Sunday June 20th

Sunday, June 29th

Today was our 3rd port in 3 days...if it's Sunday it must be Rome! After leaving Barcelona, we sailed across the way to Monte Carlo. We've been here before so we decided to just stay in town and visit the Oceanographic Museum, which was directed by Jacques Cousteau for more than 30 years. It was a wonderful place to visit and the displays were terrific. It was a very hot day and we walked quite a long way, so we were really pooped by the time we got back to our digs! Speaking of digs, we the third room in on the balcony in the middle of the picture. Monte Carlo is very beautiful at night and our view was perfect as we left port at 11pm. The next port was Livorno, where we were up at the crack of dawn for our trip to the Cinque Terre. This consists of 5 small towns clinging to the cliffs above the Mediterranean, all connected by a walkway carved into the cliffs. We were on a bus to the small town of Manarola where we toured the town and then started out on the "via dell'amore" to the next town, Riomaggiore. Again we toured the town and then boarded a boat to the last town, Vernazza, where we toured and then had time for lunch. We had a great meal with Judy and Abe, including a bottle of Prosecco (?). Now on to the train and finally back to the bus for our transfer back to the ship! This was a "walk intense" day and our legs felt like they'd fall off. We fell into the bed and slept the sleep of the dead! Today we were up a tad later. I loaded myself with Tylenol and we headed for the bus again.. this time to the Etruscan countryside of Tuscany outside of Rome. We visited the 6th to the 1st century BC tombs of Tarquinia, the Etruscan burial ground. Next we visited the Palazzo Vitelleschi, an Archeological Museum containing great displays from ancient tombs. We had a wonderful lunch in a local restaurant, then we stopped at Lake Bolsena and a couple of other small towns including Tuscania, before heading back to the ship. I could not walk through the last town, as my body gave up! I waited on a bench while everyone else walked on! We were more than pooped when we returned to our digs tonight! How do people live on so many cliffs and hills??? We have a 1:00pm arrival tomorrow in Messina (Sicily) and we are looking forward to sleeping in!