Rome Wrap-Up

We have spent the last three days in Rome. We depart in the morning to return home to New Zealand, a long journey flying Rome to Heathrow to Los Angeles to Auckland to Wellington.

I've not yet had an opportunity to gather my thoughts and write anything too meaningful, but thought I should post something to regular followers.

In a nutshell we've done the main tourist sites, these being Roman Forum and The Colosseum on day one, and Vatican City on day two. Today being day three, we've intentionally taken an easier day not visiting any main sites and staying away from the crowds.

In short - been there, done that!

Some statistics we've captured from our journey via various devices & sources:

48,000 kmflown
3891 Nautical Miles cruised
189 km walked *
430 floors worth of stairs climbed *
5305 photos totalling 136GB **
16 ports of stay
1 handbag purchased

* Does not include Mike's epic climbs in Kotor and Nafpflion.
** Does not include Helen's iPhone photos

Here's a couple of random photos from Rome until I can post something more comprehensive.

Evicted from the ship (on the grounds we had not purchased tickets for the next leg of the journey) and finally back on land in Italy in the port of Civitavecchia.

Helen sitting on a piece of marble ruin inside the Roman Forum.

Inside the Colosseum.

Mike savouring the cool, fresh drinking water from a fountain outside Vatican City.

I burst into laughter and took this photo then remembered that (a) we are not in Wellington and (b) it is not Sevens weekend, and these are real nuns.

More photos and details of the Rome visit to follow. I promise!

Ristorante Ducati Caffè

Eventually soon, I'll get to writing up Rome properly but in the meantime I couldn't wait to post this one up, especially for my dear friends Hamish and Lynda who I'm sure will be reading this.

We visited this place for some light refreshments, it's a cafe created by Ducati itself (not just a privately owner themed cafe). We sat at a spare table directly below a 1198 hanging on the wall which was pretty cool.

We had eaten lunch not long before arriving so we opted for a drink each, I had a beer and Helen a mojito. Truth be known, both were a little average but was a novelty to drink at a Ducati cafe in Rome. The Ducati website states:

Two Ducati Caffès have opened so far, one in Rome and the other in Seoul, but several more openings are planned for the Middle east, Far East and the USA. Moreover, the company has reserved itself a smallscale "taste" of Ducati Caffè style by setting up, at its Bologna-based production plant, its own Ducati Caffè Factory.

And naturally they have a gift shop attached, the only item that caught my eye was the Diavel sitting in the middle but we thought it might put us over our baggage allowance!

The menus were called "User Guides" and laid out like the owners manual for a bike, nice touch.

Sailing Towards Rome

All good things must come to an end, and today was our last day at sea.

We were sailing toward the port of Civitavecchia which is our final stop and we will be leaving the ship. A lazy day and a time to reflect on the fun we've had on this cruise.

A few notable things today.

For our entire 22 day cruise we have had very little wind, and the sea has been very calm. Last night that changed and we had 55 knot winds, very noisy outside! The ship was still quite stable however.

Early morning we passed through the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the Italy mainland. Heading into here we went though a thunderstorm, and it rained really heavily, visibility dropped to almost zero. By the time we passed through the Strait of Messina the rain stopped but it was still very grey.

A couple of hours later, we cruised past the island of Stromboli. Still an active volcano, it is interesting people choose to live (and holiday) on this island. The weather cleared just as we approached and we could make out some steam coming off the top of the island.

Into the evening, we had to pack our suitcases the leave them outside our cabin door for collection before we went to bed. Next sleep is in Rome.

Corfu, Greece

Today was our final stop in Greece on the island of Corfu which is very close to the mainland. We had pre-booked a tour called "Kickin' Corfu 4WD Adventure". Unfortuntately Helen hasn't been feeling the best so decided to have a day in bed. I went without her.

The 4WD setup was a caravan of small Suzuki 4WD vehicles, with 4 guests per vehicle. Without Helen we had a spare seat available. The couple I shared with here from New Zealand also and their son was an officer on our ship.

There were 14 vehicles and we played "follow the leader", easy on this island where traffic is not busy. Once away from the port we were lead over the northern part of the island, which is very high. I drove the first section which was up a set of winding roads, and a large number of tight switchbacks which required first gear to get around. We were passed by a lot of motorbikes just to tease me a little.

We stopped for a view near the top from which we could see our ship in the distance.

Not further up, we stopped in a small village where we were treated to some local Greek Salad (and tomatoes were so sweet!) and also local wine and Ouzo. Just what we need for driving. This town was the real deal, the only tourists here was us, although they were all very friendly and waved to us all we we passed through, I guess they see these vehicles pass through often.

From here I rode shotgun so I could take photos. We were taken over the hills, passing through some small villages with incredibly narrow roads that didn't even look like roads, just narrow walkways. Sometimes even our small cars barely fit through and passing other oncoming vehicles was rather interesting with mm to spare either side.

The temperature was around 25 Celsius, and the cars had all windows down and roof open, which was nice and refreshing. We stopped at a clifftop resort where we were given an hour to eat, drink, sunbath, swim, whatever. They had an amazing pool right on the cliff edge, which within minutes I was jumping into to cool off. I swam in for about 30 minutes, then enjoyed the view from a shady spot. What a life!

Finally it was back to the cars for the final leg, down the other side of the mountain via another set of switchbacks and even more narrow roads. See the photo below where we all had to pass an oncoming car, an interesting exercise.

We returned to the ship about 4 hours after set had set off. Not too bad. This tour was a lot of fun and it was nice to get off the tourist track (even if it was a tourist track it didn't feel like it to us).

When I returned to the ship, I found Helen relaxing on the balcony of our cabin enjoying the final day at port. And with this view who can blame her for that?

Tomorrow is a sea day, heading towards Rome, and once in Rome we are leaving the cruise ship. We have a few days in Rome before heading home and back to work and reality.

I've really enjoyed our various stops in Greece, a beautiful and interesting country with much to offer, and the people are so friendly too.

Kotor, Montenegro

Long ago, when we first booked our cruise, we were supposed to visit Split in Croatia. The itinerary was changed to instead visit Kotor. Reading in advance, it seemed there was not much on offer here, the only interesting info I found was about an old fortress on the hill. Even before we left home, I was keen to climb up to this.

I awoke about 6:30am as we started entering the Gulf of Kotor. The opening gets quite narrow in one part and we were very close to shore. It as a calm, sunny morning and watching the sun rise was a sight to behold.

We were followed in by another cruise ship we had seen before on our tour. We anchored in the small bay near the town, so would be using a tendor today to get ashore, while the other ship used the wharf.

Helen fancied a sleep in so I left early, and was on land before 9am. Stopping briefly at the visitor centre to get a map, I then used this map to walk through the town to find the start of the walk. The town was quiet with mostly just local people getting ready for their day.

Once I found the entry gate for the climb, there was a 3 euro entry fee which I duly paid, then set off. The walk was steep with the path being mostly rocky or cobblestoned, with a small set of steps on one side. Often the steps were high, or missing altogether.

It took about 55 minutes to reach the top and from here I spent about an hour exploring the fortress and taking in the various view points. I'm glad I went early because the path up was mostly in shade, keeping it cool, but by now the sun had moved around warming things up. The view of the bay was great.

Coming down the track was a lot busier, with much more people on their way up. About half way down, there was a small opening I had to crouch to get through, and on the other side a small climb down onto another walkway. Much less people went this way. Here I found an old church and other ruins, and looking across the ravine I could see a couple of houses still lived in. Those people sure have a climb to reach their houses!

Once at the bottom I stopped at the first restaurant I could find and bought a large handle of beer, well earned I thought. Then I went back to the ship to meet Helen. She had already been across the had a look around the old town. After some lunch, I headed over again to explore the old town myself.

Despite two cruise ships in, the old town was not crowded and really had a nice feel. Much more like I had expected Dubrovnik to be like. Although much smaller, and more quaint, I enjoyed it more and had a good look around.

We sailed late afternoon, catching the late afternoon sun on many of the small towns along the side of the bay. A lovely way to end the day.

We also spotted an old navy installation which we could make out with binoculars. The guy in the cabin next to us also had binoculars and was spotting all sorts of interesting things. In particular, we saw two rusty old submarines on land, an old rusty navy ship which had sunk tied up to a wharf, and what our neighbour thought were some submarine ports hidden in the hills.

We also had a jet ski play with us alongside.

Kotor was an unexpected surprise, a very picturesque bay and an enjoyable old town. Tomorrow we are making our final stop in Greece for this tour.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik is another of these cities that we anticipated would be like living in a postcard. We arrived at the nearby port near midday, to a glorious sunny day with little wind. We pulled up to the port effortlessly and unaided by pilots or tug boats.

After a bus shuttle ride into the city, we were dropped just outside the old town Pile Gate. First impression was a dense crowd of tourists that would be with us all day. Many, many people also wanted to walk in our postcard! Dubrovnik old town is a major destination not just for cruise ships (of which there were three in port) but also tour groups via coach.

We firstly walked up the main road then straight out the other end, discovering the old port. This is a marina for yachts as well as numerous boats offering rides around the old town walls. We followed the path as far as we could, eventually reaching a dead end which was a rocky shore used by swimmers and sunbathers alike outside the city wall on the sea side.

We headed back into the old town and took a different path up around the inside of the town walls, encountering old churches and eventually many restaurants. After much uphill walking, we were eventually persuaded to sit and enjoy an Italian restaurant, before continuing back downhill roughly back to where we started.

With plenty of time to spare, I opted to walk the city walls (4km) while Helen went for a more leisurely walk through the streets and could occasionally catch a glimpse of me on the city wall.

The city wall is one-way and by mid afternoon wasn't too busy. It is the best way to see the town from above. Damage from shelling in 1991 is still evident in some areas, with some stone buildings and houses still in ruins, and others clearly rebuilt and newer than their surroundings with bright orange roofing.

The highest part of the wall overlooks the old town and across the sea but requires some climbing to earn the view.

The crowds were still as much as in the morning, so we opted to return to the ship for dinner even though it was not sailing until 11pm.

Overall Dubrovnik is a beautiful town, and well kept especially considering events in 1991, but the crowds detract from its beauty and make it hard work. Still, tourism is its primary (or only?) source of income so it is somewhat unavoidable. We're glad to have visited.