Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 23: Friday, November 21, 2025 - Crotone, Italy

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: low 60s
-  Steps: Linda: 10,057; Steve: 11,210

Once again I looked out the veranda at the view while Linda showered (there are more than two dozen wind turbines in the second image).

It turns out that today was a little different.
While the excursion was called "Crotone On Your Own", it was really more of an unguided group tour. While we were on the bus, we were all given maps of the town, and a few tickets for a couple of the venues.
Viking pretty much took over the old town. The groups were all dropped off outside the old town entrance and we followed the signs into the town. We started off looking at the church that was striaght in front of us, though we passed the Archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina first.



We tried to get into the Cathedral of Santa Severina And San Dionigi, but it was locked at the moment. We figured we'd try it again on the way out.
We left Piazza Duomo and turned left, following the Viking arrows. A block or so up was a tent with samples of lemon or strawberry granitas that we redeemed one of our tickets to get. We each sampled the others' to taste how they were. They were both pretty good.


A costumed actor with a microphone and small speaker was providing some history of the town and church.
After our granitas a listening to some of the history, we went inside the church - Parrocchia San Dionigi.










After departing from the church, we continued up the sloped roadway toward the Church of Saint Joseph.
In the basement at the rear of the church was a chapel dedicated to Carlos Acutis.
We arrived at the bend and the Church of Saint Joseph was closed / locked. So we proceeded to the left and continued on our way - we were now a small group of about six coincidentally moving on the same path.





At the bend at this corner, we came upon the National Archaeological Museum of Crotone. And another stop that we were given tickets for. So we joined the many other Viking travelers inside, some were already leaving with one woman who passed us by commenting on how small the museum was. Well, this was Crotone - I don't know what she was expect. Anyway, we began our self-guided tour (quite a few of the placards were in Italian [and I wasn't going to retype them all]).
Some of the items were fiftenn-hundred or more years old.
















At the back corner of the museum was a flight of stairs - a second floor!
I wonder if that woman that was complaining about how small the museum was didn't know there was an upstairs. Also, this is a local archaeological museum, not the Louvre...






Pretty much one end of the second floor had a large collection of coins.







A few more items before we finished the tour.





We exited the museum - past another actor - and turned right / north. The next stop a couple blocks up was the Charles V Castle.
At the entrance to the grounds was a costumed actress, and after crossing the drawbridge, at the castle entrance, we gave our tickets to more actors and actresses playing the role of medieval residents.


There was a somewhat steep climb to the first section - which was sort of a courtyard area.
Linda took my picture and captured a couple shots herself, while I went to the upper level, and got a couple shots of the area including the stack from the ship that is moored right over there.









After the plaza, we crossed over to the other side of the castle.

I ascended some stairs and a slope to a lower lever, and got a shot of the upper area.


Afterward we found out that there was a spiral staircase down to a small prison room.
From the upper area, I got a really good shot of the Viking Vesta.
One really funny thing that happened while we were up there was that they were running an emergency drill on the ship while most passengers were off the ship - but we could clearly hear the announcements from the PA system from all the way up here on the castle tower.

On the way out, there were some signboards with some castle information.


We exited the castle, and turned right / north, again.

At the end of the block was yet another actor. But this one we talked to. His name was Pythagoras. We spent about ten minutes talking to him. It started off with him in character, but we eventually migrated into having a Crotonian-Americans conversation. It was actually pretty interesting and enlightening.
As more people showed up to talk to him as well, we departed and headed down the hill to what will wind up being our final stop on our tour.
There was a covered area where we arrived and redeemed our last tickets for a fried donut like snack, and a cup of lemonade. The venue had a floor that had a map - be it city or star, we're not sure as we didn't thoroughly study the map that much as we didn't notice it until we were getting ready to leave.


There was also a band playing some music, with a puppet toward the end. We enjoyed our snack while we enjoyed the entertainment.

We originally thought we were going to get back to that church at the plaza in town, but since we weren't exactly sure how far away it was, or if it was even open, we walked the short distance to the end of the path, across the roadway, and passed through security and into the port, then onward to the ship.

We embarked, and headed to the cabin to shed our excursion items.

It was time for lunch at the World Café and had a light buffet.
After lunch, we took our wine to the pool lounge area to relax a bit with a view that overlooked the city.

The afternoon - after lounging on a lounge chair at the pool lounge area - was spent in the Explorer's Lounge playing some cards.
In between hands we pause to chat, talk to others, do something on the phone, walk and or look around.

At 5:30 was this leg of the cruise's Explorer's Toast.
"There are good ships, there are wood ships, there are ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are Viking Cruise ships friendships, and may they always be. Prost!"

Tonight's dinner was back at The Chef's Table - the reservation-only wine pairing restaurant.
Tonight's theme was California Cuisine.

When we made the reservation, the tables-for-two were all taken. So we did a shared table-for-four so we randomly sat with two others which was more like we would have done on a river cruise. Tonight our dining companions were Leena and Roman. What we couldn't understand is that Leena didn't drink alcohol - but attended a wine-pairing dinner (yes, it is true that maybe they didn't know that it was a wine-pairing meal). OK, that's fine. And worse, tonight was the weekly BBQ night and there was lobster tails available - and they were going to meet friends on the pool deck after dinner to have some (and they didn't finish every course during the dinner too). Then why not just cancel the reservation and give someone who would really be able to enjoy the evening have the reservation?
We enjoyed Sweet Potato Chip, Crab Cake, Moscow Mule (not pictured), Seared Halibut, and Ojai Mandarin Parfait.




This menu was another tasty menu.
After enjoying the meal, we actually headed all the way up to the pool deck (from deck 1 to 7).
Why? Lobster tail, of course. The Chef's Table was very good, but who doesn't have room in their belly for a lobster tail? Well... Linda. But I did! (They are actually cut in half length-wise, so it was really a half a lobster tail.)

I considered it my second dessert...
We also saw Leena and Roman walk by with a plate of food too.
The ship's band was playing - and I am sure there was going to be line dancing at 8:30.

After a little time on the pool deck, we headed down to the atrium on deck two to hear the ladies play a little before heading to our cabin for the evening.

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