# 47
   .  .  .   and beyond

The Map

For those people that have been keeping track of where our ship was going on our cruise here's the map.

Sep 26  Civitavecchia.
Sep 27  La Spezia and Cinqua Terre,
Sep 28  Cannes (home of the film festival)
Sep 29  Mallorca (where I bought pearl earrings)
Sep 30  Barcelona
Oct 01 at sea
Oct 02  Malta (where we bought hats)
Oct 03  Corfu
Oct 04  Messina (met Rosemary and Armand)
Oct 05  Naples (trip to Pompeii)
Oct 06  Civitaveccia

Home many ports of call did you recognize?

# 46
    .  .  .   and beyond  

More pics  


The secluded hot tub 4 decks above our room.  There was seldom anyone else here.  Quiet area.

 Near the signature and hand print of Paul McCartney, we found one for Sly Stalone.   There were so many prints, from so many decades!

 How it looked from our balcony when the azipods were taking the ship out of the harbour.  Incredible colour!







This ancient olive tree was the focal point of the town square.  I bought some pearl earrings because this island is famous for their pearls.

# 45
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Missing Pics

Have you ever had that "ahaa" moment?  That moment when you get the little light bulb above your head?  You remember!  The memory card for our new camera wouldn't fit into the port of my tablet, so we used a mini card with an adapter.  There were over 100 pictures on the big memory card that was stored in the camera case in it's little plastic envelope.  I found the missing pics  ALL OF THEM!

The interior of our cabin




   

The incredible balcony                                                                     The infinity pool up top
                                                                                                         

                                                       








Some of the hot tubs                                                                         Retractable roof pool
    and another big pool                                                                      with more hot tubs
                                                                                                             

# 44
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Orentano, Tuscany

The maps function of my phone was steering us in the right direction.  The land started to slope more and hills were visible in the distance.








There were ancient castles and vineyards, modern villas and farms, If you think of all the gorgeous scenery of Tuscany that they show in the movies, it's just about right. Tuscany is lovely.  I think if we were ever to move to Italy, I would vote for this region.





Marianna and Salvatore and their daughter, Nadia, lived in a lovely home in Orentano, a small village west of Pisa.  The town had both old world charm and modern amenities. Salvatore had a small shop and made shoes.  He custom made me a pair of black dress sandles, and gave me two other pairs of sandles from the inventory that was boxed and ready to be shipped.  How lucky am I ! ! !  What a great gift.  Grazia Sal.

# 43
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Northward

Renting a car with a G.P.S. was stupidly expensive so before we left Canada I did some research and decided to change my cell phone plan so we could use it for our European maps.  With Rogers I could opt into a Roam Like Home feature and for $10 per 24 hours of use, my phone would work just like it does in Canada.  Data rates and amounts, long distance, texting and Google Maps.  Nice.
If I didn't use the service and turned off my phone, it cost me nothing, but while we were travelling from Civitavecchia to Orentano in Tuscany, my phone told us every turn, every roundabout and how to get to the nearest gas station or restaurant.  It never took us to the wrong place and it actually told us when there was an accident or local construction to avoid.  It work very well. Thank you Google Maps!

Our plan was to spend a couple of days in Tuscany with Mike's cousin Marianna and her husband Salvatore.  The three of them had spent time together in the summer of 1970 when Mike and his family had been visiting.  They had lost touch until just this year.  After Mike's mom passed away, Salvatore had contacted him on Facebook through another family member.  That's one of the nicer features of the internet.
                                                                                                                     

A rest stop along the A1 highway where we had some coffee and lemon treats for lunch and took a look at the paper map. Orentano didn't actually show up on the map, but my phone knew where it was.




Mrs. G had tried to stay in touch with her family while we were on the cruise. At each stop along the way we had looked for places where we could send and receive e-mail and or text messages.  Her father was ill and failing.  The morning we were waiting to get off the ship I signed her tablet in on my last few minutes of paid wi fi.  Her sister had sent her a message that their dad was not doing well at all and they were letting family know it was time to say their goodbyes.  It wasn't good news to receive, but at least she knew his time was near and that night, from their hotel, she got to talk to her dad for the last time. Again the internet provided a service as she saw her dad on her tablet . . . face to face.

# 42
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Oct 6th



This was it.  The last day of our cruise.  It had been 11 days, 10 nights of travel, dining, sightseeing, eating, playing, snacking, visiting, munching, walking, nibbling!!!  With all the food we had enjoyed since we came on board, I wouldn't be surprised if we've each gained about 5 pounds, if not more.

Our friends had given us a couple of specialty coffee coupons so we each had a cappuccino as we waited to leave.

Disembarking was actually easier than getting on board.  We gathered our suitcases in the terminal warehouse and lined up for the bus to take us out of the pier area.  It didn't take long and soon we were headed out of the gates and walking (hopefully) toward the rental office.

It was only two blocks away and within an hour both couples were heading off in different directions in our respective cars.  Mike and I had a 2015 Alpha Romeo Guillietta.  Nice car, stick shift, diesel. We had inquired about getting a car with  a G.P.S. when we first booked the rental from Canada, before our trip.

 The guy told us, "We take them out so you can rent them from us."  The rental for the navigation system was $140 Euro per week.  No Thank You!

# 41
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Oct 5th

This day had started well and having already docked at 7, it was soon time to gather in the theater area to prepare for our shore excursion.  Once again the weather was a bit "iffy" and staff were handing out plastic ponchos.  I still hadn't opened the other set from a few days ago, so I declined the offer.  We filed into the bus and were soon on our way.  The tour guide for this city was so much more entertaining and knowledgeable than the previous outing.  He spoke English very well, although with an accent, and began giving descriptions as soon as we pulled out of the pier area.  He gave details about the city and the outskirts as we traveled to our destination.

This was one of the places that I really wanted to see, and it didn't disappoint.  We were on site for at least three hours, but I could have spent double that amount of time exploring and taking in all the details.  Amazing how the life and times were captured so poignantly in such a short time frame.