Venice

We cruised into Venice, Italy like conquering heroes. At very few knots, it took us about an hour to get from the beginning of Venice to our ultimate berth. And what grand views of the city we had all along the way.

The day's tour started with a boat ride around to Murano for a visit to a glass blowing facility. Glass blowing came to Murano in 1291 when banned from Venice proper due to fire risk.

Then it was on to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore to visit the church there. There was also an interesting glass block structure in a small park behind the church.

And last but not least, a gondola ride!

Then one last evening and dinner on the boat. The next morning was disembarking. The Underwoods and Fosters stayed in Venice most of the day and left that evening on an overnight Venice-to-Paris train. We strolled about town near the Venice St. Lucia train station and stumbled into the residential, "locals" area of town. And lots of churches (Jamie's fave)! And how about another gondola ride! There may have also been another carbonara consumed.

Then onto the train and off to Paris. The rooms were quite spacious compared to Amtrak counterparts, but there was much left to desire when it came to the cafe car.

All the Venice photos are here.

Entering Venice

Murano glassworks

San Giorgio Maggiore

Day 2 in Venice.

Lynn enjoyed several interesting floor patterns.

A working 16th Century clock works.

Paris here we come!

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik, Croatia turned out to be the most intriguing port. They've got a great deal of very recent history that sounds more like medieval stuff, you know, wars, attempted take overs, etc. The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995. Dubrovnik was significantly damaged and is still being repaired today.

Our mode of transportation for today's tour was a tuk-tuk, an electric rickshaw of sorts. What fun (despite being a little chilly)! We just zipped in and out of wherever we wanted. We climbed a rather large hill, Srdj Hill, for quite the panoramic view of Old Town and also to see evidence of defensive positions (Fort Imperial, 1812, built by Napoleon's soldiers) that helped them hold the city in conflict after conflict.

We passed over the new Franjo Tudman Bridge on our journey.

The rest of the day was spent in Old Town, a walled portion of the medieval city. We entered through Pile Gate. In Old Town were places like Cathedral of the Assumption, Sponza Palace (16th Century), and Onofro Fountain which supplied water to the city for over 500 years. There was another wall on which to walk all the way around the city. Vickie and Rob gave it a go, but had to bail about halfway through to make the bus back to the boat.

Also in Old Town was something rather revolutionary for the day - an orphanage. Apparently it was funded in large part by nobles who wanted to take care of illegitimate offspring but could not acknowledge them outright.

Back at the ship for High Tea.

All the day's photos are here.

Old Town

From up on Srdj Hill

Fort Imperial (part of)

in Old Town

Our ship near the Franjo Tudman Bridge

High Tea on board the M/S Sirena

Kotor

Up next: Kotor, Montenegro.

To say that there were hairpin turns on our way to Lastva would be a gross understatement. It was a miracle that the bus driver got us up and down the hill without incident.

There's an upper Lastva and a lower Lastva. We went to upper Lastva where the population now stands at 2. Our guide has a house in both Lastvas, and did he ever show us a good time. We visited Upper Lastva's church and their olive oil facility. Then it was party time. We went into a hall of sorts where a snack was served (lunch, really) and a group of three musicians played for us the entire time. And what a hoot! They played lots of their local stuff, but also threw in a John Denver song now and then. Dancing broke out. This was by far the most fun and "local" thing we did on the entire trip.

Then back to Kotor proper where we saw highlights of the city and visited St. Triphon's cathedral.

Dinner was with the whole gang (except for those who were up on the wall, 12th century, of course, and didn't make it back down in time) at a very cool place on the water called Galion.

All the day's photos are here.

Kotor from our anchored position.

Church in Upper Lastva

Olive oil press

Back in Kotor...

Best carbonara of the trip at Galion.

The night lights highlight "the wall" protecting the city.

Corfu

Our outing at Corfu, Greece was to the Achilleion Palace. It was originally built for the Empress Elizabeth of Austria but she was assassinated before it was completed. It was then purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

We did some photo stops on the way back, principally for Mouse Island (because it's shaped like a mouse, or at least someone thought so). We ended up back in town and walked through the Esplanade, past the cricket pitch, and by the Saint Spyridon Church (patron saint of Corfu).

Then back at the boat in time for sunset.

All the photos are here.

Achilleion Palace

Mouse Island

Ruins we drove by.

Sicily

It was a tendering day, meaning we were anchored off shore and used the lifeboats as tenders.

First stop was a small village on the slopes on Mount Etna (an active volcano) called Lingua Grossa. The Lingua Grossa Trattoria was a delightful little stop there offering pistachio gelato. We also visited a church across the plaza, the Church of Saint Giles.

Then on to the main attraction, Gambino Winery. Never before have we been greeted at the gates of a winery with a glass of wine! Then a full-on tour of the facilities. We tasted four different wines along with enough food to make a lunch. I really liked the wines made from the grapes on slopes of Mt. Etna, Feu d'O and Petto Dragone. Great view from up there, too. We sent some wine home...

It was mussels night on the boat.

All the day's photos are here.

Mt. Etna was belching the day we were there!

Tendering to shore

Church in Lingua Glossa

Welcome to Gambino Winery!

That's our boat.

Naples/Pompeii

Today was all about Pompeii. Lots of surprises, but mostly about how vast the site is, and how well some of it is preserved. There are still frescos on some of the interior walls of homes. I also did not know it was a city of relatively wealthy families. Plenty of 2- and 3-bedroom houses with interior courtyards! There's a fairly well preserved brothel including frescos on the wall of "the menu." And phalic directional signs. There's a museum in Naples of the many artifacts from the site, but we'll have to catch that next time.

On the way we visited a cameo producer.

Back home on the boat for dinner and lattes.

All the day's photos are here.

Mt. Vesuvius