Author: happyhoursahoy_1

Finally we come to the land of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle…cradle of western civilization….and not to forget, ground zero for all those Greek mythologies with temples and monuments dedicated to Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon… Etc

Acropolis is the name of the hill where Parthenon sits… together with Erectheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike (before I kept referring to the Parthenon as Acropolis, not knowing that Parthenon is the building, and Acropolis is the Hill) .. These iconic buildings dominates the Athenian sky and you can see it from afar and in most places of the city….. It closely intertwined with modern Athens daily life, just like their mythology

Parthenon was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena built during the fifth century BC

Temple of Athena Nike

Erectheion, the most ornamental of the 3 buildings

Athens is one of the cities that claims to be built on 7 hills (the others includes Rome, Jerusalem… Etc) , our guide told us that we are already speaking Greek or Greek origin words every day : politics, democracy, aristocracy, museum, theater, micro… Very interesting…  

After descending from the Acropolis, we make a quick stop at the Olympics stadium made entirely of  marbles

Next stop is their famous Plaka shopping district, beautiful relax place full of interesting shops and restaurants where you can roam for hours… But we only have two including lunch

Princess also invited locals to come onboard and do a Greek folkloric song and dance presentation which adds so much more texture to this trip

Athens Greece is full of characters, colors and flavors…. A phenomenal port stop!!

This lone sea day is precious as we get to rest and recenter a bit after 8 consecutive port days….. Zuma, painting, enrichment class, ukelele!!! Sea days are fun!! Will have 4 port days right after, stopping at ports in Greece and Turkey…. Never been to these two countries before, so we are excited…

Forgot to pose the pictures of us enjoying Cannoli in Naples, the birth place of it yesterday….

Tonight’s show is an encore of the production show called Encore… And this time a proper soprano joined the show and  its even more amazing

Last night’s show was by an instrumentalist name Michael Bacala who plays classical, pop and even animal sounds with his violin… He was from Poland and he is really good!!

Woke up to the beautiful Sicilian coast line… Guess we were right between the boot and the ball… From one volcanic mountain to another… From Wiki “Mount Etna is the highest Mediterranean island mountain and the most active stratovolcano in the world.”…

The guide told us Mt Edna did not get any rain or snow this whole winter which is very rare… Maybe that’s why it’s fuming…

First town we stopped was the hilltop town of Castelmola.. Our big bus  went through narrow zig zagging mountain winding roads to get there… And we understand why they went through the trouble… The view from up there is stunning

We stopped for a drink at a little restaurant with an incredible view

Lunch is in a restaurant at Castelmoro…. Forgot to took pics of food because we were with a group, but they really wined and dined us and it’s a restaurant with a fabulous view.. Again

The second and final stop is the scenic and famous Taormina ( we never heard of it before)…. The tour guide told us the second season of HBO’s White Lotus was shot here

Sicily is a Land of Greek mythical, lores of cyclops, Dionysius,.. Demeter and Persephone all took place in Sicily …Sicilians speaks 3 languages, in the following order of preference :body language, Sicilian and then Italian… Our guide jokes that the driver likes to talk with his hands, so he cannot talk while he is driving…. Lol..

Beautiful predawn Naples cove welcomed us

It’s Naples, so of course our first place to go is Pompeii…. I was here 35 years ago and it had changed a lot.. It looked like real ruins back then, now it has been enforced and fixed up quite a bit which makes it easier to imagine what the city was like more than 2000 years ago

The tour also  took us to a cammeo factory in Torre del Greco, a city famous for cammeo making.. I have no idea what it was until today

After we were backed from Pompeii, we check out old town Napoli which is right by the port

Napoli is the 3rd largest city of Italy… The old town area is  definitely not as glamorous as Rome, a bit messy actually but kind of  homey with congested traffic, illegal crossing of streets , litters everywhere , fake goods  stalls interspersed with brand name shops.. Back alleyways with small restaurants and shops and laundry’s flying overhead

We were hungry so we found a pizzaria that looks authentic, as soon as we stepped in, it feels authentic with local families packed the restaurant with babies…ordered Pizza and spaghetti… Two local specialties.. And they are sooo good… For some reason, Italians were able to make their pizza crust and spaghetti more “bouncy” (can’t find a better word to describe) with more texture.. And the sauces have more flavor in it…. Pizza and spaghetti are such common food but the Italians find a way to perfect it

Restaurant is right by the shopping district, one of the major one is Galleria Umberto. Looks very much like the one in Milan next to the Duomo:  Galleria Victoria Immanuel ii… Very pretty

We also venture towards their alleyways where locals shop and eat.

Haha, not quite…. But need to woke up pinching ourselves that we are in Rome. No more rain today and the Sun is out…. What a difference..

We were really happy to have the chance to stay one night at Rome and check out familar places and new places… Even with the longer stay, we still wasn’t able to decently touch Rome’s surface… Luckily we were able to tour the inside of colosseum, Roman forum, pantheon, Vatican city, st Peter’s square before, so we do not need to bother with the Disney land like lines this time….P said Rome wasn’t built in a day and should not be tour in a day 😆

Will surely be back again… We kept seeing the phrase “Roma caput Mundi” everywhere, it’s Latin for: Roman capital of the world…. It really feels like it, so grand, so Majestic….

One again, when life gives you lemons you made lemonade out of it…. We were supposed to be at Livorno /Florence today but port of call got canceled due to weather…. So we arrived at Civitavecchia /Rome one day early and get to stay overnight here…. Rome is 1.5 hours away from Port via train so we booked a hotel and get to over night in the beautiful historic center of Rome and make it a trip within a trip..

We had been to Florence before so not too much anguish here except we already pre-booked to see David at the l’academia museum online…. Anyways, here are the pics we took back in 1998 of our trip in Florence

Now back to Rome

But the walk from the train station to hotel right by Pantheon took 1.5 hours as well.. As we stopped and gawked at every historic building and monuments that we saw on the way and there were plenty..

As we arrived at the hotel we were shocked to find out that it’s right in front of the Pantheon… The junior suite they gave us has one window facing the Pantheon, the other facing piazza de la Rotonda… we were so happy about this hotel choice and took tons of pics and spend quite a long time just people watching from the two windows… Rome is packed with tourist and locals as well since the Easter holiday spilled over to Monday.

We then hit the pavement and heads towards piazza Navona…..

Later it’s Spanish Steps

And then Dinner at one of the restaurant by the side walk that looks really cozy and warm, irresistible in this cold rainy day… The restaurant gave us complimentary prosecco and lemoncello…and that’s enough to get a 5 star Google review from me….. Not to mention that their spaghettis are also delicious… We are in 7th heaven

Walked to Trevi Fountain after Dinner

That’s it for today… More to come tomorrow

Arriving on Easter Sunday, Genoa the 6th biggest city in Italy.

Today we are going to join a full day excursion of the and explore three cities, Santa Margherita, Rapallo (was Portofino but changed to Rapallo at last minute due to bad weather… Portofino needs to access through ferry) and Genoa… the towns that helps define the Italian riviera

First stop is Santa Margherita, little seaside town lined with little bars, cafes and shops that opens even on Easter Sunday and in this awful weather….unlike the French rivieras which are on flater land and with deeper beaches, the Italian rivieras are hilly right by the beach…. The guide told us the reason Mediterranean diets mainly has vegis and fish is because meat is hard to get due to their hilly landscape… Interesting….

Second stop is Rapallo, another small town by the beach just next to Santa Margherita … There is much excitement in the air with kids running around trying to score Easter eggs..

Back to Genoa, lunch at Zeffirino, the chef show us secrets of making a authentic pesto sauce (pesto alla Genovese)… This restaurant is famous for their pesto source and according to the guide, one of the favorite restaurants of Sinatra… We had a wonderful meal there with the group, very festive and happy…

City walk tour of Genova after lunch reaffirms our love of Italy as our favorite country to visit… Their architecture is big scale astounding, the weather also clears up a bit with light drizzle only instead of actual rain earlier

Cant wait to visit the other 4 cities of Italy in the next 4 days…..

Arrived in soupy Toulon port… Suffering from wind and rain from Africa today… According to the guide, it’s rare

They told us there wasnt much to see at the Navel Port town of Toulon, so we booked an excursion. Tour starts at 7am…. The excursion goes to Aix En Provence (will call it Aix from here onwards).. It’s a Former capital of Provence. A small university town. Famous painter Cezanne was born here, love hiking near the mountains of Aix

It’s an hour away from Toulon…. Wonderful to enjoy some Provence scenery on the way….

First stop Cathedral saint sauveur

Turns out the soupy weather is due to this, 👇

Marseille, 2nd largest city of France and a very important Hub for commerce… Also a city that is busy prepping for this year’s Olympic where the sailing events will happen here

La Major Cathedral

Mucem (Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean) … The museum highlights the culture of Mediterranean….great building design and it link up with the neighboring Tour du Fanal castle and makes a perfect old and new pairing

Walk from Mucem to old port

Lunch by the vieux (old) port. I ordered the famous Marseille bouillabaisse (fresh fish soup with cod sourced from local fish market) P ordered the grilled Limande (sole 龍利）…he loved his dish so much but mine is a little too fishy

Capucine food market

Cour Julian… Street famous for graffiti that were deemed artsy

Random street scene during our after lunch stroll

Marseille is very Metropolitan and very multi cultural … A port town whose vibe reminds us of Kaoshiung in Taiwan

Btw… We saw a lot of Carrefour (家樂福）stores in Barcelona and in Marceille….all this time I thought they are a Taiwan chain…. Now I know Carrefour was founded in France and based in France

When we were here 20 something years ago (honestly we can’t remember the year, but it’s before Euro) on our first cruise of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Barcelona, Barcelona being the last stop…we were absolutely stunned by her beauty, all those curvaceous lines and colors and uncompromising glamour is unlike any city we had ever experienced… Like seeing a beautiful flamenco dancer in her full regalia…. So we are happy to be back

La Sagrada Familia

Pg. De Gràcia

Casa miro

Casa Batlló

Placa de catalunya

Arc de Triomf

Hotpot lunch

La Palau de la musica…. My pictures did not do the place justice… You can Google the place if it piques your interest….it’s not Gaudi’s modernist style so the ticket is not as expensive but to our opinion, we love this one better, it has a good balance between modernist and art noveau style

Boqueria market

La Rambla, the busiest street in Barcelona also the most dangerous where lots of pick pockets traverse

The effect of over tourism is everywhere in this city… We survived the rush and made it back to the ship…..