Chapter 3
Naples, Messina,
and Dubrovnik
Nov. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Yes, back to Naples
Friday, Nov 15: Naples, Italy (again)
We woke up, looked out the window, and, yes, we were back in Naples. Since quite a few new passengers had gotten on in Civitacecchia, we had to give them a chance to see Naples also. At least this time, we had a beautiful clear day: no rain!
Back to the fortress in front of the yacht
As on our previous visit, the yacht was pointed straight toward the old fortress along the waterfront. Also as on our first visit, it was closed for repairs and renovations, so we still could not check out the interior of the fort. We actually did not have any excursion scheduled because almost all the excursions we could find were headed for either Pompei or Herculean, which we had already visited. So, we would have to make our own walking tour.
After our usual breakfast in the Veranda, we gathered our stuff together, grabbed light jackets (it was sunny, but with a bit of a chill to the air) and headed toward the city. We walked the long way around the fort, to the left of it in the photo above, and by a small park (Giardini del Molosiglio) on the other side. We looped around the park but, at this point we had to take a public elevator to get up to a higher level in order to continue in the direction we wanted to go. When we came out of the elevator, we were at the edge of a large open semi-circular plaza (Plaza del Plebiscito). At the middle of the curved part of the plaza was a large church (turned out to be the Basilica Reale Pontificia di San Francesco di Paola) but there were also several temporary bleacher type seating areas in front of the basilica.
Plaza del Plebiscito is a large semi-circular area in front of a Basilica where something was about to happen
It was fairly obvious that some significant event was about to take place here, but we had no idea what. (Actually, we never did find out.) Just as we started walking across the plaza, we heard some drums start up and the sound of marching boots. About 40 – 50 army soldiers came marching out of a government building on the opposite side of the plaza from the basilica. My guess was that they were rehearsing for their part in whatever event was going to happen here.
Army platoon standing in front of viewing stand and Basilica
As the soldiers stopped and stood at the front of the seating area, we wandered around a little and started to head to the other side of the plaza. About that time the drums started up again and the soldiers marched around the plaza and back to the building they had initially come out of. To get a better idea of the plaza and the marching, you can check this short video. With the excitement over, we continued on our walk.
But, where would we continue our walk to? We had no real objective in mind and no schedule: we mainly wanted to get in some exercise and see a bit of the city we had not seen before. In some of the Naples information, there had been several mentions of the Naples Museum of Archelogy. Although we had already been to several other archology museums and didn’t especially want to visit another one, we found the museum on a map and decided that would be a good objective to walk to, even if we didn’t go in. Very close to the plaza, we passed by the entrance to a rather ornate looking “shopping mall” that is called the Galleria Umberto. This was in the area of many very expensive shops and I suspect most of the shops in this mall were somewhat above my pay grade.
An elegant shopping mall, the Galleria Umberto
A very short distance from the Galleria Umberto were several other streets, somewhat forming a rather different kind of shopping mall. This was definitely more colorful and probably much more in my price range.
A not so elegant shopping mall
We passed several statues and monuments along the way on the street “Via Toledo”. The one in the photo below, of poet/writer Dante Alighieri, stood out not only because of the size of the monument, but also because of the building behind the monument. The curve of the building (actually an expensive boarding school) provided a “visual frame” around the monument, really setting it off.
Monument to Dante Alighieri (poet) with boarding school behind
Just a little past this monument, we got to the archeological museum and realized that we had been walking or standing in the plaza for about an hour, so it was time to start working our way back toward the yacht. We turned and walked a couple of blocks to our right before turning right again and actually heading back toward the harbor so that we did not retrace our steps. We encountered several interesting streets and areas along this route, including shady tree lined streets that looked inviting and some rather stark streets that looked less inviting, but interesting.
A quiet, shady street in the middle of a busy city
Along one of these streets, I noticed that several of them were various kinds or music shops: a guitar shop, a keyboard shop, a “brass horn” shop and a sheet music shop. There were probably others that I missed. I mention this because that evening we happened to be talking to Jose, the singer/guitar player part of the Duo. When we mentioned that we had walked through a good bit of the city, he asked if we had found “The Music Street”? Apparently, the street that we happened upon is well known in music circles. I am not at all sure I’d be able to find it again though.
A little of every kind of shopping
Many streets or little plazas have multiple restaurants, maybe a church or two, and almost always, plenty of graffiti.
You can find about everything, including graffiti, in Naples.
We got back to the harbor area and wandered around just a bit more before boarding the yacht. It looked much different in the sunshine than it did in the rain on our last visit. We relaxed on board, had come coffee in the coffee bar, and read in the Yacht Club Lounge, followed by our usual evening: dinner in AmphorA, then music and cognac in the Compass Rose.
With darkness, the lights come on
But we did have some interesting sights as the sun was setting and the full moon coming up. Below the moon is coming up behind a cloud with the cruise terminal and a large cruise ship in the foreground.
Full moon rises over a ship, the terminal, and a cloud.
As our yacht was pulling away from the dock, we got another view of the moon as it seemed to hover in front of another cruise ship.
As the yacht pulls out, the moon appears in front of another ship.
Then, once we got out into the bay, the moon put on even more of a show, lighting up the water and silhouetting Mt Vesuvius.
We leave the moon, Naples, and Mt Vesuvius behind.
But, I think I left the best “picture” for last. I did a timelapse video of the yacht backing away from the dock and leaving the harbor behind. In the process there are good views of the other ship, the full moon shinning on the water and Mt Vesuvius. Really standing out. Check out the Star Legend leaving Naples.
Actually, I did do one other different activity this evening. I had been taking lots of photos of the band Apaloosa and the Duo, but, because of their arrangement on the little stage, I had not been able to get a good photo of the four band members together. I told John that, after one of their sets, I’d like to have them form up close together so I could get a good group photo. John caught on immediately and suggested we go one better: after their set we would all go down to the main lounge, which would be empty, and they would form up on that stage where I could get a good photo. We did exactly that and I took a number of photos of which the one below is probably the best. (I do wish that Wilson had brought his guitar along so he could be holding it.) When I gave them a copy of all the photos on a USB flash drive, I think this was the one they liked the most.
Portrait of the band Apaloosa: John, Jacky, CJ, and Wilson
They were ending their “tour of duty” on the Star Legend at the same time as we were leaving the yacht. They would be going home to the Philippines for a rest before heading to another WindStar ship.
Saturday, Nov 16: Messina, Italy
Back in Sicily: Messina this time
When we got up and looked out, we were back in Sicily. This time we were in the port of Messina, just south of the strait we had gone through a few days ago. The Star Legend had come back through the strait during the early morning hours and was now in the process of docking in the harbor in a somewhat tight space. Although the Star Legend is small enough to maneuver quite well, there were a couple of tugs standing by to help out.
Docking in Messina harbor. We ended up about where the little blue tug is now.
We had time for a leisurely breakfast and to get ready for today’s excursion. In some regards, this ended up being our third choice for an excursion today, but it ended up being very nice. You may remember that we had initially tried to go on a excursion to Mt Etna from Catania but everything got rained out that day. We had initially planned on doing a simple walking tour of Messina, but when the Mt Etna tour was cancelled, we signed up for a Mt Etna tour starting in Messina. The day before Messina, while we were in Naples, we were notified that not enough people had signed up for that Mt Etna tour so it had been cancelled. Again, most people were going on some kind of tour to the old town of Taormina, since they had been unable to visit it from Catania. I am sure the reader will be surprised to learn that we choose to go to another winery! I still wanted to get a good view of Mt Etna and this winery was on the northern slope of the mountain. Although we would not really be able to see much of the mountain from the winery, we were promised some good views along the way there and back.
Statua di Messina – An “allegory of Messina” was completed in 1852 and now stands in front of the city hall.
At the 10:15 departure time, about 18 of us climbed into the large tour bus (that will be significant) for the ride to the Gambino winery. We had a pleasant ride with nice views along the way, including some historic sites in Messina, such as the statue above. For much of the first part of the ride, we were on a highway close to the coastline where we could look off to the east and see the mainland of Italy across the strait.
Looking across the strait to the Italy mainland
After riding almost an hour, we stopped for a rest break and, hopefully, to get some photos of the Mt Etna peak. Unfortunately, there were too many clouds in the way and there was not really a good view of the mountain from here without lots of utility poles and lines in the way. After getting restarted, the bus soon got off the main highway and we started going through some small towns and rather small roads. I did finally get a couple of decent photos of Mt Etna from the bus, although they are not really as sharp as I’d like because the bus was bouncing along some rather rough streets.
One of the better views of Mt. Etna
The towns were small, and the roads were getting smaller. Several times we were not at all sure the bus would be able to negotiate some of the turns. After going through the town of Linguaglossa, the road really got narrow, no more than a lane and a half in many sections. This would not have been so bad, but there were numerous tight curves (this was going up the side of a mountain) and quite a bit of oncoming traffic. Several times we had to come to a stop while oncoming cars backed up or got off the road to make room for the bus. Considering that the bus was less than half full, we wondered just why such a large bus was used for this tour. We would come up to a sharp curve and have to stop while the driver would try to direct the cars where and how to move to give us room to pass and get out of their way. It was somewhat entertaining. I was able to get a couple more photos of the mountain during some of these stops.
The clouds kept moving on and off the mountain.
We did finally get to the Gambino Winery which was situated in a beautiful location overlooking vineyards, rolling hills, and the ocean the distance. As soon as we all walked up to the winery, we were given glasses of a white wine to calm our nerves from the “interesting” ride. A host gave us a short history of the winery and it was obvious that a new winery building and tasting room had recently been completed.
Gambino vineyards with the sea in the distance: not bad!
We got the normal winery tour, with views of the large fermentation tanks and lots of oak barrels for aging the wine. This winery had been built with visitors in mind, with catwalks above the work areas that would keep visitors safe and out of the way of workers.
Big stainless steel fermentation tanks and a few barrels
After a short tour, we were taken into a dining room with large windows looking out over the vineyards and a long table set with plates of antipasto, bread, glasses of water and glasses of more wine. The lunch followed the same pattern as our previous winery visits with the antipasto being followed by a pea soup (and more white wine) and then some sausage and potatoes (and a couple of red wines).
About to start on the antipasto course
Everything was delicious and the wines were all good with the general favorite being a Nero D’Avola, the grapes for which were actually grown at a Gambino vineyard in the southern part of Sicily since the Mt. Etna area is a bit cool for this grape.
Our favorite wine of the day: Nero D’Avola
As seems to be the norm for such events, we were running late by the time lunch was over and we had limited time to order some wine or other items before we had to get on the bus. We did have time for a quick “Yes, we really were in Sicily.” Photo among the vineyards.
Yes, we really were in Sicily.
You really don’t get a much nicer setting for a vineyard than what we saw at Gambino Winery: I would not mind spending more time here.
One more look at the beautiful vineyard view
We took a different route back to the yacht, without such narrow winding roads, so it was not nearly as interesting. After the food and wine, I suspect a number of people took naps on the way.
This evening we had another dinner in the Candles restaurant and, finally, the weather was warm and dry enough that we were able to eat outside comfortably. The good food and service made for a very nice meal. Cognac and music in the Compass Rose capped off a very pleasant day.
Sunday, Nov 17: At Sea
Today was a quiet day “at sea” on the way to Dubrovnik, Croatia. There were several extra activities to occupy our time, such as a couple of presentations by the woman on board to sign people up for future cruises. She gave one presentation about the WindStar ships/yachts, both the current ones and especially the upcoming “Exploration” ships which would be small, with only about 200 passengers. Another presentation was about upcoming cruise itineraries, focusing on new regions that WindStar was planning to sail into.
Nice day, so Lunch at the Star Grill on deck
Since today was relatively warm, we decided to have lunch in the Star Grill on the open deck. The ship was moving, so it was a little breezy on deck, but still warm enough to be pleasant. The Star Grill has a relatively short menu and a combination of serve yourself buffet and table service for items cooked in the kitchen. We found that their hamburger, the “Star Burger”, was very good. Although the weather was warmer, I still did not see anyone making use of the self-serve soft ice cream machine.
Serving area at the Star Grill: No, I didn’t take all the food for myself!
The Duo, Laura and Jose, were at the Star Grill providing some lunch-time entertainment. We had not seen them at the grill previously, so I suspect this was added entertainment for the at-sea day.
Jose and Laura were providing entertainment.
Seeing Jose and Laura at the Star Grill reminded me that I had a little work to do. As mentioned, I had taken quite a few photos and videos of both the duo and the Apaloosa band. This afternoon I went through these photos and did some light editing and cleaning up then separated the photos for the two groups, putting each group’s photos/videos on a USB Flash Drive that I could give to them. After dinner in Amphora, we had our usual cognac in the Compass Rose and as the two groups took turns playing/singing, I gave them the flash drives with the photos.
Monday, Nov 18: Dubrovnik, Croatia
We arrived at the cruise port of Dubrovnik about 8:00 and were welcomed by ongoing occasional light showers. We were one of two ships in the port and thankfully both ships were relatively small, so there should be no big crowds today.
Docked in the Dubrovnik port with one other ship
As we left the yacht and headed for our bus about 8:30, there were about 20 of us on this tour so a very reasonable size. First on the tour agenda was a relatively brief (about 1 hour) visit to the old town, inside the fortress walls. The cruise ship dock is a couple of miles (driving distance) from the old town so it took about 15 minutes to get there where we were dropped off at a meeting point. We met our local guide there and after a quick familiarization, we got started.
Part of the wall around the Old Town
We took a quick look around the city walls on the western corner of Old Town then headed inside. Our guide cautioned us about the limestone floors, walkways, and roads: they are very slippery when wet, as they were this morning. I don’t think anyone fell this day, but I’m sure it was only because of the warning.
Inside the walls: Watch out! The wet Limestone walkway is very slippery.
We were going on a relatively brief tour of the old town, so we did not linger very long anywhere or get into much detail about the locations, but we still got a relatively good tour because there was virtually no one else there. The streets and side alleys were practically deserted.
Very few people around: GOOD. Everything is wet and slippery: Not so good.
Susan and I had visited Dubrovnik and the Old Town in more detail on a previous WindStar cruise and I recognized a number of the locations. Dubrovnik was used as the setting for a number of episodes of the “Game of Thrones” TV series. One of the excursions offered by WindStar was focused on the various locations used in the series, but, since we had never watched any of the shows, it would not have meant much to us.
Site of a key “Game of Thrones” scene
Several of the locations were pointed out to our tour group, including the one above where the area is under renovation. I believe the stairs were used as the location as a “Walk of Shame” in one episode which was considered a major event in the series.
The building on the right now houses a major museum. You will seldom see this street so deserted.
We came out onto one of the main (bigger) streets where the largest building is now a major museum. The original small harbor is just on the other side of this museum and is accessed via a small doorway in the city wall. On our previous WindStar visit, the Wind Surf anchored about a mile off the harbor entrance and we tendered into the harbor, which was really more interesting.
Part of the original small Dubrovnik harbor
Heading back into the Old Town we passed by probably the best known church (although not the largest), St Blaise’s Church. Like many sites in the Old Town, the church was undergoing renovation during the off-season and we could not go inside.
Crkva sv Vlaha or St Blaise’s Church
The church faces one end of what is considered the main street in the Old Town, known as the Stratum. Between the off-season and the wet weather, the street was practically deserted: there was no one there! When we visited previously, it was at the end of COVID restrictions and on the “shoulder” of tourist season and there were hundreds of people along this street with probably 5 or 6 different tour groups.
The main street (Stradum): unusually deserted and unusually wet
As we walked along the main street, we could look up some of the side alley-ways which led up the side of the hill along this side of the Old Town. I kept thinking about what it would be like to have to walk these steps several times a day between “home” and “town”.
How about climbing these steps to get home?
We continued on down the street and back out the city gate where we had come in. Our bus showed up in a couple of minutes and we climbed aboard. Our next stop would be the village of Ljuta, about 15 miles east of Dubrovnik, in the fertile Konalve valley. Along the way we passed several towns, each located at a picturesque bay, with what appeared to be hotels and resorts around the bay. Everything was quiet now, but I suspect this area gets rather hectic in the busy summer season
One of several towns on a bay on the way to Ljuta
The bus pulled up to an area with several historical buildings and several water wheels powering various mills and devices, which we’ll take a closer look at soon. But first, refreshments. Some ladies in traditional dress were handing out some snacks (mostly cookies and candied fruit) and traditional drinks to go with them. They were a bit different, but the ones I had tasted pretty good. After our snack, we toured the flour mill, which was actually running and producing flour, although it looked a bit course to me.
Getting traditional snacks and drinks
The man demonstrating the mill could stop, speed up, slow down, and raise and lower the stone to produce various types of flour and to adjust for different grades of wheat. The water for this mill was coming down a trough from a stream behind the mill and being directed onto a typical water wheel.
The millstone was producing flour
To get a better idea of the mill’s operation, check this short video of the grind stone producing flour. After watching this grindstone and water wheel, we walked upstream a bit to another small building with another water wheel, but this one worked a little differently. It was used somehow (I never really figured out its function) in the production of cloth from wool. In the photo below, note the metal rod attached to the water chute just a little above where the water exits the chute. This rod went inside the building and the person running the equipment could use it to push the water chute out a foot or two so the water no longer hit the wheel, stopping the mechanism.
A water wheel with a simple on/off switch
If you take a look at this short video, you will see what I mean by “the mechanism”: it was sort of like a couple of very large hammers pounding away at something. Here is another look at those hammers while not in motion.
I still don’t fully understand just what this did to the cloth.
After puzzling over both water wheels for a while, we headed back to the bus and loaded up for a short ride to the Village of Gruda. Here we got a lesson in the raising of silk worms and the production of silk along with lots of information about some of the traditional ways of the area. Our hostess showed us how the women donned their traditional dress, including a very interesting and colorful neckpiece made from the silk they produce here. During the war in the 1990s, the area was occupied by opposing forces and many houses, as well as almost all the historical cloth and dresses were destroyed. Since then, the women of the area have made it their mission to recreate much of the traditional dress and ways of doing things, including producing silk.
Eucalyptus trees grow locally and the leaves are harvested to feed the silk worms. The worms are raised from eggs laid by the previous generation and spend part of their lives in this room and on shelves such as the one below.
Our hostess explaining how the silk worms were grown on these shelves
When the worms produce cocoons, they are gathered and processed by hand to produce silk thread. In the photo below, you can see the cocoons hanging by the fine silk threads. These threads are so fine that each cocoon will contain about 1 kilometer of thread. These very fine threads are gathered, twisted together, and made into usable silk threads that can be dyed, made into cloth and used for clothing or other uses, all by hand.
Extracting silk threads from the silk worm cocoons
One of the traditional customs we found interesting were the neck pieces the women wore. The various patterns and colors told things about the wearer: how many, if any, children, married or not, widowed, grandmother?, and other such things. A woman wearing one of these neck pieces was telling the world (or anyone who could “read” them) much of the life history of that woman.
The colors and patterns of the neck pieces would indicate the wearer’s status
After a very interesting visit, we loaded back into the bus and headed back to the yacht for a late lunch and a quiet afternoon. Susan was starting to feel a little “tickle” in her throat, causing occasional coughing and I would come down with the problem the next day. We had dinner in AmphorA, followed by another Folkloric group in the main lounge. You can get an idea of their performance in this musical video.
Another folkloric group, this one from Croatia
After the show, we adjourned to the Compass Rose and some cognac: strictly for medicinal purposes for Susan’s throat, of course. We saw both groups that evening and they were both very happy to have received the photos and videos I had given them. CJ seemed especially happy to have the photos because, as the drummer, he sits in the back of the group, behind the drums, and no one ever takes any photos of him. John, the leader, had mentioned this to me so I had made sure I had plenty of photos of CJ.
Tuesday, Nov 19: Dubrovnik
Tuesday morning we were still at the dock in Dubrovnik and would be here until leaving at 2:00 this afternoon. Since our visit to the old town was somewhat short in the previous day’s excursion, we considered taking the shuttle back over there for a better look around. A quick look outside, however, and we decided to stay close to the ship: it was raining again. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then took a look outside: the rain had about stopped! While a return to the old town would still be rather risky, we thought we would be OK taking a walk around the harbor where the yacht was docked so we put on our rain resistant (not water-proof) jackets and headed out. Of course, as soon as we got a short distance from the yacht, the rain returned. Ever optimistic, we thought that it would not last long and, besides, it was not raining hard.
Yes, it was raining and wet as we started our walk.
Everything was already wet from the previous rain and there were few places where we could get under something to take refuge from the rain, so we continued on as best we could. The guys in the Customs and Immigration office at the dock just looked at us like we must be a bit crazy and waved us on through. The sidewalk around the harbor didn’t offer much protection either, although it did off some unusual sights.
Man or robot: work of art or someone’s toy?
A good example of this was the wooden block “being” seated on a concrete bench. There was no information panel or anything to indicate what it was supposed to represent or who the “creator” was: it just sat there. Even later research did not shed any more light on the “block man”: no one seems to know just what it represents.
The replica of an old style sailing vessel was, for the most part, nothing unusual. In better weather visitors could probably take a very enjoyable cruise around to the area in front of the old town and probably have an enjoyable beverage (or two) during the trip. But, check the figure-head on the ship below.
A local “cruise ship”: note the unusual figure-head
There must be some significance to the unusual creature reproduced as the figure-head, but I could not find any reference. I’m not sure if it represents a real (but very unusual) animal or some mythical creature.
We continued along the sidewalk, past shops and restaurants and little courtyards with no identifying information. At least, no information we could find in the limited time we wanted to spend in the rain that continued. We got to the far end of the harbor where we could look back at the Star Legend and the modern suspension bridge close to it. On a sunny day it would have been a beautiful sight.
Looking across the harbor at the Legend and nearby suspension bridge
Going a little further we found a small park with what appeared to be some vehicles for kids to climb on. A quick read of the information plaques revealed that these were leftovers from the 1990s war in the area and were to commemorate the many people killed in that conflict. Interesting, but it seemed a bit strange to put these trucks and jeeps in what appeared to me a children’s playground area.
From the other end of the harbor: yes, it was still raining.
It was time to head back: we were wet enough by now. On the way back we stopped for a few minutes under the shelter of an open area where people were setting up tables for what looked to be a kind of Farmer’s Market. The people setting up the tables did not look very excited: I suspect they were not very optimistic about their business prospects given the uninviting weather.
A farmer’s market was being set up. Check the flowered umbrella bottom center.
We made it back to the ship without drowning, dried off a bit, and headed to lunch in the Veranda. While there, the restaurant manager, whom we had gotten to know a few nights previously, warned us that we should expect some rough seas once we left the shelter of the harbor. It might get a little rough this afternoon. The yacht left Dubrovnik on schedule at 2:00 and, upon leaving the harbor, we did encounter some more “interesting” waves.
Seas were a little rough and the sky was definitely stormy.
It really was not bad at all though and we have experienced worse (much worse) conditions on other cruises. We were rolling a bit and I did notice a very few people who appeared uncomfortable, although I did see one drink sliding off a table because of the rolling. (It was caught before hitting the floor.) You can get a better idea of the waves from this short “wavey” video.
By late afternoon the weather had mostly cleared and we were in a more protected area of the Adratic Sea, offering the possibility of some decent sunsets. The first photo just below offered an unusual combination of jet contrails combined with clouds in front of the sun.
Clouds and contrails compete with the sun.
The photo just below shows how the sun and much of the sky had turned to fire, making a very colorful end to the day.
The clouds and rain could not put out the fire in the sky.
Another nice dinner in Amphora with a couple we had dined with previously, followed by cognac, music, and perhaps a little dancing in the Compass Rose.
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