October 24, 2011
Our first port on this cruise was
Naples. We took a tour of Mt. Vesuvius
and Pompeii, with a stop at a local cameo factory (today for you a 20%
discount!). It was actually pretty
interesting as they demonstrated how they carve the cameos out of seashells and
you could watch it being done. I’ve
always wanted a cameo ring so this seemed like the place to get it. Then it was off to hike Mt. Vesuvius. I thought they were exaggerating when they
said “hike”. Turns out they weren’t. The bus drove us most of the way up on a
typical Italian mountain road that you’re sure is one way, but isn’t. Fortunately most of the traffic was going up
also so when the driver honked at every hairpin turn, he only alerted the birds
that we were coming. The buses stop at a
parking lot and you hike the rest of the way.
It took about 25 minutes and it was a very steep grade. Then just when you arrive at the place to
meet the guide and you’re sure you’ve reached the top, you learn that you’ve
only come about 2/3 of the way. But once
I caught my breath, I lost it again just looking at the views. Oh my goodness. It was a perfect day - clear and after a rain
so we could see for miles. We hiked up
to the crater and could clearly see that it’s still an active volcano with the
steam rising all around. Good thing it
didn’t decide to blow that day as we never would have gotten out of there in
time. In fact, there are about 1 million
people in the nearby area and there are plans for evacuation of 700,000. Mmmhhh.
Something doesn’t add up there.
Anyway, after the hike back down to the bus we took off for
Pompeii. That is a fascinating
place. Our guide explained how they know
the uses for all the buildings that they’ve excavated. And there’s even a brothel with a, ahem,
visual “menu” on the wall for the customers who were visiting from foreign
ports and didn’t speak the language. We
saw the largest house (over 30,000 sq. ft. including gardens) with 8 bedrooms
and a mosaic of over 1.7 million pieces of tile. There’s also a tile floor with a 3D design
that Bill Gates used as the inspiration for a background for Microsoft.
While waiting for our bus
back to the ship, we found a store that sells Limoncello, which comes from
Naples originally. They have a
Limoncello cream that was quite yummy so we bought a bottle for afternoon
cocktails in our cabin.
The next port was Citivecchia
which is the jumpoff spot for Rome. I’ve
been to Rome before and we didn’t really want to go into the crazy busy city on
a Sunday when the Vatican was closed to visitors anyway so we just walked
around “Civi“. Not the most exciting
place, but we did have a nice time sipping an espresso at an outdoor café and
watching the people go by. For some
unexplained reason at the marina there is a huge statue that is a replica of
that famous WWII photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on VJ
day. It was commissioned in 2004 but we
don’t know why. Michael wants me to
point out that the sailor in the statue was not wearing an American
uniform. More mystery.
Today was Livorno which is
the gateway to Florence and Pisa. We
chose to take a tour to see the tower in Pisa.
That was amazing. When you come
around the town wall and see that tower you just gasp. In person the tilt is frightening. You’re just sure that it’s going to
fall. We learned that the church and the
baptistery which are also located in this square are also tilting, though not
nearly as badly of course. They finally
stabilized the tower around 1994 and so now you can climb up if you
choose. They limit it to 40 visitors at
a time and there are 264 steps so it takes a while. You have to book your tickets in advance
because they sell out every day.
After our tour we returned to
the ship for something to eat (of course!) and then a little nap. We’ve been very good about taking the ship’s
stairs everywhere instead of the elevator, but I’ve got to tell you my calves
are still in protest after our hike up Mt. Vesuvius and so the stairs are
killing me.
Tonight we left Italy and
tomorrow we are in Nice, France. We don’t
have a tour there, will probably just walk around and look at all of the
beautiful people. This cruise is very
port intensive for the first 8 days, then we have the Atlantic crossing with
many sea days. I’m looking forward to
the change of pace. It’s amazing how
many people we’ve met who do these crossings once or even twice a year.
Our weather has been
generally pretty good. Some clouds and
occasional light rain, but nothing too serious.
And the seas have been very calm so far.
It’s easy to forget you’re on a ship since there is so little
movement. Our cabin is on deck 10 out of
a total of 16 and we’ve only felt a little gentle rocking one night.
Time to take my aching calves
to bed. Till next time,
Caroline
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