Are We There? Are We Where?

A blur of days walking, gawking and eating in Italy, France and Spain separated by nights on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas.   

Cruise #1 finished in Venice and we had a day to visit the city again, stopping for another lunch, time in an internet café, and a little souvenir shopping.  The goal was the Guggenheim Museum, but somehow that fell by the wayside--we wandered the wonderful alleys for most of the morning and then the wet and chilly day turned sunny after lunch.  We returned to the ship with four bottles of Italian red wine and a block of Tallegio cheese.  Almost enough to get us to Cadiz by way of Cruise # 2.

The morning after leaving Venice we were in Split, Croatia.  Red and white checkerboard everywhere, a symbol from the Croat flag and national soccer team.  The city is surprisingly prosperous and thriving.  The Roman emperor Diocletian built a huge palace complex here and just outside the walls of the palace the local farmers were holding a beautiful produce market.  We stopped for a slice of pizza, but were thwarted when they only accepted Croat “kunas”.  Venice spoiled us since it’s truly a multi-currency city.  We stumbled across a very pleasant surprise in the old part of the city.  Four young men singing unaccompanied traditional Dalmatian songs.  They had exceptional voices, but unfortunately stopped after we heard only one song.

Naples was next.  We decided that we had seen enough classic ruins in Greece, so passed on Pompeii in favor of the archeological museum  where the “stuff” from Pompeii was displayed.  The first floor of the museum is dedicated to the Farnese collection of Roman statues.   The contrast with the headless and armless statues in Greece was remarkable.  Most of these were copies of Greek works and many had been reworked and repaired during the Renaissance, adding heads and other missing parts.  Gretchen actually recognized and identified a statue of Emperor Hadrian’s boyfriend because of a statue we saw in Olympia, Greece.  We left the museum in search of a pizza restaurante and by chance found a little place filled with non-tourists and with a single empty table.   Fresh arugula on a proscuitto pizza is wonderful!  There was a long line waiting outside when we finished lunch -- that's a great recommendation.

The only downer about our first visit to Naples was a garbage strike

Luckily Rome is only a short train ride from the port of Civitavecchia –and although we have been to Rome before, this time we had the luxury of just meandering for the day—no schedule to adhere to, no sights to check off in the book—just walking and enjoying stepping on every 4”cobble the city had lain down in its history.  Of course we had to revisit Trevi Fountain and fling three coins over our shoulders—after all, doing this in 1990 had brought us back, right?  Our wish came true!

Wandered over to the Spanish Steps, then down to the river and past the Vatican.  'Nough walking,  climbed on a bus back to the train station and we were on the ship at 3:30pm ready to remove our shoes and put  our feet up.

Villefranche, France

G:  Villefranche, a small port between Nice and Monaco, was the next day’s stop.  We haven’t encountered that many rainy days on trips past, but this was one of them.  The small town was all buttoned up for the winter....hotels and restaurants closed.  We were the only ship in the port and it was the last cruise of the season for this area.   All morning and into the afternoon it rained—the train bound for Nice came before the one bound for Monaco so we took it, having seen neither.  We wandered about, carefully choosing a restaurant that was offering a daily special of “Moules  (mussels) & Frites”…..and were salivating as we waited for the server to take our order…..”Termine”, she said.  No more moules left.  We sulked, got up and walked out in search another restaurant.  We found them near the flower market in a not so busy restaurant and ordered one bowl and the most beautiful salad of artichoke halves, grilled red peppers, green beans and pine nuts garnished with cuke slices and cherry tomatoes  While we we were dining, a walking tour from our ship happened by, single file, umbrellas up.  We were exactly where we wanted to be!  And the moules were small and wonderful!

G:  There was even time for me to pick up a few pieces of beach glass and a sand sample to add to my growing,  weighty collection.  Never had to don a swimsuit or fight the crowds—there wasn’t a soul on the beach except a mother and son having a sandwich in the rain.....just the sound of the round smooth rocks tumbled by the surf.

Our last stop was Barcelona, a favorite.  Again we spent the day hoofing around.  Stopped for tapas at La Tramoia, a recommended bar/restaurant.  Gambas en garlic, fried small peppers, croquettes, choricitos and a nice rose.