Day One Hundred Sixteen - May 1 I am suffering the man's cold today and have stayed on the ship. Janice is out and about and will need to provide information on her wonderful day out exploring. A check of cruise mapper for Barcelona (May 1) reveals that the following ships are in port:- Oceania Nautica, Oceania Insignia, Costa Magica, Costa Luminosa, Viking Star, Norwegian Epic, AIDAbella, ms Nieuw Statendam. Janice decided on the hop on and hop off bus to exp...

Day One Hundred Fifteen - April 30 Our last day of April brings us to our first port in France and last port on the French Riviera. We will not be visiting France again until we leave the Mediterranean. While sailing in I noticed many French war ships. Toulon is home of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and her battle group. She was in port today. The city itself has a population of 580,000 is an important centre for naval construction, fishing a...

Day One Hundred Fourteen - April 29 Ciao and Arrivederci from Italy. Time to say Goodbye Today is sadly our last port in Italy as we dock in Livorno. We began this part of the journey with a stop in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia on April 5 and complete it on April 29. Livorno is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 157,000 inhabitants. It is the...

Day One Hundred Thirteen - April 28 Today we arrived at Civitavecchia, the port city of Rome. Approaching the port the huge Enel energy plant appears at the water's edge. The port is serviced by several ferry companies including Grimaldi, Tirrenia and Moby. Also in port today was a US Navy expeditionary ship. When any type of naval vessel is in port, all internet communications on our ship go down until we leave port. Leslie our cruise director provided us ...

Day One Hundred Twelve - April 27 During the previous evening, we sailed around through the Straits of Messina and are now on the western side of Italy. The ship's arrival was 07:00 but again we arrived in port about 30 minutes early. The bulk of the passengers who were going on tours decided on the ruins of Pompeii. Our ship tour was a walk through Naples, Secret Tunnels and a Pizza Lunch in the town that invented the margarita pizza. As you drive into Nap...