Messina, Sicily, Italy: Not many cruise ships stop in Sicily, most 'steam' through the Strait of Messina on their way to somewhere sexier, like Mykonos or Naples. Our ship spent something like six hours at port in Messina harbor, so the DrsC joined friends to take a shore excursion to Taormina, a hillside playground of the rich, overlooking the sea.
Driving there we got a good look at eastern coastal Sicily, and were reminded that it is a relatively poor part of Italy. I saw several abandoned buildings and a lot more needing maintenance and repair.
There is little flat ground in this part of the island. Building roads in this mountainous terrain is costly and difficult, ditto buildings. They've carved many tunnels to carry roads through rocky headlands.
The hillsides are far from verdant, their resemblance to the dry California coastal mountains is strong. The difference is the evidence of recent volcanism. Mount Etna has made her mark on the Sicilian terrain; California's volcanos are inland - Mounts Shasta and Lassen are in the Sierras, not the Coast Range. There is more dry land flora than I expected, cactus and the like.
At Taormina we visited what is billed as a Greek theater. It probably started off Greek but the Romans, those indefatigable engineer/builders, took it over and much of what remains today is clearly Roman work, especially the distinctive brickwork.
Romans made thin bricks, little more than an inch thick but longer than our modern bricks and perhaps wider as well. My joke at the theater: "Greeks are from Yale, Romans are from M.I.T."
Our guide was a moonlighting high school English teacher whose English was grammatical enough but her accent was well-nigh impenetrable. I feel sorry for her pupils. Talk about your comedic "stage Italian" English - whew. After three hours I still was catching one word in perhaps four and guessing at the rest.
"Guide English" is a highly variable thing, the best have lived in the U.S. We have had some excellent guides, this wasn't one of them.
