We have two stops in Naples on this cruise. For this first one we are taking a tour to Pompeii. This is our fifth shore day in a row. We are happy that today is just a half day for us. We leave the ship at 8:15 and should return by 12:15. We have a nice casual afternoon on the ship. 🤪

We arrive at the Pompeii site and have all kinds of trinkets and souveniers to choose from. Way more amenities than I remember from 15 years ago. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me.

Adam is seriously considering this purchase, hmmm

We begin our tour with our guide and our headsets. There are many, many tours happening in many, many different languages. These headsets are very common on all of our tours. The guide does not have to shout so that we can hear. Without them it would be impossible to hear and understand, especially with all of the other tours going on at the same time. Here are some of the first ruins we encounter. The long lines of people moving through them.

This is the small theatre, The Odeon, also called theatrum tectum. It sat 1500 spectators. There was a much larger theatre that could accommodate 5000 people. It was primarily used for staging drama. The Odeon was intended for council meetings and some entertainment.

Crossing the street. These stones would seem to be the first crosswalks. The white painted ones we see today most likely took their inspiration from these ancient ones in Pompeii. These stones kept the residents feet dry and out of the rainwater, slops and animal waste that would have filled the streets of Pompeii. Just imagine the aroma!! 🤪🤣

You can see the ruts worn into the road by the wheels of four wheeled wagons. Remains of such wagons have been found.

These photos are of the Fullery of Stephanus. This was designed basically as an industrial laundry. The first image is a large tub that was used by slaves to wash clothing.

Throughout Pompeii we have seen penises in many places some subtle others not so subtle. We are told that they point the way to brothels.

This modern sign is the Latin word for Brothel.

This is the menu of the establishment. Rooms with beds made of stone are available.

We come to the Snack/Wine Bar and decide that this is a perfect place for a Travelling Fish deposit. We have a moment with few people, so we take the opportunity. These holes once contained ceramic jars filled with food. I am certain that wine was available a well.

We see cats everywhere, here is no different.

They have estimate that 2000 people lost their lives when Vesuvius violently erupted in 79 AD. Most likely died from inhaling toxic volcanic gases. Their bodies quickly covered with ash and other volcanic material. Here is an example of one such person. You can see that they are covering their nose and mouth.

This is Vesuvius. The volcano that caused all of this destruction. It looks pretty innocent today. It is however, regarded as an active volcano. It produces little more than sulfur-rich steam from vents at the bottom. and walls of the crater.

It is now time for us to head back for a relaxing afternoon. We have a special dinner tonight. We made reservations before we left home for the Japanese Teppanyaki Restaurant. It is as much a show as it is a dinner. Lots of fun and lots of food! ❣️😍

This is our chef with his little chicken buddy. He did an amazing job juggling, chopping and cooking our dinner! He also told us lots of bad dad jokes.

Dinner done it is time to chill out on the deck and watch the sunset.

A very great day 😁

Today we will tour Rome. This is our fourth port day in a row. We are exhausted in the evenings!!

Since the port for Rome, Civitavecchia, over an hour by bus from the city, we have booked a Princess excursion for today. We have heard horror stories of people doing their own thing and getting stuck in traffic on the way back to the ship. They say the ship will leave without you. We are not taking that chance 🤪.

Our bus leaves at 8:00 am and returns to the ship at 5:30 pm. We have 9.5 hours, but 3 of those hours we are travelling on the bus. Our guided tour is approximately 3.5 hours and we have 3 hours to explore on our own. For a city like Rome this is definitely not enough time. It does however, give us a sample of what Rome has to offer.

Our first stop is at Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the world. This areas is very congested. It is difficult to get a photo of the fountain without crowds of people. Alex and Michael make their way to the edge of the fountain and toss coins into it. This is supposed to mean that you will return to Rome in the future. Only time will tell. I do know that in 2009 Stu and I threw coins into the fountain. I have returned, Stu as well as The Travelling Fish.

Next we see is this. It is called Altare Della Patria or The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument or The Vittoriano or The Wedding Cake, a lot of nicknames for this structure. It is a very large, impressive building. It was built to honour Victor Emmanuel II and completed in 1935. He was the first king of the unified Italy. As you can see the traffic in Rome is very busy. Our decision for the Princess our is validated!!

Our bus moves very slowly to the point where will meet our guide for the walking portion of our tour. A little confusion at the start, as our “bus guide” hurried a woman in need of a toilet, off of the bus without telling us it was time to get off as well. All sorted out, we put on our headphones so that we can hear what our guide is describing as we walk through center of Rome.

We pass by the ruins of the “Forum of Julius Ceasar”. The construction of this forum began in 54 BC. It is pretty ancient.

It is a very busy day in Rome. I am certain that our ship is contributing to the crowds. There are 6 ships in port today with a potential of 11,000 passengers. We have over 4,500 passengers on board the Sun Princess. Not all will be here, but there are lots of people.

We slowly make our way to the Colosseum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world, despite its age.

Unfortunately we don’t have time for separate tour here. We do have time for a selfie!

We have a bit of a walk to get to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, where our guided portion of our day in Rome ends. Our guide gives instructions on where and when to meet the bus. We now have our free time to explore a bit on our own. We have heard that the Pope is not at the Vatican at the moment, so the crowds are much smaller than when he is here.

We are all hungry. We find little place on Via della Conciliazione, which is a short street between St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’Angelo.

This restaurantis very busy and is like a cafeteria style. Everyone else picked dishes that were on display and made their way to the table we had chosen. I thought that the portions were way too large for me, so I ordered a pizza. I wasn’t aware that this was not just sitting there waiting for me to order it, but needed to be prepared. As we sat at the table everyone else finished their food. Mine was taking quite a long time. It finally arrived. It is a good thing I ordered something smaller!! 🤪 I was enormous! Thankfully Adam and Michael were willing to help me out.

We still have some time before we need to meet the bus. So after our lunch Michael and the boys would like to walk the couple of blocks to the Castel Sant’Angelo. I feel like sitting at the patio of another restuarant across the street and have a nice cold beer. It doesn’t take much for Nicole to decide to joing me, not for the beer, but sitting and watching Rome go by.

It is interesting to see so many young priests wearing cassocks and backpacks. We are assuming that they are seminary students. Just wearing backpacks, just like students everywhere. We also don’t normally see nuns in habits in our everyday lives. Here we see a large group of them pose for a photo.

This building features prominently in the movie Angels and Demons that is based on the Dan Brown book. It is also the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Hadrian, the Roman Emperor commission it to be the final resting place for himself and his family. Today it is a museum. It is accessed via the St. Angelo Bridge that crosses the Tiber River that winds it’s way through Rome with many twists and curves.

We find our way, using Michael’s internal GPS, to the bus. We have an hour and a half to get back to the port at Civitavecchia. When we arrive Lindsey is waiting for us as we embark. Not long after we are at the aft pool with refreshments!

We have a busy day today! We are docked in La Spezia and have booked a tour called Florence and Pisa on your own. The tour leaves the ship at 7:30, so we need to be up early in order to have our breakfast and be on our way.

We also have a private tour in Florence so that we can see the Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria dell’Accademia. Both of these venues are extremely busy, so in order to be able to see them both we booked a private guide for the afternoon. The description of this tour said we would arrive in Pisa at 8:45, have an hour and half, then back to the bus. We should arrive in Florence at 11:40, so our tour was booked for 12:00.

While at the meeting point on the ship, they described the opposite itinerary. They said we would go to Florence and then to Pisa. This will definitely not work for our plans for the day. We spoke to the guide as we reached the bus. She said she would poll the passengers on the bus to see if anyone else cared if we went to Pisa first. No one did!! Yeah, Florence is a go!!

Pisa is known to be a very busy site. We have arrived early, before 9. I think the order of this is perfect. Pisa is relatively quiet still we are able to walk and see the tower without the huge crowds that I imagine will be here in the afternoon. Tower certainly is leaning! The tower began leaning during construction in the 12th century. By 1990 the tilt had reach 5.5 degrees. Between 1993 and 2001 there was work done to stabilize the tower. Today the tilt is a mere 3.97 degrees.

The Travelling Fish with the tower.

We have the time and space to some of the cheesy shots most tourists do here. Adam saving the tower as Alex pushes it down with one finger 🤪🤣

We spent some time wandering around the site before we re-boarded the bus and headed to Florence. Found another amazing door for the “Door Series” with the boys. As you can see it is a very tall door.

Our bus has to travel a circuitous route to get us to the Historic Center of Florence. When Florence was built they certainly couldn’t imagine large motorcoaches driving in the city.

We find the spot to meet of guide. Off we go for our abridged tour of the Uffizi Gallery. This is pronounced like “pizza” 😁 The complex of buildings was begun in 1560 to be the administrative officed of the Italian banking family, the Medici’s. They ruled Tuscany for the greater part of 300 years. The last descendant died in 1743.

It is ne of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

We see the beautiful works by Botticelli, The Birth of Venus and The Primavera.

The museum also has an unusual portrait of The Duke and Duchess of Urbino. The Duke’s portrait is especially unusual. It is said to the most famous nose in Italy. He lost his right to a lance in a tournament. It was surprising that he even survived the injury. He had a very prominent “Roman Nose”, which severely limited his vision to his right. So he decided to have the upper part of his nose cut away give him some peripheral vision past his large nose.

After our speedy tour of the Ufizzi highlights, we have time for some lunch before heading to the Galleria dell’Accademia. Our guide leaves us a bit of free time to have a bite to eat.

After our lunch our guide joins us again and leads us past the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore or Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower. It took 140 years to complete. It is certainly one of the most recognizable cathedrals in Italy.

Our guide takes a few group shots of us with the iconic structures.

We wind our way through the narrow streets of Florence to the Galleria dell’Accademia. The sidewalks here are very narrow, sometimes only wide enough for one person. We think back to the wonderfully wide sidewalks in Barcelona.

We have about a 15 minute wait to enter the museum. This gallery has really only one attraction, Michelangelo’s David!! David was carved from an inferior chunk of marble. The marble had been rejected by other artists. It really is amazing to see.

After our visit with David our guide leads us to our meeting point for our bus back to the ship. It getting very busy in the historic section of Florence. We are happy for his knowledge of the streets and piazza as he ensures we are back in time for the bus.

On our way back we see lots of large blocks of marble. Most of this likely comes from the Carrara marble quarry which is northwest of Florence. Carrara marble is very popular for use in sculptures. I wonder what these blocks of marble will become???

We have had a very long day and are happy to return to our ship. Dinner and beverages wait for us. Tomorrow is Rome. Another long day. It is also the day that Lindsey will join us. She is in Rome now and we will see her when we get back to the ship tomorrow afternoon. In preparation I have stocked our fridge with some beer for her!!

We arrived in the port of Genoa earlier this morning. The day is overcast when we head out to find the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.

As we leave the port we immediately encounter some beautiful architecture. This is the 100 year old Maritime Station of Ponte dei Mille. It is a historical maritime station that has been upgraded to a technologially advanced cruise terminal.

As we walk toward the Hop On Hop Off bus stop, we need to walk below and elevated roadway. There are murals paited on the support pillars. These are part of an initiative in Genoa called “Walk the Line“. The project started in 2017. The aim is to highlight local artists work and is an open-air gallery that extends for 3 kilometers.

At one of our stops along the Hop On Hop Off route we arrive at Piazza De Ferrari. No. it is not named after Enzo the famous race car driver and founder of the Ferrari car company. It is dedicated to an Italian banker and politician Raffaele De Ferrari who was the Duke of Galliera. From what I have read, it is just a title that can basically be bought if you have enough money and influence. 🤪 The fountain and buldings are impressive however. The building in the center is now a bank, but it was the first Italian Stock Exchange.

Also in Piazza De Ferrari are a couple of very distinctive statues by French sculptor, Bruno Catalano. This one is called Benoit. According to the information I found “Benoît”, a sculpture of an unbalanced traveler on the move as a reminder of the frenetic rhythms of the present.

Bruno Catalano has many interesting works that are featured around the world. Clicking on his name will take you to his site.

Continuing on we hop off the bus near the Arco della Vittoria, or Victory Arch. We knew of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and we recently discovered that Barcelona also has an arch that they call Arc de Triomf. Now we discover that Genoa also has a large memorial arch.

It has started to rain, so we, along with many others head to shelter in the arch. There is a large group of young people trying to stay dry. They ask Adam if he could take their photo, which he happily did.

Behind the arch we see a hill with staircases on each side and some gardens in the center. There flowerbeds that depict 3 ships and 3 anchors at the bottom. We speculate that these are to represent the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria, the ships the Christopher Columbus used to discover America. I have since discovered that this is called Scalinata Delle Caravelle which translates to the Staircase of the Three Caravels. Which certain ties into our speculation about Columbus.

Carrying on we pass this market stall loaded with all kinds of cheese. I always say “you can never have too much cheese!!”

The scooter culture in Europe always facinates me as well. The images of them parked in such tight quarters amaze me. The rain is picking up and these bikes are getting very wet!

As the rain is really coming down we decide we should stop and have something to drink in a cafe. We choose one that has a covered outdoor area. We have our drinks hoping the rain will subside when we are done. Then we can continue on the Hop On Hop Off bus.

Not to be! We start hopping from one sheltered area to another trying to keep from getting drenched. That too is not to be.

We manage to keep moving along. This signpost is pointing to Casa Di Colombo, Columbus’s house. It makes sense now that we have seen the Scalinata Delle Caravelle. I have found out that this is an 18th century reconstruction of the house in which Columbus grew up in. It is believed that the original house was destroyed by the French when they bombarded Genoa in 1684.

As we keep moving, faster and faster a large book fair is taking place. I found out that this is the Spring Edition of this book fair that has been held in Genoa since 1926. It is too bad that Lindsey isn’t with us yet. I am sure she would have found something to purchase. It is set up in the front entrance to Palazzo Ducale or the Doge’s Palace. It is now a museum as appears to be very common for a lot of historical buildings.

The umbrella salesmen are out in strength. It is really pouring now. Michael even bought one. I have one that we bought in Edinburgh when we had some rain there. We are finally able to get on a Hop On Hop Off bus. Most people are resorting to riding the bus in the rain. Here we are on the top deck. It is hard to even see anything through plastic curtains. At least it keeps us a bit drier.

The day is shorter than we had hoped. We ride the bus until we get back to the Maritime Station and board the ship.

It was an interesting day despite the weather. We can’t conrol that. We do hope that tomorrow will be different. We will have a very big day. We are docking in La Spezia and have a tour of Pisa, then a bus ride to Florence where we have a private tour of the Uffzi Gallery, the former offices of the Medici family, and the Galleria Academia, the home to the Statue of David.

After our second “Sea Day” we arrive in the Port of Marseille. We have chosen an excursion that will take us out of the city of Marseille and into the countryside. The tour is called “Aix-En-Provence & Lourmarin On Your Own”

This is basically transportation to Lourmarin, that is described as a charming village at the foot of the Luberon Range. The bus will take an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive in Lourmarin where we have 1:45 to explore on our own.

We arrive in Lourmarin just over an hour later.

It is a quiet little village with ivy covered buildings and limestone growths on it’s fountains. Due to drought conditions in Europe the founntains are not operating at the moment.

As with many European cities and villages it has some unique doors.

We found a few places to photograph The Travelling Fish with some of the local attractions.

Lourmarin has a castle named Chateau de Lourarin. Originally a 12th-century fortress, it was transformed in the 15th century by Foulques d’Agoult, chamberlain of King Rene I. of Anjou.

Cute little truck parked near our bus.

I discover that there is a Geocache close by. Alex finds it quickly. He is an experienced Geocacher!

It is time to return to the bus for the drive to Aix-en-Provence. This is a much larger town than Lourmarin. On our way here we expericence some rain. By the time we arrive, the sun has come back out, but there is water on the streets and sidewalks.

Aix-en-Provence is apparently nicknamed named “The Village of a Thousand Fountains” . We didn’t count, but there are quite a few. The one below is one of the more impressive one. We have seen many fountains so far that are not running water. None of Barcelona’s fountains are running and earlier today we didn’t see running water in any of Lourmarin’s fountains either. This is a water conservation measure.

The fountain itself is a mixture of marble, stone and concrete measuring 12 m x 32 m. It was created by four different artists in 1860. It now uses a recycling system is to save water, which is likely why it is one of very few that are currently using water.

We notice a group of people playing a game in a nearby park. They have grid lines marked out and are taking this game very seriously. This game is called “Boules” or “Petanque”. It is the French version of Bocce. From what I have read you “bowl” the ball in Bocce and in Boules they “toss” the ball.

It is time to head back to the bus and back to the Sun Princess.

There is a bar waiting for us! !

We had a relaxing day exploring the brand new Sun Princess on our second “sea day”. It is a very large ship with lots to see.

I brought some rubber ducks with me. On my last cruise I heard about the “Cruise Duck” thing. People bringing ducks and hide them on board for others to find. A little bit like Geocaching. I hid my first duck on our first sea day. I placed it above the floor selector (pretty obvious 😁🤣) for the fancy new elevator system that they have on this ship. You choose the floor you want before you enter the elevator. This display will then tell you which of the 6 elevators (A, B, C, D,E, F) will take your chosen floor. This feature saved a lot of guessing and running back and forth to find which elevator would stop at the floor we were on. It did not however, prevent the elevator that stopped from being full at busy times! Perhaps it should count the on’s and the off’s. A well the next version!!

Tonight is our first formal night, We get our selves all “gussied up” and meet for dinner. We don’t feel all that “formal” as we see some “extremely gussied” up people. Lots of sparkling gowns. Oh, well, they will never see us again 😊

The ship has photographers positioned all over the ship to capture these memories for us. These are the images they get for us, tonight!

There is a special menu for these evenings.

For the starter I chose the tomato soup. This is how they plated it for me. Pretty interesting.

Main Course of steak and lobster. Very nice.

I do need these two to help me eat most dinners, as the portions are too much for me!

Tonight it is “Silent Disco” in the Atrium. This is were participants wear headphones and can choose their own music to dance to.

We are now on our way to Marseille. The Travelling Fish enjoying the voyage.

An enjoyable “sea day”, that we will learn to appreciate in soon!! 😜

While we were on the Rock of Gibraltar, we went into St. Michael’s Cave. This is a network of limestone caves located within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

It is believed that St. Michael’s Cave has had a military use since the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 AD. This is assumed due to the defensive wall of Moorish origin which protected the cave’s entrance until recently.

The largest of the chambers, named the Cathedral Cave, currently serves as an auditorium.[10] It was converted due to the chamber’s natural acoustic properties. It is equipped with a concrete stage and has a seating capacity of over 100.

They took our photo at the beginning. I was able to purchae the images while we were there. While I was doing the transaction, sadly I missed the concert that was happening. The rest of the family was able to enjoy the fabulous accoustics that the Cathedral Cave provides.

Click onto an image to scroll through the various backgrounds they provide.

While on the cruise I tried to keep writing the blog. It does take me quite a bit of time. I made the decision to spend that time with my family. I am now, while I have more time at home, completing the remainder of the blog. It is a great tool to document such a incredible experience which we have had the good fortune to be able to have!!

I will be publishing a couple of times a week as time, motivation and inspiration allow 😜

We arrive in Gibraltar without a pre booked Princess excursion. Since we are close to the town and the Rock, we decide to arrange our own transportation. We chat with a few drivers of the many many vans that greet the ship. They take 7-8 passengers and have a set route that they follow. We wait a short time for 2 others to join us. They take us to a look out to the Pillars of Hercules. The Rock of Gibraltar is on the north side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is attached to Spainis , but is a British Overseas Territory. It is one of the Pillars of Hercules. The other is Ceuta, which is in north Africa but is controlled by Spain. We have a foggy start to our tour. Morocco is obscured by the fog.

“Kiss me Here” The Last point in Europe!! Michael & Nicole take the opportunity.

We now head up “The Rock”. For the rest of this tour we are in a huge queue of taxi vans. They drop us off first at St. Michael’s cave.

St Michael’s Cave was long believed to be bottomless. This probably gave birth to the story that the Rock of Gibraltar was linked to Africa by a subterranean passage under the Strait of Gibraltar. The famous macaques or Barbary Apes were said to have come to Gibraltar through this subterranean passage. Since we missed the stunning display of the Northern Lights while we were here, we substitute these images.

The Gibraltar macaques are actually a tailless monkey called a Barbary Macaque (Macaca Sylvanus). No one is sure how they got to Gibraltar, however, speculation has it they were brought either by the Arabs sometime after 711CE or the British after 1704. They are plentiful and definitely NOT SHY!!

They hop onto the taxi vans, the hop on to people. A new viewpoint of Hop On Hop Off!!

Here is the line of taxi vans. These tours are very well coreographed! You are able to get out of your van, walk for a bit while your van makes it way to the front of the queue, then you hop back in and off you go. There is no time for lollygagging! There is only one road, one direction.

The airport for Gibraltar bisects the peninsula. in 2011 Greg, Leslie, Stu and I parked on the Spanish side and had to wait for a plane to land or take off before we could walk across the runway into Gibraltar. Still the same today!

Our driver drops us back in the town. We do a bit of exploring in this very British town.

There are other tunnels that we did not have the opportunity to see as they were not on the the tight schedule of this tour. We still have 4 hours before the ship sails, so Michael and Adam decide to hike back up to see if they can see the tunnels. After a few missed turns they do finally find some tunnels.

Nicole, Alex and I headed back to the Sun Princess. We meet by the pool for a beverage and Alex kindly brings us pizza. I head for a snooze and received messages that Michael and Adam made it back to the ship!! Yeah, I can relax and enjoy my nap.

A very AWESOME Day!!

We have all settled into exploring this beautiful ship. I must admit I didn’t take many photos at all today.

We are comfortable in our staterooms, Michael, Nicole, Alex and Adam are on deck 12. For this ship they have abandoned the deck names like Aloha, Caribe, Dolphin etc for just the number. I am not exactly sure why, but it might have something to do with fancy elevator system they have on this brand new ship. You tap the deck number on a keypad by the elevators and it tells you which elevator will take you to that deck. It is a huge improvement from the Royal Princess where you press the traditional up or down and have to guess which of 6 elevators will go in your direction, and then hope there is room inside! Also there is no number pad on the inside of the elevator, it just lists the floors that it will stop at.

I start my day with a Lavender Honey Latte. I quickly found the fancy coffe spot and certainly didn’t have to wait very long for this.

Alex found the “Specialty Desert” bar. There was a huge grin on his face as we watched him make his way back to our Lido deck table. Lido deck is still the “Lido Deck” but also Deck 17.

Adam has found the gym and is spending a good amount of time there.