Jason was super excited about the tour in Sicily. We were going to Mount Etna to climb on the volcano and see lava! The bus departed early as it was 1.5 hours from Messina to Mount Etna.

On the bus and off we go. The tour guide was fabulous and talked about the history of Sicily, the town of Messina and Mount Etna. She pointed out all the views and ensured we did not miss a thing.

We stopped on the way for photo shoots and the mountain looked clear and sunny. Wahoo.

The expected temperature on the mountain was to be between 4 and 12 degrees. WTF, we had not thought about that. We had packed our little puffer jackets though and figured they would just have to do (we were both wearing shorts of course).

The bus driver was fabulous and had us zipping around the steep streets like formula one cars.

The scenery on the way was very cool. Beautiful beaches on one side and rocky, mountainous terrain on the other. So many craters litter the island, meaning the wine is great!

We arrive at the bottom of the mountain the clouds are moving in. Damn it.

We all get corralled into the gondola which takes us up to the next stop. It is getting a little cold now, and the wind is bitter. Out come the puffer jackets and the wind breakers.

Next step is the 4×4 vans. They can seat about 20 people, are grunty as hell, and tear us up the mountain without an issue. We could do with one at home!

Finally we arrive. We are not allowed to go above 2,800 meters as it is dangerous. This means, no lava flow. Poor Jason.

It was pretty cool though, to be standing on the lava flow that had only occurred three weeks prior. It was still warm. And, when walking past certain areas, it was like a heat pump on your legs. Very fortuitous for those of us wearing shorts. The terrain was like something you would expect on Mars, assumption here, black and red, and desolate. The cloud had well and truly set in so our view was not great.

We walked along the very craggy, and crowded path to the end of the crater. And I mean crowded. There was one thin path and groups of people heading in both directions. Some people from our group decided to turn back.

The edge of the crater was interesting but less than Jason had hoped for. We stayed for a while and headed back along the scoria. Well, it was inevitable, I slipped. I had put my food on a rock that was not stable and down I went. The rocks are not forgiving and I ripped up my hand, messed up my finger, broke my watch and essentially made a mess of myself. I quickly jumped up and walked to the end of track where I nearly passed out.

Finger was not doing well, when I looked down I was surprised to see it was still straight, lots of blood, but still straight. Bonus.

The tour guide, who is so fabulous, was horrified when she found out and out came the hydro peroxide. I forgot how much that sh*t stings! Owwww.

My finger had started to swell by then and I could not get my rings off.

Never mind, it was lunch time, I declined the offer of a doctor and hospital and opted for the pasta and the wine instead. Strictly for medicinal purposes of course. The wine was incredibly tasty, served in one litre bottles.

We did a little souvineer shopping, though I had a free souvineer in the form of injuries, and back on the bus to head home.

The ride home was much more subdued with many of our fellow travellers snoring away happily.

All the time I felt sorry for myself and watched my finger grow.

We had planned to walk around Messina for an hour or so when we got back, but it was straight to the ship doctor for us. As the incident occurred on an excursion everything was covered.

The nurse was lovely and they bandaged me up and it was time to have another medicinal drink.

We watched the sailing, leaving Messina was such fun. We have met some really lovely people at these send offs. This time we met a lovely couple from NZ. It was quite the coincidence.

Dinner at Red Ginger. We had not eaten there before and it was fabulous Asian fusion with great staff. We really enjoyed ourselves and met some nice people sitting around us.

Off to bed, tomorrow we wake up in Amalfi, super excited about that.