The Cannon Family's travel blog

And so all good things must come to an end. We docked at around 6am and were awake not long after that but still before dawn. We didn’t *have* to be up for a while longer but sleep eluded us. So we got up and showered and tested our projected packing needs. We assumed that everything we had left out would fit into our carry on bags. We were almost right.

Then down to breakfast where I assumed that we would have the opportunity to say good bye to the wait staff who had take such good care of us – especially Mary who had taken on the charge of making sure I didn’t get sick on her watch. But none of the usuals were around. Not that the staff who brought our last breakfast weren’t nice; they just weren’t the “regular” staff. {sigh}

We then grabbed our bags and went to hangout in the lounge waiting for our turn to disembark. We had hoped to find the Canadians that we had spent the week running into and drinking with but that also didn’t happen. Then it was time to wait for our prearranged car to pick us up for the trip into Rome. We had arranged for the driver to meet us at 9am assuming that was a reasonable time yet we were off the ship and waiting at the cruise terminal by just after 8 am. He eventually arrived and found us about 8:25 so we were off to Rome which would take about and hour and 20 minutes because we needed to get to the center of town during morning traffic. While in the car, I got a call from the hotel asking where the driver should meet us at the port. Um, what? Apparently, when I had asked for assistance with getting from the port to the city, they had arranged for someone to pick us up. For some reason, I didn’t get the message about that – although they did send an email! – and had booked and paid someone else to pick us up! Seriously? How long has my brain been on vacation?

We got to the hotel in Rome just after 10am and checked in with a thousand apologies for the mix up. The hotel staff was super nice and very concerned about the situation. They had arranged for a driver to go to to port and he incurred gas, tolls, and other costs just for to be no shows. We decided that it would be fair for us to pay his actual costs which made sure that he wasn’t out of pocket and that the hotel saved face for being the ones who arranged the ride for the flakey tourist. Given how mortified I was about MY mistake, I was glad to have the opportunity to make things right.

We were able to get into our room very early (I think the poor girls on the desk felt bad for us at this point!) and head out to wander the city. We had been to Rome a few years earlier (I’m sure you’ve read all about it here) so we didn’t feel the need to do the typical tourist things. We did have a few items on the agenda – specifically searching for a model of an Alfa Romeo, Frank’s new car. We had Googled a few model shops in Rome and decided to use those as destinations for our transition day. We headed to the train station first to buy our tickets to the airport for tomorrow. Then off to the closest model shop… which didn’t exist.

Travel tip #28: Google isn’t always right.

We checked and rechecked the address and the place that Google quite clearly said was a model shop was, in fact, a diamond store. Not the same thing at all. So we retreated to a cafe for cappuccinos to decide what to do next when the wind picked up, the skies darkened, and then the rain came pouring down. Seriously? What next?

Over the next half hour or so, we made our way along broad tree lined streets by the American embassy jumping from sheltered spot to sheltered spot, be it a restaurant doorway or a tree canopy. We were working our way to the Borghese Museum – a destination I had quickly looked up as a possible place to visit that isn’t on most “Top 10 things to do in Rome” lists but would be a perfect destination in the rain. We made it there relatively dry only to find out that you need to buy tickets in advance and they were sold out. Seriously? What next?

Okay, maybe it was time to try the model idea again. There is another model shop in the north west corner of the city, well out of the tourist district, and we had originally crossed it off the list because of the location. It moved back to the top of the list but we were pressed for time: like many Italian businesses, it would be closed from 1- 4 and we would need to seriously move to make it before closing. Which we did amidst occasional sprinkles with some sun breaking through. And we arrived with 15 minutes to spare only to find that they had a VERY small selection of the kind of models we were in search of. Most were plastic kits or other create-it-yourself items. Seriously? What next?

And now we were destination-less. And hungry. So off to lunch. We found a great place by the Piazza Barberini that did gluten free options. This was no tourist place- down in a basement, we were the only non-Italians in the place. We had a fabulous lunch with excellent house wine and great pasta. Frank had wide noodles with a lamb ragout and I had GF spaghetti carbonara. YUM!

Then it was off for more wandering. Everywhere and no where. From the northeast of the city to the south west, we just walked. We headed back to the hotel late in the afternoon as I had a conference call – a president’s work is never done! – then it was time for a real Roman dinner. We found a restaurant around the corner from our hotel that had allergens clearly marked on their menu. We headed there and had an amazing meal: prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella to start, then steak for me and veal saltimbocca for Frank, followed by creme caramel and tiramisu. All of this accompanied by a lovely Montepulciano d’Abbruzo.

And now it is time to rearrange things in the suitcases to complete the transition from vacation to visit. For tomorrow we abandon sunscreen for sweaters and head to Scotland.

Dubious data for today: 28, 242 steps and 21 floors. (Apparently, that’s almost 12 miles. My feet would agree.)
Nuns spotted: 10
Street markets perused: 2 Bottles of red consumed: 2ish

We awoke today to grey brooding skies that matched the mood of awakening on the last day of the cruise. We docked in Livorno harbor, the main port for Tuscany, where many of our fellow passengers would disembark and skitter off to Pisa or Florence on their organized tours. Since that’s not how we roll, we had reserved a car for the day with the idea of cruising through the Tuscan countryside visiting wineries. That idyllic scene did not contain rain clouds, however, so we spent some time at breakfast recallibrating our plans. We had heard several people mention that they were very excited to visit Cinque Terre – a group of five villages nestled along the coast of Liguria, north of Tuscany. Our weather apps said that the weather might be better there and it was a new place to visit so a new plan was hatched.

After breakfast, we disembarked and found the Avis counter inside the cruise terminal (score oe for Livorno port – very convenient!). Today’s driving pleasure would be in a Fiat Tipo – a substantially larger car than the Fiat 500 we had in Sicily. We took off to the north with clouds over head but the promise of sunshine coming in from the west. About 90 minutes into our drive, we arrived at the Cinque Terre National Park and then the geography got real. Apparenty you don’t get to go see the cute fishing villages nestled into the mountains without actually driving down the mountain! If we thought the drive to Etna was challenging, we were sorely mistaken. This route was just as twisty but hugged the cliff the entire time. Thus we were not only creeping along hairpin turns as we did in Sicily, but there was a sheer drop to the sea on one side of the car for the last one-third of the drive. I confess that I could not have done it but Frank did an amazing job, especially given that the Dutch couple in the Volvo infront of us were having some challenges with their wider car.

Eventually we made it to Vernazza, supposedly the most picturesque of the 5 villages. We parked outside the village – only residents can park closer and there aren’t any cars allowed in the village – and started the walk down to the sea. It started to sprinkle en route but rain never really materialized. It was enough to be tortuous since we were both dying for the toilet but not enough to warrent breaking out the rain jackets. We toured the entire village looking for a public toilet and wound up standing in the unreasonably long line at the train station for the only one in town.

Travel tip #25: scout out the public conveniences before you need them. You may not make the best decisions if your eyeballs are floating.

Suitably relieved, we decided to actually explore a bit. This was another stupidly picturesque place complete with stark church, churning seas, brightly colored albeit fading buildings, all built into the side of a mountaion at the edge of the sea. As we drove down, we terraced vinyards where grapes were growing at a pitch steep enough to make your nose bleed. And so were the buildings here. Stacked on top of each other between land and sea, it was intriguing toI think a) how they got this way, and b) how on earth anyone lives there now. Apparently, tourism is huge and there is a hiking trail that connects the 5 villages. It’s now on my bucket list.

We found a seafront cafe with a reasonable cover charge and ordered lunch.

Travel tip #26: when you are a captive audience, restaurants can charge you just to sit down. we paid 2 euros each for the pleasure of occupiying one of their chairs. {grrr}

Gluten free options were limited but we opted for the seafood risotto and a half liter of house white. Today I was nice enough to share some with Frank since he was not going to drink very much before the drive back up the mountain to get back to civilization. Of course I forgot that seafood would have come straight from the sea that I was sitting next to. The clams and muscles were fine, the calmari was probably frozen but that was okay too. The whole jumbo prawns with heads and everything attached nearly did me in. I managed to slay the sea creatures in the serving bowl and enjoyed the rest of the lunch.

Since the sun had come out during out lunch, we wandered about again taking new pictures of the scenery with clearer skies and brighter lighting. This included walking into a little cove where there were more cairns in one place than I have ever seen in my life. I know it’s a hiker thing and there were lots of hikers in town – more people were carrying hiking poles than were without them – but this was amazing!

Eventually we realized that it was time to head back so the climb back to the car park began. This was followed by the drive along the sometimes frightening road we took down into the village but somehow the rally driver in Frank rose to the challenge. I confess there were times when he was grinning like a madman and I just closed my eyes. But he’s happiest when he’s driving and I’m happiest when I’m not.

Once out of the national park, the toll road back to town was far less than exciting. We returned the rental car and headed back to the ship to begin the dreaded “last night of the holiday”activy: packing. One thing that worked in our favor: the budget airline with the nonstop flight to Glasgow doesn’t fly on Thursdays so we have one night in Rome before flying on Friday. That means that we don’t have to do the “where to pack the liquids” shuffle just yet. Thee decisions are especially challenging on a cruise since your main luggage needs to be outside your cabin before bed. If you want to shower in the morning and have anything like, say, tootpaste available to you, it needs to go in your carry one that stays with you. If you are going straight to the airport, that can be challenging.

Travel tip #27: An extra day in Rome is never a bad thing.

So tomorrow we “have” to stay in Rome before beginning our visit to Scotland. It made our packing much easier so we had lots of time for our last night on the ship: the final visit to the Martini bar, the final dinner in the fancy French restaurant, and the final double Bailey’s nightcap.

Dubious data for today:
12,010 steps and 37 floors. (Not much walking but none of it flat!)
244 kilometers
39 miles to the gallon
47 swear words each on the scary road

We knew we were docked in Naples this morning before the cruise diretor’s announcement by the sounds of the port and the smell of desiel. Today was an early start for many people: lots of tours were heading out very early to go far away from the city to Pompeii, Sorrento, or the Amalfi coast. We thought we’d do something crazy and actually stay in the city instead of climbing aboard a bus for a 1-2 hour drive to somewhere else. We breakfasted on deck for a change and then wandered off the ship to see what Napoli had to offer.

Let’s be clear about something: I am interested in seeing Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast but not if it means spending 4 hours on a bus to spend 2 hours in the place that we are visiting. We spoke to several people who loved their tours. We’ll just wait and visit those places anther time.

So we walked the city. From end to end. Starting with the quest to get an FC Napoli jersey for my nephew which took us to a team store in the central station. We had to walk through half a dozen construcgtion zones to get there and was nearly run down by two dozen scooters in the process but we made it. And then they didn’t have his size so we found a cafe where we couldn get good coffee to plan the next steps.

Travel tip #23: be prepared for people to expect you to love Starbucks even if you don’t. This shipe “proudly serves” the stuff which I assume is why I can’t drink the coffee in the dining room without cream (I usually take my coffee black.) In fact, we nearly paid for an upgraded drink package because it would come with unlimited specialty coffees. Then we got on board and realized that meant Starbucks so we were glad we didn’t spend the extra $300 dollars EACH (granted it also came with higher end liquors and bottled wine but we were just fine with the slumming liquors like Tito’s vodka and Bombay sapphire gin.)

After a lovely non-starbucks cappuchino, we headed west to find our way to see an few of the churches in town starting with the Duomo. Yet again the scarf came in handy to cover my sholders although the number of people who ignored the clearly posted “no tank top signs” was appalling. The cathedral was big and baroque and really something to see. Then it was off to the Jesuit church of the Gesu Nuovo which was even more ornate than the Duomo. Across the street was the church of Santa Chiara, a stark gothic church especially conpared to the first two. And these just scratched the surface!

We were hungry from being so holy so it was off to lunch. My GF restaurant finder app listed a place with great reviews from the GF community and it was right in the neighborhood. And my pizza was amazing. And Frank’s never arrived. After I was halfway done with mine, I went to see what was the problem and they hadn’t even made his! While I appreciate that they took good care of me, I didn’t appreciate that they didn’t notice that they forgot to make Frank’s. When it eventually arrived, he declared it to be the best pizza he had ever had and so he was willing to forgive the oversight. The fact that they threw in a couple of limonocellos helped a little.

By now we had spent some time wandering around the old part of town which meant there were lots of shops – including a FC Napoli team store that Google didn’t bother to tell us about! So football jersey secured, we started working on gifts for the 13 year old niece which meant visiting leather shops. And an Italian leather purse was thereby secured.

And then we headed to the final stop in the city: the Castle Saint Elmo. A fortification buit in medieval times to protect the kingdom on Napoli. It sits high up on a hill over looking the bay and requires a ride in a funicular to get there. But the visit is well worth it. The fort is very interesting and the views are breathtaking.

Travel tip #24: pay attention to things on tourist maps even if they aren’t recommended for a visit. We only found out about the castle because a map in a Rick Steve’s guide book indicated where the funicular was relative to things he recommended that people visit although it was not on the list of things to do.

We had walked across the entire city from the train station in the east to the castle in the west. So after appropriately admiring the beautiful scenes, it was back to the ship and our last dip in the pool and hot tub. We soaked in the lovely warmed water as the ship pulled out of the Bay of Naples headed north. Grabbing what might be our last happy hour cheese plate and wine, we sat on our balcony and watched as the seagulls accompanied us out of the harbor. We made a pit stop to the disco lounge for the 80s music quiz (we came in second to a group of about 5 women who weren’t even alive in the 80s but we won’t comment on that). Then dinner and the final show in the theather where they tried to shove every possible show of the cruise into one: aerial artists, dancers, magicians, dancers, etc. Can’t say I was impressed.

Dubious data for today:
26,335 steps and 28 floors
Number of church domes visible from one side of the castle: 15
Number of nuns passed today: 6

Today we were due to dock in Messina, Sicily at 8am and for reasons neither of us can understand, we were both wide awake at 6am – long before sunrise. {sigh} So we made hotel coffee in the room and sat on the balcony waiting for the dining room to open for breakfast. (WTF, who have we become?!?) We wandered down to breakfast where I tried the kitchen’s best attempt at GF french toast. I’m sure it would be heavenly for someone but it didn’t really do it for me – especially the “pancake syrup” it was served with. We are completely syrup snobs now: it’s pure maple or don’t bother.

Then it was off to explore Sicily. The main attractions on this part of the island are Mount Etna and Taormina and the ship offered a tour to both places for a mere $229 per person. Seriously? We can’t bear the thought of following the umbrella to start with but you want us to pay $500 for that torture? No thank you. So we figured out that there is an Avis office a mere 6 walk from the port and so for a mere $27 we rented a Fiat 500 for the day and we were off!

Travel tip #19: book the rental car from home in advance if you can. I’m pretty sure that no one else got their car for 24 euro.

Now I realize for many people, driving in Italy would be something they would gladly pay anyone $500 to avoid but not Frank – he LOVES to drive. Even a little, under-powered Italian diesel. We made it out of Messina without mishap and on to the autostrade for the hour and a half journey to Mt. Etna. We drove south along the coastline in blazing sunshine through dozens of tunnels – lots of mountains here! Of the 98 kilometers, only about 30 is on highway and the rest is small back roads to climb the 1900 meters to get to the base area of Etna. The screenshot of the Google maps route would make most people weep but Frank reveled in it… until we got stuck behind a tour bus. So much for playing rally driver!

But we made it and realized that we hadn’t planned particularly well. It was cloudy and at least 20 degrees colder on Etna than it was at the coast. And unlike the people around us in jeans and anoraks, we were dressed for 80+ degrees and sunshine. And here is another place where the scarf/shawl in the purse came in handy – as a wrap to keep me warm. We wandered about a bit trying to figure things out and realized that this was a place where capitalism had failed. There were rows of kitchy shops all selling the same thing. There were a variety of tourist excursions. And there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. As an economist, I always hope that the free market works but this was just a mess. We decided against the cable car excursion as pointless given Frank’s vertigo and the level of the clouds. There was a “train” ride around the base level for only 10 euros that promised views that the cable cars couldn’t provide. Although we have a pathological problem with organized tours, we thought we’d try this one to see if we were being unreasonable. And we weren’t.

Travel tip #20: try new things whenever you can but if it doesn’t feel right, don’t feel that you need to try it.

The “train” was one of those little kiddie sized things with several cars that go about 20 mph tops. there was mostly Italians on this thing and there was narration in multiple languages. But the Italians talked over the English translation so we couldn’t really hear anything. And then we stopped at a local restaurant to try local products which felt like a high pressured sales pitch – or it would have if they bothered to speak any thing other than Italian. All in all, we decided our abhorrence of such organized tours was well founded. We didn’t even bother to climb to any of the intermediate levels (the peak is at ~3400 meters and requires special tour guides and permission) because the clouds were so low you couldn’t see anything.

So back down the mountain we went. No tour bus in front of this time so Frank had a great time rallying down the mountain, passing sluggish cars, and generally just enjoying the drive. On the way back to port we stopped at Taormina, another impossibly picturesque village built into a mountain. We found a great place for lunch with many gluten free options including pizza and beer! Then we wandered about enjoying the sights and scenery. I stopped by a church to light a candle for my mom as I do every chance I get. And we picked up a lovely watercolor by a local artist that shows what Etna looks like when you can actually see it.

And then it was time to head back. Down another hill and back to Messina to turn in the Fiat and get back aboard ship. The biggest crisis of the day: we lost a water bottle, probably under a seat in the car. It was my favorite purple one with my “Rochester Boat Club” sticker on it. So if anyone from Sicily ever shows up at the boathouse in Fairport….

Back on board we decompressed with a few glasses of wine before heading out to specialty dinner number 3: the Brazilian steakhouse. It was Meatfest night! This is the place where men carrying sharp sticks with meat stop by the table and give you as much meat as you can stomach. And we stomached way too much. We nearly didn’t have room for our double Bailey’s nightcap while we watched the absolutely hysterical juggler in the evening show. It will take a long tome to digest everything but hopefully we’ll be less sluggish in the morning so we can enjoy Napoli!
Dubious data for today:
14,346 steps and 36 floors (Sicily is also not flat)
Kilometers driven: 199
Approximate gas mileage: 70 mpg

Total cost of the day including rental car, diesel, parking, and tolls: $72