Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Transit the Suez Canal

Posted on September 8, 2015 by patmathews

September 8

We were at anchor at 11 PM last night awaiting our turn to transit the Suez Canal which started this morning at 4 AM. We had a lecturer, Hassan Eltaher, in the Horizon Lounge starting at 6 AM which Norm attended and took pictures from the deck. I woke up later and joined in with the photos.

First a bit of history.

The first part of the canal was completed between 1860 and 1862 after many attempts to do so. It had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade and played an important role in increasing European penetration and colonization of Africa. It was under the control of the British under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. In 1951, Egypt repudiated the treaty and Great Britian agreed to pull out by 1954. President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal and this caused Britain, France and Israel to invade in the week long Suez War. The canal was closed due to damage and sunken ships until April 1957. Then a UN force was established to maintain the neutrality of the canal and the Sinai Peninsula. Since 1974 the Sinai has been protected by a UN peacekeeping force.

The canal allows the passage of ships up to 150,000 tons. The canal is 120 miles long, there are no locks in the canal and passage can take from 11 – 18 hours. Ships can travel at 8 knots maximum and they are allowed in at about 15 minutes apart.

Our ship pays $150,000 to transit the canal, and the fees constitute the second biggest revenue for Egypt. (Tourism is still the first)

Last month, Egypt officially unveiled its expansion to the Suez Canal. It was completed in one third of the time originally estimated. An additional 22 mile shipping lane has been added along with widening of the current canal. When fully operational, the widening will increase traffic from 50 ships a day to 97 and reduce the time to travel the canal from 18 hours to 11 hours. In the first month of opening, the number of ships already went from 49 to 70 a day.

The east side of the canal is the Sinai desert and the west side has a towns along the way.

We were advised by the captain that we would be out of the canal and into the Red Sea by about 3 PM, which would make it an 11 hour transit for us.

Here are some of the pictures:

Very hazy out, hot and lots of flies! This shows some of the barren land

A view of a bridge across the canal from the top deck of the ship. The bridge is closed and hasn’t been used for years due to fear of terrorists

One of the towns along the way

Another town

In some areas ferries take people across instead of bridges, which are closed due to fear of terrorists

Workers within the fence lining the canal

Ferries that take trucks across the canal

These are pontoons that could be used as temporary bridges if needed

Just about to pass under this bridge, unused due to fear of terrorism

This sign is about halfway through the canal…welcome to Egypt

Here is a spot where you can see the new two way traffic – the container ship is going the other direction. Taken from our balcony

Tomorrow we will be sailing in the northern part of the Red Sea, in transit to Jordan, where we can’t wait to visit Petra.

I forgot to write part 4 from Israel – Between the Med, the Red, the Dead and the “dread”. They are always wary of threats from their neighbors, especially Syria these days.

Posted in Africa, September, World Cruise 1 | Tagged Egypt, Suez Canal | 1 Comment

Haifa and Jerusalem, Israel

Posted on September 7, 2015 by patmathews

September 6 and 7

We arrived very early on Sunday to the port of Haifa and we had a full day excursion to Jerusalem planned. As I mentioned in a previous post, ours had been canceled and we added the same one but not the exclusive. It ended up to have 18 people, which was great.

So the song, Sunrise, Sunset was appropriate – here is the sunrise from the ship and the sunset from the bus!

It is about 97 miles to Jerusalem and there was a lot of traffic on the road, so it was almost a 3 hour trip. Our guide was Nurit, and she was terrific. She told us that one way to remember Israel’s location is that it is between the Med, the Red and the Dead. All seas of course! When Israel was under British control it was a law that buildings in Jerusalem had to be built of local limestone, and they still are today. Interestingly, in Malta, they drive on the “wrong” side of the road and most everything on signs is in English. But here the signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English and they drive on the same side as we do.

Our first stop once in Jerusalem was the new Yad Vashem museum, also called the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority which opened in 2005. We had visited the old one and this was amazing. One of the people on our cruise had arranged to install a plaque in the Hall of Remembrance here in memory of her husband, a Holocaust survivor, and she had a private tour. You couldn’t take pictures in the museum, only on the outside and in the outside exhibits. The building looks like a big long triangle and the exhibits require you to zig zag through them. There are exhibits documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, emphasizing each victim’s experience through original artifacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions. The most touching for us was the final one where all victims are catalogued and pictures appear with the names being read off. Brought us both to tears.

This is a simple memorial to the 6 million who were killed in the Holocaust

Outside the museum there are other exhibits and there is a tribute inside and outside the museum to the people like Schindler who saved many Jewish people. There is also a children’s memorial which I made a video of but won’t post here. The reason I made the video is because Norm was being his usual wonderful self and went back into the museum to find a woman who got separated from us and he missed this part.

At the end of the museum is a big deck overlooking many trees, which signifies the rebirth of Israel and the Jewish population after the Holocaust

This is the first part of the big sculpture illustrated on the plaque

After several hours at the museum, we had lunch at the Olive Tree hotel, complete with wine.

We made several stops for panoramic views of the Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives.

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount is the Gold dome in the center

We then had a long walk through the Old City. We entered through the Jaffa Gate and wound all through the old city stopping for stories about the buildings. We ended at the Western (Wailing) Wall, where men and women have separate areas to pray and people who visit leave notes, prayers and requests on paper which they leave in the wall.

The site of Oscar Schindler’s grave

The narrow alleys. Our guide in the center with the hat and Norm to the right with the water bottle!

Nurit pointing out an Aramaic symbol

A mosaic of the original city of Jerusalem

The side on the right is the women’s side, you can see how many more women are there. There were a lot of young women at the front deep in prayer

It was an amazing day and made us realize that we want to come back. We arrived back at the ship at 8 PM – the bus had internet so I reached my sister, my dad and also Mark facetimed me – connection wasn’t the best but with the time difference, it worked fine.

Today we spent the morning in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. We took a long walk to the Bahai Shrine and Gardens. One of the people at the tourist info spot at the port couldn’t believe we would walk, she kept saying – “it’s up on the mountain”, but walk we did. Unfortunately, the shrine itself and the inner gardens were closed for maintenance until September 12, but we did get to see the lower gardens.

Many cats roam the gardens, couldn’t resist this guy with one of them!

Just outside the Bahai gardens – the UNESCO square for Tolerance and Peace.

We then walked through the Arab markets of Wadi Nisnas where Norm rescued a container of tomatoes on display from being upset by a large truck going through a small street. I wish I had a picture of that. He got a lot of thanks from the owner.

Terry Bishop, one of the entertainers and lecturers we had on the ship does a song – and this is the chorus:

I’ve seen the Mona Lisa and the Leaning Tower of Pisa

I’ve been to Timbuktu and back again

But the only thing I know is that everywhere I go

The Coca Cola always tastes the same!

Now, this afternoon, we have an unexpected event. This letter from the captain was in our room last night:

It essentially tells us what to do as we enter the HRA (High Risk Area) for Piracy. We will have a drill today at 5:15, the deck 5 will be closed to everyone and we are told to reduce our lighting and keep the curtains to our balcony closed. I will fill you in on the drill in my next post as we travel the Suez Canal tomorrow, but I am told it involves big hoses that spray high pressure water. A sister ship, the Nautica, was approached by pirates several years ago and fended them off with this water.

Posted in Asia, Excursions, September, World Cruise 1 | 5 Comments

Limassol, Cyprus

Posted on September 5, 2015 by patmathews

September 5

We arrived in Limassol, the main port of Cyprus, around 12 noon today and left on our excursion to Khirokitia and Nicosia at 12:15. It is very hot here and reached 100 in Nicosia.

What would you expect from a guide in Cyprus? A shirt about tacos and tequila!

First we went to the archaeological site of Khirokitia, which dates back to 7000 BC. First we saw reconstructed round buildings that were the living quarters back then. Norm had to have a look inside!

Back in the day, they even buried their dead, sometimes with grave-goods, in pits inside the units which continued to be inhabited so that the dead remained with the living and death would not break the community cohesion. The first cemeteries were probably established around 1600.

Then it was a long climb up to the top where the ruins of the original buildings could be seen. Interesting place, included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It is the earliest known culture in Cyprus and indicates that a well organized and developed society resided here. Note that they spell things many different ways here!

We saw lots of olive trees and also carob trees, here are some pictures of the carob and the olives. Carob trees are protected by the government and there are over 2 million trees.

Carob pods, they call this the “black gold” of Cyprus, said to be good to prevent osteoporosis

We then traveled to the center of the island, to Nicosia. It has the distinction of being the last divided capital city in the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Dividing north and south is the Green Line which runs directly through the city. The northern side (36.2%) has been occupied by Turkey since July 1974 and the southern side by Greece. Our guide doesn’t call it the Turkish area, she calls it the occupied area. We walked into the neutral zone which is monitored by UN forces, but to get into the “occupied area”, Turkey, you need to show a passport. Even people living on the Greek side must show a passport to cross into that area.

This is part of the monument on the Greek side which list the names of the people who died in the battles

Turkish flag in the occupied area

We visited the Old Town, enclosed by the 16th century Venetian walls and dotted with museums, ancient churches and medieval buildings. The Church of St. John was unlike any I have ever seen, every inch of walls and ceilings is covered with paintings depicting Christ and his life. They do not allow you to take pictures, but there are a couple of sculptures outside that you could photograph. Here is the front of the church which looks so plain compared to what’s inside and one of the sculptures.

One interesting thing we noticed is that all the buildings – not just some of them – the houses, hotels, businesses, etc, have solar panels and hot water tanks on the roofs. This is how they heat all of their hot water and it is mandatory.

Tomorrow we have an early start and a very full day – arriving in Haifa and traveling to Jerusalem. We had a bit of a scare this morning, after breakfast, we had a note on our door that said our tour in Jerusalem had been canceled. We had signed up for an exclusive (only 10 – 16 people) because we wanted to see as much as we could without waiting for a lot of people on a tour. It has been 33 years since we visited here. Well, turns out we were the only people who signed up for that one, so we hurried down to get tickets for another tour. So now we are on the same tour but not the exclusive version. AND, there are only 16 on that one anyway! Looking forward to it, and then on Monday we have a half day still in Haifa when we will probably visit the Arab market, the Bahai temple and gardens. Stay tuned!

Posted in Europe, Excursions, September, World Cruise 1 | 2 Comments

Rhodes, Greece

Posted on September 4, 2015 by patmathews

September 4

We arrived in Rhodes, Greece this morning and went on an excursion to the ancient town of Lindos. Along the way we heard about Colossus, one of the original 7 wonders of the ancient world (5 were Greek by the way). It was the same size as the Statue of Liberty. It was toppled by an earthquake in 225 BC and then the invading Arabs took and sold it for scrap metal. 7 by the way is a sacred number in Greek, lots of things go by 7’s and this is because they think of 3 as heaven and 4 as earth and so the sum, 7 is sacred to them.

Rhodes (both the city and the island) became part of Greece in 1947. There are 4000 islands here, Crete is the largest and Rhodes is the 4th largest.

There are 500 types of olives grown here, many of the trees are over 1000 years old. They harvest the olives in the fall by spreading nets around the trees and shaking the trees until the olives fall into the net. Greece is the 3rd largest producer of olive oil and of course the tour guide told us (in typical guide humor) that Italy gets its olive oil from Greece and sells it as Italian. Very proud people, these Greeks.

We drove along the coast about 30 miles to Lindos which is an ancient Doric town dominated by a magnifacent acropolis (which means high city – and every city has one). Lindos was once a very poor city up until about 70 years ago, and now its beauty has attracted tourists and it is a place for the rich. You can walk up to the acropolis or take a donkey up to the summit (we walked) and the views are breathtaking. There are remains of a walled fortress built in the 15th century and the remains of the ancient Temple of Athena. If you have seen the movie The Guns of Navarone, you will see Lindos, it was filmed here.

The town of Lindos

The donkeys you can ride up on – it is 300 steps to walk!

Columns that used to hold statues – all were destroyed

Columns in the acropolis (with tourists)

After our walk back down, we wandered the town and the shops, had our gelato (of course) and then headed to a ceramic shop (Savvos) that has been in the potter’s family for hundreds of years. He did a demo and we enjoyed seeing all of the handmade ceramics. I bought a small bowl fired in yellow with olives painted on it.

We had our lunch, and explored the city of Rhodes, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. We walked all around inside the gates, explored quiet streets and noisy squares. We saw the Grand Master’s Palace, originally a Byzatine fortress from 7th century AD and later housed the center of the Order of Nights. The pedometer said we did 70 floors and almost 8 miles of walking today!

This is why scooters are good on these streets.

One of the mosques

Byzantine ruins

One of the many archways

Another view of the Grand Masters Palace

Many of the shops have this type of floor made out of stones.

Outside the Grand Masters Palace (now a museum)

Since I have shown how other streets are paved – here is how they do it in Rhodes!

Lovely example of some of the ruins in Rhodes

We stopped to have a drink (and the squares are almost like a bazaar – with the proprietors calling out to have you come into their bar). They all have free wifi and I guess that helps them attract customers. We enjoyed the people watching here and the resident parrot had to make friends with us. Norm talked to the young man who waited on us about the status of Greece, and he got very sad.

Wonder what that parrot said to Norm?

Posted in Europe, Excursions, September, World Cruise 1 | 3 Comments

Cruising the Mediterranean Sea enroute to Rhodes, Greece

Posted on September 3, 2015 by patmathews

September 3

After some long and hot days of touring, it is nice to relax at sea. We moved the clocks forward again – 1 hour so now we are 7 hours ahead of PA time at home.

What to do on a sea day? You have read about a typical day in previous posts – today is much the same. After breakfast, one hour walk on the deck. And for those who wonder, I did weigh myself for the first time in the gym a couple of days ago and have lost 4 pounds on the cruise. I am enjoying myself, but really choose discriminately about the food (well, I can always try that next month), eat the same breakfast and lunch as at home with a couple of exceptions.

For instance, they make all their own bread and pastries on the ship and they beckon to be tried. I walk past those sticky buns every day… one day, I had to try one and it was delicious. I bet there will be one more before we depart (at least).

Today the cruise critic group I post to had a lunch for the 32 couples aboard who are members. It was in the grand dining room where we have only had one other lunch because we prefer the terrace for lunch. It was a Mexican lunch and Norm and I both had the sampler platter – delicious – and not my normal salad.

We also do plenty of walking, in port and on the fitness track. So I guess that is all what’s needed. I have to admit I won’t look forward to cooking again, even though I love to cook.

I went to a cooking demonstration with the new chef on board – Jorg Becker, who replaced Mario while he is on his 6 week vacation from the ship. Jorg is from Germany and oh my, is he ever funny! He drank champagne through the whole demo and the other chef that worked with him prepared 3 greek dishes (moussaka, stuffed calamari and spanokopita) while Jorg just made the greek salad. I am looking forward to the rest of his demos on the sea days later in this segment of the cruise.

A couple of facts or noticings that I didn’t post before:

When you see a country flag flying that is like a long triangle instead of the typical rectangle, that is because those are not subject to the usual flag protocol (take down at night, or light it up)
In Vernazza, Cinque Terre, each person is allowed a parking space for a boat. So you don’t only see them anchored in the harbor, you see them parked along the streets as well.
Many European cities were pretty much destroyed by bombing in WWII and it is a tribute to them that they are rebuilt and the character of the cities is maintained so wonderfully. So much rich history to preserve.
A lot of the cities have American shops and almost all have McDonalds.
People are generally friendly and helpful no matter where you go.
We walked on a street in Malta that was being prepared for a movie set, made to look like Turkey.
If you have a chance to hear a pianist from Russia who now lives in the US, take it… or look her up on youtube. Liana Forest. She performed twice and was simply amazing.
The ocean in this part of the world is clear and amazingly blue. And we have seen some flying fish!

Ok, that’s all for today, looking forward to Rhodes, Greece tomorrow.

Posted in At Sea, Europe, September, World Cruise 1 | 2 Comments

Valletta, Malta

Posted on September 2, 2015 by patmathews

September 2

As we made our way into the harbor of Valletta this morning, we can see the city walls and some of the ancient stone. There are 2 other cruise ships here today, both of them are huge. The MSC Fantasia has 3274 passengers and the Emerald Princess has 3092. Both make our ship look like a toy by comparison – we have 680 passengers and we like it like that!

Today we decided to do the hop on hop off bus to see Valletta and other parts of Malta. Valletta was started in 1566 and was completed, including all of the forts and cathedrals, in just 15 years, which is remarkable considering it was all done by hand, as mechanical tools didn’t exist then.

The city of Valletta was built by the Knights of St John and is a World Heritage City. It is one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. It was heavily bombed in WW II but it was in a strategic position with deep ports – located between Italy and the coast of Africa. It was awarded a citation by Roosevelt and the placque is on the wall of the Grand Master’s Palace in the square in Valletta. It was under British rule for a long time but is now independent although all of the signs are in English and they drive on the “wrong” side of the road!

First we went to the “Silent City” of Mdina. Mdina means “walled city” in Arabic. The history traces back 4000 years. It is a medieval walled city and takes it’s “silent” name seriously. Few cars are allowed inside the city walls and there are strict noise ordinances. So, even with all of the tourists, it was wonderful to walk around this beautiful place. The population is only 300.

St Theresa church

Love these tile street signs!

Of course there is a place called the Maltese Falcon

I had fun capturing some of the door knockers! Norm says he likes the big ones (no comment here).

Myself, I prefer the tiled signs!

The views from the walls of the city are quite spectacular. Probably one of the reasons for weddings here.

We passed the Ta’ Qali, a former World War II airfield in the center of Malta that has now become an enormous crafts village. They are known for filigree jewelry, hand blown glass (beautiful) and lace. And T-shirts.

We then explored Valletta and walked back to the ship. I must say they have good gelato here too. And you still see the phone booths everywhere!

Narrow archways everywhere

The dome of the Mosta Dome church

Lots of summer tourists!

Yes, two right next to each other!

Gates to the city

Not tourists

Tomorrow we are at sea, which will be a good rest from the heat and all the walking, then it is on to Rhodes, Greece.

Posted in Europe, September, World Cruise 1 | 3 Comments

Taormina (Sicily) Italy

Posted on September 1, 2015 by patmathews

September 1

How did it get to be September already??

Today we sailed into the port of Naxos, Sicily and we planned an excursion to Taormina. The view from the harbor is amazing. We took a tender in as there is no cruise dock. In the distance you see Mt. Etna, which is still an active volcano.

First a few things we learned about Sicily:

It was settled by the Greeks from the Greek island of Naxos, which is how this port town got its name. Greek occupation lasted 5 centuries, but then Sicily was ruled by Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, German, French and Spanish. This is why you see so many different architectural styles here. It is now part of Italy and is quasi – independent and part of the EU. Angelo, our guide, says that the EU is “Germany” and not what they thought it would be!

People say that the view from the Greek theater’s highpoint to be one of the most breathtaking in all of Italy. A bit hazy today, but it is still spectacular. That is our ship on the left.

It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, about the size of New Jersey or Massachusetts and 5 million people live here. Taormina is Sicily’s most popular summer destination with many chic hotels, summer residences and guest houses. Much was destroyed in the bombings of WW II but was restored soon after the war.

There is a ferry that actually carries trains from Rome to Sicily but it takes 10 hours, then the trains run on the island. Most people fly though, that takes an hour from Rome.

We had a bus ride up to Taormina from Naxos and had to stop part way up and take the shuttle bus, the streets are so narrow up there that no buses are allowed. It was a lovely walk into town. There is another village, Castlemola, even higher on the hills. We asked why people made such effort to build so high and into the cliffs, and Angelo told us that the biggest threat was pirates, so no one wanted to be living or having shops on the seaside. Now that isn’t a threat (at least here) so there are villages, hotels, etc on the beach too.

We saw St. Catherine’s Church and her statue – this is St. Catherine of Alexandria who was beheaded by a sword when she refused to marry a non Christian. The walls of this fortress are built that way at the top so that archers could rest their arrows in the V before firing.

We walked lots of hills and steps to the fantastic Greek theater which was built in the 3rd century BC and used for theatrical performances. It holds 5000 spectators. It was rebuilt by the Romans in the 2nd century AD and used for gladiators, now it is still used almost every day for theater, ballet, opera and yes, rock concerts, one is scheduled for tonight and there is an amazing array of lights and sound equipment being put in as we toured.

Mt. Etna in the background, and setting up for the rock concert in the foreground

The brick work is from the Roman period, and behind the bricks is stone and mortar

The theater is spectacular, photos don’t do it justice

We then had time for exploring, of course we had our daily Italian gelato (will miss that, even though we have homemade ice cream on the ship).

a mix of old and new everywhere

We also tasted carob right from the tree. The seed is what was used to determine a “carat” for diamond sizing. Who knew?!

And, for the readers of this blog who appreciate literature, DH Lawrence wrote “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” while here.

In every port Norm hears me whisper, “I love it here” and Sicily is no exception.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, September, World Cruise 1 | Tagged Italy, Sicily, Taormina | 3 Comments

Positano and Amalfi

Posted on August 31, 2015 by patmathews

August 31

Hard to believe it is the last day of August! Until you go out touring and it is hot and humid. But beautiful. We sailed into the Amalfi coast harbor this morning and it is amazing to see those houses just perched on the cliffs. Plenty of terraces here too. This is a UNESCO recognized outstanding example of a mediterranean landscape.

There is no cruise dock here so we took a tender in to shore and then boarded another boat to Positano. This is a lovely town and when John Steinbeck lived here, it was a poor and forgotten fishing town. But because of its spectacular beauty, it now thrives with the tourist industry and many wealthy people both live and vacation here. The first glimpse of it is unforgettable. We were in Italy in 2001 but didn’t visit here, although I remember seeing it by boat.

We toured the town, did some shopping for the locally designed and made linen and cotton clothes (yes, Chris, I have some more new ones now!!)Norm got some linen shirts too.

This fountain is covered with small figures of people

This whole area is famous for its lemons and limoncello. The lemons are bigger than oranges. Of course we had our gelato, then we got back on the boat to Amalfi.

There, we toured the town, which has the Spanish influence in its architecture, saw the amazing 11th century cathedral and just generally strolled the many narrow and picturesque streets before coming back to the cool air conditioned ship.

Posted in August, Europe, World Cruise 1 | 3 Comments

Civitavecchia, Italy (excursion to Rome)

Posted on August 31, 2015 by patmathews

August 30

First, here are the pictures of my retail therapy purchases from the last couple of days that wouldn’t load yesterday!

My linen jacket and blouse, mentioned yesterday

Earrings purchased in Barcelona

And here’s that huge bruschetta that we enjoyed for lunch.

Another early start – we went from the port of Civitavecchia to Rome. This is about an hour’s drive. Along the way, we again saw many olive trees, sunflower fields and vineyards.

We first went to the Catacombs in Rome, an underground maze of tunnels hollowed out of volcanic rock. The early Christians who were persecuted by the Romans, practiced their religion in secret and buried their dead here. There were about 150,000 bodies entombed there, some of the tombs were desecrated by the barbarians and many still remain, dug into the walls, sealed with marble or granite. There were no photos allowed in there, but I did buy two postcards that represent some of the drawings and also the church part. The Catacombs are 4 levels deep but 2 are closed off because it is too dangerous to go there. There are very well preserved oil lamps that were used for light, and boy did they need it. It was DARK down there. Very interesting.

There are only 2 subway lines in Rome. They want more but every time they dig they find more artifacts and so it can take 20 years to get approval for anything. The guide says it is bureaucracy.

We went along the Appian Way, 8 K of which has been preserved in the ancient way it was, just big enough for 2 carriages to pass by.

Yesterday I wrote about the 1861 unification of Italy. It turns out that Rome didn’t join the unification until 1870 because the Pope at the time wouldn’t allow it, he was afraid of losing his power. Deals were made and that’s how the Pope became the governor of the area of Rome as well as being the head of the Catholic church.

We then made our way to Castel Gandolfo, the village that is the summer residence of the Pope. Well, all except Francis, who doesn’t summer here. He comes about one day in July and one day in August and the people of the village are NOT happy about it. He apparently thinks it is for leisure and he doesn’t want to have that type of leisure time. There are large gardens that produce all of the vegetables for Vatican City, and the garden and papal summer home are all part of the sovereign Vatican State. When the Pope is there, the Swiss Guards are outside. It is a beautiful little village with 7500 population – overlooking a lake that was formed by a volcanic crater. We enjoyed a gelato there and visited some shops, took pictures. There was a mass going on in the church, so no picturesthere. But we saw some nuns walking around

There was a QR code made out of tile outside the papal summer residence.

Our last stop was “Monte Due Torri” which is located in the middle of the Albani Hills. This is a farmhouse that has over 2000 years of history. We first were treated to meeting a woman from the Amici family who have lived there for over 50 years. She demonstrated pasta making, using just the flour and water. She makes all the pasta by hand, no machines here! And it is the only place in this area of Italy that produces the balsamic vinegar, most is produced in other areas.

We enjoyed homemade bread with olive oil and local ham – a bruschetta – with white wine outside, then went in to the restaurant, which used to be a huge cistern. There we had salad, red wine, lasagne and gnocci with homemade tomato sauce, more delicious bread, and a lovely strawberry and cream dessert layered in phyllo dough.

We toured the rest of the building and the wine cellar. A delightful several hours. Then back to the ship.

Posted in August, Europe, Excursions, Food, World Cruise 1 | Tagged Civitavecchia to Rome, Rome, unification of Italy | 2 Comments

Livorno, Italy (excursion to Cinque Terre)

Posted on August 29, 2015 by patmathews

August 29

We sailed into the port of Livorno early this morning, and here was the sunrise from the balcony – a beautiful start to the day.

Livorno is the second largest city in Tuscany with a population of 160,000. The town walls date back to the 17th century. I didn’t realize that Italy only became a unified country in 1861, before that there were districts, each with their own language, etc. Italian language only became consistent in the country in 1950. Still, our guide Marco says he can tell by the way people talk which area of the country they are from. Livorno is in Tuscany, but where we are going, Cinque Terre, is in Liguria.

We were advised by Marco that people from Tuscany are pleasant, nice, they will smile at you, but they aren’t honest! The Ligurians on the other hand are grumpy, complainers and cheapskates, but honest and good workers! Is this an Italian guide legend or the truth? I don’t know, but there is a saying – “never let the truth get in the way of a good story!” We did see a lot of grumpy people though.

This area is famous for its small medieval towns, most of them up on hills like the one in this picture. We passed many of them, and also passed by Pisa and the leaning tower. The town of Carrara is known for its white marble, mined from the surrounding mountains. The picture is not snow, it is the marble.

From Livorno, it is a 90 minute trip to Cinque Terre. We first drove through the port town of La Spezia, then up a winding mountain road to reach the village of Manarola. We then walked a long way down to the village itself.

Cinque Terre is made up of five villages and literally means five lands. The villages are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We visited Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso. This area is really amazing and worth the visit. There are hundreds of acres of terraces and it is the perfect climate for growing grapes which are everywhere. My pictures will not do it justice. There are also lots of lemon and olive trees. The extra virgin olive oil from here is made from 30 different varieties of olive and is said to be one of the best in Italy. Cinque Terre is a proclaimed heritage of mankind by UNESCO and is now a National Park. Cars can’t travel from village to village so we took two ferries and a train, we also did a lot of walking.

There aren’t really beaches as we know them in the first couple of villages, but that doesn’t stop people from enjoying the water. They sunbathe on rocks, jump into the water from them and just generally swim everywhere. In Monterosso, there are beaches with many umbrellas. Today was Saturday and also holiday time so all of the chairs under the umbrellas were occupied.

The village of Manarola

There are white bags on some of the cliffs that are dropped by helicopter and are full of rocks to repair the terraces. We saw some people up there doing that repair. Mostly older people are still harvesting the grapes from the terraces, it is such backbreaking work, but it is their heritage. Marco says that younger people would rather be tour guides and bus drivers!

This is the home of an 86 year old man who makes these images from plastic and adds lighting. They are put up on the terraces during the holidays and he always does a nativity scene

Now here’s something you don’t see every day, graffiti or names written on cactus!

Norm having his wine and bruscetta in a sidewalk cafe in Monterosso.

Pat enjoying lunch

It was quite hot today and we enjoyed our lunch – the size of the bruscetta is unbelievable, and it was wonderful – I have a picture of it which again is too slow to upload. I had some delicious gelato too, of course.

And, of course, a little retail therapy. I got some Italian linen – a jacket, blouse and scarf. Those pictures are slow to upload so I will add them later.

We took the train from Monterosso to Levanto where we got on the bus back to port. Chef Mario went to market today and got fresh sea bass and sea bream as well as fresh mussels. The chefs grilled the fish and steamed the mussels in a delicious broth, right on the terrace deck, so we had a lovely dinner there. And a full moon tonight, what could make a great day even better?

Posted in August, Europe, Excursions, Food, World Cruise 1 | 6 Comments