a wonderful itinerary, but it could have used a day at sea. Lastly, the crew members are not empowered to make the decisions that they should be able to make. Restaurant reservations that really should have been straight forward seemed to need a manager to give the ok. Some of us bought a drink when we first boarded and then purchased their drink package right afterwards. Viking was nice to refund us the cost of the initial drink (they certainly didn't have to), but it literally took Guest Services getting approval from the food and beverage manager which took a few days. If I were that manager, I would have been irritated Guest Services didn't just make that call. Those are pretty minor critiques. Overall it was a gorgeous, wonderful experience. We'd gladly do another if we were apart of a group. I'd also be interested to try one of their River Cruises.
 
Great update - and Pompeii seems fascinating! Our only other time in Italy we did an excursion to Herculaneum so that was one reason we didn't do an extra charge excursion to see Pompeii - but they seem like very different experiences and Pompeii is significantly larger. Sounds like you had a good guide (and very glad you took the ring to give back to him!)

The brothel "menu" reminded me of what you see in the barber shop - "point to the picture!"

Seems like you had a very nice dinner as well - I was very impressed with The Restaurant - for being just the "main dining room" it seemed a step above and had very good service
 
Loved the update! I think seeing Pompeii would be very interesting but sad at the same time. Hard to imagine that whole scene. Hmmm Viking forgetting to send some of the invitations and kicking your group out of the space......overall were you happy with your Viking experience?

It was definitely more emotional to experience Pompeii than I would have thought before doing the tour. I had an idea of what they had available to view there, but it still doesn't prepare you for seeing the petrified bodies and putting into perspective what a terrifying and agonizing event this was.

With nothing to compare it to cruise wise, I have to say I did really enjoy the Viking experience. From all of our research into our upcoming Disney cruise and feeling like we won't have enough time to fit everything in, Viking had a totally opposite vibe. The evenings would have been really boring had we not been with a group because the shows left a lot to be desired and we are not big drinkers so we wouldn't have been hanging out at the bar had it been just the two of us. They had movies at the pool every night, but not one appealed to us. The service was overall pretty great in our experience. I shared the same frustration Kevin mentioned in his reply with the restaurant reservations being a mess, and the front line hostesses didn't seem to have much say in adjusting or changing anything for you when you asked them to. But both DH and I have decided that unless we were going with another couple or two at least, we probably wouldn't sail Viking again for awhile just because there wasn't much to do on the ship.

I'm sure Kristy will chime in, but we enjoyed Viking quite a bit. The ship was beautiful. Aside from Chef's Table, the food was a step up from DCL. The rooms were a big step up from DCL. However, without a group of people, I can see the ship being a rather quiet in the evenings. Many spaces around the ship were empty. Compared to DCL in the evening, it may be a bit too quiet for us if we were sailing on our own. Also, I don't know if this applies to all Viking's itineraries, but our cruise had no sea days. Maybe this comes from Viking's river cruise style of a port every day. It was a wonderful itinerary, but it could have used a day at sea. Lastly, the crew members are not empowered to make the decisions that they should be able to make. Restaurant reservations that really should have been straight forward seemed to need a manager to give the ok. Some of us bought a drink when we first boarded and then purchased their drink package right afterwards. Viking was nice to refund us the cost of the initial drink (they certainly didn't have to), but it literally took Guest Services getting approval from the food and beverage manager which took a few days. If I were that manager, I would have been irritated Guest Services didn't just make that call. Those are pretty minor critiques. Overall it was a gorgeous, wonderful experience. We'd gladly do another if we were apart of a group. I'd also be interested to try one of their River Cruises.

I agree with almost all of the points you made! I'm looking forward to comparing our experience when we go on our first DCL cruise next year. I'm already frantically trying to piece together tips and tricks for doing everything we want to experience on the ship, then trying to figure out how to balance that with port days and still getting to do something fun in port!! I think Dustin and I are both the types that would prefer to have too much to do and not get to experience it all than to not have enough available to do.

Great update - and Pompeii seems fascinating! Our only other time in Italy we did an excursion to Herculaneum so that was one reason we didn't do an extra charge excursion to see Pompeii - but they seem like very different experiences and Pompeii is significantly larger. Sounds like you had a good guide (and very glad you took the ring to give back to him!)

The brothel "menu" reminded me of what you see in the barber shop - "point to the picture!"

Seems like you had a very nice dinner as well - I was very impressed with The Restaurant - for being just the "main dining room" it seemed a step above and had very good service

Everyone that did Herculaneum on the cruise really seemed to enjoy that one as well, and that was our second choice were we unable to get Pompeii. I would have loved to do the Pompeii & pizza one they offered had we been in port for the whole day!

lol The host on the podcast DH did about the cruise compared it to the McDonald's menu!

I've mentioned a few times I have nothing to compare it to, but I think the food at The Restaurant was pretty good. I only seemed to make bad choices when it came to desserts and there were several I just flat out didn't like. But the appetizers and entrees for the most part were really excellent! And I enjoyed the variety of the nightly changing menu while still having something to fall back on (like the steak I had a couple of times) if none of the other dishes appealed to me.
 
Day 5: Monday March 26th

This morning was one of our earlier excursion meet times, so instead of getting up extra early to hit the buffet, we had decided the night before to get breakfast delivered to the room. We were up around 7:20 and our breakfast arrived a few minutes later. It was delicious, but we had ordered way too much!! I had ordered 2 fried eggs with toast and hash browns for myself.


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DH ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns for himself originally, then decided it wouldn’t be enough and added pancakes. The pancakes were HUGE!


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It was a lot of food, but very delicious and a great way to start the day. Today we were in Sicily! I was pretty excited about this because it’s where my ancestors on my dad’s side are from.


DH went up to the top deck for a few photos while I finished getting dressed and ready to go.


He must have stopped by the exhibit on the ship again too.


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We decided to head down to the theater a little earlier than the time we had been told to meet for our excursion, and it was a good thing we did because the line was huge! It extended all the way across the stairwell as we came down, so luckily we were able to sneak in with Ryno, Eli and Kylie because otherwise I don’t think we’d have even made it to the end of the line. It was a bit hectic and not thought out well, as there were a ton of excursions all set to meet in the theater. Luckily this was the only day it was an issue.

Soon enough, we were assigned a bus for our excursion called Enchanting Taormina. This was the only day we had originally booked a different excursion and then changed to this one after DH did some research on our original choice and it didn’t seem as interesting of a stop as Taormina. Even though I have nothing to compare it to, I’m so glad we switched to this one as it was one of my favorites of the whole trip!

We were on the bus around 8:45 with our guide Alexia and on our way from the port to the town of Taormina. Alexia was incredibly knowledgeable and spent the entire bus ride talking and giving us information. She definitely was not as laid back or funny as Roberto had been the day before though.

There was a moment on the bus when she literally gasped and had everyone looking out the window towards Mt. Etna because you could actually see the peak and it wasn’t covered by clouds, but we passed it too quickly for a photo. She said we might still be able to see it when we got off of the bus, but by the time we arrived it was under cloud cover again.


We made it to Taormina and the bus parked in a garage. Alexia told us we should use the restrooms now if needed because there wouldn’t be more for awhile, so that took a bit for everyone to have a chance to do that. Then we all met up on the top floor of the parking garage, which offered some nice views.


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There was a carousel up there for some reason.


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We walked a little ways until we got to another overlook where we stopped for a few more photos of the gorgeous coast down below us.


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We passed under an archway at the end of Corso Umberto, the main shopping street in Taormina.


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We stopped in the Piazza Duomo first, which would be where we would meet back at the end of our free time. The piazza is home to this fountain, the Quattro Fontaine, and the cathedral.

I found this description of the fountain on traveltaormina.com:

The fountain was built in 1635 in the Baroque style, is also called "4 fountains" because the 4 small columns supporting basins which are located at the corners of the central basin; mythological ponies overlook the basins and fountain water flows out of their mouths.

The central part consists of two basins.

Above the two central basins, there is the Minotaur, half human and half horse, which is the emblem of the city of Taormina. Depicted in the female version, it has two arms holding an orb and scepter, symbols of power.



We continued walking down the main road, taking in the sights of this beautiful Italian town as we went.


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Then we stopped in Piazza IX Aprile, which is named such because it was the date that it was announced during mass that Garabaldi had landed on the far side of the island of Sicily to begin his conquest, which made Sicily part of Italy. This piazza is home to the Church of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph).


This piazza also offers some breathtaking views of the Ionian Sea.


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UP NEXT: Greco Roman Theater
 
Very cool. My entire impression of Sicily is formed by "The Godfather", so I assume it is 100% inaccurate.
 
Wow, your photos are simply breathtaking. As a fellow Sicilian (my great grandmother immigrated from Vizzini) I'm loving seeing the architecture and gorgeous views. Hopefully I can get there one of these days.
 

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