Join Me in Italy, Greece, Malta, and Sicily!!!
Friends! This week I’d like to take you along with us on a recent cruise John and I took to celebrate our 40th anniversary—albeit a bit early—as our real anniversary isn’t until Bastille Day, for all you Frenchies out there.
Since we’d not been out of the country for twelve years, we hunted for what we discovered to be an ideal itinerary on a cruise line unfamiliar to us, but highly recommended by some friends and our travel agent and friend, Carol Medley.
Well over a year prior to the actual cruise, we booked one that “checked all the boxes”…We also gave several prayer warrior friends our itinerary to pray over while we were gone. Thanks to Nancy, who sent us the below verse on day of embarkation:
The cruise line we took, and would totally take again, is Silversea. They are a company who offers superior service at every turn. I just wrote a friend on our return flight that I shudder to think I’ll have to serve myself upon arriving home. You think I’m kidding….
Here’s a pic of our ship:
The fleet Silversea uses is considered on the small side, compared to much larger ships, say from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, or Norwegian Cruise Lines, etc. Our ship held 600 passengers with 400 crew members. 550-ish passengers took this particular cruise. It never felt crowded as there were so many areas to discover. One day, a gigantic ship docked next to us and we were told they had over 4,000 passengers!
Even tho’ it was Derby weekend here in Louisville, John and I hopped a plane on Oaks Day and flew to Venice.
Here we are, excited as little kids to hop the pond!
A representative from Silversea met us at the airport in Venice, promptly putting us on a water taxi. Now that was different! Our water taxi’s captain took us thru’ the middle of Venice so we could see some of its’ charming canals. Then off to our hotel, on its’ own island as well, we arrived at the San Clemente Palace, Hotel Kempinski. We spent two nights there prior to the cruise.
San Clemente’s website: www.kempinski.com
San Clemente Palace is a former monastery with its’ church on property dating back to 1135. Here’s John in front of it along with a pic of the beautiful hallways of the hotel which were rich with history, tapestries, and gorgeous antiques. (Not to mention the chocolate soufflé we had two for two nights for dessert!)
Our two days in Venice flew. Our second day, we did all the touristy things including taking a gondola ride, strolling St. Marks’ Square, and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at a quaint sidewalk cafe for lunch: pasta of course!
Before we knew it, it was time to leave our hotel. We were loaded onto a large enough boat to transport several of us to the huge port to embark onto our ship.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, we passed a very small boat, loaded with stacks and stacks and stacks of luggage. It was traveling very slowly as we came along side of it. We all laughed nervously saying, “Surely that’s not OUR luggage???”
One more petite detail: NONE of the pieces were bungee tied, therefore, we were certain many of them would plunge into the sea, sinking like two tons of bricks…
Alas, our luggage did surface in our room later. First-things-first upon arrival: LUNCH—because perish the thought of missing a meal—and with nine different restaurants on the ship, there was no chance of that happening! We made it a lofty goal to make sure we tried all nine of them. What a goal, right?
That night, we sailed from Venice to the lovely country of Croatia. First stop: Split. Two of our stops happened to be having festivals honoring their city’s patron saint. Luckily our guides could navigate us around the crowds. We had a fascinating tour of Diocletian’s Palace, dating back to 305!
As God would orchestrate, at the perfect moment, we happened upon a trio of men singing a capella in what proved to be the best possible acoustics in the palace. Their voices were so beautiful, they brought me to tears. After their song, our guide told us the chorus of the lyrics said something akin to: “There are not enough drops in the Adriatic Sea that could quench my sorrow…” I have a video of them singing if you’d like to see it, email or text me and I’ll send it to you. (Sadly it’s too long to post here format-wise, even tho’ it’s only sixty-three seconds!)
That moving experience was one of a gazillion gifts the Lord blessed us with on our journey, not to mention the fact we had beautiful weather, every single day.
Second stop in Croatia: Dubrovnik. Our ship had to anchor out in the water, so we had to travel by tenders to the dock. Our ship’s tenders stayed busy as bees and were quite the little fleet.
Our tour guide walked us thru’ the walled town of Dubrovnik which was fascinating with beautifully paved streets in hues of creamy white and light gray stones with creamy white walls to match. After exiting thru’ a drawbridge of sorts, we jumped on a bus and headed up, up, up, and out into the countryside.
Note how tiny the town and our ship appear. Brave John took these pics while I looked away from the seemingly too short guardrails…gulp!
Soon we were at a quaint restaurant, complete with a musical duo to greet us.
The meal was delicious. Our new friends we met on this excursion hail from Germany, Belgium, England, New Zealand, Australia, and many U.S. towns.
The musical duo not only was talented, they were funny and smart, inquiring as to where we were from…then they struck up national anthems from each country mentioned for a sing along—and plot twist: when they got to America, they decided to sing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” which of course nearly everyone knew, belting out, “So good! So good! So good!”
Ever the romantic and one to plan a surprise (long before we arrived), my sweet and better two-thirds, had coordinated with our travel agent and several crew members on the ship, a lovely vow renewal service for us up on the eleventh floor, The Panorama Lounge, at the tip top of the ship, with sweeping views.
That afternoon, a brand new Cruise Director named Jonathan, arrived from Japan, jet lagged, and totally getting baptized by fire having to perform our service. He actually did an outstanding job, God bless him.
Other crew members attended as well, snapping photographs. It was very festive and overwhelming at the same time. (I am still stunned! I’ve never been so speechless in all of our forty years of marriage!!! Hey, no comment from the peanut gallery…)
One gal, the wife of one of our favorite waiters, does all the floral arrangements on the ship. She created a beautiful bouquet for me. Also, the pastry chef whipped up a beautiful cake for us with decorations made of spun sugar. It was too pretty to eat, but of course we did anyway, and shared with folks at a nearby table that night for dinner.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” Amen❤️
Third stop: Bari, Italy. One of many perks our cruise offered was a plethora of excursions. We labored and labored attempting to choose fun and educational ones, many of which included food, of course! Bari is a much larger city than most of the stops we made.
Sadly, we only had enough time to go in and explore the old town briefly, and find a cafe for lunch. That day was also their patron saint’s day, so many shops were closed.
Orecchiette pasta was quite prevalent, so we ordered a big bowl of it with freshly made bolognese sauce (my mouth is watering as I type) along with a picturesque garden salad which we dressed with only balsamic vinegar/glaze and olive oil. The best!
While waiting on our lunch, I heard a loud motor coming closer and closer…soon, within inches of us (on a super narrow street), a motorcyclist toting a friend zoomed past us down the street, which was hardly a street, but oh, in Italy, anything is possible!
That night, back on the ship we bugged the maitre’d so much from La Dame, the tiny restaurant no one could get into as people booked way ahead, that he relented and told us if we came early we could eat there…and, he knew it was our anniversary trip, so check out the dessert!!! Chocolate and more chocolate:
Fourth stop: Corfu, Greece. Our approach into Corfu, with sapphire blue water swirling about us, was breathtaking.
Our guide met us, put us on a quick bus trip into the city and we were off for a “foodie walking tour.” She wound us thru’ so many narrow streets, my sense of direction evaporated. Thankfully she never left us!
We stopped in one shop to sample foods prevalent in Greece, kumquats being one of them. Lemoncello was everywhere.
We had lunch at our 2nd stop in a family restaurant. All of the meal was good save the spicy fish we simply couldn’t eat, however many did, sopping up the sauce with their bread. No thank you!
All wasn’t lost, however, as the icing on the cake came at our 3rd stop for gelato!!! The dark chocolate was to die for…
After a day at sea, our fifth stop was Valletta, on the island of Malta. This was one of our most favorite stops. You all probably recall, from Acts 27 and 28, that our beloved apostle Paul was shipwrecked on Malta.
On our walking tour in Malta, we got to see the church they say is built over the grotto where Paul lived and preached for about three months. The church is beautiful and dates back to the 1500’s. There’s a statue of Paul near the church.
We also had time to grab a favorite treat of ours, a cappuccino. The sidewalk cafes were bustling along with fantastic people watching.
Sixth stop: Siracusa on the island of Sicily. This day was action packed as we had a walking tour in the city in the morning and then another tour in the afternoon of a family winery near Notto, only about thirty minutes away. The drive, while some of it was on a highway, paralleled the Sea which was beautiful.
The woman sculpture in the fountain is the Goddess Diana, also near Hotel Diana. She’s reportedly the goddess of nature and hunting. (We’d also happened upon another Hotel Diana in Venice.) We told our daughter-in-love, Diana, she needs to name a hotel after herself in Louisville!
One feature of each city we visited is the narrow streets decorated with flowers and plants. Occasionally a car would travel down these, but usually we were able to walk in the middle of the ones too small for a car, taking in our surroundings.
The winery we went to was named Zisola, however its’ origin is from 1435 and is called Mazzei! Look at the charming architecture and fabulous flowers!
Seventh stop: Sorrento, Italy. This day proved to be a bit challenging in that we didn’t arrive until later in the day, anchoring out and having to tender in again. We were signed up for a cooking class in someone’s private villa that evening.
That afternoon, we were able to go up into Sorrento for a couple of hours via a very fast bus (I decided the drivers all timed themselves trying to beat their last trip up the hill.). The roads were so curvy that more than once, the driver had to attempt the turn, back up, and turn the steering wheel more to make the turn, all the while scooters raced around us.
Lemons and more lemons were plentiful. Check out the size of them! TREMENDOUS!!!
After a couple of hours of exploring, we had to return to the port to meet our tour guide for our cooking class, which meant going back down that road only to come back up that road to get to the villa. Oh, but we were in for a treat…
Fourteen of us took the class. The grandfather of the family met us at a large gate, tucked into the city. Large gardens filled with orange and lemon trees and colorful flowers were on either side of the walkway down to the house. Vine-covered trellises were overhead. Truly magical.
We also passed by a beautiful swimming pool, leading us to enter a large room with a long table, complete with chefs hats and aprons for each of us. How fun!
We were going to create our own dinner under the direction of one of the Grandfather’s daughters, along with help from her sisters, buzzing about the kitchen. They all live in an adjacent home, many generations, on different floors.
Here’s a picture of our teaching chef. Isn’t she darling? Her English was very good, too.
One fun idea they used was for us to write our names on the individual sized casserole dishes so we would eat what we made. After making several dishes, I commented I wished I’d written down the ingredients. Lo and behold, our teacher/chef handed each couple a printout of the recipes upon our departure.
We used many fresh herbs, a LOT of olive oil, a lot of cheeses (Parmesan, mozzarella, and ricotta), fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and, of course, pasta. We stuffed the pasta with cheese and covered it with tomato sauce both on the bottom and top before baking.
We also learned how to make mini meatloaves which were akin to a mini calzone made out of ground beef, but with mozzarella cubes inside. Our teacher slathered a large baking pan with olive oil and loads of fresh herbs on it before putting the mini meatloaves on the pan to bake. I’m normally not a big meatloaf fan, however these little treats were delicious. I bet we can even get our grand angels to try these!
Last day in Sorrento with a jaunt over to the Island of Capri:
The first thing we learned about Capri is that it is NOT pronounced “Ca-PREE,” but rather, “CAH-pri.”
Our tour guide, Romano, was a Godsend in that he negotiated crowds like you’ve never seen. He told us Capri is now averaging 60,000 visitors a day!? What?
To get there, we took a jetfoil boat from Sorrento over to the harbor. Then amidst what felt like thousands of tourists, somehow a small 25-seat bus magically appeared to take us up to Anacapri. (It was one of a bazillion buses. Another friend took the city bus which only holds 9 people, but they loaded twenty-nine folks in there who had to stand up. Grateful we were spared that!)
Taxi cars, with their roofs cut off, replaced with canvas tops, sped past us as did scooters. More than once we held our breath while scooters shot in between us and oncoming traffic. Again the roads were very narrow, many times causing us to stop and wait on a line of cars before progressing upward.
Way up high, we could see a large, curved structure of concrete, wrapping around the side of a high part of a mountain. It turned out to be part of the road leading up to Anacapri.
Romero proclaimed, “Signori, that is where we are going!” I thought, “Surely not!?” Upon arrival to that very road, again I faced the wall while John snapped pics. All I kept thinking was, “We’re going to have to go back down that road to get to Capri.” (Is there a theme here?)
If you look at the curve of the mountain, on the right side, you’ll see white braces of sorts and the ROAD. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but let’s just say it’s FRIGHTFUL if you’re not a fan of heights….need I say more?
Oh, but the trip was worth it and it wasn’t nearly as crowded up on Anacapri as it was down by the marina. We spent a couple of hours there, and then went down to Capri, halfway back to the marina, where we also had a couple of hours to explore and yes, eat some more...
The views were spectacular as are the three famous rocks that stick out in the water near the island, called Faraglioni….Many tourists book a boat to take them out to the rocks and to go into the blue grotto. LT and Woody and Lauren and Gordy have done that. Breathtaking.
While the cruise seemed long initially (ten nights!), it flew by. Many of the people we met were not first-time Silversea cruisers, but 3rd and 4th time cruisers. Will there be a future one for us? Tough to say as this was truly the trip of a lifetime. Stay tuned….
Huge thanks to all our family and friends who prayed for us while we were gone. Checkout the chronicles below to see how many nautical miles we logged.
God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. Amen. Thank you, Lord…
‘Til next time!