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 for dinner…), that kind of thing. Will post all about Nice, Eze and Monaco tomorrow :).

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 our own” – the name of the package, surprisingly, was “Taormina On Your Own”. Go figure.

The buildings and layout were picturesque, to be sure. It seemed like a village that was hundreds of years old, if it weren’t for the Internet Cafes… I was waiting for villagers with torches and pitchforks to storm the castle. We went as far through town as the Greco Theatre (Greek Theatre) and toured that for a while as well. It is fairly high up on the town so we had a great view of the bay and the houses etc. below. The theatre itself was like a miniature forum or colosseum which was also good to look at. It is still in use as well, as Andrea Bocelli performed there a few nights before.

Another day “at sea” tomorrow while we sail for Villefranche, Nice and Monaco. Mare has decided to kill time at the world’s most expensive spa with a pedicure. Me, I’ll probably read a book, eat, read, eat some more, throw money away in the casino and, oh yeah, eat. Cruise ships are basically a big fridge calling out your name, after all.

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 like being on a big black rock without a cloud in the sky, but well worth the trek in the heat.

After that, the boat we were on took us to the thermal hot springs. We swam about 50 meters into them from the ocean, directly from the boat (yes, Peter swam). The cool ocean was refreshing after the hike and the hot springs were nice – but not as hot as we expected.

Our tour ended in the port of Fira. The Port of Fira is on the water, with the actual town being at the top of the cliffs above. To get to the town you can either take a nice cable car, walk 600 steps in the heat or ride a donkey. Of course, Peter wanted to go up by donkey. I thought sure why not, they are little horses and probably nice like Donkey from Shrek. We turned the corner – OH MY GOD – these were the largest donkeys I had ever seen and looked very mean. I discovered that I have an irrational fear of donkeys, so I promptly told Peter, “see you at the top”. The locals encouraged me by saying “no problemo”, “10 minutoes only”. Ya, right. I bolted for cable car.

Peter and I met up at the top and took a cab to Oia (EE-ah) as it is the place in all of the pictures with the blue domes and way less crowded. After a twisty cab ride we reached heaven. We toodled around the streets right to the end of the island, took lots of pictures, and perched on a cliff resturant for a lovely lunch.

Took our time going back to Fira for some more toodling and then headed back to the ship to watch the sunset. Scooped a great table right off the end of the ship and met up with a nice (chatty) Italian New Jersey couple (Frankie and Angela). The sunset was awesome – again we took many pictures. Santorini is absolutely beatiful and a must see. After the sunset, we had dinner (Peter had frog legs and baby quail :o ) and and quick stop at the casino (I am actually up and Peter is slow playing ;) and then went to bed exhausted. What a day.

Today, we are at sea bound for Sicily and glad for the rest as we have gone from dawn to dusk the last two days. Lost at Bingo (again), ate a bunch (again) and are looking forward to formal night on the ship and Messina tomorrow.