A Taste of Tuscany

On our first day in Italy, we chose a 10 hour excursion driving through the beautiful areas of Tuscany. On our first stop, we entered the walled city of Lucca. The city has kept its old-world charm. Cobbled-stone streets were narrow, making room only for a small car one-way or bicycles. Lucca is called the city of 99 churches, and we explored the interiors of several of the ornate structures.

We stopped for lunch at an Italian farmhouse and learned about all the orchards of olive trees and the acres of grapevines that we saw throughout the day in the countryside. Again, I probably missed some excellent wine at this stop but tasted several different kinds of olives--kind of sour!!

Our last stop was to Villa Torrigiani--one of the most important and elegant houses in the area including beautiful fountains and trees. The villa is shown second from the top of the photos for this blog. The top photo includes some of the grounds. As we strolled around the gardens, we concluded that even the very rich, who lived in homes like this, still lacked all the conveniences that we are used to in today's world; we wouldn't trade our small homes for this mansion with no indoor plumbing or central heating system!

Our second day in Italy, I decided to stay on the ship for some "alone time" while everyone else headed for some catacombs. I am very cluastrophobic, so catacombs didn't appeal to me at all! I read a novel and relaxed on the ship.

Olympia, Greece

As you can tell from the name of this city, Oylmpia is the site of the first Olympic games 2,000 years ago. The games began with a simple footrace and a few wrestling matches but graduallly expanded into a five-day extravaganza. The winners were crowned with wreaths of olives and were given assurance of immortality (pretty good reasons to participate!!).

We had to use our imagination to picture those first games. We could sometimes see an outline of stones where a full structure had once been. It all covered a very large area. An interesting twist to those games of long ago--the athletes ran naked! I guess they didn't want any kind of drag as they were charging toward their goal.

After the Olympic Park, we had lunch in a nearby restuarant. Greek dancers seranaded us as we ate our olives, tomatoes, cheese, bread, olive oil, etc. (wine too, but we don't drink). As we toured thoughout the cities and villages of Greece, we saw numerous orchards of olive trees. Olives are a major industry in their economy.

This was our last stop in Greece. Tomorrow, it's on to Italy.

Santorini, Greece

What could be more perfect than spending a day in beautiful Santorini, Greece? As we sailed toward the island, snow seemed to appear as a blanket of white on the ground. When the ship moved closer to the island, we could see the gleaming white houses built so closely together that they appeared to imitate snow. It was a stunning sight!

With our guide, we began a walking tour of several small villages. In one village, some of the residents were walking to their neighboring Greek Orthodox Church. As we weaved our way though the quiet streets, we declared the whole atmosphere as one of quiet beauty.

What could pry our minds away from such beauty? The dreaded donkey trail could!! We had three choices given by our guide to get back to the ship from the top of the moutain. One was waiting in a long line and then gliding down the mountain in a gondola. Another option involved decending a steep, cobbled-stone trail while riding on a donkey (scary). The third option--walking down the same steep trail that the donkeys also used. We chose the latter.

With confidence, we began down the trail. The sun beat down ferociously on us. We slipped as we tried to navigate the rocky trail. The worst part entailed staying alert as we gingerly edged our way along to avoid the donkey poop and urine that was splattered laviously along the trail. It was everywhere!

Paul and I eventually made our way to the bottom of the trail, slipping on the rocks and almost falling several times. I truly think that I had heat stroke by the time we completed the mile and one-half of trail.

Later, on the ship at dinner, we compared notes on our day's excursions. Mary Ann, our friend who is usually challenged and excited about adventures, went through the same awful experience we did a little later in that same afternoon; however, she added a new spin. She actually fell down on the trail and landed in a big pile of donkey poop. She was covered with it and had to decend the rest of the trail smelling the foul mess, which was smashed all over her clothes and skin.

Typically optimistic Mary Ann usually finds a silver lining in any venture. She said to me, "Well, with all the wet donkey waste on my clothes from head to toe, I had a natural airconditioner from the donkey urine to cool me for the rest of the trip."

You had to be there to get the full sensory effect. Those of us who shared the experience laughed for the rest of the trip about our donkey disaster.

Happy Birthday to Me!

We are home from our trip. I have spent today rocking and rolling just like I did on the ship. Hopefully, in a few days I may regain my land legs. To preserve the memories of the trip, I will write blogs on each place we have seen.

What a fun adventure to spend my 63rd birthday in the country of Turkey! We visited the ancient ruins of Ephesus, which were built in the 1st century AD. The ruins are extensive and also well-preserved from that time so long ago. In the picture above, our guide is standing with us in front of the Celsus Library.

As you can see from the photos, the weather was warm. We were so fortunate to have almost pefect weather for our entire trip (between 65 and 75 degrees).

On the ship in the evening, we celebrated my birthday (and Halloween) at dinner. Indonesian waiters sang to me and presented a little round birthday cake with one large candle. It was really a special birthday.