Today we went to Florence and Pisa. It was a beautiful day in Tuscany - the region or state in Italy - sunny and warm, just like you would expect in that part of Italy. Our tour guide, Angelo, is taught us a little Italian as we drove the hour or more to Florence. It was another day where we walked for hours; from the time we got off the bus until we got back on to go to Pisa - about 4-5 hours. He was a very good guide in that he knew the history of the city, the monuments, the churches, even the old markets. We went to the Cathedral of Florence (or Duomo) and the Baptistery - not in most them, but to them. We felt like we were in Fast Forward all ... read more

We arrived in the Italian port of Civitavecchia about 7:30 AM, May 1, 2009. It is the port that serves Rome. The name of the city means Old Town - Civita which means “town or city” and vecchia which means “old” . Tomorrow in Florence, we will see Ponte Vecchio, the “old bridge”. It is the port that served Rome and the surrounding area. Today is May 1, Labor Day, a Holiday in Italy and I think all over Europe, which is a good thing since there will be less traffic; bad because the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and shops are closed. I can only give you highlights as I really need to Google some of the things we saw today to get details. I was in information-overload most of the day. We were totally in ... read more

Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean; Sicily is the largest. It was colonized by the Phoenicians in the 7th century B.C.; the first city was settled by the Carthaginians. It was captured by the Romans in 238 A.D.; controlled Pisa and Genoa in the 13th century and then the Spanish Kingdom of Aragon. Eventually it was controlled by Italy but our guide told us the natives of the central part of the island don’t speak Italian or Spanish but Sardinian, a language that is a combination of both. She couldn’t speak it as she was only taught Italian in school. Traffic was terrible because tomorrow starts the Festival of Sant’ Efisio, the patron Saint of Sardinia. Seems like in the area there is a festival for something almost every ... read more

Today is our last “sea day” so it’s pretty laid back. We are sailing from Gibraltar to Calgiari, Sardinia. It is now 2:30 PM our time and we have about 320 miles to go to Sardinia. We are about 5015 miles from Ft. Lauderdale, and have about 1500 to go to the end. Several Europeans joined us in Madeira and again in Cadiz. We have discovered that this cruise could have been done in several configurations. Some passengers who got on in Ft. Lauderdale are not getting off in Barcelona but continuing around the Mediterranean to Greece, Turkey, etc., and ending up in Venice. The Mediterranean is almost like a lake compared to the Atlantic. We are going with the waves and with the wind so it is really lovely sailing. The wind isn’t too strong ... read more

More from Friday We went to the early Captain’s Circle party and had our pictures taken with Captain Tony Yeoman, our very British ship’s Captain. Then went to an early dinner and the theater production. It was wonderful - great singing, costumes and staging. After it we went to the Explorer’s Lounge to listen to “dancing through the decades” - we listened to music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Since we had slept in we decided we should actually try to get up early on Saturday. But neither of us could go to sleep - well after 2 AM before we could nod off. Saturday, April 25, 2009 We were awake before our alarm went off at 8:45 AM - remember that is 2:45 AM NE time. We even lose another hour Saturday night. We ... read more