We arrived in Venice on June 28 at the end of our 9-night Celebrity cruise.  We stayed at the Hotel Antiche Figure which is right on the Grand Canal across from the train station.  This is a great location to transfer from the cruise ship and then to eventually take a train (or plane) out of Venice.  A few people took a taxi to the main square with their luggage while most took the convenient People Mover to the square.  It is a short walk to the hotel from the square but there are two small bridges you must go over.  We highly recommend this hotel when you stay in Venice!
 
Our guide Eva took us on an afternoon tour to see some of the areas of Venice such as the Santa Croce and San Paulo districts.  We had been introduced to Eva by her sister Susanna who we had found on a Tours By Locals excursion during a cruise the previous year.  Our tour went on to the Dorsoduro district where we viewed a Gondola factory.  We were told how this took great craftsmanship to create the boats and the expertise was passed down by each generation.  The blade on the front of each gondola represents the regions of Venice flowing through the Grand Canal.  Eva took our group to St Marks plaza and provided some of the history of Venice and the Doges.  At one time, Venice was a very powerful and wealthy empire that controlled many areas south of the city.  The Doges (dukes) were elected from the many wealthy families of the time who all owned palaces along the Grand Canal.  Eva gave our group a great introduction to Venice and we agreed to have one last tour with her the morning of our departure.  After the tour we took a gondola ride to get the full appreciation of floating around the canals in a very traditional way.   That evening we ate at a restaurant on the grand canal that had been recommended by our hotel.
 
On the second day, our hotel arranged for a few private water taxis to take us to Murano to see the glass blowing factories.  We then planned to take a vaporetto to Burano to see this colorful fishing village.  Many times, the large glass manufacturers will pay for the water taxis of tourists hoping they will buy something.  Well boy, were they right!  After a great glass blowing demonstration, we walked through the galleries admiring all the works of art.  We bought enough that the glass manufacturer paid for a private water taxi for us to go to Burano!  This little fishing village in Burano is known for the colorful buildings painted in these bright colors to help the fisherman find their way back to the island.  There are hundreds of shops and restaurants on this island.  After finishing our shopping and having a little lunch we headed back on a vaporetto to our hotel.  That evening we had a very nice dinner at a restaurant near St. Marks Square that we had eaten at before.
 
Our last day we got up early to take one last tour which was more of boat ride on a vaporetto with some information provided by Eva on what we were seeing.  We think our group received some great knowledge of Venice during the short duration they were there.  Early in the afternoon we headed to the train station for our trip to central Italy where we were to meet Eva’s sister, Susanna.
 
When we arrived at the Orte Train Station in central Italy, Susanna and some of her friends brought cars to pick us up and take us to Vetralla where she lives.  It was somewhat humorous watching us take our many pieces of large luggage and fitting it into these vehicles.  Fortunately, one of the vehicles was a large van and we were able to get everything in and drive on to Vetralla.  When we got there, we went directly to Susanna’s garden which had been set up with a very long table to seat 20 people.  Susanna is an opera singer, when she is not a tour guide, and she built the garden as a small theater to perform opera.  We were there to have a few appetizers, but our group was starving after a long train ride.  It turns out the few appetizers, turned into many appetizers that our group could not finish.  These appetizers were unique Italian dishes that our group loved.  While eating we had some great conversation with Susanna, her husband and some of her friends who were there.  After eating these appetizers and drinking some wine, we were taken to our rooms.  We were staying in some of the residences in the village.  Each couple had their own bedroom and bathroom but there were 6 or 7 people living in each apartment or house.  The places were very nice, but they did not have air conditioning and only a few had fans.  Even with the windows open many of these bedrooms were warmer than what we are use to.  We Americans do love our air conditioning!
 
The next morning, we got up and went to the local café where we were treated to a free pastry and coffee as part of our lodging package.  We walked from there to a nice bus which took our group on our tour.  Susanna’s husband, Rudolph, took us on the tour since she was busy getting ready for her show that afternoon.  Our tour started down the Cassia Road which is one of the roads where the expression “all roads lead to Rome” came from.  It was one of the most important roads of its day (2000 years ago).  The area we were in was originally populated by the Etruscans who lived there before the Romans starting in 600 BC.  In 300 BC the Romans conquered the Etruscans and their empire began.  We went to Viterbo which is one of the best-preserved Roman cities and is also were the Pope lived and ruled in the 13th century.  Every year there is a festival there where 100 men carry a 100-foot statue of Saint Rose to the church.  We went on to Bolsena to see the Basilica of Santa Cristina.   This basilica houses the remains of two miracles.  The first is about Cristina who was born to a rich governor of the area and wanted her to be a Pagan Princess.   Instead she was visited by an angel and proclaimed Christianity as her true religion.  When her father tortured her in many ways, she continued to be devoted to her Christianity beliefs.  She was eventually a martyr when she was beheaded and eventually a saint.  Another miracle occurred in this basilica when a priest, Peter, on a pilgrimage to Rome was having doubts about his beliefs and wanted a sign to help guide him.  He received this sign when his consecrated host began to bleed.  This Basilica of Santa Cristina holds remnants of both miracles.  We were fortunate to have an English-speaking priest in the church who allowed us to take some pictures that were not normally allowed.  He also explained what we were seeing in the basilica.  We took a few pictures with him, even though he was embarrassed because he was only wearing shorts and t-shirt.
 
We then went to Hostaria del Ponte in Lubriano to have lunch and watch a special opera presentation by Susanna and her friends.  We had a very nice lunch in this pretty fancy restaurant, as we watched a very entertaining opera.  Besides Susanna, her husband, another friend and a singer from Rome came to entertain us.   It was humorous and interesting along with some great singing!  Most all songs were in Italian, but it really didn’t make much difference.  Everyone in our group enjoyed the experience, it was awesome!
 
The tour ended with a trip to Civita de Bagnoregio which is the “dying city”!  This was one of our favorite sights to visit when we first saw it with Susanna over a year ago.  It was built on a hilltop 2500 years ago by the Etruscans but over the last 500 years or so earthquakes and erosion continue to decrease the size of this city.  Now the city is surrounded by cliffs on all sides.  The hilltop city has now turned into a city on a pedestal.  Where you could once just walk out of the city on a road, today they must use a long pedestrian only walkway that hovers over 50 feet above the valley below.  Only 6 to 15 people live full time in this city.  It is truly a unique sight to see if you ever have the opportunity.
 
The following day we took a train down to Rome.   During our cruise we had already stopped in Rome for one day, but since most of our group had never been to Rome, we came back to Rome for 4 nights after the cruise. There is so much to see in Rome we knew that one day would not be enough.
 
On our one-day trip from the cruise port, Civitavecchia, our group took a train that had been pre-booked, directly to the large Roma Termini Station.  From there we walked around to visit some of the main sights.  We saw the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain first.  It is interesting to note that the Trevi Fountain was built so that ancient Romans could get their daily water which the aqueducts brought in from the mountains into the city.  We then took a quick visit to the Pantheon before heading over to Campo de’ Fiori to have a little lunch.  From there we headed back to the Termini with some quick viewing of the Colosseum and the Vittorio Emanuele building.   This was a long walk for our group of just over 10 miles.
 
When we came back to Rome on July 2nd by train from Tuscany, most of our group had a tour at the Vatican Museum to go to.  This allowed them to see the Sistine Chapel and the St Peter’s Basilica also.  That evening we had a pleasant dinner at a restaurant in the area where one of our group members knew someone who had a friend that owned the restaurant.  It was actually a very good meal.  The next day we had a full day tour lined up for a golf cart tour (Rolling Rome) that started in the afternoon.  In the morning most people went to St. Peter's Basilica and several of us climbed to the top of the cupola which provides you a great view of both the inside of the basilica but also the outside into the Vatican Gardens and out around the city of Rome.  The golf cart tour started with a guided tour of the Colosseum and some of the surrounding area (Constantine’s Arch and Palatine Hill).  After seeing this we had an early dinner (part of the tour) and then did a night tour on the golf carts.  They took us by Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps before going up to Villa Borghese to take some nice sunset pictures of Rome.  While we were there a young Russian couple was there, and the young man proposed to his girlfriend who readily accepted.  It helps to remind you what a romantic city Rome really is.  Our golf cart tour went by the Pantheon at night and Navona Plaza which is always a nice place to visit in the evening.
 
 The next morning half of our group headed back to the US while the rest of us went on another golf cart tour.  This tour took us along the hillside that overlooks the Tiber River and Rome where we learned about the history of the Republic of Rome.  They also took us to the Trastevere area of Rome which has many of the family style restaurants along with a myriad of different shops.  We went by Trajan’s Market which is very well preserved and looks more like a theater.  It is the first indoor shopping mall ever created!  We visited some other sights in ancient Rome including Circus Maximus.  The next day we had one last golf cart tour.  We saw new sights and spent some time inside the Pantheon.  We visited a Malta “consulate” which had a keyhole where you can see the Vatican through it.  The keyhole was especially interesting since you are seeing three countries at the same time.  The keyhole itself is in a building from Malta, while you are looking across Rome (in Italy) and eventually seeing the Vatican (its own country).  We also saw a garden where when you view the Vatican it looks like it gets smaller the closer you get to it because of an optical illusion in how you view it.   We spent time looking at the Ancient Roman Forum and saw the statue of Romulus and Remus with the shewolf were legend has it that Romulus created Rome after killing his twin brother.  It was very enjoyable viewing Rome on these golf carts, and it allowed you to see so much more in a short time.  If you ever get to Rome, consider booking these early because they are not available when you get there.
 
This ended our 3-week trip with our group.  Everyone but us flew back to Atlanta.  We rented a car and spent 7 days driving around Italy before flying to Paris to begin our 3-week river cruise.  Please go to this web link to see the pictures during this part of our trip.
 

Sharon & Greg

​During our Mediterranean cruise we stopped in La Spezia for a day and took a ship’s tour to see Cinque Terre.  We rarely take cruise line excursions, but we did this one because we had a lot of on board credit we needed to spend on the ship.  After the cruise we went back to Cinque Terre, where we spent 4 nights in Monterosso. 
 
Our ship’s tour first started in Portovenere which is not really part of Cinque Terre but has many of the same charms.  It is a little larger town with a fort and medieval church behind the city.  Many of the shops in the city sell pesto which is made in this area of Italy.  You can see some demonstrations on how pesto is made here.  Some of the shops also sell some great tasting focaccia along with the many styles of pizza available.  This town is a tourist haven for people wanting to take tours or ferries to Cinque Terre.  Portoverne is so packed with tourists and locals wanting to go to the beach we had to park our rental car over a mile away from the town when we came back there the second time on our trip.
 
Monterosso was the Cinque Terre town we chose to stay in for 4 nights.  We had found a nice hotel online called the Stella Della Marina Hotel.  It turned out to be a great find and we will certainly go back there if we get another chance.  Breakfast was served on the roof top where we enjoyed a great view of the small town and the ocean.  The manager/owner was extremely nice and helped us plan our daily activities.  On the first day it was a little overcast with rain in the forecast and we decided to postpone our planned walk between towns.  After breakfast the weather looked pretty good and we decided to walk to Vernazza.   This was a 2 ½ mile walk that took about 1 ½ hours because of the many steps you needed to climb.  We later found out we had climbed up and down 1800 feet which were mainly trail steps made of rocks.  There were well over 1000 steps we had climbed up, and then down.  The views leaving Monterosso and arriving in Vernazza were spectacular.  The pictures really do not give it justice to what we saw.  After arriving in Vernazza we took a short 30-minute break admiring the town, and then headed off to Corniglia which was a 3-mile hike that took around 2 hours.  This trip had similar elevation to contend with but not quite as many steps.  About 2/3 of the way through this hike we came upon a small restaurant where we were able to drink a frozen lemonade drink and rest a few minutes.  When we arrived at the city and took some pictures, one of us (we won’t mention names) decided that was enough hiking for the day.  We went to the train station and walked down the 380 steps from the city to the train.  After regrouping in Monterosso with less sweaty clothes we took a train ride to Manarola where you could get some nice sunset views of the sun setting over Monterosso.  We did get some good sunset views but some of the clouds prevented it from being great.  The next day we went back to Manarola for a Pesto Making Tour we had set up.  There we made our own pesto sitting out in a restaurant overlooking the town.  It took some time to make and grind all the basil leaves, but the end result was some really great tasting pesto.  We ate what we made along with some other food the restaurant provided as part of the tour.  It was truly an enjoyable experience.  The tour also included a boat tour to Vernazza in a small boat that allowed us to see a little more of the coastline and Corniglia on the way by.  After the tour we took the train to Riomaggiore which was the furthest town from Monterosso.  We walked around town taking pictures and enjoying the scenery before deciding to take the ferry back to Monterosso.  The ferry allowed us some different views of each town as we made our way to Monterosso.  On our last day Sharon took off on her own to do some more hiking while Greg rested his knees.  She hiked from Manarola to Corniglia and then on to Vernazza.  This first hike was much more difficult because landslides had washed out the easier trail and only a more difficult trail was available.  The scenery viewed though made it all worthwhile.
 
Cinque Terre is a great place to spend some time.  It is probably best known as a national park that was set up so people can hike between the five different towns.  We happened to visit in July when there are thousands of visitors wanting to go to the beaches.  We chose Monterosso to stay at since it is one of the few towns accessible by car.  Once again, we had to park our car well over a mile away from our hotel on top of the mountain and ended up taking a taxi to the car when it was time to leave.  Monterosso is by far the largest of the five towns.  Vernazza is one of the more scenic towns with a few iconic churches in town.  There really isn’t much of a beach here.  There are more boats out in the water in this town than any other.  The next town, Corniglia, is the only town not accessible by the ferry.  It was built higher up and doesn’t have a real natural harbor area.  Manarola has some of the nicest views of any of the towns.  There is a bay area where you can sit up high in one of the restaurants watching the boats go by or people swim nearby.  The last town Riomaggiore, is smaller and only has a narrow outlet where boats come in and out.  All of these towns make great pictures and all of them have some unique history on how they originated.  It is a great place to visit if you get some time.
On our way out of Cinque Terre we stopped at Portofino.  We had been to this small town around 12 years ago on one of our early Mediterranean trips.  We remembered the pastel colored buildings, with the nice sail boats and the focaccia (the first time we ever tried this) in this quaint town.  Our return trip many years later wasn’t as entirely satisfying.  It seemed like this quaint little place had been recreated into a place for rich tourists.  Restaurants and shops seemed to be all high end and some of the charm of the town was lost.  It is still a beautiful place to go.

​Sharon & Greg

​We arrived in Kotor on the 26th of June and Split on the following day.  At both ports we had Tours By Local guides ready to pick us up and take as around their areas.  It is so nice to have a pre-arranged private tour waiting for you at a cost typically lower than you can get with the crowded cruise line tours.
 
Our trip to Split started with a bus ride to Trogir which is a UNESCO site.  It is a small town built back in the 1300’s and was once the cultural city of the area.  We spent some time in the Cathedral of St Lawrence which has some unique sculptures.  We learned about a technique used on this church to remove the dark color caused by aging and exhaust from the many cars in the area.  They use lasers to direct pulses of energy that destroys the dark coloring without damaging the stone underneath.  After our visit to Trogir we went back to Split and were shown the Diocletian Palace, a World Heritage Site.  Diocletian was a famous Roman Emperor who rose up from the ranks of the military and a lower-class family to become emperor.  He was also one of the few Emperors that retired and lived his remaining years at this palace that he built in Split.  The palace had two main structures: The Temple of Jupiter and the octagonally shaped mausoleum.  The mausoleum was turned into Cathedral St Domnius after Diocletian’s death and the rise of Christianity.  After touring the palace for a while we were taken outside to see the old town which surrounds the palace and consists of many winding roads that are loaded with shop and restaurants.  It is an interesting town to visit.
 
Kotor is a beautiful port set in a large bay area that almost looks like a lake when you get through the narrow channel from the sea.  We had to tender into this port as the dock is very small and only accommodates small cruise ships.  The city itself is primarily made up of a very old fortified fort with many shops, restaurants and bars inside.  You can even take a walk around these medieval walls which will take you a few hours.  Our tour took us to some of the key sights such as Perast which is a quaint city where you can take small boats to St George and Our Lady of the Rocks.  These are two tiny islands that have churches on them in the middle of the bay.  The legend of Our Lady of the Rocks dates to the mid 1400’s when two fishermen discovered an icon of the Virgin with Christ on the sea cliff.  They took the icon home, but it was gone the next day having returned to the sea cliff.  They took this as an omen to build a church in the bay.  We continued to drive around the bay to the small town of Tivat which had a nice beach and several fishing boats in the harbor.  We drove a little further to the town of Budva where we saw the little island of Saint Stefan.  Today this island is a 5 star resort.  As we continued on to Kotor we stopped high above where we  got some great views of Kotor.  We went down to the fortress and old city for a while before heading back to the ship.