Our ship anchored today in the Mediterranean and we came ashore at Villefranche, France. We took a drive through Nice and neighboring towns, on our way to the village of Saint Paul de Vence. On our drive we passed the Hotel Negresco, where we stayed for vacation about 40 years ago. Today is the 80th […]
Read More »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 »Rome is a bit busy these days, so when our ship docked at the port, we decided to go to a nearby medieval town, Tarquinia. The town dates back to the ninth century BC, and sits on top of a very steep hill overlooking the Tyrrhenian sea. The town is enclosed by medieval walls and […]
Read More »When our ship docked in Naples, we had the opportunity to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii was instantly buried beneath 30 feet of volcanic ash and cinder when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. People living in the city perished instantly when the volcanic ash poured down on the city. We had […]
Read More »As we approach the final leg of our journey we will have several stops in Italy. The first stop, which we just had, was in Erice, Sicily. It is a small town (pop 27,000) located on the top of Mount Erice. It is about 2,500 feet above sea level and overlooks the town of Trapani. […]
Read More »Kotor is a small city in a small country. The population of the entire country is only about 625,000; the population of Kotor only amounts to about 13,000 people. Nonetheless Kotor has one of the best preserved medieval old towns in the Adriatic. It is also a UNICEF World Heritage Sight, probably for that reason. The […]
Read More »On Tuesday we headed to Zadar, Croatia to a vineyard named Kraljevski Vinogradi, which translates to Royal Vineyards. Needless to say we went there for a lunch and wine tasting. We thus fulfilled a cardinal rule of travel: Never miss a wine tasting. The vineyard is located way up in the hills with a […]
Read More »Gondolas, Piazza San Marco, Fine Stores, Cafes and Restaurants. What’s not to like about Venice? We docked in Fusina on Sunday largely because cruise boats can no longer dock in Venice. That is because Venice is trying to achieve 2 goals. First, they want to control damage to the city caused by big tour boats. […]
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