Sea Day May 19

Today was a sea day and we could use the rest. We departed Naples last night and (this is the official report from the Captain) Proceeded south-eastwards towards the Straits of Messina and Passing the active volcanic island of Stromboli. The strait is a narrow channel separating the Island of Sicily on the west and the Italian mainland on the east. We will continue southwards rounding the toe of Italy and then head toward the southern tip of Peloponnesus and Elafonisou Channel. Then we will enter the Ionian Sea. We will pass the Greek island of Kithria in the south-west part of the Aegean Sea. We then turn north-east and meander through the numerous Greek isles toward Santorini.



We read, napped, ate and just took it easy. Judi had a massage and I worked on my photos.


Below are some pictures we took of the Roman Villa that the University of Maryland is excavating.

Amalfi Coast and Roman Villa

We were a little late arriving in Naples, but got away on our tour just about on time. The guide and driver was quite interesting. He was determined that we should know how Italy was when he was young and what happened when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.

The drive to the Amalfi Coast took about an hour. The guide then proceeded to drive us through the back streets of Sorrento. Some of the streets were so narrow, I was not sure our little van would get through. We did see how the people lived, their stores, markets, and living quarters. The stops we made were very interesting.

One of the stops was at a vegetable stand where we saw lemons as big as grapefruit. They were big, but did not have the flavor or smell of the smaller ones. The Orange zest that we smelled was very strong, but good.

 The Amalfi Coast is beautiful. The villages along the coast were founded in the 4th century AD by the Romans. The road is narrow and consists of many hairpin turns. Some of the road is cantilevered to get enough space for 2 lanes, and in some places it is only one lane.

We started in Sorrento and proceeded to Amalfi, which has it name connected to Flavio Gioia’s compass. The Chinese invented the compass, but it was not steady and Gioia stabilized it so that it was accurate. The “Tavole Amalfitane”, the first code of Marine Law was arranged here.

From Amalfi we drove to Atrani, a town where most of the Noble families lived. Next came Cetana and the Conca dei Marini. Both of these villages are quaint, picturest and hanging on the side of a cliff. The village of Corbana was next and it was founded in 79 AD by some Pompeian families who had escaped from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvio. ( Italian spelling.) We drove above Furore on the winding narrow little road. Next we passed Maiori and Minori, again small little villages nestled on the cliffs and on the sea shore. Try and keep those two straight after a couple glasses of wine. Anyway we continued on to Positano, which was a holiday resort for the noblest and wealthiest of the ancient Romans. Praiano was next and it was a sleepy little fishing village until the tourist began to arrive, but now it is a tourist attraction. Next we passed Ravello and Scala, both beautiful and hanging to the cliffs for dear life. The sea is so blue here, not the grey that we saw in the Atlantic. After passing San Egidio del Monte Albino, which was settled in the 7th century BC and Tramonti, we headed up the mountain to a small village for lunch. If I knew the name of the place I would tell you, but alas I do not.

The lunch was something else. Let’s see, of course we started with either red or white wine, which just seem to keep coming. The meal started with antipasti. This was loaded with olives, fresh tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese, good stuff I don’t even know the name of. Then came the pizza and more wine. Next were three different kinds of pasta. Of course we had to end with desert and different kinds of (cello)? shots. One couple was celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and so out came the champagne. Waddling down to the van we started back toward the ship.

We made a stop in Naples to visit an archeological site. While most of the tourist go to Pompeii and fight the crowds and trinket stores, we had a private tour of a Roman Villa being excavated. It was most interesting. When the top blew off of Mt Vesuvius the magna caused the problem at Pompeii, but the rest of the area suffered from being buried under 25 feet of ash. The Villa walls still had color and frescos on them. The tile floor was there in spots. They had a pool that had been heated by a cauldron and steam ran under some of the rooms to heat them. They lived very well. The Villa is quite large and we were told that it is just one of many that lie under the area we were in. The layer of ash that we saw was layered, which indicated that they had tried to save the Villa by digging out but were over powered by the amount of ash that fell. The area below where we were was once a lagoon, but it was filled in by all the ash and now many towns are built on top of it.


After this interesting stop we headed back to the ship. We arrived after dinner had started, but it did not matter. We were so full from lunch we had no intentions of going. Tomorrow is a sea day. Yea!!!!! We can use the rest; it has been two days of running.


Our next stop is Santorini, it should be beautiful.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We made our second stop in Livorno, this morning. This is Italy’s third-largest seaport. Livorno is also the name of the province it lies in, which is in the region called Tuscany. The weather was much nicer than the last time here. We met our tour group, 16 of us, and left the ship to find our tour bus. It was nice, since the bus could hold 24 passengers we could spread out. It was a little late but we were on our way by shortly after 8:00AM. The drive to the Cinque Terre area took about 1 ½ hours. The area does a brisk trade in marble and alabaster. We saw large stones of marble in freight yards along the way. The marble was cut into block about 8X6X4 feet. We picked up our guide in La Spezia. This is a naval base for the Italian Navy.



From there we continued up into the mountains to start our tour of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre consists of five villages, Riomaggiore, Mannarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. These are quaint little villages that were isolated until 1967, when a road was finally constructed to connect them. Before that you either hiked over the mountains or came in by the sea. Because of the isolation the village life has changed very little over the years. The area main crop is vineyards, consisting mainly of white grapes. The mountain sides are terraced and very steep. They have small monorails to haul their grapes down the mountains. They have one seat on them and the worker carries the basket of grapes on his back or on her head.

We were dropped off above Riomaggiore and walked down a steep road and some steep stairs to get to the village. We then continued walking down hill to the train station where we purchased our tickets for the train, which we would be using later. We also purchased our tickets for the “lovers walk way”. After touring the village we then picked up the path to the “lovers walk way”. There was a place to have your picture taken on a special bench. You then took a lock, locked it and threw it into the ocean. This would guarantee your love would last forever. The path wound around the cliffs of the mountain to Manarola. The walk was about a mile and a half. We walked a total of five miles all in all today going from village to village.

After touring Manarola we caught the train to Vernazza. While here we toured the little village and then had lunch at an outdoor café. Pasta with pesto. Very good and so was the local wine. We then boarded a train back to La Spezia to find our bus. We now had another bus ride of an hour and half back to the boat. The weather was nice and warm today as we had thought the whole trip would be. Even the natives were talking about all the rain they had been getting. The scenery in the mountains today was absolutely beautiful.

We were very tired when we returned to the ship and didn’t even take time to clean up before dinner. We went down because there was suppose to be special pasta for us. We were too tired to enjoy it so we took a few bites to show our appreciation and then excused ourselves and came back to the cabin. We cleaned up and then sat out on the deck and just enjoyed the sunset. Early to bed, because we are up early tomorrow for a tour of the Amalfi coast and some ruins from Mt. Vesuvius.

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We are in Cannes, France

Today we woke up just before we arrived in Cannes, France. The sun was shining and there was no wind. We were not sure how to react, so we got dressed and went up to Sabatini’s for breakfast. After breakfast we came back to the room and got cleaned up. We then got in line for the tender ride into Cannes. After getting off the boat we started walking up hill and uphill, after awhile we started back down. It is Sunday here and there were not many people on the street yet. We tried some more back streets to just get a feel of the area. Walking through one of the side streets, after people started showing up, we watched this motor scooter pull up across the street from us. On it were a man and woman plus on the floor at the man’ feet was a basket. When they stopped out poked this white head. It was their Westie (Westhighland White Terrier). I don’t remember if I told you, but at our dinner table of 8, there are 3 couples that own Westies. We came back down to the marina and walked around it for awhile. There are some beautiful yachts in town now. While walking we came upon the local open air market. The vegetables in there were really good looking. The market also had a meat market and a fish market fresh fish including eel. The eel did not look that appealing.

Leaving the market we walked over to where part of the Film Festival was being held. We walked on the red carpet up to where the guards were and turned around and left. They had stalls along the marina selling just about anything you wanted to spend your money on. There was a lot of interesting painting and antiques and other crafts. After checking these stalls out we headed for a restaurant for lunch. We found a nice café with outdoor tables. It was sunny and warm, so we chose one of these and set down for lunch. I had a very good spaghetti Bolognese and Judi had spaghetti Neopolitana I also had a draft beer with it. The French beer is not as good as the Spanish or Italian.

 After lunch we continued our walk and passed through some more craft stalls. Judi could not pass on a picture she saw and so bought it. We then headed on down the marina toward the beach and the tender back to the boat. When we got back to our cabin, Judi read and took a nap and I worked on the blog. Tonight was a formal night, so we got gussied up again and went to dinner. Judi talked the head waiter into making her some pasta and another lady said me too. After dinner we took in a comedian in the Explorer Lounge. He was funny as long as he did his prepared act, but the assistant cruise director was not there to take over and he started working the audience, adlibbing as he talked to the patrons. This got a little old and we left. The ship is rocking a little tonight, but not bad. I am not sure what the Assistant Cruise Director was thinking, it was 9:00 PM and he said that we should look for whales as we were in their breeding grounds. A dark grey whale is not real easy to sea during the day let alone at night.


Well it is time to close on a good day. Tomorrow we are again in Livorno where we have a private tour set up to go to Cinque Terre. Up early and off we go.

Florence and Rome

As you have probably noticed by now I did not publish anything for Florence. There are a couple of reasons. One, the port for Florence is Livorno. It is located 90 minutes by bus from Florence. Guess what? It was raining and blowing in Livorno and Florence and we had a long day yesterday so we just stayed on the boat. We read, napped and just relaxed. So that is the report on Florence. We are in Livorno again on Monday so no big deal.
 Today is Saturday and we are in Rome. Well not exactly. We are in Civitavecchia. This also is 90 minutes by bus from Rome and it is raining and cool. Really cool. We left the boat at 7:30 AM for our ride into Rome. Since it was Saturday the roads were not as crowded as a weekday. That is what they told us. Looked pretty crowded to me. We arrived close to Vatican City and unloaded. It was not raining in Civitavecchia, so I forgot the umbrellas. First thing off of the bus, after a lecture on where to meet the guide and what time, we bought new umbrellas. ! Bright green, so we could find each other in the crowds. And let me tell you there were crowds. Six cruise ships were in port and I think everybody from those ship were in Rome at Vatican City.

We met Judi’s cousin John and his wife Laurie at the Obelisk in St. Peter’s Square. John gave us a tour with wonderful information starting with the Obelisk. He is so knowledgeable; I wish that I could remember half of what he told us.


The Obelisk is located in the center of St. Peters Square. Placed on four bronze fixtures called astragali, on top of a series of super imposed bases, the obelisk is over 33 meters or 107 feet high. It has been in its present location since 1586 when Pope Sixtus V ordered it raised in the square. Ship builder were called to hoist the obelisk since they were familiar with ropes and pulleys. The Pope ordered total silence in the square, where a large crowd had gathered to watch, on the penalty of death. As they were raising the obelisk, a young worker saw that the ropes were starting to smoke from the friction, and yelled water on the ropes. After the obelisk was erected the Pope called for the young man and awarded him for saving the obelisk from crashing to the ground. The young man’s family had a farm in northern Italy that raised canes. To this day the Palm branches used on Palm Sunday in the Vatican come from that farm.


The Colonnade was designed Bernini and are two semicircular wings that seem to welcome everyone to the Basilica. He also designed 140 statues of saints, which decorate the colonnade. The new basilica was commissioned by Pope Julius II. He entrusted the design to Bramante and it took 176 years to complete. Michelangelo began to build the dome when he was almost 70 years old.



The interior of St. Peter’s is enormous. The internal length is around 574 yards. The ceiling is so high that the obelisk could stand inside the basilica. The proportions are such that you do not realize to the size. There are letters around the ceiling that are 6 feet high and they look about a foot high. It is a big church. Judi’s cousin is the editor of the Catholic press in the Vatican, and therefore using his ID, we bypassed some very long lines to enter the basilica.

We saw the area were St. Peter is buried. The doors to the basilica are massive and very ornate. The Holy Door is on the far right and is only opened every 25 years at the beginning of the Holy Year. The door is sealed until then and then with much ritual it is unsealed and the Pope is the first to enter through it. The bronze statue of St. Peter from the 13th century is magnificent. There are more statues and the cupola above the Tomb of St. Peter, which is made of bonze taken from the Pantheon, by Bernini.

After leaving the basilica we went around the corner and John took us into the Vatican. We took some pictures and headed for lunch. I did not know that there was a Jewish quarter in Rome. In 1944 just before the end of the war the Nazi’s came in and rounded up over 2,000 Jews and sent them to Auschwitz. A convent close to the Jewish quarter hid several hundred in their basement. Some others fled the area and were safe. John took us to a Wine bar in the area and we had lunch there. We ordered a bottle wine. It was an Italian Chardonnay. The waitress suggested we let her bring us lunch, so we did. It started with a couple of plates of vegetables, then a plate of cold cuts. I was surprised to find a couple of kinds of ham on it. Next came a plate of 5 cheeses with some plum sauce. The cheeses started soft and worked up to hard and that was the order that we ate them in. They showed us around the Jewish quarter for a short time. Some very interesting building with statues in them that any museum would die to have.

We stopped by Largo Argentina. There are 4 temples here date from the 3rd century BC. The area is still being excavated. The ruins are at least 20 feet below street level. This shows how much junk and trash has accumulated over the centuries.


We took a cab back to the area to catch our bus and then it was back to the ship. It was rainy, cold and windy, but we had a wonderful day. I slept most of the way back to the ship. Wine has that affect on me.


Tomorrow we are in Cannes, France. The film festival is going on at the moment. I wonder if Jennifer Aniston will see me?

Thursday in Marseille

It is Thursday, so it must be Marseille. We had breakfast in our room after getting up at 5:30 AM. The bus was departing at 7:30 AM and we had to be in the Princess Theater by 7:00 AM to get our tickets. We marched out to our bus with the rest of the herd and found a seat. The drive to the National Park in Provence took about 1 ½ hours. The scenery was probably very beautiful, but the rain and low clouds made it difficult to tell. Once we left the main highway the roads became very narrow. Passing through some of the towns was a challenge in the big bus we were in. “ Mexican standoffs” occurred more than once and we had small cars come to a screeching halt on curves and back up so we could make the turns.



The tour actually was good, despite the bad weather at the start. The sun came out later in the day and it became quite nice up in the mountains. We passed constant vineyards and orchards of various kinds. i.e. Olive, Cherry and Peach.

We visited the Chateau de Lourmarin, which was first built in the 15th century as a fortress. Then in the 17th century a family purchased it and added a Renaissance style wing of living quarters. Inside is an unusual style stair case with the stair treads and the banister all of one piece of marble. The rooms had lots of antiques and art, both from times before Christ to the Renaissance period and one tapestry was from 70 BC. Some of the Renaissance sculptures and paintings cannot be described in a “PG” blog. The view of the Durance valley, from the Chateau was quite beautiful. The area and the Chateau have been the destination of artist for years and many famous artists have painted here. It is now owned by Universities and has a grant that provides for 12 scholarships to stay there and perfect there art.

We drove back down the mountain and stopped in the village of Roussillon. The village is famous for the old, orcher-colored stone houses. The area once had 12 factories that produced dye made from the different colored clays in the area. Due to artificial colors being produced it now only has 2 left.The village is very pretty and the old homes, church and fortress were interesting. They had a street market going when we got there and we purchased some pastries from a stand. The tour allowed us some time to wander around and then provided lunch at David’s restaurant. The food was good and they kept bringing bottles of wine. We tried our best but could not drink them all. I probably did drink a little too much. But, hey, I was not driving. There were several outdoor cafes around, and they all advertised themselves in English, but when you looked at the menu it was in French.

After leaving Roussillon, we stopped at a bridge built by the Romans’ over 2,000 years ago. It is still in perfect condition and a credit to Roman engineering. We are learning more about the influence of the Romans on this part of the world as we continue are trip.

As we were driving back to the ship we passed a French airfield, where the French Air Force Demonstration team was putting on a show. So we were able to watch some maneuvers as we drove past.


Returning to the ship we collapsed, and we both took a nap on the deck. Mine was longer than Judi’s. I had more wine than she did I guess. We stayed in tonight and just had a sandwich.


We have decided that we are going to stay onboard the ship Friday in Florence. We will be back here in 3 days and have a tour set up then.

Thursday in Barcelona

Before I start to get comments about my spelling, I want you to know that I am using the spelling that is in the brochures. The spelling of names over here are not the same as we have in the good ole USA.



Today we woke up early and went out on our deck and watched the Crown sail into Barcelona. The Captain can turn this big boat on a dime. He turned it around and with the help of a tug backed in to our docking station. After we tied up ,Judi and I went up to Sabaini's for breakfast. Day before yesterday they screwed up my breakfast and we told them about it, so today we got lots of attention.

After breakfast we went down and caught the local shuttle bus to Paseo Colon. This is where the Colombus Monument is located. It was built is 1888, for the World’s Fair, and stands about 155 feet tall. Here we purchased tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus. The day was cool and cloudy and up on top of the bus we were glad that we had brought our jackets.


Out first stop was the World Trade Center. It is located at the end of the Barcelona Docks. Barcelona is the number one port for Mediterranean cruise ships. The tall iron tower located here is called the King Jamie the Second tower. It was built for the 1929 World Fair. It is a station in the cable car system that was used to link the harbor with the mountain of Montjuic. The cable car is still used today.

We drove through Miramar Gardens and they were very nice. We were inside the bus at that time and I did not get any pictures. We drove past the site of the 1992 Olympic Games. The area was quite impressive. Next was the National Art Museum of Catalunya. The buildings in the area were built in 1929 for the World’s Fair.


Next we drove by Barcelona’s football stadium. This is where FC Barcelona plays. That is soccer in the US. The club has been around for more than 100 years. We continued through neighborhood shopping and apartment complexes. As we drove around we saw lots of buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish designer.


I wish that I had had Judi as my weather forecaster when I was flying. As we proceeded down the Gran Via de las Corts Catalanes thoroughfare, she suggested that we get off the bus and go to a Starbucks and get a latte. We saw one and jumped off the bus and went in. It was busy, so we had to stand in line. While we were in line it began to pour rain outside. After we finished our drinks it had stopped and so we got back on the bus and continued the tour.


We were now in the high rent district. The shops were in the Gucci range and so were the apartment buildings. We continued past the Gothic Cathedral and on to the port where we first boarded the bus. We caught the shuttle back to the boat and Judi went to the Spa and I read. After cleaning up we passed on the dining room and went up to the buffet for supper. We came back to the room, passing up any entertainment as we have to get up early in the morning for Marseille, France tour. It will go into Provence.