We disembarked the Preziosa in Civitavecchia the final time and set off on our much anticipated road trip. Our first destination was Itri the home town of Maria Battaro where we got to meet her relations and have some pizza for lunch at their cafe. We then set off for The Amalfi coast and more specifically Positano. The views are amazing but the narrow winding roads and blind corners made the drive a hair raising experience. The Hotel Savoia where we are staying...

The last three days of the cruise included the beautiful Spanish city of Valencia on Thursday 18th. Unfortunately, Elisa wasn't well enough to leave the ship on Friday, so we didn't get to see Marsaille. On the Saturday, the last day of the cruise,we got to visit Genoa, another historically significant city full of grand buildings and amazing street scapes.

We reached Cagliari, Sardinia at 9.00am and disembarked. Once again we used a local tour service to take us to the main attractions. The small 20 seater bus was more comfortable and safer than the exposed 4 seater Vespa taxi we experienced in Palermo but not nearly as much fun! Cagliari, with its panoramic views and clean streets is more refined and orderly and less of an assault on the senses than Palermo. We enjoyed walking thru the lane ways even though we w...

We disembarked in Palermo, Sicily at 1pm and hired the services of a Vespa taxi to take us around the main tourist attractions. It was exhilarating and scary at the same time as we cut in between and in front of other drivers, swerved into tight lane ways whilst narrowly avoiding pedestrians and ignoring the bleeting of horns. We returned unscathed and relieved to have survived without incident. Every evening we are served an al a carte dinner followed by a sho...

Today was our last morning in Rome. After a breakfast of coffee and a pastry at the corner 'bar' we returned to the apartment To pack. We were picked up and transferred to the port of Civitavecchia, one hour from Rome, where we embarked the MSC cruise liner 'Preziosa' to begin our 7 day cruise of the Mediterranean. We set sail at 7pm for Palermo, Sicily to arrive at 1pm the next day. The ship is enormous. It carries 3000+ passengers and resembles a floating cit...