Nov 4

We docked at Naxos, Sicily, Italy which is the port for Taormina.  We opted for an excursion called "Hidden Sicily - In The Footsteps of the Godfather" which visited 2 mountain villages where many scenes in the 3 Godfather movies were filmed.  We drove up many hairpin turns in the mountains to Savoca where the wedding of Michael Corleone and Appolonia occurred and visited the church used in the movie as well as a small cafe and square used in the film.  The first place we visited while walking up the narrow road was a strange church where many of the parishioners have been mummified and are dressed in normal clothes and displayed in glass cases.  We then went to the square that was used for after wedding scenes, got some ice cream and walked up a narrow winding cobble stone road to the church.  We took a wrong turn and ended up visiting the local cathedral which was small but elegant with some Byzantine frescoes.  We finally caught up with the group in the wedding church which wasn't as interesting as the cathedral, but what the hell, it was a Godfather tour.  We could see the next village (I forgot to write its name) across the valley but had to drive back down to sea level and back up the mountains to get there.  On the drive along the seashore we came across 2 different Memorial Day parades.  In the next village we visited another church used in the movie.  I'm not a big fan of church tours, but the scenery and the small villages were a treat.  Back on the ship we joined friends for dinner in Signatures, the Cordon Bleu restaurant on board.