Oh, what a day! Friends are one of life's greatest glories. But reuniting with dear friends from our youth was an unbelievable pleasure. It was as if there had been no time-gap and was like we had been together all the time. We never skipped a beat. Oh dear Croci's, how we love and enjoy you! We agreed to meet at the Pitti Palace. Stan and I arrived first and decided to wait in an outdoor café and share a glass of wine. We knew they were in the vicinity because...

Today I am going to talk a bit about food and fashion. I simply must. Who is surprised? Dining in Italia is great fun. It is like having permission, a license, if you will, to eat pasta. I feel like an indulged child. It's everywhere; it's what everyone eats, there are so many varieties and unlike Italian food we usually see at home, most of it is actually light, and not covered in heavy red meat sauce. My favorite is penne pasta with pomodoro, which is as basic...

The last two days have been quite a blur. Transition from place to place can be a bit unpredictable. After being served and waited-on with great care for seven days on the ship, we disembarked and got a quick dose of reality dragging our luggage from the port's "people mover" to the train station. It was not a bad walk, just hot and in a herd of other people also dragging their luggage up steps and over the bridge of the Grand Canal and up the two sets of wide st...

Greek Isle of Katakolon Yesterday was spent in the town of Katakolon on the Greek mainland. The big attraction for most tourists is the ruins of Olympus but having just toured Pompeii last week and having seen the site of the early Olympic games at Rome, we had no appetite for the hour-long bus ride and the three-hour inspection of the hot, dry, dusty ruins there. Other options offered a choice of nearby beaches, but that was not inviting to us either. Instead w...

Greek Isle of Santorini Mmmmmmm. . . what a great place we have found on this earth today. I've heard it's a haven for celebrities from all over the world and I can see why. According to tourist info, when a huge volcano erupted about 3500 years ago, it left an enormous caldera surrounded by a circle of islands now known as Santorini. The cruise ship anchored in the port and we were tendered to the wharf where we could reach the town of Fira situated hundreds...