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June 7, 2018

            The sky was overcast, little wind, hazy in the distance and the temperature was about 20°C.  After an early breakfast, we left the Celebrity Constellation by 7:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. in Toronto) and took the less than a minute ride on the People Mover tram to Piazzale Roma where we were in time to catch the 7:50 airport bus to Marco Polo airport to fly to Frankfurt and then Toronto. The bus ride took less than 30 minutes.  Once inside the airport we oriented ourselves to find the Lufthansa check-in desk for our 2:35 p.m. flight to Frankfurt. Our two pieces of luggage combined were under 34 kg, after five weeks on vacation. The luggage is checked through to Toronto. We may have to claim the baggage in Toronto at Customs, but we have over three hours there before the flight home.  The agent asked if we wanted to take the 10:20 a.m. flight to Frankfurt and changed the boarding pass so that we had over four hour...
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June 6, 2018

    Today was the second and final Sea Day of the cruise. The ship will travel 663 nautical miles sailing back to Venice from Catania, Sicily in the next 37 hours. During the night the ship cruised around the bottom of Italy from the Ionian Sea into the Adriatic Sea.  For the rest of the cruise the east coast of Italy will be barely visible on the port side of the ship.     After breakfast in the dining room, we climbed up to Deck 11 to walk the track for an hour in the wind. The sky was mostly cloudy, but by Captain Vittorio Cantu’s announcement at 10 a.m., we had cruised into more blue sky, but it was windy and about 21°C. Captain Cantu gave the wind speed as about 24 km per hour from the northeast, but combined with the ship’s northern acceleration, it was more like 55 km per hour. The wind stayed strong all day.  Steps 9,196 steps or 6.84 km.     After lunch, we met Linda, Craig, Cindy and Nahed, in the...
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June 5, 2018

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    When we went for breakfast the ship was in the Catania Gulf, approaching Catania, Sicily, Italy to dock. The volcano, Mount Etna, is located near Catania.  It is easily seen from the ship.  It was 228 nautical miles from Naples.  The temperature was about 20°C, this morning, a sunny sky with a gentle breeze.  There was a haze by Mt, Etna making the photos slightly faded looking.      When we boarded the bus, audio receiver sets and earphones were on the seats. The group numbered 44 for our guide, Valadia, to escort.  The tour was in Taormina which was a one hour drive from Catania. The bus drove us through the Sicilian countryside and up about 1000 meters to old town Taormina perched high on the coastal mountains. There were many large blooming bushes along the route, white, pink, dark pink and purple. There were many olive orchards, some trees were planted on terraced slopes. There we...
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