Cruise Days 6 and 7- At Sea and Mallorca

After a day at sea spent exercising, reading, eating, and swimming on board the ship, our final stop was Palma, Mallorca. We knew just which beach we wanted to go to based on our trip to Mallorca with Brandon one year ago; thankfully, we took a taxi instead of renting (crashing) scooters. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed our day of relaxation in the sun after a week of hard-core touring.

At Portals Nous beach

Arriving in Mallorca by boat provided views that we wouldn't have had otherwise. For example, we had no idea that these mountains were the backdrop of Palma!

Cruise Day 5- Sorrento, Capri, and Naples

Next stop- Naples, sometimes referred to as "the armpit of Italy". Unfortunately, this description is somewhat consistent with our initial impression. In Naples' defense, we didn't venture into the city center, but the streets near the port were dirty and poorly maintained. Additionally, after disembarking the ship, we were immediately confronted by a group of eager (that's putting it nicely) taxi drivers vying for our business, some of whom were in a heated screaming match with each other. Luckily, we made it to the train station via bus as soon as possible and headed about one hour south to Sorrento.

In Sorrento, we visited L'Agruminator, a small lemon and orange grove. When the owners saw us carrying a Rick Steves guidebook, they excitedly told us that he had visited just a couple of years ago and gifted us with a complimentary, freshly-picked orange and lemon. The orange was delicious and the lemon was so fragrant and beautiful that I carried it around in my backpack all day before reluctantly throwing it away upon our return in Naples. 

Next, we walked around what appeared to be Sorrento's main square, Piazza Tasso...

...and ventured onto the narrow, old streets filled with countless shops selling everything lemon- lemon candy, limoncello (lemon flavored liquor), and ceramic lemon artwork. Various stands were also selling giant lemons. In the picture below, the lemons on the left are the size of "normal" lemons, and the lemons on the right were literally the size of softballs.












In addition to lemon accented artwork, Sorrento seemed to specialize in intarcio (inlaid wood) works, seen below in this station of the cross found in the cathedral.

Here is the Sorrento Men's Club, adorned with a frescoed 16th-century dome.

Finally, we ventured into a windy, cliffside square that provided some great views of the coastline.

In lieu of beaches, they appear  to build "beach clubs" on docks/piers in the water.

From Sorrento, we took a hydrofoil boat to the island of Capri, followed by a funicular from the marina to Capri Town, followed by a bus to Anacapri, followed by a chair lift to Monte Solaro, pictured directly below. Let's count- that's 6 different forms of transportation in one day (cruise ship, train, hydrofoil, funicular, bus, and chair lift)- probably a first and last for both of us.

Faraglioni Rocks and Bay of Naples from the 1,900 foot summit of Monte Solaro

 

We decided to hike back down to Anacapri rather than take the chair lift, but because we had already purchased our return hydrofoil tickets to Naples, we ended up running down the mountain to make it back in time (we still had a bus and funicular to catch before returning to the marina). Although we were not too pleased with our decision for most of the run down, we felt vindicated when that hiking trail led us to a bus stop that was one stop before Anacapri, meaning that we avoided a 30-minute line of people waiting for the approximately 15-passenger bus that is required to get back to Capri Town. Long story short, if we wouldn't have hiked, we would have most likely missed our expensive hydrofoil boat ride back to Naples.

 











Back on the ship, Matt was able to get some pictures of Naples' Mount Vesuvius, and later, the sun beginning to set over the water. All in all, a tiring, but very good day.

Cruise Day 4- Rome

Our third stop was the port of Civetecchia, Italy, located a little more than an hour by train from Rome. Although we hadn't planned to return to Rome during this three-year stint in Europe, we were happy to see the main sights for a second time at a more relaxed pace and to capture some of the amazing views with a camera that could do them justice.

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

For lunch, we grabbed a seat on a fountain outside the Pantheon and shared a surprisingly good pesto, tomato, and mozzarella panini sandwich followed by really great gelato (Matt's tasted like real homemade vanilla ice cream) from Cremeria Monteforte, a Rick Rec, located directly right of the Pantheon.

Roman Forum

Colloseum

We weren't sure if we'd have enough time to make it to Vatican City but Matt's excellent navigation skills throughout the day left us with plenty of time to soak in St. Peter's Square one more time...

Arrivederci, Roma!

Cruise Day 3- Florence and Pisa

Our second port of call was Livorno, located about 30 minutes from Pisa and 1 hour from Florence. We had a done quite a bit of research before the trip in an attempt to avoid paying steep prices for cruise line excursions, which came in particularly handy on Day 3. There wasn't a single excursion that included both main attractions of this region (Michelangelo's David and The Leaning Tower of Pisa), and in hindsight, there is probably a reason- our day felt a bit like the Amazing Race. We had a little more than an hour to disembark the boat with hundreds of other cruise passengers, make our way to a shuttle bus that would take us into the city center, and then locate and wait for a city bus that would take us to the Livorno train station in time to catch the next available train to Florence. Although we found our way to the correct bus stop, the bus was not running on schedule. After a few seconds of deliberation, we made a game-time decision and hired a taxi to drop us at the train station instead. Thanks to our past experiences of purchasing train tickets from self-service kiosks, Matt was able to speedily buy our tickets, we ran to the correct platform, and avoided wasting an hour of precious time in Livorno waiting for the next train.

We had read quite a bit about the lines to see Michelangelo's David at the the Galleria dell'Accademia, but since we couldn't guarantee what train we would catch (see above), we couldn't really book tickets in advance as is often recommended. We waited in line for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Thankfully, the line wrapped around a few buildings that could be leaned on, I had a book, and we were able to take turns venturing out of line to grab lunch and italian ice as well as take photos of the surrounding area.

David was worth the wait. He was much larger than we expected (17 feet tall) and had a life-like quality that seemed to create the illusion that his chest was rising and falling with breath. We were pretty floored when we realized, only after entering the museum, that photography was not allowed!  If you waited in line for nearly 2 hours, wouldn't you want a picture? Matt did a pretty excellent job of snapping a perfect renegade photo, despite an overzealous museum employee's best attempts to prevent photography.

After leaving the museum, we had just enough time to snap some photos of the impressive Duomo (Cathedral), before heading back to the train station to take a train to Pisa. It would be great to return to Florence sometime again to see the rest of the city.

Duomo

The leaning (bell) tower is located in Camp dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles), Pisa's religious center, along with a cathedral, baptistery, and cemetery. Interestingly, these four Pisan Romanesque buildings represent the main events in every Pisan's life- baptism, marriage, being honored in ceremonies, and death.

The tower itself is nearly 200 feet tall, 55 feet wide, weights 14,000 tons, and leans at a 5-degree angle. It started leaning almost immediately after construction began in 1173, with at least three different architects attempting to correct the problem over two centuries. Gravity is still taking its toll on the slowly falling tower, so more recently, tons of soil were removed from the non-leaning side to encourage counter sinking.

Cruise Day 2- Monaco

Our first stop was Monaco, a small sovereign city-state (0.74 sq miles, smaller than NYC's Central Park) surrounded by France on three sides. The was probably the most scenic of all ports we experienced. Due to the size of the port and our ship, we had to take passenger boats to shore.

The annual Monaco Grand Prix ended the day before our arrival...

Once in Monaco, we made our way to the Old Town, Monaco-Ville, where we visited the 13th-century Prince's Palace.

 

We also visited the Monaco Cathedral, where Princess Grace and Prince Ranier were married.

Next, we made our way to Monte Carlo, home of the Grand Casino. This funky picture is of the casino as reflected in a silver dish located in front of the building.













We ended our day at Larvotto beach for lunch and sun before returning to the boat.

Cruise Day 1- Norwegian Jade

In an effort to see as many places as possible before our departure from Europe, we decided to take a 7-day, Western Mediterranean cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). NCL sets itself from other cruise lines with their "freestyle cruising" which basically means that there are no set dining times or seating arrangements, and formal attire is not required. We really enjoyed this aspect of the cruise, and were very impressed with our overall cruise experience. There was something very relaxing about coming back to the same room and predictable meal options every night, regardless of what port we had visited that day. Here are some photos of our ship, the Norwegian Jade...

Pool Deck

Views of the Grand Ballroom (Formal Dining Room)

Dinner in the Grand Ballroom