Day #8 Of Our 2016 Vacation And Cruise

Today turned out to be both a strange and exciting type of day. When I woke up I stepped out onto our cabin's balcony and noticed that we had sailed by an island. Looking closer I thought that I saw a strange cloud hanging low at the top portion of this island. What I shortly discovered was that we had sailed fairly closely by an island called Stromboli, which has an active volcano. What I thought were low lying clouds actually was the volcano gas and steam and whatever else Volcanos release into the air. 
Doing some research online led me to the following information:
Stromboli is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and is one of the most active volcanos on earth. The Stromboli volcano has been erupting almost constantly since 1932.
What a special treat this was to be able to circle the island of Stromboli not once but a total of 3 times. We spent approximately 6 1/2 hours circling this island.
Besides watching and photographing the island of Stromboli we mostly relaxed and I took some more of my Mediterranean Sea Art photos.
Here are some of the photos that I took of Stromboli, the volcano and my Mediterranean Sea Art:

This is the island of Stromboli. It is a small island that is just under 5 square miles and has 2 small villages which together have only 350 inhabitants. The island is just off of the North coast of Sicily 

On top of this huge rock formation that juts up out of the sea lies a lighthouse

 Here is one of the two small villages on Stromboli

Below you can see where the lava has made its way into the sea

  

  

  

  After 3 passes around the island over a span of almost 6 hours it was time for us to leave and continue on our journey to Naples 

Tomorrow we will be in Naples where we reserved a private guide to take us to the Amalfi Coast

Getting Prepared For Our Next Adventure

In 5 days Veronica and I will begin our next adventure. We will be flying out of JFK en-route to Barcelona, Spain for 3 days prior to boarding the NCL Epic.
We have never been on the Epic so we are very excited about checking out a new and different ship for us. We are also excited about our cabin location. We have a balcony cabin that is location on the aft of the ship. We are as far back on the ship as possible and our cabin and balcony face where the ship has been. These types of cabin are prime real estate for many cruisers. Our last truly aft cabin was on our very first cruise back in 2010 I believe it was. We went on the NCL Pearl to Alaska in a aft mini suite with balcony. We sure got spoiled on that cruise which lead to many cruises to follow. Back in those days a mini suite came with so many amenities...concierge service, a special restaurant for lunch, special seating area for shows, personal invites to visit the bridge to name just a few. Nowadays the biggest thing you get for a mini suite is the "location" which usually ends up being no big deal at all.  We had our chance at a mini suite for this cruise but decided to stick with our beloved aft cabin.
We are also excited about itinerary that will take us to many locations that we have never been to. Besides going to new locations we have also booked several really exciting excursions.
I will be writing journal style entries in my notebook so that when we return I can share each days activities along with hopefully some really good photos.
By doing this it is like keeping those memories alive when Veronica and I return to this blog to visit and remember things and places that we have done and been to.
Here is our upcoming cruise itinerary:

Day	Land Tours And Cruise Ports	Arrive	Depart	Activities
Wed	Barcelona, Spain	----	5:00 pm	0
Thu	At Sea	----	----	2
Fri	Cagliari, Sardinia	8:00 am	6:00 pm	0
Sat	At Sea	----	----	1
Sun	Palermo, Sicily	8:00 am	5:00 pm	2
Mon	At Sea	----	----	1
Tue	Naples, Italy	8:00 am	6:00 pm	0
Wed	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy	6:00 am	7:00 pm	0
Thu	Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy	7:00 am	7:00 pm	2
Fri	At Sea	----	----	1
Sat	Palma, Majorca, Spain	8:00 am	5:00 pm	1
Sun	Barcelona, Spain	5:00 am	----	0