Pompeii, Italy

Pompeii was a location I was especially looking forward to seeing.  I have to admit that I was surprised at the population that currently lives here.  Not, really sure why I also live near a volcanic mountain that has erupted in the past.

The drive to Pompeii was very pretty.  I loved the sights over looking the city(ies), up the beautiful mountain sides and looking out towards the ocean.  Always a treat when you live in a landlocked, dry state

I'll be honest, I'm not sure that this photo was taken on that drive.  But, I can say that it was taken in Italy and well lets just say it was

It's crazy to think so many people living their daily lives all just to wiped out at once.  Thankful that I live in a time that science is able to warn us of any upcoming natural threats.  And yes, if they said that the Peaks were going to blow I'd be gone.

 I would have loved to see what this looked like in it's day.  I have no doubt it was quite the site to see.  Beautiful gardens and sculptures

 We wandered all over the park.  Mostly in search of finding the preserved remains

 Unfortunately, the headsets did not work.  Well at least not the English language ones.  Most of them didn't play anything and if they did it was about something nowhere near where we were standing.  It was very frustrating.  I would recommend to anyone going to have a human guide to show you the sites

 We did finally find where the casts of the people were.   There was no way I was leaving without finding them. 

 They have moved the items found to one specific area close to the beginning of the park

Apollo

So many neat sites, items, buildings, and history to see.  Next time I will have to check out Herculaneum

Malta and Gozo

We spent a few days in Malta and Gozo, I believe South of Italy.  But, honestly not sure.  The nice thing about having someone else in charge of the driving. 

 

Since I was completely ignorant about the country of Malta.  I will share with you a few facts.

• It's approx. 122 sq miles
• Official languages English and Maltese.  (according to some locals Maltese is difficult even for native speakers)
• Apparently a lot of movies have been filmed in this area.  The ones they seemed to be the most proud of are "Troy"-2004 and "Popeye"-1980
• Oh and it's gorgeous.  Definitely a must see



 

 Took a tour on these boats.  Which was a short, approx. 20min boat ride.  Around these rock formations, and the clear blue water

 The original plan was a night in Malta and then a night in Gozo.   But, the ship was unable to dock by Gozo due to weather.  So stayed 2 nights in Malta and took a day trip over to Gozo



We were fortunate to have tour guides to show us around. I loved the limestone buildings.  The pops of color made for photo ops around every corner

Yes, they do have cars.  And they even drive them down their small streets .  Crazy to an American whose 2 lane roads would be a 4 lanes here

 

And the views of the ocean

And beautiful clear waters

Driving around the country side

Had lunch at this spot.  Enjoyed some delicious muscles. 

I'm not sure if Malta and Gozo are popular European travel destinations, but I would recommend a visit. Hope to make it back

Windstar Cruise

I decided to do a post separate for the boat itself and will do others for the stops that we made.  We did a ten day cruise leaving from Civitavecchia, about an hours drive from Rome, going down around Sicily and Malta returning to Civitavecchia. 

The cruise was through Windstar.  The boat has about 300 passengers plus crew.  Being smaller it does not have some of the activities of bigger ships.  But, that was fine.  It was actually nice to not have thousands of other people around.

 

 

 

I was definitely more interested doing site seeing at the ports than playing games on a cruise ship. 

The cabins were nice, but small.  I loved being able to unpack my  bag for 10days and not have to worry about lugging it around with me.  Made travel so much easier. 

 

 

 

 

Everyday when we left a port the boat would let out it's sails and play "1492" from the movie Columbus

Our first day on the boat we had a long haul and were on for 24hrs, but it was fine.  We just enjoyed having some time to relax.  We even took a class on the art of folding towels into animals. 





And won a straight razor shave.  There being no men in our cabin we decided just to gift it another passenger

We typically would eat breakfast and dinner on the ship.  Breakfast we pretty much always opted for the buffet.  Which offered quite a few options, cheeses, meats, eggs, fruit, breads, yogurts, etc, etc and always a cappuccino.  Definitely different for me as I am not a coffee drinker, but when in Italy... and it actually was not bad. 



Dinner they had a menu that varied from day to day.  Some of it very good, some of it ok.  We typically would get a bottle of wine and have it for a couple of nights and sit and enjoy the wine, an appetizer, a meal and dessert. 

 



 

They did have two specialty restaurants on board that you were given a night at each.  Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit sick from the boat on the one of those nights and so didn't enjoy the meal as much as I might have otherwise. 

Most of the other passengers were couples and honestly not always friendly, but we did make friends with another mother/daughter team

Saw some beautiful sights and even spotted a dolphin

I've never been one to think of going on a cruise, but would definitely do something like that again.   Basically was just a moving hotel room.  Super convenient and saw amazing sites

 

Rome, Italy

Had an opportunity to go the Italy thanks to my cousin Scott and his now wife Patricia for deciding to get married there.  The trip was amazing and it is not easy deciding what photos to post or what to say

 



Thanks to my mom's frequent flyer miles we were able to ride in style to Rome.  Definitely a huge difference from coach seats.  They give you free wine, the seats fully recline and you are given a bag with socks, toiletries and a mask for sleeping

and to make it even better when we landed we were in Italy.  Not a bad way to start the trip

  We spent the first three days touring around Rome.  Acclimating to pasta, pizza, and wine

We arrived early in the morning and were unable to get into out hotel, so dropped off the bags and just started wandering around.

Honestly, it felt like it didn't matter which direction we wandered off in. And could see how people could just explore this city for days and days and still not discover it all

The Trevi Fountain.  Definitely a lot of tourists.

We wandered on our own for two days and found some pretty interesting spots

And enjoyed finding places where we could sit outside and enjoy some lunch.  I appreciate the relaxed, take your time atmosphere they have and not feeling rushed to finish your meal. But, at times it just felt like it took forever to be acknowledged.

The Spanish steps (135 Steps) which actually surprised me to see that.  There were a lot, but I never would have guessed that much

 Our third day we actually had a guide.  I was very happy we did this because the lines to get in to the Colosseum and the Vatican would have taken hours

 Popes perspective looking out over the Vatican

 Swiss Guards

 Inside the Vatican.  There were beautiful murals everywhere

 And maps of Italy.  I was surprised at how big it is.

 The one place that they did not allow photographs taken was in the Sistine Chapel.  It was nice to be in there and not have a 100 cameras going off.

 I thought this stairway was pretty cool.  It is actually two separate staircases.  One for people going up and one for people going down.

 The Colosseum.  Was constructed in about 80AD and could seat around 80,000 spectators.  Not every fight was to the death.  But, they would put humans up against wild animals naked and with no weaponry.  I'm not even sure how that would be interesting to watch.

Over looking Rome

Here are just a few more photos.  Not joking when I say that every direction was a photo op

Vittorano Monument

And another photo of a random street

Then off to our next adventure a 10day cruise.  Love being able to explore Italy