The next stop was Livorno,
the gateway to Florence and Pisa. We opted for Pisa and the leaning
tower. We had time for only one of the choices, but not both.
The next day was Tuesday
so it must have been Belgium. No, no I'm mistaken it was Bonifacio
on the Island of Corsica, France. We took a tour across the Island
to Sartene. It was cold and rainy so we had a hot chocolate in one
of the local cafes. The photo shows how charming the streets and
shops were, even in the rain.
Next day it was Rome and
the Vatican. So here we are in this mile long line 10 abreast waiting
to enter the Vatican and of course before the two hour wait was over it
started raining. The ship furnished the blue and white umbrellas
that you see. It was not a pleasant day. There were so many
complaints that the ship refunded some of our money.
Once we got inside It was
kind of nice, very crowded however, the left picture is a floor tile mosaic.
The second photo is inside the Basilica with more beautiful floors and
ceilings.
Naples the town of thieves.
I walked into town by myself took a few pictures, and noticed all of the
parked cars had these steering wheel locks on them, that should have given
me a clue right there.
So I got my pocked picked
by the guy with a cigarette. What he took was not what he wanted
so he tossed them in the gutter and I was able to recover my property.
He took a little plastic bag with four blank memory chips that are used
in my camera. About a $30 value at home, in Italy about $130. It was a
tad expensive there.
Naples was about 10 miles
from Pompeii a place I really wanted to see, and I wasn't disappointed.
It's really a wonderful experience, everybody should see this place.
For me it was the highlight of the trip. We were a group of about
40 people, therefore, were restricted to larger areas so we missed a great
deal of the site. But even at that I couldn't have been more pleased.
The first picture, the large
public square, and the second one is of the famous brothel pictures.
They were all very faded, this one was the brightest of the lot.
One of the many streets
with houses and shops on both sides. A large house used for the training
of gladiadors.
Our next port of call was
Amalfi, Italy. Our tour was canceled that day, so we opted not to
go ashore.
Then on to Corfu, Greece,
a little island off the coast of Greece where they took us on a tour to
this rather large house built by Elizabeth of Austria wife of Franz Ferdinand
of WW I fame, she used it as a get-a-way.
More of the beautiful Island
of Corfu, Greece. A picture of our balcony, most of the time it was
too cold and rainy to sit out there, this was one of the few sunny days.