We are back on the road for 12 nights. We had such a good time on our Great Lakes road trip in 2022 that, this summer, we are taking a 12-night Great Lakes cruise. We stayed at the original Four Seasons Hotel last night in Toronto. This morning, we enjoyed a Toronto tour before boarding. […]
Last night we were treated to our most elegant affair ever. Yes ever! In a special surprise dinner, Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, who owns Crystal Cruises hosted all 120+ 2025 world cruisers to a magnificent evening at Palazzo Colonna. It is the largest private residence in Europe. The Colonna family line is 31 generations. They have […]
About 2,000 years ago, in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius (near Naples) had a huge eruption, over 100,000 times stronger than the atom bombs dropped on Japan. Several communities were destroyed including Pompei and Herculaneum. Because we enjoyed our day so much in Pompeii in 2011, we decided to visit today. Herculaneum was covered with 50 to […]
Today we are in Trapani, in the northwest corner of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, and Italy’s southernmost region. It has the lovely European medieval Old Town charm that we have become used to lately. Narrow streets and old buildings are the norm. Given that it is a bit off the beaten path, […]
Today we visited yet another lovely place, Kotor Montenegro. Just cruising in via the bay off the Adriatic coast was a beautiful sight by itself. In the 6th century the Byzantine emperor Justinian I reconstructed the fortress. The old fortified medieval town is characterized by winding streets and squares. Like all of the other old cities, old […]
Zadar is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is one of the most popular Croatian tourist destinations and referred to as “Croatia’s new capital of cool” by The Guardian. The Land Gate, built 1543, was once the main entrance to Zadar. Generally, it is another interesting old town to walk through. Not every building […]
Trieste, pop. 200,000, is in the far northeast section of Italy next door to Slovenia and Croatia. It looks and feels more Austrian than Italian. That can be explained since it was part of the Hapsburg Empire from 1382 to 1918. It was their most important seaport then. The cruise ships, marina, and city […]
Corfu, Greece Corfu is a Greek Island in the Ionian Sea . Like so many others in this part of the world, it is fun to walk around the charming town. Even the old houses are interesting. […]
Monemvasia, the “Gibraltar of the East”, was founded by the Byzantines in the sixth century. The steep sheer rock made for excellant protection. The entrance to the upper town is through a fortified gate about a mile from the bottom. There are no vehicles inside here; just narrow cobblestone streets that wind around old monasteries […]
Behind Santorini, Mykonos is the most popular island in Greece. It is so charming. All the buildings are clean and white. The exception are the churches. They have red roofs. It is loaded with high end shops and great restaurants. The narrow cobblestone streets purposely wind around to confuse strangers. They were built that way […]