LACruiser88

Thank you for the passenger count. How has the internet been onboard?

Check out the Roll Call for the Oct 26th sailing. There are tons of planned excursions on the spreadsheet that cover your segment.

We spent our last full day in Tuscany walking around Florence. We walked a total of 12 miles today. We visited the Bardini Gardens, which have a great view of the city. The DW's did their shopping at the San Lorenzo street vendors. We lunched again at the Central Market. A lot more people in town today versus last week. Tomorrow we will check into our hotel near the Rome airport (FCO) and return the van to the airport. On Wednesday, we board the ship!

We have had guaranteed cabins a few times. Usually assigned a week or so before sail date. Once it was assigned one day before sailing.

Today we explored the hilltop town of Montepulciano for the first time (we have been to all of our prior stops in the past). If you venture out to this quaint wine town, wear good walking shoes as the inclines in the town are extreme. Also, parking is a real challenge to find. It is around a 1.45 hr drive from Florence thru beautiful countryside.

Before booking flights I always check pricing directly thru the airlines, Amex Travel and EZair. During the past several years, we have not found cheaper international business class seats outside of EZair.

Today we spent the day in Siena. It was a bit cooler and breezy today. On the way back "home" we stopped at the castle in Monteriggioni (the last two photos). IMHO it was not worth the $2.50 parking fee.

We have dined at the Gastropub several times. The Beyond Meat burgers and fries are really good. Our travel companions have had the real meat burger several times. They also really enjoyed their dinner. Well worth the upcharge in MHO.

In November of 2019, we met the owner of the Uccelliera winery in Montalcino at the James Suckling "Top 100 Wines of Italy" event in LA. We were originally going to visit the winery in 2020. We all know what happened to 2020. Today we finally met with Andrea and his lovely wife, Paola, at their winery. After 4 hours of tasting thru 6 years of Brunello di Montalcino vintages, they made us feel like family. Such lovely people and great wines!

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Another warm and sunny day! We spent the day at Volterra and San Gimignano. Tomorrow we go to Montalcino.

Thanks, we'll check it out. We are going back to Florence on Sunday.

No, in Florence?

Here are a few photos of where we are staying and one of our room. The third photo is just outside of our room.

Today, we spent a great day in Florence and visited the Duomo. It was very warm for the time of year, 82 f. Definitely shorts weather. We had lunch at Il Pesce at the upstairs food court in the Central Market. This is a very high quality location with many food and beverage options. We highly recommend Il Pesce for great seafood options!

The 3 hour drive to Tuscany went smoothly. We are sure glad we rented a mini van! Lots of luggage. After a great dinner tonight at Tenuta Il Corno (where we are staying), we are ready for some sleep after being up for about 30 hours. We can never sleep on a flight no matter what "sleep aids" we take. Btw, dinner tonight was highlighted by a taglatelli with black truffles! Fantástico!

Our flight on ITA was great. The service and food were excellent! The wine selections were also very good.

Just boarded our flight at LAX. Roma here we come!

I am starting this "Live" thread a little early as we will be leaving tomorrow for a week's stay in Tuscany before we board the ship. We are traveling with another couple and are flying from Los Angeles to Rome (FCO), non-stop, on Italia Transporto Aereo (ITA). This is the former Alitalia Airline. We booked Business Class via EZair at a fantastic price! We have had very good experiences flying Alitalia in the past, this will be our first time flying ITA since the reorganization. We are renting a mini-van (we have lots of luggage and cars in Europe tend to be much smaller) at FCO and are driving to an Agriturismo (working vineyard, winery, olive oil production, restaurant and accommodations), where we have rented apartments within a large Villa. We have stayed at this location in the past and thoroughly enjoyed it. We will be 10 miles south of Florence in the Chianti region. From here we will base our daily trips throughout Tuscany. The day prior to boarding the ship, we will drive back to FCO and spend a night at an airport hotel. We have arranged private transportation to the ship in Civitavecchia. We have booked our 37 day cruise as an 11 day and 26 day back-to-back voyage. The 26 day voyage could also be booked as an 11 day and 15 day back-to-back. For us the 26 day voyage was more financially advantageous. Our roll calls for these voyages have been the most active I have seen in a very long time. As of today, there are over 4,300 posts on the three separate roll calls that cover the three legs of our voyage. I would like to acknowledge @Jilliebean28 for her unselfish commitment to maintaining an ever-changing and extremely lengthy Excel spreadsheet of activities and excursions. There has been 35 updated versions of the spreadsheet! Not being a very prolific or witty "Live" poster, I encourage our fellow cruisers to contribute to this thread as we travel along. Hopefully, this thread will help unite the three separate roll calls in one location. We usually do not attend the shows, do not participate in games nor interact with the Cruise Director or his/her staff. We do enjoy the Sanctuary, Vines, food and music venues (we enjoy dancing very much). Hopefully, our fellow cruisers will fill in the gaps! This is an extremely active itinerary and I'll try to answer as many questions as I possibly can.

My DW does not think any of the ship hair dryers are very powerful. She always brings her own.

Yes, you can book the same lounges for the entire cruise. You cannot make a reservation pre-cruise, just go up there as soon as you board the ship. I hope you enjoy your trip!

Disappointing news for us. We have our 750th Princess sea day coming up in March on our South American cruise. Oh well, it won't stop us from enjoying ourselves!

Our favorite ship? Any ship that we can get on! We always have a great time!

Thank you for the update. I hope the next segment has a calmer crowd and internet service! We'll be onboard the Discovery for the first time on Dec 28th for a 10 day Mexico voyage.

I was planning on starting it tomorrow evening as we leave for Tuscany on Monday morning (Oct 17th).