The trip back to Rome was quick on the fast train service. We were often travelling at 250 km/hr, and allowing for four stops we arrived on time in the late afternoon after a less than four hour trip. On the way we passed by Orvieto which was the cliff top village we had visited on the Kumuka bus trip. It was very relaxing walking from the Termini Station to the Hotel Maryelen - we stayed here a week ago and being close we knew where we were going. We had dinner...

What can we say - Santorini one day, Venice the next! After a no-fuss flight aboard Aegean Airlines we caught a bus, 20 minutes later crossing the causeway to Venice and then a short walk to our accommodation - right beside a canal! And in a 15th century palace! We knew we were still in Europe as the canal walkway bridges (pontes) all have steps but reasonably easily negotiated as the pontes are quite small while the steps in our accommodation were very steep - b...

Yes, although there aren't as many blue topped buildings as you are led to believe in the travel brochures, Santorini is still a sight to behold. The island cliffs were formed as a result of an enormous volcanic eruption which left a clearly defined crater shape with a small volcanic rock island in the middle. The ships docked in the crater.... and there were lots of ships. There were three other cruise ships while we were there and ours was probably the smallest...

We would like to be able to write a detailed blog about our visit to Crete, but it is quite a large island, with the shore excursions providing no appeal and with Heraklion being quite a large city we decided to stay on the ship, sleep in, relax and focus on Santorini which was on the itinerary for the afternoon. The purpose of this Crete entry is to be able to mark it as a map location.

Today was a shore excursion day for us while the ship was docked in Rhodes or Rodos as the Greeks call it. The island has a population of 100,000 with the main industries being tourism and agriculture (primarily olives). Occupation of the island dates back to the 3rd century BC, however in more modern times it came under the Ottoman Empire, then Italian, British immediately following WWII and now Greek rule. The capital city of Rhodes has a well preserved and occ...