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We celebrated by going on a 16-day Eastern Mediterranean cruise tour. It was travel agent business for me (I attended a seminar-at-sea for the 2 days we were at sea).
We flew to Venice on Mother's Day. We were met at the airport by a guide and directed to our Mercedes motorcoach that took us as far as it could before land ran out. Then we walked across one of the thousands of bridges over a canal on our trek to our hotel on the Grand Canal. Our luggage was brought by boat to the hotel later. Some of Venice is accessible by foot, but for the most part, it's all by water (water taxi or gondola). Our hotel wouldn't turn the A/C on (until May 15th)...so we slept with open windows. It was pretty hot and I just knew a pigeon would fly into the room! We spent 2 days there: went to St. John's Basilica (saw the effect of the sinking city; so sad); walked through the Bridge of Sighs; St. Mark's Square; took a gondola ride; took a motorboat to Murano Island to a glass blowing factory (didn't buy any Murano glass -- very expensive). My introduction to Italian pizza was here in Venice -- totally unlike American pizza (VERY thin crust)-- I truly can't say I'm crazy about it though.
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And it's true -- Americans
ARE fat! Europeans walk almost everywhere they go, if not riding Vespa motorscooters. I also noticed their doorways were much narrower than in the States. Some of the hotels' guestroom doorways were not much wider than 2 feet. And Italy is VERY expensive! We purchased a 20 oz. Coke for 3 Euros = $4.50 USD (at that time).
OUCH!! But we were thirsty. We discovered that wine is LOTS cheaper by the 750 ml bottle than carbonated beverages or any other beverage. Also, the restaurants have table service tax on top of other taxes...and if they bring you a basket of bread (don't think this is complimentary!), there's a charge for that, too. And then you tip your server on top of all these extras. Our one $14(USD) pizza cost us about $25 when it was all through.
On the 3rd day, we went by motorcoach on the Autostrada to Florence. Gorgeous countryside and mountains. Our hotel was fabulous -- old and very elegant -- lots of marble throughout and vases of fresh cut flowers everywhere. We saw Michelanglelo's David (I secretly took a picture of it). We had lunch in the Tuscany countryside in a 500 year old castle (Castle Verrazano) which is now a winery. The breathtaking views of the mountains and countryside will make you seriously think you'd leave everything behind and move there permanently.
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Our tour guide, Anna Maria, took us to a restaurant that night for dinner where the locals go...we had a 5 course meal over a 3-4 hour period of time -- which is how the Italians dine...the food just kept coming (small portions). It was just wonderful. As we were leaving this restaurant, I spotted a cocker spaniel under one of the tables while its owner was dining -- common practice for dogs to be allowed in restaurants.
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The 5th day, we went by high-speed train from Florence to Rome. It was amazing to see medieval castles on hillsides (in non-tourist areas) with people still living in them. The Italian countryside was lush, green, and just gorgeous. Their farm equipment is very rustic though, but they seem to do just fine with things we'd consider antiques by now.
And finally... Rome! One needs at least 4 days to see Rome. There's just
SO much to see and do there. Another wonderful hotel. We went to the Colosseum:
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Hadrian's Arch, the Great Square, the Roman Forum & Roman Baths (gorgeous at night all lit up), saw the Temples of Saturn and Concord, the House of the Vestal Virgins, Tiber Island, and the Mausoleum of Hadrian...and much, much more (I know I'm forgetting things). We walked to the Trevi Fountain and I threw my coin into the fountain. We went into the Pantheon -- magnificent (still used for Christian church services). We toured the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and St. Peter's Square. Until one actually sees the Sistine Chapel in person, one can't truly appreciate the beauty of Michelangelo's artistry.
Our last night there, our tour guide took us to another non-tourist restaurant on the outskirts of Rome for our "farewell" dinner. Behind the restaurant (which didn't even look like a restaurant) were ruins that were being excavated. We didn't think anything about it because most of Rome is STILL being excavated (everytime they clear land to build something, they discover more ruins). As the evening wore on, I asked our waiter where the bathroom was. Well, I took a wrong turn and ended up finding a wine cellar that was hundreds, maybe thousands, of years old!! I was so excited because it looked like it had once been a dungeon! I found wines dating back to 1964...bottles were covered in a thick layer of dust.
The next afternoon, we embarked on our ship for the next 10 days:
The Celebrity "Solstice" was absolutely magnificent!
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She's brand new to the Celebrity fleet. And the food was "to die for". We had Chateaubriand the 2nd night on the ship (formal night) in the MAIN dining room -- NOT in a specialty restaurant. Although the first night on the ship, we did eat in "Murano," one of the 3 specialty restaurants (I had melt-in-your-mouth, fork-tender filet mignon and lobster).
Our first port-of-call was Messina, Sicily. This was the only day it drizzled rain on us. Here's where I saw Sicilian pizza -- THICK, just as I like. It was like a bread dough - 1/2 inch thick and loaded with goodies. Some of the others in our group went to Taormina and said it was beautiful...I wish we'd gone there, too. I just chose the wrong shore excursion -- and we had an impatient guide on top of it.
The second port was Athens (Pirraeus), Greece. We saw the Parthenon and Acropolis, the stadium where the first Olympics were held; and lots of other sites. My favorite part of the tour was going to Plaka -- the shopping district in Athens. Greece is very reasonable with their prices. Our 20 oz. Coke here was 90-cents Euros = $1.40 USD -- about the same as back home.
Third port: Mykonos, Greece. Very similar to Santorini -- stark white stucco buildings & homes; mostly blue roofs and trim. I took my "pride and joy" photo of an old weathered Greek fisherman who was wearing his Greek sailor cap, sitting in a corner of an outdoor cafe, drinking his coffee & smoking his pipe. He looked straight at me with his blue eyes and no expression, and I snapped his picture. It's the best photo I've ever taken. The ship had a photo contest, and had I entered, I know it would have won first place. But I'm being very possessive of this photo -- I don't want it running rampant all over the Internet and no one know who, what, where, when or the why of it, and mainly that it's mine.
Fourth port: Kusadasi and Ephesus, Turkey. Beautiful country; very clean, and the only country where I saw people driving "normally" (then it dawned on me that only the men were driving! OOPS, Ladies!). The people were so nice, friendly, and hospitable. I bought a calling card for 3 Euros and called several people back home -- and still have 10 minutes left on the card. I even had Turkish coffee at Starbucks -- the
BEST. We also watched a young woman weave a carpet -- that was just amazing. When walking through the bazaar, you see this a lot. Their carpets are gorgeous, but expensive. It takes the women about 9-10 months to complete an 11 x 14 ft. carpet, and they are only allowed to work 4 hours a day on it.
Fifth port: Rhodes, Greece.
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Medieval castle and walled city dating back to the 14th century -- The Crusades period. We walked down the Street of Knights. I got some fantastic photos here, too. 4000 people still live and work inside the walls -- this just amazed me. I found a student's textbook in the garbage dumpster here and brought it home as a souvenir -- it's "all Greek" to me!!
Sixth port: Santorini, Greece. WOW! Breathtaking!! It's a volcanic island...the volcano erupted eons ago and sank. We fell in love with Oia, several miles away from the main city. This is definitely one place we'd love to come back to.
We learned that the reason for the domes and curved roofs of their buildings -- when they have an earthquake, these roofs can withstand the quake better (flat or pitched roofs collapse). We rode the tram down the cliff to the pier -- our other 2 choices were walk or ride a donkey!
Seventh port: Naples, Italy. I definitely chose the wrong shore excursion here. We were on a tour with people with mobility issues -- when the bus would stop, hardly anyone got out to take pictures (actually was kind of nice not to have pushy people around). We were there on a Sunday -- laundry hung out across the balcony railings everywhere; I thought it was kind of quaint. We didn't go to Pompeii, Capri, or the Amalfi Coast. The others in our group had much, much better excursions than us, and beautiful photos of Mt. Vesuvius & Pompeii. I wish we'd seen the more beautiful side of Naples...my teacher-friend, Ann Marie and her family are from there. I just talked to her last night for almost 2 hours, and she told me things that I'd loved to have seen.
This was a trip of a lifetime for us. If the flight to and from Europe wasn't so darn long, we'd consider returning to Florence and/or Santorini. Our flight from Rome to Atlanta was 10.5 hours; by the time we arrived home, we'd been up for 25 hours.
Regardless of the flight, I'd recommend this trip and ship to everyone -- do it at least
ONCE in one's lifetime.
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Wow! This year went fast! We can't believe she's already turning one!
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