25th Anniversary Cruise, Part 7: Pompeii

In this series of posts I'm describing the Mediterranean Cruise my wife Becky and I took in 2018 for our 25th anniversay, Here in Part 7 I'm covering our seventh stop, Pompeii.

Pompeii (★★★★)

Pompeii was marvelous. In terms of historical richness and the amount of things to see, Pompeii delivered more than any other stop on our trip. 

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near Naples that was buried by lava in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The result is a highly-preserved ancient city. It's also a complete city: you can walk it's streets, look into houses and public places and restaurants and so on. It's not possible to see it all in one day, but our excellent tour guide Jose took us to many of the highlights and gave us lots of good information throughout the day.

Pompeii is in pleasant surroundings with picturesque hillsides, trees, and flowers.

Our guide walked us past practice fields for the gladiators and an amphitheatre.

We then proceeded to walk the streets. The Pompeiians were pretty sophisticated. There were stone blocks to step on so upper-class citizens could avoid walking in garbage. There were shells embedded in the streets to provide reflective illumination at night.

"Your Money is Welcome Here"

Seeing Roman homes was impressive. Some homes had impressive floor tiles. Wall mosaics were common.

Public baths with hot and cold water; and a restaurant kitchen.

We also saw some of the casts made of bodies.

Inside this arch you can see Mount Vesuvius.

That's about all we had time for, but despite seeing a lot there's far more to Pompeii. We certainly felt Pompeii didn't disappoint.

Previous: Part 6: Rome

25th Anniversay Cruise, Part 6: Rome

In this series of posts I'm describing the Mediterranean Cruise my wife Becky and I took in 2018 for our 25th anniversay, Here in Part 6 I'm covering our sixth stop, Rome.

Rome (★★★★)

Like Florence, Rome is an ancient city full of wonders. Like Florence, you can't do Rome justice in a day (or even a week). But a day is better than not visiting at all. 

I will admit to some trepidation about visiting Rome; on my very first tour of Europe in 1981, I remember the tour guides talking to themselves: one remarked to the other that he would never do a tour in Rome again because of all the pickpocketing. In preparing for this trip, we were regularly warned against pickpocketing in Europe and especially Rome. We came prepared, with money belts and a watchful attitude. Happily there were no incidents here or anywhere else on our trip.

St. Peter's Basilica

We're not Catholic, so seeing St. Peter's Basilica wasn't of particular interest to us—but if we were going to see the Colosseum, this was part of the tour. It is a very large (holds 60,000) and ornate building, built in 1626. It is filled to the brim with art, gold, and homages to various popes. It been guarded for centuries by the Swiss Guard.

St. Peter's Basilica and Swiss Guard

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain dates back to ancient Rome and is one of the most famous fountains in the world. It is the terminal point of an aqueduct started in 19 B.C. The fountain underwent an overhaul in 1732 where it became more ornate and baroque. The palace behind the fountation is the Palazzo Poli.

Trevi Fountain

We enjoyed some gelato while taking in the fountain.

Roman Lunch

We had a group lunch at the Albergo Mediterraneo. It included bread, wine, pasta, veal, espresso, and dessert and was very good.

Lunch in Rome

Colosseum

Our next stop wa the Colosseum, one of the "must see" sights in Rome. Just past the Arch of Constantine and ruins of the Forum is the colosseum. The Colosseum is the a great oval amphitheatre whose walls are partly gone. According to Wikipedia it's the largest amphitheatre ever built and could hold 50,000-80,000 spectators.

The Colosseum

Our tour guide was talking fast and was hard-to-understand, unfortunately. After a few talks, we were left to explore on our own. Fortunately, I'd seen enough documentaries on the Colosseum to understand something of its design and history.

Catacombs

We next saw the catacombs, burial places for Christians used from the 2nd to 5th centuries. Unfortunately, photographs were not permitted. The catacombs are labyrinths of subterranean passages with niches for corpses. 

This place kind of gave me the creeps: there are many tight spaces that give rise to claustrophobia; and one could easily get lost here. It was however nice and cool in contrast to what had otherwise been a very hot day.

Back on the Ship

After a fascinating but also a very long day, we returned to the Crown Princess and had dinner in the main dining room. I enjoyed a Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, and Gazpacho. I'd never had Gazpacho beore and I loved it. Becky had roast pork.

Eating Well in the Main Dining Room

Previous: Part 5: Florence
Next: Part 7: Pompeii

25th Anniversary Cruise, Part 5: Florence

In this series of posts I'm describing the Mediterranean Cruise my wife Becky and I took in 2018 for our 25th anniversay, Here in Part 5 I'm covering our fifth stop, Florence.

Florence (★★★★)

Florence is famous for being the birthplace of the Renaissance, without which we'd all be leading significantly more mundane lives. Having to see Florence in a single day is a sin, but it's better than not seeing Florence at all. 

Our first view of Florence after jumping off the tour bus was exciting, and that feeling continued throughout the day. Every corner we turned had something significant to see, whether it was the natural beauty of Tuscany or a work of architecture.  

Walking through Florence

Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the most important art museums in the world.  It is crammed full of a massive amount of art. We unfortunately had a short time here, and as our tour guide whisked us from one room to the next I knew that for each masterpiece we were shown there were 100 we had to skip past. It also didn't help that every single person in there was trying to take pictures at the same time. It is nicely arranged so that you can see the progression of art styles over time.

Statue of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Patron of Renaissance Culture

If I ever have the opportunity to return to Florence, I'd want to spend a lot more time here. Even as we were being whisked own corridors, I realized that even the ceiling above our heads were covered in artwork

Serious Art

Some of the key works in the Uffizi Gallery are from Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael. In particular I remember The Birth of Venus by Botticelli.

The Birth of Venus

The best city shot of Florence I got was actually looking out the window from one of the floors of the Uffizi gallery: 

Piazza della Signoria

The Uffizi Gallery is adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria, the historic center of Florence. This was a marvelous place to look about and take in the essence of Florence. We enjoyed espresso there.

Piazza della Signoria

Lunch

Once again a chance to eat Italian food in Italy! Our tour included lunch as a group at Osteria dei Baroncelli, right around the corner from the Uffizi Gallery. The restuarant had an ornate interior, fitting for its location. Lunch included bread, wine, a pasta starter (enthusiastically served family style from the largest serving bowl I have ever seen), veal, salad, and Tiramisu. 

A Delicious Italian Lunch

Walk Across Florence

The other art gallery on our itinerary was the Accademia, where Michalangelo's David is housed—but that's quite some distance away. We walked across Florence for what felt like miles; inspiring sights to see, but also hot and tiring.

The Long March across Florence

On the way, we saw the Duomo from the outside. The dome is a familiar symbol of Florence, but I hadn't realized the dome was part of a much larger structure, a majestic cathedral building.

Duomo

We also saw the Florence Baptistery, with bronze doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti containing detailed Old Testament scultures. Michelango called them "The Gates of Paradise."

The Gates of Paradise

Accademia

Finally we made it to the other art gallery, the Accademia. This gallery contains major works from Michelangelo included his statue David. The status was originally in the Piazza della Signoria where a replicate still stands, but the original was moved to the gallery in order to protect it.

Art by Michelango

The biggest draw in the gallery is of course the David statue. An awful lot of people were perpetually surrounding the statue, including art students.

David

Florence was a wonderful place to visit, and we give it 4 stars. We really wished we had more time there.

Previous: Part 4: Portofino

Next: Part 6: Rome