April 28 - Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy

Yesterday, the 27th, we docked in Naples.  I, along with quite a few of my fellow passengers, stayed on the ship. I don’t particularly like Naples; it’s pretty dirty and can be a little sketchy sometimes.  I’ve been to both Herculaneum and Pompei and while I love the Amalfi coast, going there on a Sunday after Easter could be problematic in terms of crowds and traffic.  So, I made the decision to stay here and I got a haircut.

Here's a photo of Vesuvius from the ship.  We all know what happened here in 79 AD

The Naples waterfront

That's the Amalfi Coast off in the distance.  So near and yet so far.

This morning we anchored off Giardini Naxos on the island of Sicily.  This is one island I’ve never been to and I’ve been looking forward to it.  Sicily is the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean.  It lies off the southeastern tip of the Italian peninsula from which it is separated by the Strait of Messina. The island is roughly triangular in shape and is mostly hilly.  The eastern coast near where we anchored is dominated by Mt. Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe at a little over 11,000 feet.  I managed to get a little glimpse of the peak this morning before I went ashore. Later in the day the top was shrouded in clouds.

Mt. Etna before it became hidden by clouds

I took a tour to the village of Castelmola and  the town of Taormina which I had been told were the most beautiful places in Sicily. (It was a hard choice though because I love The Godfather film and there was a tour that went to places related to the movie.)  We had an excellent guide named Giovanna who provided more information about the history of the place than I can remember or recount.  I’ll try to give a brief synopsis which might help me remember some of it and who knows? It may come up in trivia one day.

Evidence of human habitation dating back to 14,000 BC has been found on Sicily.  There were several Phoenician and Greek settlements  along its coasts by the 7th century BC.  The island is in a strategic place dividing the eastern and western Mediterranean and so its control played a part in the Sicilian wars between Carthage and Greeks and the Punic wars between Carthage and Rome, all before the Christian era.  After the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily was ruled by a succession of groups including Vandals, Goths, the Byzantine Empire and Saracens.  In the late 11th century the Normans conquered the island and controlled it.  In the 12th century it became the Kingdom of Sicily and remained so for several centuries under various dynasties including the Spaniards from Aragon, the Dukes of Savoy in southern France and the Hapsburgs in Austria. Finally in 1860 it became part of the newly unified country of Italy.  That’s a very short version of what I remember from Giovanna’s talk about it.  

We boarded a small bus at the tender dock and headed up one of the most twisting, white-knuckle roads I’ve been on lately. The road was literally one switchback after another as we climbed to the top of a hill to the village of Castelmola. I don’t think there’s a single flat piece of land in this part of Sicily.  Along the way we saw lots of olive trees and, amazingly, growing out of rock there were loads of prickly pear cactus. The contrast of colors from the lush green hills going down to  meet a shoreline dotted with black lava rocks with the sapphire blue water washing ashore was spectacular. 

A view from the twisty winding road

You can see just a few of the bends in the road.

Castelmola is built around the ruins of a 16th century Norman castle.  The houses are all built of stone with little twisting alleyways along which there are balconies festooned with flowers on the second floor and some little shops on the street level.  We first went into a café where we had a small glass of almond wine, an almond cookie and a cup of orange juice with a raspberry sorbet scoop. Then we had an opportunity to walk around the village taking in the spectacular views.   We could look down on the town of Taormina, which was to be our next stop and is midway up the hillsides.  Further below was the beautiful blue Ionian Sea with our ship anchored in the bay of Giardini Naxos.  The little piazzas in Castelmola are paved with black and white stones in geometric patterns and even some of the main street is paved that way too. One of the attractions of the village is a place called the Bar Turrisi, the Phallic Bar.  I’ll let you figure that out.  I didn’t go in but friends did and evidently everything in the place including the glasses wine is served in and the faucets in the bathrooms are shaped like a phallus.

A parking lot in Castelmola

I saw this symbol with a three-legged creature with the head of Medusa in several places both in Castelmola and Taormina.  It's evidently been associated with Sicily since the time of the ancient Greeks.  It's called a triskeles or a triskelion.  I was interested because I saw the same symbol on the Isle of Man a couple of years ago and I'd never seen one before.  The triskeles was incorporated into the flag of Sicily in 1848.

I think this is a very interesting symbol

We next drove down the hill to Taormina, a larger town and quite the tourist attraction.  Once again the buildings are made of stone and the main streets are pedestrian only.  The central part of the town is entered through an old stone archway.  The streets are lined with shops including designer brands like Dior and Louis Vuitton. At one end of the main street we came to the ruins of the Greek amphitheater which was built in the 3rd century BC.  Apparently during the high season here the theater is still used for concerts. One of my friends told me she and her husband had heard Andrea Bocelli perform there.  That must have been magical. We had some free time so I looked in a few shops but nothing caught my eye.  

The arched gate to Taormina's main street

Some of the wall surrounding the old town

This and the next several are all from the old town of Taormina.  Perhaps there are more than I should put but I'm in love with this place.

After our stay in Taormina we drove down the hillside back to the tender dock.  Once again I was amazed at the narrowness of the road and the continuous switchbacks.  A few times we encountered  a bus climbing up the hill and I honestly don’t know how the drivers managed to squeeze by.  I came away from these two places wishing I had more time there.  Perhaps one day I can arrange a way to spend a few days in Taormina before boarding a cruise ship nearby. 

April 26 - Porto Santo Stefano, Tuscany, Italy

 We anchored in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy on this gorgeous sunny day. The temperature was perfect and there was little humidity and no strong breeze. I have been to other places along this coast but not this specific town so I booked a panoramic drive. It was a marvelous day! After tendering ashore we boarded a bus to take us around the area. Porto Santo Stefano is on a peninsula which is part of a commune (in Italy that’s an administrative entity that sounds similar to a county to me) called Monte Argentario. That in turn is part of Tuscany. The peninsula was an island in the past but the sea currents over time have connected it to the mainland by two narrow pieces of land called tomboli. I don’t know how it is in high summer but today everything was very lush and green.

Porto Santo Stefano

Just a pretty sight I saw along the way

Monte Argentario was occupied by Etruscans before the Roman era. During the Punic wars between 264 BC and 146 BC a local family was given the area in return for money it lent to the Roman Republic. The peninsula’s name is probably derived from the Latin word Argentarii meaning money lender. In the centuries following it reverted to Empire rule until sometime in the 4th century AD when Constantine the Great ceded the land to the church. During the middle ages the peninsula came under the rule of various dukes ruling different Italian city-states. In the late 16th century the Spanish occupied the area and built to strong forts. It remained Spanish for a couple of centuries until Napoleon came along. Many people don’t know or remember that he made his brother the King of Spain and his sister the Queen of Naples. In short the area was a mess and chaotic for a long time. Following Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, the peninsula once again became a part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and remained that way until 1860 when the modern state of Italy was created. Are you confused? I am because it is a very confusing place historically.

A view from the monastery

Onward to my tour. Our first stop was a lovely spot up on the hillside at a monastery called the Convento dei Frati Passionisti. This is a small white building nestled in the trees with a small chapel and the monastery building itself. Our guide Erica told us there are only about 12 monks left and they make a liqueur from herbs they grow in their garden. I had a look around the church and then encountered one the monks. (These don’t take a vow of silence so I had a sort of conversation with my few Italian words and his limited English.)There was a little shop and I bought a bottle of the liqueur; I haven’t a clue what it tastes like and now I have to figure out how to get it home. If it tastes awful, maybe at least it will be medicinal.

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One of the monks with me.  He looked so peaceful and genuinely good.

We left the monastery and headed down to sea level to a town called Orbetello. It lies on one of the strips of land connecting the Monte Argentario to the rest of the mainland. The town is surrounded on both sides by two beautiful lagoons with sparkling blue green water. Near the town is an old mill with a windmill. At one time there were nine of these in the lagoons to mill grain produced in the neighboring area. Now only one remains. As we rode along the causeway I did manage to get this pretty decent photo of a glossy ibis which our guide said are rare to see here. She's some kind of bird naturalist when she's not guiding.

Here's the black glossy ibis

We had a little walk around the town of Orbetello. It was a typical Italian place with fairly narrow streets which allow only vehicles bringing supplies to shops or osterias. There are a couple of squares. The main one had a statue of Garibaldi, the hero and unifier of Italy. I’m not sure what his connection is to Orbetello. I thought Erika said he was born there, but not according to Mr. Google. We had a little free time to walk around and I bought a couple of beautiful scarves. I’m still working on wearing them. The only problem is that if I want to wear one with my dinner outfit, I have to start getting ready at least half an hour early so I have time to stand in front of the mirror and fiddle with it until I’m reasonably satisfied it looks good.

We were waiting for our bus to pick us up in the town at a square by the Duomo, the main church. A wedding party was gathering and we were hoping the bride would arrive before we left, but she didn’t come. Some of the people we guessed were part of the bridal party did arrive and they were splendidly dressed. The ladies were wearing impossibly high stiletto heels with extreme pointy toes. They made my feet hurt just looking at them. That does lead me to one observation I have about the people in these French and Italian ports. On the whole they dress much more stylishly than we Americans do, at least in my part of the world.

That's Garibaldi up there

I liked the name of the shop.  It was a permanent sign.

Leaving Orbetello we crossed the causeway to Monte Argentario and headed back up the mountain to another spectacular viewpoint. Down a narrow road from our stopping point was a little inn which Erika told us was a place that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton would go to for a romantic tryst when they were filming in Rome. I can see why it would appeal to them because an idyllic place. From the viewpoint we could see in the near distance the island of Giglio where the Costa Concordia ran aground and sank and its ignominious captain was among the first to abandon ship. Beyond Giglio we could see another of the Tuscan Archipelago, the island of Monte Cristo. That one is famous because Alexandre Dumas made it a setting in his novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Today Monte Cristo is a nature preserve which limits visitors to around 1000 per year.

The island of Giglio

On the left is just a tip of Giglio and behind it you can get a glimpse of Monte Cristo

After taking lots of photos we boarded our coach and headed back down to Porto Santo Stefano. I failed to mention that the little town was heavily bombed during WWII because the Germans had stationed troops there. The town wasn’t rebuilt until the early 1950s. Back on the ship I talked with friends and in the evening Hilary and I met for cocktails before going to dinner with the cruise director. Hilary’s birthday was Easter Sunday but the ship surprised her with a celebration today. We had very nice dinner companions and afterwards went up to the Observation Bar to listen to my favorite duo up there. I went to the Club later but the music wasn’t my kind of dance music so I left before midnight. 

I don't like photos of me, but here are Hilary and me last night

and here's tonight, formal night taken with Hilary's phone.

 All in all it was another wonderful day. I know I’ve written way too much, but I want to remember these good times and writing about them helps me. For now Buona notte.

April 25 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

 Here we are in Monte Carlo on a turn-around day when people are disembarking and embarking.   I'm glad my day to leave hasn't arrived yet.  I do have a very dear friend coming on so I'm excited.  I'm taking it easy today since yesterday was busy.  Besides I'll be back here in a week or two.

Many of us know Monte Carlo as a playground for the rich and richer.  Judging by the yachts in the harbor around us it must be true.  A fellow passenger told me at breakfast that he saw a sign on one mega-yacht that said it was for charter for $144,000 per DAY!  The Seabourn Ovation will have to suffice as my yacht.  

Monte Carlo is an independent principality ruled by the Grimaldi family.  Here's a trivia answer for you. It's the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican.  Many of us of my age know it as the place where Grace Kelly became a princess and then tragically met her death in a car crash on one of the winding roads on the hillsides around.

As I said I'm relaxing on the ship but I took a few photos and since uploading worked, I'll add them.  This also makes me caught up for the moment.  If the internet continues to cooperate I'll try in the coming days to upload some pictures from the places I missed.  I'm so happy that it's working again. Ciao for now.

Monte Carlo waterfront

Looks like a church doesn't it?  It's the casino.

Just a few of the yachts and another glimpse of the high-rises ashore

April 24 - Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

NEWS FLASH! I CAN UPLOAD PHOTOS AGAIN!  I DON'T KNOW WHAT CHANGED, BUT HOORAY!

We weren’t supposed to be here today; we were scheduled to go to La Ciotat, France which is not too far from Marseille.  However, gale force winds were expected and evidently the anchorage there isn’t sheltered so tendering is problematic.  Villefranche-sur-Mer is on the French Riviera between Nice and Monaco and a beautiful deep-water sheltered bay.  So here we are.

I realize I skipped a day because yesterday when we anchored off Cannes I decided it was time for a sea day.  My excuses were that it was a long tender ride and I’d been there several times before.  It’s a great place from which to go inland to St. Paul de Vence (which I love) or to Grasse (the mother ship for perfume), but I wasn’t up for a long bus ride.  So voilà, sea day and nothing to write about.

That's Cannes from my veranda. Hard to tell from this distance.

The ship’s staff scrambled to come up with some shore excursions and one sounded like just my thing – a panoramic drive along the Riviera from Nice to Monte Carlo.  My group gathered and tendered ashore to the picturesque town.  These places on the French and Italian Rivieras are so beautiful it practically takes your breath away.

We arrived ashore and our guide was waiting with bad news – the bus was delayed  by traffic (evidently a frequent occurrence on the roads along the coast) and we would have a 45-minute wait.  Even worse was the news that the bus couldn’t come down to pick us up; we had to walk up the hill to a fort above the town to board when it did arrive.  If you’ve been to this part of the world you know that there’s little flat land so the walk up hills is pretty steep.  My knees said ouch at the news.  It was too early for shops to be open in the interim  so I just wandered around a little then set out to make the trek to the bus parking lot. I survived!

These four photos are all of Villefranche-sur-Mer

There are three Corniches (roads) which go along the Riviera from Nice to the Italian border.  Our bus set out on the Basse Corniche, the lower one.  There is very little flat land in this part of the coast.  It’s characterized by rocky hills and sheltered coves with villages and houses perched along the hillsides.  This is the area of France called Provence and in my opinion one of the most beautiful.  As we rode along our guide Cassie (actually a Frenchwoman from Provence!) told us a little about the history.  The Greeks arrived here about 500 BC.  They were followed a couple of hundred years later by the Romans.  For a few hundred years the Pax Romana ensued until the fall of the western Roman empire.  In the medieval time and middle ages the area along the coast fell under the rule of France or various Italian city states depending on who won the latest conflict.  It wasn’t really thought to be worth much because not much could be done with such steep land.  About the only thing that grew well were olive trees and some citrus.  By the 19th century though some wealthy people from more northern parts of Europe began to come to spend the winter months in the more appealing climate.  Where previously there were only fishing villages, now the hillsides began to be dotted with villas where the wealthy could escape snow and ice. Those people liked some entertainment and casinos began to open where they could while away the time gambling.

The Corniche road has mainly views like this of the coast when one isn't driving through a village.

In a village you pass buildings like this one with the wrought iron balconies and wooden shutters

Both nobles and royals built large villas.  One of the grandest was built by King Leopold II of Belgium.  He built a large villa on Cap Ferrat, one of the peninsulas along the coast, and he amassed large tracts of land around it.  Cassie said that not so very long ago a portion of the property came up for sale and the asking price was 446€, that’s close to $510 million! An interesting piece of information about casinos is that originally only men were allowed to enter and bet.  In the early 20th century a member of the Rothschild family, Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild bought land and built a villa on Cap-Ferrat.  Her villa and its beautiful gardens are sometimes open to the public, but what I was getting to is that she loved to gamble and she was definitely a high-stakes gambler.  Italy and France which owned parts of the land on the Riviera at the time had laws prohibiting women from gambling.  Monaco, which was an independent principality, could make its own rules so they decided to allow women into their casino to gamble.  They knew a good thing in terms of money-making.

We drove  along the Corniche through Monte Carlo which is getting ready for the Grand Prix of Formula One cars.  There were crews busy putting up chain link fencing along the streets and placing bleachers along the sidewalks.  Along the route the drivers will take all the streets are freshly paved with asphalt so that there are no potholes.  After passing through Monte Carlo we drove up the hillside a little to get to the middle Corniche to make our way back to Villefranche.  At one point before we turned back from the window of the bus I could see three peninsulas, one Italian, one Monacan, and one French.

A roundabout in Monte Carlo

Some of the many, many apartments on the hillside in Monte Carlo. I didn't get many photos riding in the bus

More Monte Carlo

On our way back we stopped at the medieval village of Eze.  I’ve been there a few times years ago when I was younger and more fit.  In fact, one of Al’s favorite walking sticks was an olive wood one we bought somewhere in Eze.  The village is perched atop a rocky hill on the French coast.  It’s all old stone buildings with a winding walk with stairs interspersed all the way to the top where there are two ultra-luxury hotels. No cars are allowed on the roads up; they aren’t wide enough.  We stopped for an hour at the foot of the hill.  Unfortunately I didn’t even try to go up because I remember how steep it is and my knees won’t let me anymore.  I stayed below and shopped in the little open-air crafts market below and had a drink at a café.

These are Eze perched up above.  I shall just have to live with my memories because this is as close as I'll get to it now.

You can barely see the buildings at the top as we drove away.

The road at the base of the hill

I thought these flowers were pretty and would brighten up the page

There are lots of perfumeries around here and this is an old vat from one.

Upon leaving Eze we drove west and came to a beautiful viewpoint from which we could see Nice lying below.  Above us out of sight beyond some trees Cassie told us was Sir Elton John’s villa.  This is definitely the home of the very rich and famous.  Then it was time to return to Villefranche and the Ovation.  Once again the bus dropped us at the top of the hill by the fort overlooking the bay and we had to walk down to the waterfront.  For anyone who doesn’t know it let me tell you that walking down a steep incline or steps can be more uncomfortable than going up.  I made it and in fact when I checked my steps in the evening I’d gone over 10,000 steps and about 10 flights of stairs.  Not bad for an old lady!

Nice from the overlook we stopped at

Just one of the many lovely villas we saw along the way

Tonight was the last night for many of the passengers.  We drift overnight to Monte Carlo where they will disembark and we get a bunch of new cruisers.  I’m sad to see some of my new friends go, but I know I’ll see some of them again. Anyway, I’ll still be here.  So bonne nuit for now.