Day 10 – Leaving Venice

Our feet told us to take the day off from exploring more of Venice, so we did. We were able to grab a good spot in the lounge on the 11^th deck to watch the departure. We were a little late leaving as twenty people were late coming back to the ship. I asked our waiter later that evening if they ever left anyone behind. He’s been doing this for twelve years, so I figured he’d know. He told us that he’s seen people come out on the pilot boat and have to climb a ladder to get on board, but he didn’t know of anyone who hadn’t gotten on before the ship was very far out to sea. I find it hard to believe that people don’t get that when the ship has to leave they need to be on board! Leaving Venice is a pretty spectacular sight – a sea of red tile dotted with bell towers floating like buoys and high cathedral roofs like bulbous sailing vessels riding the waves of roofs. It’s a huge city, and no part of it isn’t quite lovely. I’d like to come back here some day when there aren’t hoards of visitors fighting for every inch of ground in the squares, bridges, and walkways.

The departure was very interesting. Did you know that ships’ captains don’t take the ship into or out of the ports? Every time we approach a port, a little boat speeds to the side of the ship and a pilot comes aboard to take the ship in. Same thing happens on the way out. In most ports, it’s no big deal, but the port of Venice is something else. We backed out of our dock, and turned toward the city (that alone was about thirty minutes). We steamed down a huge canal that was joined by the Grand Canal just as we approached San Marco Square and the lagoon. We sailed through the lagoon, seeing all the best sights again, and wended our way through a series of broad canals between islands. The pilot really earned his money on this trip.

The sky turned dark as we headed for Dubrovnik and the sea became pretty choppy. I woke up sometime in the night to great flashes of lightning and loud thunder. I looked out over our balcony and, even in the dead of night, I could see some pretty good whitecaps. The boat was rocking and rolling pretty well, but it just rocked me back to sleep. The storm did wake me a couple of other times, but the rocking put me right back to sleep each time.

Day 11 – Dubrovnik, Croatia

We came into the harbor of Dubrovnik, Croatia this morning and it is quite lovely here. Red roofed houses, mostly white stone or stucco, clamber over the steep green hillsides dotted with tiny groves of mustard plants and red poppies. We wanted to see the old town, so took a shuttle bus into town. I did notice some of the houses we passed on our way into town had what looked like bullet marks on the walls. One particular house was just covered with them. There was quite a war here just sixteen years ago, and not everything has recovered from that. The whole town is quite hilly and pretty, but the old town is something else. It has a wall about forty to fifty feet high that runs a mile and a quarter around a charming old town area. This was built in the 13^th century. The streets are all made of marble blocks, polished by thousands of feet over hundreds of years. Crooked, narrow little streets dash off between buildings, and then head up stairways to the top of the walls – six or eight flights up. Of course there are shops and restaurants everywhere, as well as street vendors galore. There are many women selling beautiful handmade linens with fine lace and embroidery. They are pretty pricey, but if you hold off until you get to the back part of the old town, you can pay a little less. (Our tablemate Lena told us later that if you bought at the stand right outside the ship you could save even more!) When we were ready to leave and go back to the ship, we had 12.20 kuna – about $3. It was too little to exchange, so we found a gelateria, and I put the money on the counter. I told the woman that was all the money I had. Could we each get a small cone? She laughed and said it wasn’t really enough, but she would make it do for us. It was a nice ending to our time in Dubrovnik.

Sailing out of Dubrovnik was another treat. The countryside is so beautiful. There are lovely homes right by the craggy shoreline and scattered all over the hills. Several islands, big and small, crowd around the harbor, some with squat lighthouses sitting on them, guarding their shores.

The entertainment tonight belied what I said earlier about the lounge-type acts on the ship. Tonight we heard Jonathan Clark, a British comedian and impersonator. If you ever get a chance to see him, don’t miss it. He was hysterical. Tomorrow we can sleep in as we will have a quiet day at sea traveling to Naples, although we may have stormy weather with some high seas. The captain said the seas might be two and a half to three meters, so we should be rocking and rolling again.

Day 12 – At Sea

We had a relaxing day, reading and watching the clouds go by. It’s been very overcast and windy, consequently the boat is rocking a bit, but I’ve gotten so I like it. I probably will take a week before solid ground feels okay after this long cruise. There was a big buffet in the dining room at lunch time with lots of ice sculptures and too much good food. I haven’t talked about the food this trip, but it has been outstanding. Wonderful choices, great recipes, and beautiful presentation. They even offer sugar-free and low-fat desserts every night. The wait staff has been terrific and knows what we want, often without us asking. I’ve probably eaten more fish this trip than I usually do in a month, but we’ve had two or three good choices every night, all nice and fresh. No lobster this trip, but that’s been the only disappointment. Our table mates, cruise professionals, really know how to eat. They almost always order two appetizers and two entrees each and sometimes two desserts! I think Lena weighs about 100 pounds, so I don’t know how she does it, but it’s working for her. Dave and I have been trying to avoid overeating, but temptation is everywhere all the time. Ah, well, it’s vacation!

This afternoon, I decided to enter the blackjack tournament in the casino. The buy in was only $20, so it seemed like a good idea. Dave decided he would enter, too. Big copy cat! We got there early and were able to claim the two leftmost seats at the table – a clear advantage! This is the way the tournament works. Everyone is given $500 in chips (funny money) and plays seven hands in the first round. We had fourteen entrants, so two first rounds of play. They counted the chips at the end of the first round and the top seven players advanced to the final round for seven more hands. I played pretty badly and had crappy cards, but I’m pretty conservative, so ended up with $300, dead last except for one who busted in our group. Dave, of course, had more! (Do you hear my teeth gnashing? No, I’m not at all competitive about games.) Some people had as much as $1700! I never thought we’d end up in the final round. But the second group in the first round played really poorly and all but one went broke, so Dave and I danced right into the finals. Everyone went back to $500 in funny money in the final round. There were a couple of people making really boneheaded moves in that round, but Dave and I played pretty conservatively and got lucky on a couple of hands. Anyway, Dave came in second with $575 and I came in first with $600. Of course, that’s all funny money, but there were prizes. Dave got a T-shirt with Casino Royale Winner on the back and $56.50 in cash. I got a nice polo shirt with Casino High Roller embroidered on the front, a hokey little trophy, (which I’m quite capable of putting where Dave has to see it all the time) and $94. Hollinbecks RULE!!!! My mother would be so proud!

I finished The Vig (Thanks, Gordon!), a really good cop novel. If you like those kinds of stories, I recommend this one – very convoluted and fun. I started Tripwire by Lee Childs (Thanks again, Gordon) and it is intense! Dave’s been reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and hasn’t been able to put it down the last few days. He says it’s really good. Check it out. It will be my going home book.

The entertainment tonight was The American Drifters. I think two of the four guys are from the original Drifters. You know how guys in those kinds of groups will flirt with the ladies in the audience? There was a sweet woman right in front of me who was probably about eighty. One of the guys was flirting with her the whole night and I think he was pretty serious about it. They were, after all, about the same age. Anyway, it was a fun show with lots of good songs from the fifties and sixties.

Day 13 – Sorrento and Pompeii

The winds were quite high and the ship had trouble docking. It took about an extra two hours to get docked and tied down. I think the ship made five or six approaches before making it in. The pilot was earning his money this day! Consequently, several tours were cancelled, but not ours. Ours left two hours late, but off we went. We drove through part of Naples and it’s not much to see. The city has been destroyed several times by nature and war. I suspect it was severely bombed during WWII, because the whole place looks like it was built in the 1950s and 1960s. Not very pretty. Also, they have run out of landfill space for garbage and it is piled high all over the city. Yikes! We headed to the Sorrento area to visit a farm where they make mozzarella cheese, their own sausage, and limoncello along with other things. It was interesting and fun. When we arrived we had plates waiting for us with good crusty bread with olive oil, two kinds of mozzarella, sausage, olives, and a bottle of homemade red wine at each table. While we snacked, we got a demonstration of how the cheeses were made. It’s a very quick process. One of them only takes an hour – the other just a day. Then we went downstairs to the wine cellar and tasted limoncello. It’s a liqueur made from alcohol, lemon zest, sugar, and water. It was on my list of things to try, so I did. Very nice. I suspect more than a little could be deadly (36% alcohol or more and lots of headache-causing sugar), but a taste is very nice. We got back onto the bus and headed for Sorrento. Our bus driver, Giuseppe, was amazing. We were in a brand new HUGE Mercedes tour bus and he handled it like a champ. Our tour guide told us in southern Italy there are traffic laws, but they think of them more as suggestions. I believe her after seeing the way people drive here. The roads we were on were very narrow two-lane roads with lots of hard turns and switchbacks. In the towns where there was lots of traffic, people on their little scooters would come streaming past big lines of cars right toward the coach, slipping back in just in time. I think the No Fear label must be Italian. They should start a No Brains label to go with it. Sometimes we would come around a tight turn and find a car facing us. Giuseppe would hold his ground and force the car to back up thirty or forty feet to let us go by. We passed a number of private beaches called lidos, including the famous Bikini Lido, along the Amalfi Coast. It’s spectacularly beautiful. We spent about an hour and a half in Sorrento, a pretty little town full of (here’s a surprise) shops and restaurants. We had pizza, which originates in this area (actually Naples) and it was not to die for. In fact, I like Round Table better and so does Dave. But it was fun to try anyway.

Next, the piece de resistance -- Pompeii. The weather was wonky and we had squalls all day. We had to buy expensive cheap umbrellas from street vendors, but we didn’t care because we were at Pompeii. I’ve wanted to visit Pompeii as long as I can remember. Now the danger of going someplace you’ve dreamed of so long is that you will be terribly disappointed. Not this time. It was so much more than I ever imagined. If you think you know how big Pompeii is, multiply that by a factor or ten or even twenty. It is easily twenty times bigger than I ever imagined. It was just the most amazing place. It helped that we had a great tour guide who was both knowledgeable and entertaining. We started in the gladiator school (yeah, they have one!), went on to the music amphitheatre – one of three amphitheatres Pompeii had – and on and on. We saw the famous Villa of Mysteries (a bordello, in case you didn’t know) with ancient dirty frescoes on the walls and stone beds for the ladies to ply their trade. There were also symbols of nice erect penises (Sorry, Dave K.) with accompanying testicles everywhere. It was supposed to bring them good luck, so they had them carved over their doors or in the pavement in front of their homes, etc. There was a temple to Jupiter that was pretty amazing. The forum was huge and impressive. There were plaster casts of those who died that day (August 24, A.D. 79 at one o’clock in the afternoon). They are really sad. Some of them have bones showing in the casting process. Some are just sad. One is of a boy – perhaps ten or twelve – trying to cover up with a hooded garment. The archaeologists found cloth still in his mouth and nose that he must have shoved in there to help him breath and keep out the ash. There was one of a dog who had been chained up and was in a kind of crazed position as if he’d been trying to somehow escape. So sad. There is so much preserved here that they have a big warehouse full of antiquities and much has been moved to the archeological museum in Naples. I’d like to go there someday. I definitely want to come back here and spend much more time in Pompeii. It’s just too much to take in all at once. I can’t wait to get the pictures posted.

Our ship sailed a bit late and there was quite a storm blowing. The noise from the wind kept me up much of the night. I thought it might be the Sirens singing, but I finally fell asleep.

Day 13 – The end of the cruise and beyond

In the morning, we just had time to get breakfast before we were called to claim our luggage and get out of Dodge. It’s amazing to me that, after we spent all that money on the cruise, we can’t even get a ride to the train station. We got on a bus and they took us to the port entrance and said bye-bye. We dragged our luggage up hill (wasn’t it up hill coming to the boat?) to the train station, bought tickets to Ostia Antica, and boarded the train. We had to take a train all the way in to Termini Station in Rome and change there. Termini Station is like O’Hare Airport on steroids. We walked for miles, going up and down stairs and lifts and ramps, asking directions every step of the way, and very few people had heard of Ostia Antica. We finally found our way to the Metro (subway) to another station, up and down and up again dragging our bags, and then on to a train that would take us there. When we finally arrived in Ostia, we had to go down and up again to cross the tracks, then buy a bus ticket, take a pedestrian bridge (Dave says it was 43 steps up and 43 down – he’d know – he made two trips at each end carrying the heavy bags) with all our bags, walk a couple blocks to a bus stop, and get a bus to our hotel. No taxis here. The hotel has a shuttle, but not for the train. We walked into the hotel and there were two people who had sat at the table next to ours on the cruise! They looked refreshed and relaxed. I greeted them and asked them how they’d gotten to the hotel and they said they had a driver from the ship to here. “How did you get here?” she asked staring at my flushed and sweaty face, but I just said how smart of them to get a driver. We dropped our bags off and took the bus back into town to have lunch. Did you know they have siesta time in Italy? After lunch, everything was closed, so we couldn’t buy a bus ticket back to the hotel and had to walk about a mile and a half. There are no sidewalks in most of this town, and drivers don’t have much patience with pedestrians. Pretty exciting walk! We finally made it back and it was siesta time for us. I finished Tripwire (Thanks, Gordon!) and it was good! I never figured this one out. If you like action thrillers, I recommend it. We spent most of the evening whining about why didn’t we just schedule ourselves on a plane right after the cruise! We are ready to be done. But Ostia Antica is a pretty little town and tomorrow we will explore the ancient ruins here.

Last Day – Ostia Antica - Just when we thought it couldn’t get better

We took a bus into town from our hotel to find these ruins we’d heard about. Well, Boy, Howdy, did we ever find ruins! This place has to rank right up there with Pompeii. It is just about as big and just as well preserved. It has a huge amphitheatre, baths, apartment houses, temples, forums, a bar, a necropolis, etc. etc. In a way this is really better than Pompeii in that the antiquities haven’t been removed to a distant museum. Many of the statues, carvings, and frescoes are right where they were found. There are many, many amazing mosaic floors with beautiful pictures on them. There are altars and kitchens and huge jars for storing oil which probably held fifty gallons or more. Ostia was at the mouth of the Tiber River and was the port for Rome for many years. It was a very successful trading city for many years probably starting around 400 B.C. and lasting in this capacity until after the decline of the Roman Empire. The Tiber River actually changed its course and that helped to change the course of Ostia. It fell into decline as the port for Rome was moved and over time it covered over and was forgotten. Excavations here started in the mid-1700s as they did at Pompeii. Excavations still go on today. The real beauty of this place is that everything that was excavated here stayed here. Some extraordinary statues have been moved to a museum on the grounds, but it’s included in the admission and is right where you can get to it. In Pompeii, the really good stuff has been moved miles away into Naples. All of the statues are beautifully displayed with natural light in this small museum. It reminds me of the Glyptotech in Munich, my favorite museum in that great city. They don’t allow cameras in the museum, so I can’t show you those when I post pictures, but some of them are in the little book we bought, so come and see us. It was a marvelous day, but we are worn out. I’d like to come back here someday, too, to spend more time in the ruins and to visit a great fortress in the town that was built in the mid-1400s. We were just too tired to visit that as well.

Now we will rest and pack. Tomorrow morning we head to the airport and home. We are ready. It’s been a great trip, but we really miss our kids and grandkids. We will be home by the time this posts. Internet access is really a problem over here. Too expensive and slow. I hope to add pictures soon and I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip.

Last Day – Home Again, Home Again, Higglety Hig

Our hotel had a shuttle to the airport and we arrived nice and early. The lines moved well and we had no problems getting to our plane, but there was a lot of up and down and walking. The flight to New York was fine. After walking and walking and going up and down and up and down, we cleared customs, rechecked our bags, and started waiting to get our plane home. We had a four hour layover. There was an earlier flight, but we didn’t try to get on it since we thought our bags would come in on our scheduled flight. So we waited. The flight was over an hour late loading and then took another hour to take off. Needless to say, at this point we were cranky. The flight was bumpy most of the way, but we finally got into San Francisco about ten o’clock. Fortunately Dave was able to get some sleep on both the flights. I had a little, but I don’t do well on planes. But I did get about halfway through Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett’s thousand-page tome. If you like historical fiction, especially set in the middle ages, I recommend this one. Great book! We waited and waited for our bags. Everyone else had theirs and had left. That’s when we discovered American had put our bags on the earlier flight (the one we didn’t try to get on because of our bags!) and they were waiting for us by the baggage office. We were able to laugh about it. The two-hour drive home seemed to take much longer, but being in our own bed and close to our kids and grandkids felt great. It was a wonderful trip. Dave will be working on a slide show this week and I will add pictures to my blog as well. I’ll keep you all posted on when those are ready for viewing. Ciao!

Day 6 – Sicily – Fuggedaboutit!

I haven’t talked about our table mates at dinner yet. We are sitting each night with two couples from near New Haven, Connecticut. They all sound like they’re from Long Island, and they are a fun group to be with. Barbara and Joe have known Ed and Lena (short for Angelena) for more than forty years. They have taken over a dozen cruises together as well as lots of other vacations and are great friends. Joe is a retired printer, Barbara is a mostly retired hair-dresser, Ed is a retired truck driver, and Lena, retired from AT&T, works part-time as a bookkeeper. We are really enjoying them. We were worried that we had been seated at such a small table, but it has really worked out for us. They’re great. They’ve been to many of the places we’re visiting already and have given us good advice on things we are going to see.

I haven’t talked about the entertainment on board yet either. Almost every night they have live entertainment in the theatre. I guess the one night we didn’t go, they had a most fantastic act, but the rest of the nights have been just okay. They shows are the kind of thing you find in a Las Vegas lounge – not the headliners, but the ones who didn’t make it into the headliner show. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just had the hockey playoff games showing somewhere on the ship!

We landed at Messina, Sicily, and were signed up for a trip to Taormina. Glad we did, because Messina is kind of an ugly town. It was completely destroyed in 1908 by an earthquake and a tidal wave. 60,000 people were killed. The town was finally rebuilt in the 1930s, then along came WWII and it was completely destroyed again. The architecture is pretty much 1950s and 1960s blah. Taormina, on the other hand, is quite beautiful and charming, much like other hill towns we’ve seen in Italy. It has an amphitheatre that was built around third century A.D. As you might guess, it’s not in terribly good shape anymore, but a lot of the original structure is still intact. It is still used for concerts. A bomb was dropped on it during WWII which made a big hole in the backstage wall, but they’ve not fixed it because it leaves a great view of the valley below.

Sicily is the home of cannollis, (I don’t know how to spell it, but I know how to order it!)so I had to have one. It was good, but not to die for. Frankly, the gelato is better. We saw no gangsters wandering around, but some people on the tour told us to keep our eyes open in Naples. I guess the Mafia is alive and well in Italy, and out in the open in Naples.

Day 7 – At Sea

Not much going on. It was a relaxing day. I finished the Dennis Lahane novel, Darkness, Take My Hand. Very good, but not as good as Mystic River. Still, I recommend it to mystery lovers. Next on the list – Blood Memory by Greg Iles. Thanks, Tudy. So far, pretty good.

Day 8 – Split, Croatia

Not yet part of the European Union, we had to get different money here. This is a beautiful port city, and we were able to simply take a tender to shore and walk around. This town was originally settled around 300 – 400 B.C. by the Greeks. In 295 A.D., Diocletian, a Roman emperor, built a residence here and lived here until his death. This huge palace is now the old town of Split, surrounded by the ancient wall. The town has been occupied most of its history by Romans, Venetians, Austrians, French, and even the Italians during WWII, until it was liberated in 1944 and Croatia was formed. It was also part of Yugoslavia from 1918 until WWII. It has a beautiful cathedral, and the rest of the old buildings are now shops and restaurants. It’s quite pretty to walk around, but everything here is very expensive. It was a warm day and, after walking around for a couple of hours, we sat in a nice outdoor café and ordered beer. We figured we’d get some exotic Croatian beer, but when they brought it, it was Budweiser! Okay, it wasn’t the same Budweiser we get at home, but it said Budweiser on the label and, underneath in small letters, it said Czech Imported Lager. It was good, but not great.

Day 9 – Venice and more sore feet

When we woke up this morning, the ship was coming into Venice. It is the most beautiful port we’ve come into. We had no tours planned here, but decided to do this on our own. The ship was offering water taxis to San Marco Square, but that was pretty expensive, so Dave and I walked (and walked and walked) to the nearest vaporetto stop. Dave says it was only about a half mile away, but my feet think longer! A vaporetto is a water bus. It’s what people take to work or school. We bought day passes and cruised up the Grand Canal to San Marco Square. If your vaporetto stop is on the wrong side of the canal and there is no bridge close by (there are only three bridges over the Grand Canal) you can get a ride across. The little ferries look kind of like gondolas, but don’t have any seats. Everyone just stands in the middle while the guy paddles across. I decided to only use bridges! Venice is really beautiful. The buildings along the Grand Canal are all very old and most are very ornate. Most buildings are three or four floors high. The first floor was for warehouse space, the second for offices and business, and the upper floors were living quarters for the wealthy people who ran the trading business in Venice. There is clearly a lot of Turkish influence in the architecture here, as you will see when Dave gets home and can set up a slide show. I just can’t post pictures now. The internet on the ship is slow and costly ($.55 a minute!). The canal is very busy with low boats, maybe twenty to twenty-five feet long and about eight feet wide carrying all kinds of goods. Some were piled high with boxes, some had bags of fruit or grain, some had scrap lumber or other goods. They whizzed by us as we chugged along. There are even police and fire boats. When they came by, the other boats seemed to idle and stay in one place, letting the emergency boats find their way through the traffic. There are hundreds of little canals cutting off the Grand Canal, like little streets. Much like Rome, there seems to be no real plan here, and some of the canals are very narrow and crooked. Beautiful little bridges cross the little side canals everywhere. We found the Bridge of Sighs behind the Doge’s Palace in San Marco Square. It leads from the Doge’s Palace (the seat of local government) to the prison behind it. It is named the Bridge of Sighs because when prisoners were condemned, they would be led from the Palace to the prison and would get their last glimpse of beautiful Venice and sigh. Not the romantic story I expected to hear!

The cathedral of San Marco is amazing. The entire ceiling is a mosaic –all Venetian glass, mostly gold, but other colors are used to make pictures of holy scenes, all surrounded by this amazing gold. The floor is a beautiful mosaic of many colors of marble. It’s not very big, but it is truly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, they don’t allow cameras, so maybe you can look it up on the internet to see some of the mosaic pictures, or come and visit us. We bought a book that shows its beauty. After walking around the area for quite awhile, we got back on the vaporetto and headed to the Rialto Bridge area. We walked all over this area, shopping and looking for a trattoria that we’d found in Rick Steve’s book. We finally found it and sat outside under the wisteria and had a wonderful lunch. We wandered back through the Rialto Bridge area and got back onto the vaporetto to come back to the ship. We discovered that rush hour begins around three o’clock here! We were packed onto the vaporetto like pickles in a jar. All the seats were full and all the floor space was full of standees as well. They didn’t stop loading until there was absolutely no way to get more people on. We made it back to our stop and began the looooong walk back to the ship. My dogs are barkin’! I finished Blood Memory this morning (Thanks, Tudy!). It was a real page turner. Now I’m on to The Vig by John Lescroart (Thanks, Gordon!) and so far I’m liking it. Ah, vacation!

Cruising Days 2-5

Cruising Day 2 – Day of Italian Riviera

It only took us forty-three years to get here from the time we first talked about it. It was definitely worth the wait. Portofino is a charming little town in a string of charming little towns along the coast. We visited three villages on the Riviera – Portofino, Santa Margherita, and Rapallo. There are 16^th century castles (fortresses) sprinkled along the coast even more frequently than villages, reminding us that Italy, until the middle of the 19^th century, was a collection of tiny city-states. The coast often attracted Saracen (Arabian) pirates, and the castles gave the city-states some chance at fending off the marauders.

These charming villages are filled with beautiful homes painted bright colors with decorations surrounding the windows, made to look like carved marble frames. In earlier days, you announced your success by the outside of your home – if you had carved marble frames around doors and windows, you were very successful. Those who weren’t quite as successful had their houses painted to look like there were carved marble frames, and one really can’t tell the difference until one is pretty close up. Perception is reality, I guess. This area is beautiful to see, but there isn’t much to do beyond walk around and enjoy the sights, which we did. And there was gelato, of course.

Day 3 – Pisa, Florence, and very sore feet.

We were supposed to be in the port of Livorno when we woke up, but we were late getting in. After waiting around for an hour for our tour to start, we got onto a big tour bus and headed up the road. Our tour guide was a young woman from Livorno who filled us in on the rivalry between Livorno and Pisa. I think it goes back for a long time, but now is mostly based on football – Livorno has a class A team, while Pisa has only a class B team. She was gloating. Then she told us how there are many jokes told about Pisans such as “Why can’t you play Hide and Seek with Pisans? No one will look for them.” In any case, she was a fun tour guide for the day. We visited the square in Pisa where there is a great cathedral, baptistery, and the famous tower. Wherever there is a cathedral from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, there will also be a baptistery. It is a grand domed building near the cathedral. We were told that one couldn’t enter a cathedral or church until one became a Christian and that happened in the baptistery. (Somehow I think the masons made up that rule for job security.) The tower really does lean severely. The guide said the top of the tower is 15 feet off the vertical axis – a five-degree angle. They’ve built a railing around the base that, I think, makes it look like it leans more than it really does, but still it’s pretty surprising how far it does lean. The decorative carvings around all the buildings are really astounding, and, if I ever figure out how to put pictures in my blog, you can see for yourself! I’m working on it.

We went on to Florence and had about three hours to look around. It’s not enough, unless you have blisters on your feet as I do, then it’s too much. Now let me mention about “On-Your-Own Tours.” When you sign up for your tours from the ship, keep this little phrase in mind. What it means is the bus will drop you some way from where the sights are – usually they say a ten-minute walk. It’s a ten minute walk if you have been in training for several months, as the tour guide you’re trying to keep up with has been. When you get where you will start and end the tour, they hand you a poorly-drawn map and send you on your way. We walked and walked, but there is just so much to see. Again, the architecture here is extraordinary. It is a beautiful city and rather overwhelming in how much there is to see. It was a Saturday and we were told that we wouldn’t be able to get tickets to get into any of the major museums, so I guess we will have to come back another time! There was still a lot of fun and interesting things we could see. There is a great cathedral and baptistery here with a tower, but this tower is standing straight. These buildings are all faced with an extraordinary mosaic of white, pink, and green marble – all of which come from this region. It’s a little busy for my taste, but the Florentines love it. There is an exact copy of the David (the real one is in one of those museums we couldn’t visit) in one of the piazzas in Florence, along with some other huge and wonderful sculptures. When we arrived in the square, there was a parade going on. All the people were in period costumes from the sixteenth century and marched in with great pomp and flair to drummers accompanying the parade. The guide told us there are a lot of little local things like this going on. She had no idea what it was for, but it was fun for us to see. We had a nice lunch in a little café and, of course, found a gelateria just before we had to take the long walk back to the bus.

Day 4 – Tuscany!

My favorite day so far. Dave and I have talked a lot about how we feel like we’ve seen Rome and have no real desire to return, that Florence was interesting, but we probably wouldn’t be upset if we never returned, but Tuscany is amazing and we will be back. We’d like to spend a week or two just roaming around the area. We drove about two hours into the countryside winding up narrow roads (in a huge tour bus – Yikes!) to a town called San Gimignano – an absolute gem of sixteenth-century Tuscany. The ride there was like riding through a picture postcard album. Every turn brought another breathtaking sight. Some people refer to San Gimignano as the tower town, as it has several tall stone towers that make it recognizable from quite a distance. If I were going to make a remake of Romeo and Juliet, this is where I would film. The narrow cobblestone streets worm their crooked ways between charming stone buildings and it would be very easy to get lost (as we did later that day in another town!). We didn’t really want to leave, but we had an appointment at a small winery nearby for lunch.

When we arrived, we sat in a small courtyard under a canopy. While we were there, we were treated to a nice little show of lightning and thunder, something we Californians don’t see often. We were immediately served plates of pecchorini cheese (okay, I have no idea how to spell that!), thin slices of some wonderful spicy sausage, and crusty bread soaked with extra virgin olive oil. I always thought extra virgin olive oil was the first pressing, but it turns out it means it was pressed within 48 hours of when the olives were harvested. And they are not allowed to shake the trees to get the olives as that will bruise them. They have to brush the olives out of the trees so they will fall more gently, and they put something like parachutes under the trees to catch them, so they don’t fall onto the ground. We assumed we would taste a couple of wines – tiny tastes as they do in Napa and Sonoma – but we ended up tasting about nine wines, each, it seemed, better than the one before, and the portions were generous. About halfway through the tasting, we were brought something called ribollite, a dish made of white beans, spinach, carrots, and some other things. I’ve got to find a recipe. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was great. Our host said his mother made it fresh that day, but we didn’t get to see Mama, and I somehow doubt he had his mother slaving over a hot stove in the kitchen. But it was homemade and delicious. We also tasted their extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and their truffle olive oil. Great stuff. Our charming and funny host told us his family had lived on this land, making wine and olive oil there since 1720. He gave us wine tasting lessons and, even though I thought I pretty much knew all about it, I learned some things. (Their web site is www.torciano.com. I haven’t looked at it yet, so I don’t know just what you’ll find.) The wine was great, the food was great, and the company was even better. Reluctantly, we left and wended our way to another gem of a town called Volterra.

Volterra was another charming little town on a hilltop, similar to San Gimignano, but without all the towers. Our tour guide handed us over to another tour guide who was more familiar with this town. He led us around the twisty streets to the church, baptistery, and tower (each town has at least one set of these) and gave us a tour of the beautiful little church. Then we stopped by an alabaster shop. The tour guide explained all the different types of alabaster and showed us their many uses. If I’d wanted to spend a lot of money, I could have done so there. Some of the things were extraordinarily beautiful. Anyway, Dave and I decided we needed to find bathrooms before we left and had about 20 minutes before the bus was to leave. It was a tiny town. No problem, right? We headed off and before we could turn around and go back, we were good and lost. Every way we turned looked familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time. After about ten minutes of wandering, I was starting to panic, but we found someone else from the tour who pointed us in the right direction. We found bathrooms, gelato (of course!), and got to the bus on time. We had spent a lot of time walking, but I wasn’t as bothered by my sore feet as usual. I guess when you are having a great time, you forget about your feet, and all of Tuscany was a great time.

Day 5 – At sea

Today is a day to rest, catch up, get things posted, and have a little vacation. I finished reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a couple of days ago and recommend it to all the women out there. It’s a chick book, but a really good one. Today I finished Grift Sense by James Swain. If you like light mysteries, you’ll like James Swain. His books all have a gambling theme, interesting characters, and are fun. Next up – Dennis Lahane’s Darkness, Take my Hand. I’ll let you know how it is, but Dennis Lahane is always a treat. It’s nice to have time to just read what I like and not what I have to read. Retirement is good, vacationing is better, but, Boy, Howdy, we miss our kids and grandkids! I’m getting ready to borrow a small child for a while just to get some hugging in!

Roma Days 1-4, Cruise Day 1

Day One – The Day of Exhaustion

Our flight from San Francisco to Chicago was fine. In Chicago, they were asking over and over again for “volunteers” with flexible schedules. They were up against a weight limit, and, if they didn’t get “volunteers,” they were going to start creating “volunteers.” I was pretty sure they were getting ready to line us up by weight and start kicking people off, but they loaded everyone and took off pretty much on time. We arrived in Rome, with our luggage, on time. If there was any customs, I wasn’t aware of it. We just took our bags and followed the signs to the trains. We bought tickets using hand signals and what little I could speak, got on the train, and were on our way. A nice woman sitting next to us spoke beautiful English and told us where we should change and so on. We complimented her on her English and she immediately said, “I’m not Italian. I’m from Serbia.” We came to realize over the next day that few Italians speak any English – those who do speak little. Dave and I got off our train, left through the back of the station, and with our map in hand, headed for our apartment. Did you know that Rome is built on seven hills? I personally think there are more, and as we dragged our luggage behind us, we went up and over one of the hills, finally finding our way to the apartment. It’s very nice. It’s on a quiet street, is pleasant, and nicely decorated, but close to restaurants and bus lines and, best of all, several gelaterias! We did discover that there is a much easier way to get here from the train station – about one third as far and all downhill. Ah, well. I just look at it as being in vacation training for all the walking we face.

After getting our keys and a quick tour, we moved in and out of consciousness throughout the day. We did take a walk to St. Peter’s square, which is only about a half mile away. The lines were terribly long for both St. Peter’s and the Vatican museum, so we went to a gelateria – a very good idea – and then went home. We had a little dinner at a local restaurant that evening and the woman working there told us that we could get to the heart of Rome on either bus 916 or bus 46. It seemed like useful information. It was too late to do anything else that night, so we finally packed it in about eight o’clock and slept right on through until one in the morning. Then we tossed, turned, wandered, and finally took sleeping pills.

Day Two – The Day of Adventure and Sore Feet

Our tour guide, Sonni Lanio, a former exchange student of ours from 22 years ago, arrived in the late morning from Hamburg. She has spent quite a lot of time in Rome, and her family was kind enough to loan her to us for a couple of days to show us around. I had a glass of water and Sonni told me I should never drink the tap water anywhere in Europe. She said many people won’t even brush their teeth with tap water. I had been drinking it for a day already with no problems, so I wasn’t too worried. We went for a walk to St. Peter’s square, but again the lines were too long. I did notice, though, that the homeless man who lives in the pedestrian tunnel under the road, had several bottles of mineral water, and I wondered if drinking the tap water was such a good idea after all. I mean, if he was drinking bottled water… Anyway, the lines were again huge at St. Peter’s and the Vatican, so we just walked around for awhile. We came by a department store unlike any I’ve ever seen. All the display windows had mannequins in nun’s garb or there were rich vestments of velvet and satin embroidered in gold and silver on display. I guess if you’re a nun or priest, this is the place for you. I didn’t see anything I wanted. We took a bus downtown, and on the bus we met a nice woman and a man (they didn’t seem to be together, just sitting in the same row across from us) who both spoke very good English. When we commented on their fine English, the woman exclaimed, “Oh, but I’m not Italian. I’m from Israel.” She turned to the man and he smiled and said, “India.” People seem to feel the need to explain their fine English as having to do with NOT being Italian. We walked around and saw some ruins of four Roman temples right in the middle of the city. It’s quite astonishing that there are ancient ruins dotting this large, bustling city. We went to the Pantheon – an ancient Roman temple that became a Christian church several hundred years ago. It has an amazing dome – as high as it is wide – with a hole in the center to let in light. It’s rather incongruous to see a huge crucifix hanging in this ancient temple that was clearly made for another purpose.

We walked and walked, seeing lots of wonderful things, beautiful squares, wonderful fountains, and learning some important things. First, there are pedestrian crossings everywhere, but that doesn’t mean much if you are a pedestrian. At the crossings that have no lights, you are simply taking your life in your hands if you try to cross. Driver’s have no respect for walkers. Period. At the crossings where there is a light, you should have better luck. The cars, busses, trucks, and scooters (there are millions of Vespa-type scooters everywhere) do stop when the light tells them to; however, they all tip their heads toward the stoplight like sunflowers tracking the sun and watch only that. They never look at the pedestrians in the crosswalk. As soon as that light changes, they all floor it. I am not kidding. It’s like someone dropping the starting flag at the Indy 500. I’m convinced that if a pregnant woman pushing triplets in a stroller flanked by nuns didn’t get across before the light changed, the whole group would become a large, messy speed bump in a hurry. Another interesting thing about Rome is how small it is. I don’t think I saw any building over eight or ten stories high. The entire city is about four square miles. The streets are laid out like a dropped plate of spaghetti. They go every which way and twist and turn. Some seem impossibly narrow, yet there are cars parked everywhere and in no seeming order. There aren’t any rules about parking. If you can find room, just park. If it’s facing in on a corner, fine. If it’s partly on the sidewalk, that’s okay. Double-park blocking someone else in? No problem. I’ve seen few full size cars. Almost all cars are what we would call sub-compact, but still the narrow streets are so narrow that there is hardly room for cars to pass between the parked cars, but they always seem to be going through at a good clip. People flip their side-view mirrors in when they park, because there is so little room in the streets. I’ve seen some cars with no side-view mirrors and I know why. There seems to be no city planning. For example, in our little block of about eight row houses, there is a photo studio, a motorcycle repair shop, an auto repair garage, a restaurant, and four or five apartments scattered among them. This is quite typical. In some ways, Rome is not a very modern city. There are few modern-looking buildings. There are some apartment buildings that were clearly built in the sixties or maybe seventies, but almost nothing looks truly modern except for one museum built of glass and steel around a large ancient Roman marble piece as the centerpiece, and a few modern pieces of sculpture can be seen from the outside. Internet access is a nightmare. That’s why all this is going up after we leave Rome. There are a few little internet points. The ones we’ve found have three or four computers you can rent for one to three Euros an hour, but nowhere could we find wireless access to use our own computer.

Back to our adventure. After we walked around downtown, we decided to head back to the apartment for a little rest before going out to dinner. It had started to rain, but it was a light, gentle rain. We found a bus stop that listed both the 916 and the 46, so we waited. Many busses came by, but not ours and we were getting a little uncomfortable. At last, a 46 came. We hopped on and, as we got close to our area, the bus took a strange turn. We thought it would come back to our area, but it just went on and on. We finally asked (Sonni’s Italian is very good) and discovered that there are two 46 busses. One is plain 46 (the one we were on) and the other is “46/” (the one we should have taken). You’d think they would have just used two different numbers! It’s not like there aren’t enough numbers to go around. Unfortunately, plain 46 goes nowhere near our place. We got off. By now it was dark and still raining lightly. We started walking in the direction we thought was right, stopping for directions once to find we were on the right track. It was about two miles and over one of those hills Rome is built on. We headed to a nice restaurant near our apartment for dinner, but found out they only serve breakfast and lunch. It was Monday night, and nothing was open in our neighborhood. Sonni found an interesting-looking restaurant in her guide book, so we got a cab and went there. It was a great choice. It was called Gallobrillo. That means “tipsy rooster.” The waitress pulled a chair up to our table and explained everything on the menu, practicing her English and getting help finding words from patrons at other tables and from Sonni. The food was terrific, the wine was good, and we had a wonderful time. We got a cab home and all fell into bed. Dave and I slept until five, then started our tossing and turning routine.

Day Three – The Day of Great Sight-seeing

The next day we got a good early start and went downtown for sight seeing. We ended up getting tickets on one of those hop-on-hop-off bus rides around the city and really saw all of Rome. It’s so amazing to see the Colosseum right in the center of a big city. Lines again were huge everywhere. We thought we would be here before tourist season, but it turns out the big months are May, June, July, September, and October. In August, everyone leaves Rome because it is too hot. We saw the Forum, Palatine Hill, and all the sites. Late afternoon we headed to St. Peter’s square. Sonni had never been inside St. Peter’s, so we all wanted to see it. We got there at 5:15 and there were no lines. We went right in. Now I have often felt that if you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen ‘em all, but let me tell you, St. Peter’s is worth the trip. It is the mothership – it is the Queen Mary – it is the King Kong of churches. Not only is it huge, but it is truly magnificent in every way. First of all, as soon as you walk in, you turn to the right and are facing Michelangelo’s Pieta. Wow! The real thing. It is breathtaking and will nearly bring tears to your eyes it is so beautiful. The entire place is filled with amazing statuary – huge and beautiful. All the carvings on the ceiling and high walls is covered with gold leaf. There is probably more gold here than Fort Knox. It is the Pope’s church, after all. We found out from one of the guards that Il Papa was going to be speaking the next morning, so right away we had plans. We walked to our neighborhood, which is quite close – perhaps a half-mile – and had a nice meal in a local restaurant. Exhausted, we fell into bed and slept late.

Day Four – The Day of the Pope and More Sore Feet

We headed right over to St. Peter’s square. There were probably ten thousand people already there waiting to hear the Pope. Sonni, who is not particularly religious, was pretty excited. She told us that when this German Pope was elected, the German newspaper ran a headline that translated to say “We are Pope!” During our time together, whenever we saw a picture of the Pope or mention of him, she would say, “I am Pope!” The German people are quite excited about this. At just ten-thirty, Il Papa came riding into the square in the Pope-mobile (an open, white Mercedes jeep-looking thing) and took a nice turn around the square, so all of us got a pretty close look. He came within about fifteen feet of where we stood. We didn’t expect to see him except as a white dot in the distance, so that was kind of exciting. He spoke in English first – how very polite of him. We parted ways with Sonni here. She headed for the train and back to Hamburg; Dave and I headed to the Vatican Museum. Because it was mid-week and because people were still listening to the Pope, there were no lines.

The Vatican Museum is huge and full of beautiful artwork. We were most interested in seeing the Sistine Chapel, so we just walked through much of the museum without stopping at many things. One of the big surprises was that when we came close to the chapel, there were several rooms of rather modern artwork, some as late as the 1970s. I was especially struck by a painting of a crucifix with a man wearing a suit and tie. Strange. There was a long corridor leading into the Chapel area that had an arched ceiling that was carved and painted magnificently. At first, I thought maybe we were in the chapel, but then realized it wasn’t Michelangelo’s work. We finally got into the Sistine Chapel, and it was worth the trip. The paintings look fresh and the colors are very bright. It is a small room and every inch is painted and carved. It was amazing to be there and see his work in person. It was a long journey through the museum and chapel, but really worth doing.

That evening we rested and repacked.

Day Five – By Land and By Sea

In the morning we dragged our luggage to the train station (on a much better path than the one we took to our apartment!) and then on to Civitavecchia to board the Legend of the Seas. We were able to get a direct train from San Pietro Roma station to Civitavecchia. Once out of Rome, it was rather flat, slightly rolling land reminiscent of the Midwest. There were lots of farms and small villages along the way. In the villages, there are few houses, but lots of apartment houses, three or four stories high. All the balconies seem covered with flowers. I guess if you can’t have a garden in Italy, you do the next best thing.

Civitavecchia is a cute little port town, but the ships are a long way from the train station. We dragged our luggage along and needed to stop for a cold beer half-way to the port. We are now on the ship. It’s like most cruise ships – Las Vegas-like in its atmosphere – bad comedians, good singers and dancers, lots of glitz, and great food. I had the best perch I’ve ever eaten in my life. Our dinner partners – two couples from Connecticut – seem nice. Our wait staff is almost too helpful, but that’s typical, too. The welcome show in the theatre was okay, but pretty Las Vegas loungey. Now we need sleep, because tomorrow is Portofino – the reason for this trip – promised to me by my good husband over forty years ago and now is pay-off time. Finally!