Irene, Raewyn and I had breakfast and left John in the room. When I returned he was feeling a bit better so he had a quick bite so we could all go down together for the trip. We had booked to do the Scenic Etna tour which was the first to leave. The weather was the worst we have had for the 2nd half of the cruise.

As usual the guide told us about the area and, as he was an enthusiast for Sicily, the Etna area and volcanoes we had an enjoyable ride . He also said we would get above the cloud as we would go 1890m up the volcano.

Sicily has 5 million people on 25000 square km. The straits of Messina are 3.3km wide so very close to the Italian mainland. Messina was destroyed by an earthquake and matching tsunami in 1908 when 80 000 people died. The town was rebuilt with wide roads. In WW2 it was heavily bombed and large areas had to be rebuilt again. There are so many Sicilian dialects, even using different words for the same item, that people from different regions talk to each other using Italian.

In 745BC the Greeks landed here and named the island. The Romans where here and this was the southern limit to their area before the Phoenicians. They built a theatre for 8000 and an amphitheatre for 14 000. After them the Barbarians, Byzantine, Arabian pirates, Normans (we saw a few ruins) in succession invaded. Our guide said he had the blood of many areas in his veins. He also said the Mafia were first a group of nobles trying to bring order into the country .

The new road we were on had 41 tunnels and also viaducts. It has reduced the time taken to get across the island from 19 hours to 3 hours. It is this road that made our trip to Etna possible as we were due to have only 6 hours in port (we had arrived early because of the ill passenger).

As we approached the Etna area, the landscape became increasingly lush. The volcanic soil and minerals from the volcano make the soil very fertile and nearer the volcano is called the Scotland of Sicily because of the rainfall. We could see olives, figs, almond, prickly pear and banana growing in the same area. There were a lot of chestnut trees, initially grown to use for wine barrels but also now used for timber. In the past the area provided high alcohol wine to blend with other European wines to boost its content. Terraces were formed by making dry stone walls, so many that this area has a greater length then the Great Wall of China. Ice also used to be exported having been formed by snow compressed in lava tubes.

We went though a town named after saffron, with many yellow window boxes. The guide also told us how lovely the town of Taormina is, with a Greco Roman theatre with Etna as a backdrop. It was one of the stops for wealthy young men doing the Grand Tour of Europe in the past. Philip and Anna had been there for the same morning but unfortunately they were not high enough to be above the cloud .

He said Etna is a friendly volcano because although it erupts regularly it has not killed anyone for years. Most lava flows have not been explosive but have flowed like blood from a cut held open. It takes 2 months before the lava can be walked on and it stays hot inside for 10 months, which is interesting when it snows. It takes 40-70 years before the first flora appears, lichen. After 200 years other growth appears.

We stopped first at a café where we had good views of the lower part of Etna. Then the clouds covered it again but it had cleared again before we left. There were heaps of lady bugs around, attracted by the heat in the black lava. The area was very barren as there had been so many flows here

Our main stop was at the site of previous lava flows. We had the difference between a flank eruption and a cone eruption explained, this part being a flank eruption. A flank eruption occurs when a part of the volcano has cracks, often from earthquakes . There will not be a following eruption from such a site as the magma and fallen debris blocks the crack solid.

We were shown both black and red rocks, both due to iron. The black was heated until it was totally inert while the red had oxidized from the steam at the time of the eruption. We also saw ahah and bahoho lava – and were told that the ahah name came from Hawaii where this was the name given to broken lava because of the screams of people trying to walk on it in bare feet while the other is the solid lava. We also saw a lava bomb and a broken piece of layered crust from a previous quake.

There were gondolas running, built to serve the ski area. The fares were expensive because the gondolas had been replaced twice in the past few years because of the lava. There had been eruptions in 1793, 1992, 2001annd 2002, the 2002 one having destroyed the 19th century home of the guide which he said he and the bank had finally restored.

On our way back down the volcano we were told we might see a fox – which we did. There are also snakes, rabbits and porcupines in the area. They get water from the condensation in the lava tubes. The local legend is that a rainbow occurs when a fox gets married. We went back through clouds and then back to Messina in increasingly warmer weather.

We had been lucky with our tour as we had had the best weather for the morning . As we left or and went through the straits there were comments from the travel guide about the local features. It is not an easy stretch of water because of whirlpools. Regularly the idea of putting a bridge across the 3.4km is suggested but it is unlikely to happen because of the danger posed by wind and earthquakes as well as the cost.

We were able to have a lazy afternoon by the pool then John and I joined Philip and Anna on their balcony to pass Stromboli again. This time it was about 4.30pm and fine and clear so we had great views. It was puffing out steam and smoke and the barren strips where the lava had flowed were very visible. The number of houses on the island was a bit unnerving, especially as we were told that the island is at times closed to visitors. At other times, walking up to the crater is a popular tourist trip.

Don and Tom (from Ausralia) had invited the 4 of us to share a bottle of bubbly at 7pm in the Crows Nest so we had a drink, chat and a last chance to hear Zack. We met Philip, Anna, Rex and Trish a little later at just after 8pm and had our last Vista dinner. It was the Master Chef's Dinner, with the 'dancing’ waiters, and was most enjoyable. After agreeing to meet the others for breakfast, we gave the entertainment one last chance. I was set to go after 2 songs, the people next to us left after 3 and John finally released me after 4. Again the artist was OK but the production let her down badly. We then did our final packing so our bags were outside the room before 1am.