25 Days on the Disney Magic to Europe About This Page:

[Zazu]

Today began too jolly early with a quick breakfast and off to our tour of Segesta & Erice.

Three bus loads were on this program, and among the guests were several kids who apparently had never learned to shut up. They talked through the entire tour, including while they were inside a church. We also had some teen girls who seem not to have understood the phrase "moderately strenuous walking tour". Sucks to be stupid, I guess.

Segesta is a town built by the indigenous peoples who were on the island before the Greeks. When the latter arrived, things did not go well, and the final result was one Greek town and Segesta being basically flattened. The only vertical things left at Segesta is a temple pediment, an amphitheater, and a church/mosque/fort/church. (When you have centuries to work with, recycling is almost inevitable.)

The temple is in the Greek style, Ionian order, but there's no evidence that the pediment ever surrounded a Greek temple. It appears the people there used a simple open altar. Pretty good shape, with all of the columns standing. From the looks of the details (and lack thereof), it appears the temple was yet unfinished. Pity, it's in really good shape for it's age. (Sorta like me!)

The amphitheater is in good enough shape to use, thanks to a bit of minor restoration work. Big, too, holding 2000 for performances occasionally held there. It also had a feature I've never seen before in Greek theaters -- one row had backrests! Still no evidence of cushions though.

The church/mosque/fort/church is a horrible mish-mosh of construction methods, walls, and materials, and is overlaid (and partly obscured) by modern wood decking. A pity, as it's an interesting site that could tell us a lot with just a bit of interpretation. A large area is under recent excavation, so there's hope that the interpretation will improve when complete.


To reach the 12th century Norman city of Erice, we began nearly at sea level and rode a skyway (eerily similar to the Disney Skyways of yore) with 8-passenger enclosed cabins. Eleven minutes later we got out at 2100 ft. elevation. Then we climbed up to the city. *Then* we climbed the city streets to the central square.

Likely because of it's inaccessible location and formidable walls, Erice has been occupied continuously for the past 9 centuries. It's been carefully maintained for that time as well. Carefully laid cobbles paved the narrow streets, steps were all square enough to be safe, and the buildings looked to be in good repair.

The town's specialty appears to be selling tchochkes and marzipan confections. We made a long stop where we watched it made, tasted samples, and many indulged in colossal canoli. A quick tour of their church and quite functional bell tower (we were serenaded at noon to quite a demonstration) finished our brief stay.

This suited us quite well, as the wind was blowing strongly and bringing fog and mist to the point those unprepared were getting quite a chill (see above remarks about foolish teens). Several of us were concerned about having to take the skyway back down, but the next event was lunch, so we set aside our concerns and hiked down to 1500 ft. where a hotel laid us a very nice lunch, complete with wine and espresso.

By the end of our meal the buses had arrived at the hotel, and we gratefully boarded for the 90 minute trip back to the ship. The first problem was getting down off the mountain, and it was solved by traveling a "panoramic highway". This is code for "narrow and steep with many hairpin curves almost too sharp for the bus". Thank goodness we didn't meet any cars coming up, as it would have required some inventive geometry to get past us.

The return to the ship was punctuated by a shout from our tour guide when we came up to the stern of the Disney Magic. Apparently she hadn't noticed in the morning that there's a big Goofy back there, and when she had looked a moment, declared that she didn't see that sort of thing very often. Yes indeed, Disney needs more ships!

Dinner at Animator's Palette. Our Head Server has moved us from our corner position to a good table with a clear view of the big monitors. Much nicer. Gonna have to boost his gratuity.

After dinner we went for a stroll on deck (despite the near gale winds). Tonight's buffet is Mexican! Ugh, like I could eat another bite. Well, maybe a cookie or two....