Our ship stopped in Livorno, Italy and many passengers opted to head into Florence or other areas of Tuscany—we decided to take a walking tour of Pisa. Pisa is another medieval walled town, which today houses approximately 90,000 residents, and an additional 50,000 students at the three universities in Pisa. The town has huge […]
Read More »Today was very special—we went to see the summer palace for Popes—Castelo Gandolfo. Opened to visitors in 2016, it has served as the summer palace for Popes since the Seventeenth Century. Castelo Gandolfo is about 28 kilometers outside of Rome. Pope Francis never spent a single night there, which is probably why it was opened […]
Read More »We are about to leave Rio de Janeiro—the home of Carnaval. Before we went to the Carnaval festivities though…we visited both Sugar Loaf mountain and Corcovado mountain. We got to Sugar Loaf by means of a cable car that went almost straight up the mountainside. When we got to Sugar Loaf we could look over […]
Read More »Among the many mind boggling things to contemplate is the fact that the Russian aristocracy didn’t just have one enormous and opulently decorated and designed palace. They had several of them; each one elaborate and ornate. In fact Catherine actually put a halt to all the gold being used to decorate her palace that had […]
Read More »The latest adventure is heading toward the closing chapter. After spending the last 2 days touring in Columbia, we will be heading out for Aruba, St. Bart’s and then Fort Lauderdale, where we will disembark. For some reason or other the cruise lines refer to this as “debarking” the ship rather than disembarking, but I […]
Read More »Lima, is a coastal city and the capital of Peru. It is home to over 10 million people and is the 3rd largest city in the Americas, behind only Sao Paulo and Mexico City. About one third of Peru’s population lives in the Lima Metropolitan area. And like much of South America, the population is […]
Read More »Aloha A trip to Hawaii necessarily means an outing to a Luau. We went to one in Lahaina complete with a pig roasted on a fire, native deserts and a Mai Tai or two. The highlight is a show with native dancers performing traditional rituals and dances, including the hula. Here are a couple of […]
Read More »