After waking up with a slight (or strong for others) hangover and flying from Santorini to Milan, (laying over 8 hours), and Milan to Rome, we arrived into Rome very late on July 9th. If any of you have heard my “Rome story,” you will understand that I was not thrilled that our honeymoon cruise embarks and disembarks in Rome. (For those who haven’t heard the story, in a nutshell: myself and 2 of my girlfriends stayed in a horrible hostel, got robbed, ended up in the middle of nowhere with no place to sleep, and were continually followed around by very, very creepy guys. We all swore we would never return.) However, I sucked it up and went back. My one condition was that we stayed in a Hilton (or similar) hotel. And we did. We definitely paid WAY too much to stay in the airport Hilton hotel. However, walking from the flight to our room after 12 hours of travelling made it worth every penny.
The next morning we made our way down to the port (which is about an hour and half to 2 hours for anyone attempting to do this), and we began our honeymoon cruise. The AMAZING itinerary looks like this:
July 10th: Leave from Rome
July 11th: Livorno (Tuscany)
July 12th: Monte Carlo, Monaco
July 13th: Barcelona, Spain (overnight)
July 14th: Barcelona, Spain
July 15th: Palma de Mallorca, Spain
July 16th: At Sea
July 17th: Tunisia, Africa
July 18th: Sicily
July 19th: Naples
July 20th: Rome
July 21st: At sea
July 22nd: Croatia
July 23rd: Corfu, Greece
July 24th: Katakolon, Greece
July 25th: back to Santorini J
July 26th: Turkey
July 27th: Athens, Greece
July 28th: At Sea
July 29th: Messina, Italy
July 30th: disembark in Rome to head HOME!
I have only been on one cruise and this is Craig’s first so we weren’t completely sure what to expect. 20 days is a long time to be in a very small room, especially because I get sea sick sometimes. However, we were thrilled with the ship and room when we arrived. We have a verandah deck with chairs and tables—where we eat breakfast most mornings and have a drink before dinner most evenings. 3 pools, 8 hot tubs, 11 bars, 7 restaurants, live music all the time, etc… etc… One (slight) downside is the age of people onboard. To be fair, however, we were warned of this. It is either older, retired or already dead people or families with kids. There are VERY few people even close to our age. However, we have met some incredibly interesting people. Many of the couples we have sat with at night are celebrating their 20th, 30th, 40th wedding anniversaries. They have also been all over the world. Everyone is very nice, so we don’t really mind that there aren’t a bunch of mid-20s on board. Besides, we didn’t come on the ship to meet people, or to watch the shows…. We came for the amazing itinerary. And to be together :)
Our first stop is in Livorno, Italy which is the main port in Tuscany. Pisa is about 30 minutes from here and Florence is about 1 ½ hours. A 90 minute drive each way was a little much for us, so we decided to enjoy Livorno and Pisa.
Many people do excursions at every stop on cruises. Craig and I, however, feel pretty comfortable going out and doing things ourselves. Plus, it is way easier on the budget. The excursion to Pisa, for example, was $189 per person. We spent about 100 Euros total, which is about $150. This worked out to quite a bit less than half. That total includes what we spent on eating/drinking/souvenirs, which obviously isn’t included in the excursion. So, if you don’t mind putting in some effort, waiting in a line or 2, and rolling with the punches—we would say 80% of cities can easily be done on your own.
In Livorno, we took a quick shuttle to the town and went to the tourist information center. There, we bought tickets to get to Pisa and back, and then to ride a boat through the canals of Livorno. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. We found out that when the tower began to lean, engineers actually raced to “save it”. They put lead weights in the base to balance it (so it wouldn’t fall) and for 10 or so years, they tried to figure out how to straighten it out. However, it suddenly became a tourist attraction, and soon the engineers were called off. These days, setting it level would be “unthinkable”!! “Then it would just be a tower,” Craig said. “Who would come to see that?” And he is right—no one would. Because everyone, including both of us, really only cared about one thing—getting a picture where it looks like we are holding the tower up. And despite the “police” yelling at everyone for being on the grass, we did just that!
All around Pisa there are the tourist booths that sell everything from pasta to picture frames to all sorts of Pinocchio items (apparently he is from Pisa? We aren’t sure but we bought a Pinocchio wine opener just to be safe). You find these shops in any touristy area, and we love them. You can always (and should) bargain down the prices and you can find some great things! We left with a picture frame (which I get from each place we go), a fridge magnet (our new thing we decided to do), a wine opener (too cute to pass up), and 2 pajminas (because 5 Euros each is a great deal!). After a Tuscan meal and some Tuscan wine, we were very satisfied with our day and returned to the ship!
Next stop… Monte Carlo, Monaco!
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