Despite Double Booking, a Wonderful Thanksgiving in Sicily

Day 20, 2024 Ultimate Mediterranean

Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024; Catania, Sicily.

There is a downside to spending months at sea, moving from one ship to another, from one cruise to another. And that is keeping track of your plans to explore each port.

Today it caught up to me, and I awoke to discover I had booked – and paid for – two different excursions here in Sicily.

Before embarking on this Ultimate Mediterranean cruise on the Volendam, I had booked a full day private tour to Mount Etna and the village of Taormina. I actually put it on my calendar. But a few days ago, a friend on board suggested I join her on Holland America’s Transfer to Taormina, and I booked it.

Had both been Holland America shore excursions, the app would not have allowed me to double book. Had I looked at my calendar, I would have seen the conflict.

This morning I decided to stick with the Holland America tour. It was shorter, and after five port days in a row, I preferred getting back to the ship earlier rather than later. I called the emergency number for the private tour to tell them I would not be joining. It was a $100 mistake, as naturally neither tour would have refunded my money at the last minute.

Lesson learned: Keeping meticulous planning spreadsheets only works if you look at them. Especially as I have a number of Mediterranean cruises in the next year. Our 2025 world cruise will end with a dozen ports in the Med, and then I plan to spend a few months back here next fall. I’ll visit some ports as many as six times. It is a challenge, particularly when I’m planning bit by bit as I have time on current sailings. First world problem, I know.

I loved Taormina, a village perched on the edge of cliffs overlooking the sea. As our bus approached it from a distance, I thought I was looking at the wrong place. When our guide said we would disembark on the first floor of a parking garage and take the elevator to the seventh floor to disembark, I began to understand the challenges of visiting here.

The bottom line is that it’s a tourist town, with churches, palaces and an ancient theater interspersed with high-end designer shops.

We stuck to the Corso Umberto (shopping street), a fairly level pedestrian pathway through town. While some stores are already closed (we are late in the season), at others Christmas decorations are going up. I wish we could see the street lit up at night.

I was intrigued by the numerous passageways leading up and down from the main street, curious about what was around each turn. But not enough to climb all those steps. And not curious enough to go down a bunch to see the hotel featured in season 2 of White Locus. Before the recent TV show made Taormina more famous, the area was best known for its portrayal of the Italian scenes in The Godfather (parts 1 and 2).

After window shopping and browsing through the shops, Deb and I settled down at a café patio for a lunch of cappuccino, wine, bruschetta and caprese salad. The tomatoes were so flavorful!

I chose a table with a good view for sketching, but didn’t get very far before our food and drinks came. The sketch will join the stack of others to finish later.

Somehow I had managed to spend five days in Italy with enjoying a gelato, so I indulged in a strawberry cone before rejoining the bus for the hour-long drive back to Catania.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at a dressy dinner tonight in the dining room with the traditional turkey dinner. Of course, it’s not exactly like my family’s traditional menu. We like a cornbread dressing that isn’t gummy and different sides. And we certainly wouldn’t serve brown gravy with turkey. But still, I am very thankful that I didn’t need to cook the dinner, and the company was lots of fun.