Today we travelled more than I ever want to again! Our day started at 4:30 AM Italy time (9:30 PM on Wednesday in Chicago). We had to be ready to leave the boat at 6 AM. We were sad to leave the cruise but glad to be heading home. We had a 10 and a half hour flight from Rome to Cincinatti. That is a long time to be on a plane. I don't think we could ever fly to Austrailia! We had to run to the gate at the Cincinatti airport since we had so little time between flights. Something [View Full Entry]

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Our excursion to Florence started our poorly. The ride was supposed to be 1.5 hours and actually took 2.5 hours! We had a reservation to the see the David at 10:30 AM but we weren't even close to Florence at 10:30. Needless to say, we were annoyed. Luckily, when we finally got to Florence, the Academia (museum where David is) still let us in, even though our appointment was an hour earlier. We preordered our tickets for the Academia and Uffizi musuems before we left and it was SO worth it. The lines to get into both muesums were crazy. And [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour! Tricia and I set foot on French soil. We both did that little laugh that makes you sound french, and didn't wear deodorant to blend in with the locals. It wasn't exactly a quiet town, but it wasn't a bustling metropolis like Barcelona. Apparently the Cannes Film Festival is the only time the town is bursting with tourists. We took a nice long stroll through the streets and markets, and finished off our day there with an espresso, a beer and some ice cream in a local cafe'. Nothing too special, but not that bad either. We did have the [View Full Entry]

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Hola! Well, today we went to Barcelona, only to find out that the language here is not the Spanish we know at home. The Spanish at home is known as Castillano here, but they do not speak it in Barcelona. They speak Catalan. Weird language. They pronounce the C's and Z's with a lisp (th). We saw the outsides of two houses that Gaudi designed and built. They are like a Tim Burton film! We also saw the Sagrada Familia Cathedral that he started before he was hit by a truck 80 years ago. It still isn't finished, and won't be [View Full Entry]

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Ciao! Today was a lovely day at sea. We played bingo, lost and didn't care. We relaxed to the extreme and it was fantastic. Tricia has read like fifty books so far, and I have eaten five hundred pounds of food. Nothing too much to report on this, but read on about the following days to come. Arrivederci! [View Full Entry]

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Ok guys, it cost us a fortune, but we got one photo from each of our stops uploaded. We will upload more from our house when it isn't so expensive. Ciao!! [View Full Entry]

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Buon Giorno! Tricia and I made a visit to the island of Sicily. I didn't know what to expect from the home of Don Corleone. I must say, this was among the most beautiful stops of them all. I never thought I'd say this, but guess where the weather was most enjoyable - you guessed it! It must have been 75 with a cool breeze. I thought it would have been a scorcher. Everyone was so polite. The town was very clean, little old ladies hanging their laundry outside would wave and say Buon Giorno! The Greek theatre was incredible, the [View Full Entry]

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We are at sea today. We had a lovely day which involved sleeping late, eating lunch for breakfast and taking part in a newlywed show. They ask who had a good proposal story so of course we had to share ours. The cruise director made Chris propose since he never officially did. He also made him sing You Are My Sunshine. Very nice. We then saw a show by an English opera singer. She was really good, but alot of people were leaving the show. Too high class for them. It's 8:20 PM here, 1:20 PM here. We're getting ready for [View Full Entry]

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Too bad the toilets were holes in the ground. Not so bad for Chris, but not very nice for me. I managed to keep it in the toilet though. Other than that, Dubrovnik was beautiful. We walked the city ramparts, which are giant stone walls that surround the city. The main city streets were marble and so smooth. Dubrovnik was in the middle of a war not too long ago, and any buildings that were damaged were rebuilt with orange roofs. Everyone spoke impeccable English. They even had gelatto! There wasn't a bit of litter anywhere and the Adriatic Sea was [View Full Entry]

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Ciao!. This day started with an hour of pointless wandering looking for a museum and/or a cheap gondola ride. Once we got to the museum, however, our day got better. The Ca' Rezzonico had an impressive 18th century art collection. From there, we hopped the Vaporetto to the Rialto, a wonderful, lively shopping center built on top of an ornate bridge. We made our way through the throngs, buying souvenirs along the way. We opted not to do the Gondola ride, since 80 Euro was the cheapest I could get it, all for only a 25 minute ride. (Also, one of [View Full Entry]

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