And Now We Shop

Sunday

Yet another day with lots of stuff happening. Crammed in a quick breakfast, then it was off to the tour bus! We stopped in multiple places all close-ish to each other, in the same region, but not next door. This was Italy! We needed to really live!

Our first stop was to Mount Etna. On our way up, our adorable tour guide told us about the mountain and what kind of vegetation grows on it and how small towns have been destroyed on it due to it being an active volcano. We also were told the location of the Italy scene from the "Godfather" was somewhere near where we were driving but I couldn't see it. We didn't have time to go all the way up the mountain or to go on the lift but we did get to see some craters and a view of the area from above. She also gave us all a traditional Italian sweet.

Cute building on the way up

Crateri Silvestri

Mom and me and a crater

Just after I walked up to take photos of the crater, named Crateri Silvestri, I walked right back down because today was the first day I was going to get myself an Italian coffee. I had an Americano, only needed one packet of sugar, no milk, and it was so rich and yummy I want another one just thinking about it.

Our next stop was a city in Sicily called Taormina. Let's just say, the limoncello love in this place is very real and I could do nothing but embrace it. We walked up from where the bus parked and looked at some churches and symbols of Sicily (3 feet in a triangle with a face in the middle, lemons).

What a lovely window sill

Streets of Taormina!

Oh look! Another church :)

While we were doing all this walking, we were also passing a great deal of actual stores and shops and after a while I found it hard to listen to our little guide because the need to spend money was laying heavily on my heart. Finally, she said we could go look around and we had a little less than 2 hours to do so. Immediately, I switched into shopping mode which is why there aren't many pictures from this day. I was with a couple friends at first but had to separate because you know how shopping can truly be a love/hate experience and sometimes it's just more efficient to go it alone. I went into the concept store of my dreams called Feliciotto and walked out with 100€ Komono sunglasses, something I can tell you would definitely not have happened if I were in New York.

Right after I took this and the next photo, the sales associate of the store told me no photos **rebel yell**

These plates are awesome and if I didn't have to lug it across the Atlantic, I probably wouldn't have bought one

I also bought makeup by a brand named Kiko Cosmetics (mascara, lip stain and nail polish of course) for under 15€. The cheapness of the makeup kind of made up for the expense of the sunglasses. While there we also passed lots and lots of designer stores web multiple brands all in one shop. They're called Parisi and one was located on every other block. We walked into a Valentino store though and I kid you not, if I'd had the euros on me, I would have bought myself a dress. Those things were some of the most gorgeous, well-crafted works of wearable art I've ever seen. While making notes about this I wrote to check into the dresses online because they were really just a floral print, structured, short dress dream come true. Mom and I were both in there just swooning and crying because we had not the money.

That night we also had a white party in which everyone in our group wore white. We took a photo which I am only mildly a fan of but everyone looked sharp in their white get-ups.

Cousin 1, Neen, mom, Cousin 2

We cute

I don't wear white. Like ever. This is a rarity. Take note.

Artsy

Make your life art

We went to dinner directly after taking photos and would you believe some people went back upstairs to change out of their white? It had barely been 2 hours! I don't like wearing white at all and even I held out until our after-dinner plans.

Baked Tomato with stuff which was good but I wasn't full for long

Cheeeeeeeesecake

After that it was back to regular life on the ship and the craziest scavenger hunt ever. It started out innocently enough with things like "bring me 4 Carnival cards" but ended in men getting half naked, women taking their bras off, and men dressing up as and creating stripper identities in under 2 minutes. At one point, you were supposed to do the worm and a woman more or less got dragged across the floor. She was alright in the end though and laughed it off. I can only imagine what would happen on an adults-only Carnival cruise.

xx