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..
Hotel included breakfast is at a nice little restaurant at a nearby squareBeautiful pantheon view from last night Starting our morning walk when the Pantheon is not too crazy packed, too bad it’s not open yet. Random sceneries during morning walkPlace known for stray cats… Used to be a temple of sacrifice Roman forum… The forum of Caesar… That was P in 1998 at the upper right cornerThe colosseum… That was P in 1998Campidoglio square, built by Michaelangelo.. The square housed a beautiful museum, the only museum we have time to quickly scanned through Piazza Venezia Walk back to train station…happened to stop by trevi Fountain again. This were the crowds we are navigating almost every where we go in Rome Train ride back to Civitavecchia, beautiful sceneries abound After all this big rush since this morning, we finally sat down for an authentic Italian pasta at Civitavecchia before going back to the ship.. P requested to have a selfie with the patron since he liked his pasta so wwllSceneries in Civitavecchia on way back to ship
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 š
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….
Cheers Rome… We definitely will be back…. (we have to… We make that wish at the Trevi Fountain)
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
See you next time David šBotticelli’s the birth of Venus… Besides David, my other most favorite art…. These were took when digital camera first came out and before smart phone
Now back to Rome
The 1.5 hour train ride to Rome is cheap and pleasant, only 9 euro one way per personBeautiful country side scenery view from train
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.
A room with a Pantheon view
We then hit the pavement and heads towards piazza Navona…..
Later it’s Spanish Steps
This was picture we took of Spanish Steps from year 1998, at that time there’s no prohibition about sitting on the steps… So people sit every where and there’s barely any room to walkSpanish Steps now… Very wet steps today
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
Outside it’s raining, inside it’s cozy and happy
Walked to Trevi Fountain after Dinner
Of course we had to throw a coin…we threw one 26 years ago and we are back.. . They said every day the trevi Fountain collect around $3000 euros
That’s it for today… More to come tomorrow
Say goodnight to our neighbor the Pantheon…. Still plenty of buzzling outside…. Hopefully I will dream of Romans centuries agoCheers Rome!! Trevi Fountain works!! … We are happy to be back…
Arriving on Easter Sunday, Genoa the 6th biggest city in Italy.
Buon giorno Genoa!! Arriving in darkness and in rain
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….
Santa Margherita beach scene Chiesa de Santa Margherita… A baroque style church Columbus statue by the sea, he originates from Genoa Cute dogs every where, some in rain ware Bakeries, little cafes..at every alley waySome windows trims and windows were drawn on, not real…. Green windows on top left are totally fake… They said actual windows required a lot more taxes, š
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..
Easter frenzy is in the airWe need a quick stop to get away from the rain, ordered a beer and they also gave us a plate of fococcia… We love Italian services… They are so humanistic and kind Speaking of humanistic, I wasn’t able to get amoxyllin anywhere to treat tooth pain, tried, Portugal, Spain and France with no luck they all said need prescription… But a pharmacy in Rapallo sell it to me saying although it needs prescription but since I need it, they will sell it to me for only 3.2 euro for a weeks dose…. Look how happy I was
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…
Pesto sauce originated from Genoa and the flavor here is really wonderful and textured
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
Cathedral of San Lorenzo outsideCathedral inside…. A bomb was dropped on it during WWII and miraculously it did not detonatePiazza de Ferrari…. The kids are better at posing
Cant wait to visit the other 4 cities of Italy in the next 4 days…..
Cheers Genoa, Santa Margherita, Rapallo… We already seen so much in this bad weather, imagine how much more we can see if it’s sunny… Sorry forgot to do a Pic with wine, so expressos instead
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….
The guide said to imagine this view with blue sky since we had rare bad soupy weather todayAix En Provence
First stop Cathedral saint sauveur
A church getting ready for Easter sundayFlower market here is thriving… Guess they are the flowers that inspired Cezanne Mouth watering food at the open marketSaturday fresh produce marketLots of cute little cars in FranceThe whole area is Great for people and dog watching Cezanne overseeing his charming town full of narrow alleys and walkways, pretty things that captured your attention at every turn. Little Cafe stop… Actually tried to find refuge from the rain and wind..also enjoy farmers market scenery outsideLight meal stop at a packed restaurant on the famous Cours Mirabeau street… Enjoy people watching with the pigeonsAix En Provence is a fun relaxing stop and the town has lots of characters, we spent almost 4 hours there on our own checking out stores and shopsWill consider coming back during the lavender season… Cheers and a bientot Aix!!
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
Bonjour Marseille!!…. They have their own “Hollywood” sign on the hill š
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
We saw many stick their museum sticker on one of the column so we do the same
The waiter present 5 fishes for P to choose from… Love the apperitiv olive tapenade (olive spread with toasted bread)
Capucine food market
The French are really into fresh produce
Cour Julian… Street famous for graffiti that were deemed artsy
Graffiti street lined with little shops and Cafe
Random street scene during our after lunch stroll
The team of father sons musician plays fast pace music with Arabic, gypsy like rhythm… They are so into their music and so goodWe made two stops for crepe…P’s crepe Nutella was very good… My crepe with sugar and butter wasn’t done right….. Guess I don’t have luck with French food todayš
Marseille is very Metropolitan and very multi cultural … A port town whose vibe reminds us of Kaoshiung in Taiwan
Cheers and au revoir Marseille!!
Btw… We saw a lot of Carrefour (家ęØē¦ļ¼stores 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
Gaudi’s master piece, when we were here last time this side does not exist… Still a WIP…. Guess we need to come back again to see the completed one
Pg. De GrĆ cia
Casa miro
Famous apartment and street lamp by gaudi… We already toured the inside last time……. Glad we did as this time, the line is super long
Casa BatllĆ³
We did not get to go inside because of the super long lines and complicated ticket system(all Gaudi’s work commands high ticket price and Disney land like line) . So just enjoyed a coffee and snack outside for only about usd $4 and move on…
Placa de catalunya
Great square for shopping, packed with people and double decker hop on and hop off bus… This is a big transit hub for locals as well with underground metro
Arc de Triomf
Barcelona’s version of Arc de Triumph Random street scene on way to lunch
Hotpot lunch
Found this very authentic schezuan hotpot place and fixed our hot pot addiction More random buildings on way to next stop
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
This is the creme de la creme of this visit to Barcelona… So excuse the abundant pics The inverted done stained glass ceiling allows natural sunlight in during day time.. Ran out of adjective to describe its beauty…. The whole inside is like a musical jewel box
Boqueria market
We finally tried the Jamon iberico…. Quite tasty.. This market is huge, the best in Barcelona
La Rambla, the busiest street in Barcelona also the most dangerous where lots of pick pockets traverse
We survived la Rambla unscathed
The effect of over tourism is everywhere in this city… We survived the rush and made it back to the ship…..
Cheers Barcelona…. Next time we will try to spend days not hours with you š
So we are savoring this single sea day as the next 8 days is going to be super busy with stops: Barcelona, Marseille, Toulon, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples and Sicily.. We remind ourselves to take it easy since half of them we already been and it’s never possible to see everything, so just chill and soaked in the vibe
Today they are having an art exhibition of students work during sea day classes, and P attended 3 classes, thus 3 water color paintings….
Love how P was able to capture the spirits of the animals…. That camel is a pregnant camel that we saw in Morocco
This seaside town is charming and glamorous with a lot of Roman remains and relics
The busy buzzling street lined with buildings with glorious ornate facades
The Roman Theatre of Carthago Nova
From the 1st century BC… Nicely preserved
The Roman forum museum
Lots of Roman relics and footprints in this Spanish town Jamon iberico…cured leg of pork A very important delicacy in Spain Our lunch is Ramen(really missed soup noodles) and our happy hour is fried sardines, squids and mussels… And of course sangria
Once again we were overwhelmed with lots of beauty and details… Its going to get worst as the next stop is Barcelona….. The downside of cruise travel is we only stop for average 8 hours and some cities needs at least a week…. Now we can understand why a lot of the cruisers onboard do the world cruise multiple times… Each time check out different places….
Before we go, cheers again to a town that we almost never visit if not for the weather conditions and cheers to our captain for successfully dodging a storm at sea… And cheers to our friends who understands that we will always find any kind of reason and excuses to raise a glass šCartagena sounded loud cannon salutes right at the time we are ready for sailing off… They said it’s part of a local religious procession but we like to thank them for the wonderful send off!!
The captain announced the change of sea Port from Cardiz to Cartagena due to weather conditions so we are actually trying to outrun a storm….
Crossing the Gibraltar strait today…many cargo ships in sight…. Not sure if this is busier than usual volume due to red dea/ Suez canal crisis.. It’s interesting to sail in the middle of the strait and view the land of morroco on the right and Gibraltar on the left.
Morrocan side of the strait.. Again the words read ” God, country, King”….. A different mountain from 3 days ago, but same words Gibraltar side of the strait… Every one is taking pictures of the famous “rock” which is the blurry block on the left The rock! See you in 3 weeks!! In the midst of the busy traffic at the strait of Gibraltar, there’s also dolphin activities… What a treat
Some specialty meals on the ship is not free and requires an up charge… Today For lunch we tried the seafood bucket lunch for $40 per person and it’s great value… The bucket is packed with lots of goodies such as lobster tails and claws, crabs and shrimps, mussels and clams…and this feast also comes with hush puppies, seafood chowder and desserts
Princess invited a person name Pete Best who is the original drummer of Beatles to give us a talk about how they first started and one of the interesting little thing he mentioned about Beatles is in the beginning they wore leather clothing like rock bands, it’s when they have a new manager later who suggested that they wore suits, an idea they first resist but later became their signature
They told us that the sail in to Lisbon is going to be spectacular and it is so true Their 25th of April Bridge, christ the king statue, palace Square, and monument of discoveries…All Icons of Lisbon on display right when we sailed by
Before we enter the Mediterranean, we need to visit the sea Port of Portugal, Lisbon.. Again, we had been here more than two decades before so instead of focusing on the city of Lisbon we are going out of the city to the popular hilly town of Sinatra and beach town of Cascais both establish since the 19th century
Sinatra is a very scenic spot, since it’s Sunday… It’s packed with cars and tourists…. Kind of scarry to see our big tour bus winding down and up the narrow streets
Between two pastry stops.. I got myself a new hat!!… That famous Portugal pastry pastel de nata (č”ę°čå”) is to die for!!
Caicais is another touristy spot by the sea, 45 minutes away from downtown Lisbon …
Back to downtown Lisbon, vibrant town packed with shop, cafes, restaurants and bakeries
Palace Square where we sailed by earlier Trams are very special in Lisbon and they are everywhere Tut tuts are very popular here… None exists when we were last here more than two decades agoGrilled Sardines and octopus, cod fish (Bacalhau) and Ginja wine… All local delicacies
We combed the narrow cobbled stone streets of Lisbon for hours, finally gave up….. There’s never enough time or energy…. Persistence is key… Looking forward to tomorrow’s sea day to rest
P will follow up some other day with his random photos of our stop in LisbonĀ that do more justice to the place… There are so many textures and flavors and colors that’s hard to capture all…. Hopefully by now we all kind of have an understanding that this blog is just a rudimentary summary of travel events that happenedš
