Sunday - Pisa & Florence

(OK, so I'm already home now but at the rates the cruise ship was charging it was getting way too expensive to sign up for more internet time. And then my "global" access plan didn't work in our terminal at the Rome airport - even though it had worked in baggage claim. Go figure!)

We docked in Livorno early in the morning and the ship made enough noise to wake us all up early. We dragged ourselves out of bed (it’s getting harder each day!) and met our private tour guide, Suzanna, for our tour of Pisa and Florence. We were fortunate and arrived at Pisa before most of the large tour buses arrived, so it was fairly quiet and there was still a bit of misty light which made for some nice photos that even I couldn’t mess up too badly.

We got back on the bus and drove the hour to Florence. I loved this place but didn’t get to see near enough of it. We didn’t get to go into any of the major museums as we’d have spent all our time in line. We did get to walk along the courtyard of the Uffizi and see various statues of famous people from Florence. There’s a scale replica of the famous David statue outside the Uffizi, but unfortunately it was covered in scaffolding. We checked out Florence’s cathedral, which is the fourth longest in the world, but didn’t go in. We did, however, get to see the famous doors on its baptistery, which are called “The Gates of Paradise”. Later, a couple of us took a quick tour of Santa Croce. It’s another large church, still in use, but it’s also a museum and there are a number of famous people buried there: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Enrico Fermi and Marconi, just to name a few. By then we were out of time and had to head back to the bus. Before we left for the port, we drove up to a fantastic overlook on Michelangelo Drive that provided amazing views of the city as well as allowing us to see some of the original Roman walls.

I’d love to come back to this part of the world when I have more time. Florence, Venice and Rome, especially, it seemed like we didn’t have a hope of seeing everything. Since we didn’t actually go into Naples, I’d like to do that and I’d also like to spend some more time in Barcelona. Hmmm…methinks another trip is in order!

Let the countdown to ski season begin!

Saturday - The Riviera

We got to sleep in an extra hour today, which was greatly appreciated. We’ve been so spoiled by having our private tours that today’s tour (purchased on board) was a bit of a disappointment. We took a bus over to Nice and had about 45 minutes to stroll around the old town. Our guide was quite knowledgeable, but we mostly gathered info from her while on the bus and were on our own while off the bus. The market was delightful though. Fresh foods, fresh seafood and fresh flowers all existed in abundance, along with the obligatory souvenir shops. We also ran across a wedding celebration, which was interesting to see.
Next was a stop in the medieval town of Eze (pronounced “ehz”). Again we were here only a short time, so we took a few photos of the remains of the castle at the top of the village and spent the rest of the time relaxing in a small café where a Coke and beer cost 3 euro and wine was only 1 euro!

Then it was back to the ship for lunch before walking into Monaco. I hadn’t realized how small it is: only 473 acres. It’s the second-smallest principality in the world, next to Vatican City. Having read beforehand we wouldn’t be allowed in the casino with sneakers, blue jeans or shorts, we decided to skip it. Instead we wandered along the waterfront and watched the Vespa rally that was ongoing and then climbed the hill to the Palais Princier (the Palace of the Principality). It’s gorgeous up on top of the city like that; very beautiful gardens and everything is so clean. We also walked by the cathedral where Prince Ranier and Princess Grace were married as well as the Oceanographic Institue – whose building was almost as impressive as the palace! Then it was back down the hill to the port area where we sat at a café and enjoyed a drink (or an ice cream!) and watched the folks along the dock.

I can’t believe our final stop is tomorrow! Florence, here we come.

Friday - Barcelona

Back on the ship now after spending the day in Barcelona. There’s so much to do and see here that we didn’t manage to do any of it justice. We had vouchers for the hop-on-hop-off bus but we had to walk quite a ways to get to the office to turn in our voucher, so we were a bit late in getting started. Our first stop was the gorgeous La Sagrada Família (Sacred Family) cathedral. We didn’t stop to take the tour but it’s just an amazing building. Construction’s been on-going since the late 1800s! I’ll have to research to see why it’s taken so long to complete. It’s so immense and right in the midst of the city, so my photos don’t really do it justice, but here’s my best one.


From there we went to Güell Park, home of the Casa-Museu Gaudi. This house is where Antoini Gaudi lived from 1906 to 1926. He was a heavy influence on the architecture of Barcelona. In fact Barcelona has a number of unusual buildings that reflect the influence of several prominent architects. While his designs are functional they seem to me to have a healthy dose of whimsy too, as is seen in this building at the entry to the park.


My favorite thing from the park, however, was this lizard fountain he designed. I don’t know if he actually painted it but I really liked it.

At this point we’d already spent half of our time, so after a bit of souvenir shopping on the way back to the bus we hopped on for a good long time. We drove past several tourist spots that looked interesting, but we just didn’t have the time to stop and explore. We also drove past FC Barcelona and a couple of the venues from the 1992 Olympic Games. We stayed on the bus until it got us back near the port where we disembarked and strolled up Las Ramblas, said to be one of the prettiest streets in the world. Traffic is very limited there and it is touristy but it was shady on a warm day and very pleasant. We made it back on one of the last shuttles, but in plenty of time to cast off.

Next up: The French Riviera

Wednesday – Messina, Sicily

Tuesday was a day at sea where we were once again able to catch up on our sleep. After walking for what seemed to be a day-and-a-half solid in Venice it was much needed downtime.

We docked at Messina, Sicily just before 7 a.m. today and met our tour guide at 8:30. (All this getting up early takes some getting used to for a non-morning person like me!) We went up into the hills outside of town to Savoca and Forza d’Agro, two small towns used during the filming of The Godfather and The Godfather III. Savoca was the site of Bar Vitelli, which is where Michael Corleone and his bodyguards sat for a drink after he saw the Sicilian girl who he ended up marrying. The girl’s father was the bar owner. The outside of one of the churches in Savoca was used as the place where Michael and his bride were married. The procession started there and led back down the hill into town.


Next we drove to Foza d’Agro, where scenes from the third film were shot. The cathedral there was the scene of the Sicilian wedding. The scenery was beautiful up in the mountains though there’s not any industry. Most people have to drive into Messina or the neighboring tourist town of Taormina to find work. The streets are very narrow – barely one car wide – and at one point when a car wanted to pass through our group we all flattened ourselves against the building to allow it to pass! It was also interesting to see the ruins of the castellanos from afar. These were small castles positioned every 20 miles or so along the coast. Being an island meant Sicily was bait for invaders. The castellanos served as relay stations so that if one spotted trouble, there was always another castellano within signaling distance who could send reinforcements.

Our tour guide, Flavia, brought us back to the ship where we grabbed a quick lunch. Since we had more time, we walked around Messina for two hours searching for internet access but never did find it. We decided that would be an awesome business to start right in the port area.

Tomorrow’s another day off. It’s our last one as we gear up for three ports in a row and the flight home.

Sunday & Monday - Venice

After the rain and slightly bumpy seas of the night before, we awoke to a beautiful day. We arrived in Venice ahead of schedule and had a beautiful cruise through the lagoon on the way to our dock on the west side of the Venetian islands. After a brief bus ride from the pier to the edge of the city, we boarded a vaporetto (water bus) in search of the gondola station for which we had reservations later that night. After some stops and starts we finally figured out the vaporetto system and got to the proper stop. When we debarked we were amazed at how narrow some of the “streets” are – less than two people (well, two Americans, anyway!) wide. Needless to say, the vast majority of transportation here is on foot or by boat. I didn’t even see any motor scooters, which makes sense as most bridges have stairs, not ramps, so it would be extremely hard on tires.

At 6:30 three of us took our gondola tour and it was a bit cool out on the water. There was a group of about 6 boats and one of the boats had a singer and an accordion player to serenade us as we went along. It was truly amazing to watch the gondoliers as they maneuvered these long, narrow boats down the waterways, sometimes using their feet as bumpers to keep the boats away from the buildings. Though only booked for about 30 minutes, it was closer to 50 minutes by the time we all debarked. I know it’s a cliché to ride a gondola in Venice, but it was great fun and worth every penny. After the gondola we wandered the streets and alleys of Venice, just losing ourselves and every now and then figuring out where we were on the map. We eventually found a side street with a small café and we popped in for fresh-made ravioli and lasagna, which was both excellent and cheap. By the time our dinner was over, most of the shops were closed but we did find a few open and had a great time checking out all the various glass pieces made at the nearby island of Murano. It’s amazing the things those glassmakers can do! We finally made our way back to the ship, too tired for our nightly hot tub visit.


Monday morning we were up and off the boat and into the city. It didn’t take us nearly as long this time since we had a clue what we were doing! We went back to the Piazza San Marco and walked through the Doge’s Palace. The doge was an elected-for-life ruler of Venice, though his power was not absolute. There were a series of councils that handled various matters, but the doge was in charge. The building itself was the doge’s residence, the senate chamber and courtroom. Connected by the famous Bridge of Sighs was the prison. The bridge was used to transport prisoners back & forth between the courtrooms and the prison and is completely covered so that prisoners could not escape. There are small openings in the bridge walls and it’s said that it got its name as prisoners used this opportunity to smell the fresh air of freedom as they crossed it. It’s currently undergoing a restoration and only a small part of it is visible.

After the Doge’s Palace we spent the rest of our time wandering around town. I’m not a shopper but I really enjoyed just wandering the streets, window shopping, and just seeing where a path would lead us. Though I hated to leave, my feet were awfully glad when we boarded the shuttle back to the ship!

Saturday – Dubrovnik

This is my third cruise and today was the first time I’d ever had to deal with rain. We were in the Croatian seaport of Dubrovnik. Its Old Town is truly amazing. Fortified walls from the 15th century that had to be 10 feet (or more) thick. All of Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so all the structures in it are centuries old. There are two monasteries (Franciscan and Dominican) along with numerous churches and fountains. The main industry inside the walls is tourism, so there are shops of all types everywhere – on the main streets and down the little narrow side alleys. It’s very steep in some places and there aren’t a whole lot of hand rails so we were all a bit concerned about cracking our heads open, but it didn’t happen, thank goodness. After hanging about in town, we left at about 2:30 and headed back to the ship, where I finally got caught up on labeling the photos. Here’s one of the Pile Gate, the main entrance to the Old Town.




As we left the port, a storm came in and it’s quite the adventure bouncing around while trying to sleep!

Friday – A Day at Sea

Wow, a day off! We slept late and ate, then went up on deck where we could read and doze in the sun and wind. It was wuuunnnerful! Tonight was the first of our formal nights and everybody looked so nice all dressed up.

Thursday - Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast

This morning we visited the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, which was destroyed in 79 AD by an explosive eruption (meaning lots of deadly gases) of Mt. Vesuvius. I had no idea the city was as large as it is – 20,000 people were killed that day. It was quite modern for its time and it was impressive to see all that had been uncovered from the 12-15 feet of ashes.




Afterwards we went over the mountain and drove back along the Amalfi coast from Amalfi, past Positano and Sorrento. It’s extremely picturesque. Our cruise director thinks it’s the second most beautiful drive in the world, after the road to Hana in Maui.

Wednesday

It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep – even on a rock-hard bed – can do for you. Even though we had to be up early, it’s still felt great to get some sleep. We met our guide, Patrice, at the hotel. She sounded American due to attending high school in the US, but she is half-Irish, half-Zimbabwean and attends the American University in Rome. She did a great job helping us to hit what city highlights we could in four hours. The Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Teatro Marcellus, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Colosseum (with Constantine’s Arch). We were disappointed we didn’t get to go into the Colosseum but we just didn’t have enough time before we needed to board the ship. Oh well, that gives us a reason to return!

One more thing. The way the Italians drive – mamma mia! Everything just kind of flows along, vaguely obeying lane markers. But we saw no traffic accidents though we felt like we were taking our lives into our hands each time we crossed the street!

Tuesday – Continued

Sorry it’s taken so long to post again, but internet here is slow and we’ve been having a great time that I keep forgetting!

The Vatican was much larger than I realized and it was truly amazing at all the artwork that is stored in its museums. Hundreds of sculptures, tapestries, paintings and carvings are everywhere you look. I was surprised at all the classical art, not all of it related to religion, stored there. One of the popes in the 16th century was a great lover of art and so the museums have statues of Greek gods as well as many religious artifacts. The Sistine Chapel was truly awe-inspiring though some of it’s hard to see as they keep the lighting to a minimum to help preserve the paintings.

St. Peter’s Basilica was also very beautiful. It’s the longest cathedral in the world and contains some beautiful statues itself. Michelangleo completed the building’s famous dome as well as contributing the sculpture The Pietà. There’s even a mummified pope inside which seemed…odd.

At this point our feet were hurting from walking so much and we were just exhausted as most folks got little or no sleep on the plane and we were grateful to head back to the hotel for the night.

I'll try to post some photos later, but that may have to wait 'til I get back as uploading is very slow.

Busy Afternoon in Rome

This afternoon we toured the Vatican, including the Sistene Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral. I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this tour but it was fascinating. We spent at least 4 hours on the tour and it still felt like we raced through. Hopefully I'll be able to post some more about it tomorrow - when my eyelids are no longer fighting to stay open!

Buon Giorno!

Made it to Rome safely - and early! Got through Customs easily and am now waiting for the rest of the group. Woo hoo!

Phase One Complete!

Amazing. My flight left on time and arrived early in Atlanta and I've made it through lunch already! An hour from now I should be on the plane, waiting to push back from the gate on the way to Rome! Woo hoo!

Welcome to the neighborhood

I'm hoping this will be a way I can keep y'all updated on my trips as well as a place to post thoughts about whatever I decide.

First up is our big Europe cruise that I'm taking with the ski club. Also coming are a couple of my buddies I met through the Remington Steele fandom. You can check out our itinerary here.

We leave on Monday and are VERY excited!


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