LooneyCruzer

I thought it was amazing that 6 days in Rome, and they have some crazy drivers and traffic, scooters and motorcycles everywhere, mixing with cars and busses and trams and huge crowds of people crossing and walking in the streets and jaywalking, and there was not one accident, or person or vehicle getting clipped. 
In Dallas, we cannot go an hour without a wreck. 

We spent most of our time in the solarium. 
The vatican area scammers were the worse, but no issues from saying no.
The walk around hawkers (water/chargers/hats) were terrible, but left with a no. 

Yes we saw some of the uphill river feeding it all. Amazing technology for many hundreds of years ago when we assume they were all clueless

Yes we did. There are directs 3-4 times a day between Roma termini and Tivoli. Other time options stop in the tiburtina station and take an hour to get to Tivoli.
We left at 2:20 and got here at 3pm, that gave us plenty of time to walk to the gardens (12 minutes) and casually walk thru the fountains and museum for 3 hours, lots of stairs and uphill downhill ramps. 

Dinner reservations were at 7:30 and the last train back to Rome is at 10:30, arriving at 11:15, so there are still taxi’s or busses on the day schedule until midnight, to get back to the hotel. 
the train was 2.60€ each way and the bus was 1.50€. The gardens were 12€ each, so quite a cheap adventure, dinner and drinks costs withstanding. 

Tomorrow we fly home, so no more from me unless you want specific pictures of something. It was a great trip!!!

Remember for next year, it’s 2025 Jubilee in Roma. There was tons of construction all over getting ready. It will be really crowded, so plan ahead. 
 

Arrivederci

Ok, wow, we are stuffed and very very happy. The food and service at Li Somari were just perfect. Starting with the best focaccia, so light and fluffy inside with just a hint of crispy, salty, rosemary crust, and great olive oil to dip it into. 
I had the chicken gnocchi. Totally unexpected and tasty. I did not know you could stuff gnocci. 
My wife had the seafood tortellini with fresh caviar roe. We both finished them off and licked the plates 😉

For dessert, we had the cats tongue with custard and salted caramel. Just heavenly, light and sweet and oh my…

We ventured out today and went to Tivoli. A short 30 min train ride to a small town with really narrow medieval streets, quaint squares, and historical buildings in a very old town. The charming ambiance and local shops make it a delightful place to wander around. Tivoli was here before Rome was around. The Romans took it over around 338 Bc. The rich nobles came and built villas to escape Rome’s unrest.

We came here to eat at Li Somari, a Michelin star restaurant I saw on an episode of “The best places I ever ate”. More about that later as we are very early for our reservation as it started pouring down rain while at the gardens.
We also came to see Villa d'Este: A UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its stunning Renaissance gardens, magnificent fountains, and impressive terraced landscapes, and a world class museum. Villa d'Este is a masterpiece of Italian garden design. Commissioned in 1509 by the Cardinal's of the church to be more beautiful than anything the Romans had built. 
It is quite impressive and will give your legs a workout, another 15k step day 😉

We are across the street from reataurant Osteria da Fortunata - Rinascimento. They have an open window area where they make pasta from 7am until they close. It is very fascinating and addicting to watch. 
 

We explored Rome again, multiple churches, monuments, sites, and restaurants. We spent a good 2 hours outside the colosseum taking pictures so we did not have to try and capture it all during the tour.
The actual colosseum tour was incredible. Especially the forum and outlying areas. Paintings and items and stones that are 2000 years old. So worth the lines and walking. The size of the place and history are just amazing. 

Hi, no we did not. The line was forever. We were going to do it another day, and it’s free since it is St Peters square, but you still have to go thru security to get in and rather not pursue that crazy mess again. 

Lots and lots of law enforcement in Rome, police, carboneri (military police), Roma guards, Vatican police, and the Swiss Army, who guard the Pope. They must be swiss, single, under 30, perfect character, not even a speeding ticket, and a devout catholic. After 2 years in swiss army, and 2 yrs special service (think seal teams) they can transfer to the Vatican. After 5 years they can marry someone. And we were assured they were the most dangerous and serious individuals we would ever encounter. Fully proficient with any weapon, including the halberd, and would instantly give their life to keep the Pope alive. 

We visited the Vatican today. If possible, please pay extra for a small group tour and guide (12 in our group). It was worth triple the cost to have a special experience. Public lines start building at 6am and by 8am they wrap around the building. It is a crazy, confusing thing to get inside. We saw so many people wait forever and get turned away by the guards for being in the wrong line or at the wrong time. They process about 30,000+ people a day and for holy weeks, about 40k. The guide noted that was the worst time to go because people stop and pray and such and you have to just wait on them. 
Skipping the line, getting in early, and having a guide who knows the guards was a godsend. She was so knowledgable and taught us so many unknown things about the Vatican and religious events i never knew or imagined. It was hours of unimaginable terror knowing where to go and rules to follow. So many people got chastised by the guards, yelled at for taking pictures in the wrong rooms, or were stuck because a group of 30 or 60 people blocked the way. Our guide knew all the tricks and order of things. Four hours, 21,000 steps and 852 pictures later and we only saw maybe 1/3 or the Vatican. She told us there is so much museum inside, if you stopped for 30 seconds to view each item or tapestry or painting, it would take 15 years to see it all. 
When we left at noon-ish, St Peters square was full of lines of people wrapped around and around to get in. Not sure how to describe how huge the place is. The letters in the words are 6 feet high(pic 1) zoom in.

For reference, we used 

https://www.getyourguide.com

and they were excellent!

First day in Rome. The ship departure was a circus. Internet service was spotty out by the taxis. We had a nice ride into the city and I am really impressed with Hotel Navona.  They are very friendly and had everything ready for us. Fed us breakfast while our room was being cleaned, then we went exploring around. It was super crowded everywhere you went. I cannot imagine trying to see Rome in the busy season. Lines for restaurants were very long way into the dinner hours.  
We went back to our hotel room and got unpacked. I splurged for a suite, which is huge compared to most hotel rooms here. We have a full size jacuzzi tub in the room. The bathroom is huge also. My firestick plugged right into the tv and worked great, as there were no english channels to watch. 
We went out for a small lunch which was ok. Such different interpretations of foccocia. 
There were crazy long lines for all the sights, so we just took pictures of things. 
For dinner we went to In Rome Cooking school and learned how to make pizza and gelato. It was really fun and i learned a few new things. The pizza was great and the gelato was so easy to make. Cannot wait to get home and try making different flavors. 
We were exhausted after the day in Cinque Terre and more walking on the cobblestone street. I would not want to drag my luggage over them very far, and lots of females were walking in high heels. ??? My wife was flabbergasted. So wear good shoes for such uneven and broken up streets. 
Returning to the hotel for a long soak in the tub and we slept great. 
Day 2, I got up at 7 to hit the laundromat for clean clothes. Most of them are a service, you leave them and return to pick them up, kinda pricy. I found a self service laundry and its really clean and easy with all new machines that are automated. 
Off to breakfast now and a day of exploring. 

It was free to walk to the train station and 64 bucks (34 x2) for the all day train tickets pass for the 5  Cinque Terre cities, which includes the free bathroom privileges ( which paid for themselves) vs the individual train tickets. The ferry boat timetable just did not work for us and once we were at  Monterosso, we were too tired and worn out to walk all the way across again to the ferry. 

What a great day in La Spezia. It started with a cool fog stuck on the edge of the mountains. 
We walked to the train also, Sat, 7:30 am, 55 degrees, just wonderful. No one was out and we saw walls of hanging rosemary, just fascinating.
The train to Cinque Terre was almost empty, hit Riomaggiore first, quaint town. Fun to walk on the edge of the cliff trails into town. Ate fresh croissants  

and pastries for breakfast and explored a bit. 
Easy on and off the trains to Vernazza. Wonderful views and tons of pictures. 
Train to Monterosso, lots of walking and choices to eat as the town was waking up. We had prosciutto and melon, fresh ravioli with carbonara sauce and gelato. Really could have used a nap. I can see the reason to go now as it was very crowded and can only imagine what it is like in the summer when the beaches are packed. 
Train back to La Spezia and walked to the Castello San Giorgio. Filled with old roman artifacts that were incredibly interesting. It was a really cool day with lots of steps, we hit 16,000+ today and so many were stair steps.

2 different sunset views last night

Moon over Malaga

Cartegena was a wonderful stop. Very clean and lots to see. We did our own self guided tour just looking on the internet. 
The suggested lunch was excellent. Restaurante Techos Bajos. It was seafood but wow it was good, and we eat alot of seafood!
Seafood croquettes and garlic shrimp was very yummy. Fresh french bread to sop it all up. Just perfect for a quick lunch. While we were eating they delivered all the days fresh seafood, fish, octopus, all on ice right off the local boats. 
We saw all these sights and ended up walking down Calle Mayer to the city square where an armed forces military event was taking place. Dress review, unit bands and music and singing with 4 real cannons being fired off. Quite impressive, and loud cannon shots!!!

Too many pictures to post. 
We hit 12,000 steps, alot of those steps were literally stairs 🙂

• Museo Del Teatro Romano (Roman Theater Museum of Cartagena)
• Roman Theatre
• Columnata Romana (Roman Colonnade)
• Museo Foro Romano Molinete (Roman Forum Molinete Museum)
• Augusteum
• Casa de la Fortuna (House of Fortune)
• Punic wall of Cartagena
• City Hall
• Catedral de Santa Maria La Mayor (Cathedral of Saint Mary the Great)
• Castillo de la Concepción (Castle of the Conception)
• National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology

Malaga is such a lush and beautiful place.  Our trip to the cooking class was about 45 minutes up the mountains, past Colmenar, a quaint town nestled in the valleys, with very friendly people. And Toro, the local mascot. 

A bit more up the mountains, which are all classified as Preserve areas, meaning you must be a farmer or producer to live there. They get most everything from locals except staples from the grocery store.
Lush olive tree fields, cactus (grown just for the fruit), wine vineyards, almond trees, goats roaming free, just amazing.

La Rosilla is in Solano, where we were met and driven out to the house and were greeted warmly with conversation about us and daily life for them, wine, and incredible snacks, which tasted like a refined fig newton. We toured the area where they grew almond and olive trees on the hillsides and left with olive oil they produce themselves. Just an amazing fresh taste and feel, nothing like any store bought oils I have ever had.

Into the kitchen for cooking… starting with almonds toasted in olive oil and fresh rosemary, OMG, so simple but you couldn’t stop eating them. They grow all their own herbs and vegetables on the patio, with lemon and orange trees to grab fresh picked fruit. 

Next was prep for the Paella, onions, beans, asparagus from the backyard, peppers, lemons and 2 kinds of fresh mushrooms, with chicken and locally made chorizo. Then out to the patio to the burners and paella pans, learning cool techniques and tips for the best results. Layering the ingredients with such a heavenly smell, sigh.

While that cooked, we had fresh out of oven olive loaf bread with tapas of local pork loin, sausage, with quince jelly and cheeses.

Then onto the main course, the paella, which traditionally is only eaten in the noon meal, too heavy for the later evening meal. Such a rich flavor, nothing like I ever got when I tried to make it. 
We ended with an almond/orange slice of pie with lemon gelato, it was eaten so fast we forgot to get a picture. We were just stuffed and returned to the ship very satisfied. I would highly recommend this fun adventure for anyone wanting something different. 
http://www.larosilla.com/

Yes you can use Starbucks gift cards but only at the main location on deck 4

Another wonderful sea day. Search for a chair, eat, drink, watch people search for chairs, drink, eat, get ready for dinner, eat, drink, search for chairs in the royal theater or 270, drink, watch performers, crash for the night.  

We go thru about 1am so not much to see of the Gibraltar rocks. 

@Scottee25 organized the custom tour,  they did a great job of getting us around the island to see most of the good viewing spots plus our scheduled stops. 
https://azoresdreamtours.com

We have been to the lakes before so chose to do something different. If you can get a private tour and have good weather, they are spectacular, especially if you can beat the tour busses and get there first. 
 

We have also been to Malaga before and hit most of the hot spots. This time we are doing a private cooking class with a local catering company up in the mountainsides overlooking beautiful scenery and learning how to make paella and other Spanish dishes. https://larosilla-catering.com/

Great day in the Azores. Thermal baths, the local lunch at Tony’s, then pineapple plantation with goodies, pineapple vodka, beer, sorbet, tart, and got a bottle of liquor.