We caught the SITA bus and rode into Amalfi. It is a beautiful and charming town nestled into the cliffs. We quickly learned that Italian drivers on the coast have no concept of traffic laws whatsoever. Lanes? What lanes? Of course you can squeeze a bus, a Vespa, a Fiat and 10 pedestrians into the same 15 foot wide road! People stop wherever they want, a motorcycle with a grandmother driving it can rocket headlong into oncoming traffic and nobody bats an eye. One...

We arrived at Praiano on the Amalfi coast on Tuesday Oct. 2, again under fabulous weather. Here is a photo taken later from the sea of where we spent the next 4 nights - in a quaint 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment built into the cliff about 200 feet above the Mediterranean. It was actually a fair bit below the main road (the start of steps and hills and more steps and more hills, ad nauseum).

Upon arrival to our Praiano apartment, we marveled at the spectacular view (but then, almost all views on the Amalfi coast are picturesque). We did some minor unpacking and then the first order of business was to go jump in the Mediterranean Sea. So on with our swimsuits and off we headed down the 200+ steps to the sea, where they have a rocked off pool. Unfortunately, the wind was stiff (okay, that has to be an oxymoron... or we were the morons - not sure which ...

Wow. So many places... Venice, Naples, Cannes, and ahh, Florence! I expected much from those stops and they did not let me down. What I did not expect much from was Kotor, Montenegro. What an absolutely pleasant surprise. Kotor is a quaint and ancient town nestled into a beautiful fiord. It sits tightly against an imposing cliff with an seemingly impenetrable fort towering overhead. Michelle and I took the challenge to climb the 1300 uneven and sometimes broken ...

It was bittersweet to come to the end of the cruise. We were able to explore and experience lots of different cities while being served and pampered on the ship. We did, however, encounter occasional disturbances from one of our stateroom neighbors (which turned out to be the biggest negative on the cruise). For that reason, and the anticipation of the next leg of our journey, we were ready to end the cruise and begin phase III (of IV) of the trip on the Amalfi ...