Messina, Sicily

This was our first visit to Sicily. Tina & I were not intrigued by any of the shore excursions, so we elected to go for an exercise walk and see a little bit of the city. We saw churches everywhere, and the buildings were older and classically styled. There is a trolley or train that runs very close to the dock. We stayed close to the waterfront for our entire walk because we did not want to deal with hills. During our walk we encountered a statue of Neptune, and a waterfront park with a contemporary fountain sculpture, a war memorial, and a lot of ancient rubber trees. This was the first time either of us had seen rubber trees bearing fruit (probably not edible, although in the same family as figs). I was intrigued by the parking style I saw from the deck of the ship - the cars were all very close together, but seemed to be facing in random directions.

While our walk was pleasant, there is no particular draw to return to Messina. We would not recommend any kind of solo excursion for women; we experienced men's eyes boring through us, which was not pleasant.