After a couple of hectic days, it was time again for a sea day/rest day. With this in mind, the usual activities were done -- Zumba, Choir and Trivia. From some reason there was no Ukulele lesson scheduled. Quite a few other passengers seemed to be taking the rest day option, with quite a few spending their day either lying on a deck chair or sitting in one of the lounges found across the ship.
 
Just before lunch we transited through the Strait of Messina . This is a narrow passage that separates Sicily (Punta del Faro) from the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo). Due to the amount of water passing through the strait and the currents in the area that compete against each other, the transit can be a little bit rocky. When we went through, the current was only running at about 2 knots, so not too bad for a large ship -- as we went through where the currents meet, there ship jiggled a bit but that’s all.
 
At around 3pm we sailed past Mt Stromboli (aka Stromboli). The Stromboli is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy.
 
This particular volcano has been in continuous eruption for the last 2000 years -- mainly explosive instead of lava flow like. The volcano has erupted many times and the eruptions are often visible from many points on the island and from the surrounding sea, giving rise to the island's nickname "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean". The last major eruption was on 13 April 2009. This is interesting as spread across the bottom of its slope are three villages, with a population of only a couple of hundred.

As we sailed past, you could see a steady stream of smoke coming out of the top of the crater. For the rest of the afternoon, the discussion was whether you had seen the Stromboli and what you thought about it.
 
Fun fact:
The continent of Africa lies in all four hemispheres -- northern, southern, eastern and western.