You all know me, I’m an insomniac. I usually get 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep and I’m pretty much OK. Funny how you think that living that way would make jetlag less effective. Ha. It’s what, 9:30 or so as I type this. That’s typically about 4-5 hours before I go to bed or [...]
We’re back. After a long day of flying (2 flights, one from Rome to London, the other from London to Vancouver) we are home safe and sound and ready for sleep. Everything went smoothly on disembarkation, other than the fact that the Rome to London flight was delayed by about an hour. We had a [...]
Hi all. Well, here we are at the last port of call – Genoa. More on that in a minute, but first let’s talk about Villefranche, Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo. We arrived in Villefranche early yesterday with no fixed itinerary, but we had a pretty good idea what we wanted to do. We walked [...]
OK this was more work than I bargained for, but finally here are a couple of pictures… First, the Papal visit on the 14th: and of course the Colosseum from the Termini entrance: As for today, another “at sea” day while sailing for France. Relaxing in the sun, eating way too much (oh, Dad? Lobster [...]
Today was another Italian visit – Messina, Sicily with an excursion to Taormina. Taormina is a quaint village about 40 minutes outside of the port city of Messina (which in itself wasn’t really worth visiting, according to our Travel guy). We took a group bus (again) to Taormina and spent 3-4 hours touring around “on [...]
Mare is guest blogging today… take it away Mare: Santorini! Well, what a day. Santorini was everything I had hoped for. We started out climbing yet another volcano. The view of the Cyclades (the islands) was spectacular. The hike was only about 30 minutes straight up and the temperature was well into the thirties. Nothing [...]
Hi all. First off, let’s catch up seeing as how I didn’t post yesterday… Yesterday (Sunday) was a day at sea. What this means is that we saw a LOT of ocean, and no land ;). But it was a rest. We didn’t do too much, other than sit out on the deck and fry, [...]
Time zones are interesting things, aren’t they. While you guys were finishing up for the day, we were fast asleep. And while you guys were sleeping, we were hiking up a volcano. Go figure. So we went to Pompeii and saw many ruins (it’s actually a huge site). Afterwards we went to Mt. Vesuvius itself [...]
After a 50 minute train ride to Civitavecchia (that’s pronounced chivitaveckia) we got on the cruise ship at about 2pm today. Very nice boat, as expected. Our room looks good, even though it is an inside-stateroom (i.e. no window/porthole/etc.) . Had to endure a muster drill (everybody wears their lifejacket, goes to their designated spot [...]
Hi All. Well we went to Florence today via Eurorail. It was a high speed train (200 km/h) which got us there in about 90 minutes. We walked everywhere in Florence – it’s not that big after all. Went to Uffizi Gallery, Accademia and various sites and churches. The Uffizi is the main attraction – [...]
Another day in Rome, and we got as much done as possible! Started with a nice breakfast on the roof of our hotel (provided). The rooftop terrace is very nice, and it was a beautiful morning. We had fruit, yogurt, some meat and cheese, pastries and of course italian coffee. Filled and fueled us up [...]
Hello all, yes we’ve made it. In fact we’ve been here for a bit, got a harrowing drive from the airport to the hotel (yes, italians apparently do drive like that) and went for an authentic pizza and bottle of wine. Now we’re back at our hotel and definitely ready to sleep. It may be [...]
OK, so here we are in Heathrow waiting for our connecting flight. Trip from Vancouver was long but comfortable. Just waiting to find out our gate and we’re on our way to Rome – should be there in about 3 hours…
Mare and I are going to Italy and Greece (and a wee bit of France) for two weeks on a cruise and short stay in Italy. Very exciting, looking forward to seeing all the sights. Here is our itinerary (so to speak): Day 1 – Arrive in Rome, check in to Mecenate Palace Hotel, take [...]