Bonjourno/ Calamara/ Merhaba to you!
Today, 18th July 2016 I am sitting in Terminal 2 at 11:51AM Rome time, waiting to make our way to into the Terminal 3 Departure Zone. We arrived to a mass crowd to find out the computer systems of the Rome airport were non operational. As we were in no rush due to our 19:55PM departure time, I thought it would be best to start writing about our experience and tell you a little more about what our upcoming blog posts will be about.
On the 8th July 2016, the Ginger Gent and I embarked on a 10 Day Cruise with Celebrity Cruises to see key places of the Mediterranean accompanying the ever wonderful and fun seekers Momma Peer and Aunt Di. Now a cruise isn't our usual thing but there are definitely some advantages to the world of the floating hotel which we will share with you in later posts.
We started our journey by leaving our humble abode in Dorset, UK and travelled by car to the...insert hotel name tomorrow as the brain is still in vacay mode function, it will come to me later, hopefully. I'm sure it will as to be honest from first site this hotel reminded me of an English version of the Shining, inside and out. We only stayed the one night but as the Ginger Gent is well known for, he found a fantastic deal which allowed us to park our car for the duration of our holiday and gave us a closer place to rest our heads before we disembarked for Rome in the 'early' morning of the beautiful 6AM, which was earlier than our regular day but nothing too dramatic all for a quarter of the price we'd pay for airport parking. Seriously the man is a deal detective. Reason number 821 why I married him.
Thursday morning we set off for Rome. We set sail on Friday 8th July from the Porto Di Civitavecchia, Italy making our first stop the island of Sicily – and boy I cannot wait to tell you about this island. We then set sail to the Greek Island of Mykonos, which we added to our 'midwinter break from English Rain' list. Imagine scootering around a mildly busy city with the sea wind in your hair. #dreamcometrue
Next on the agenda was a sea day. Not the details are blurry as we celebrated Momma Peer's birthday on the day in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea - how unbeilivably cool is that? Have you ever had a destination birthday? The last one I had was in Las Vegas, and well we all know where that led to, wink wink.
We then lowered our anchors in Kusadasi, Turkey. The pride our tour guide Volkan, yes VOLKAN (Turkish word for volcano, or Unorthodox Gem word for AWESOME) had was mesmerizing and spellbinding. We hung on to every single passionate word he said about 'his country' and the historical influence of the ancient city of Ephesus. We took selfies in the Library of Celsius, watched a Turkish Carpet Demonstrated and devoured some Turkish delicacies including Turkish Delight and Lion's Milk. Okay, only the Ginger Gent was brave enough for the Lion's Milk but it's not what you think. Google it and let us know what you find. I feel a fantastically funny blog post brewing.
After being dragged back on to the boat, okay not actually but we could have stayed there and chatted for hours with Volkan over a delicious Mythos beer, but instead we set sail to the ancient city of Rhodes, Greece where #teamawesome explored the city on our very own. Zero spoilers here except the fact it will be a good/educational story to share.
Next stop the island of Santorini; the island of sunshine, wine and blue domed cathedrals. In upcoming posts we'll be sharing the unique way they grow their grapes, why the domes are blue and when the best time is to access this must see Mediterranean site. Back on board we disembarked to the ancient capital of Athens, Greece.
This is probably one of the most educational stops on the tour and sweatiest. Yup, pure unadulterated baseball cap, see through tee shirt sweat. But the view from the Acropolos was worth it. We dove straight into Greek Mythology, Politics and Ancient Traditions. Prepare yourselves for an overload of this site as we took a panoramic tour of the city making a specific stop at the Acropolis. Don't know it, (while picking my jaw off the ground), then stay here for a mind-blowing adventure.
Last but not least our final stop was in Naples, Italy before ending our journey in Rome. By this time we were physically exhausted from the abundant amount of walking and mentally overstimulated by the intense and fact filled almost daily history lessons that we thought we may fall asleep mid excursion but once we started sailing along the Amalfi Coast our lungs filled with sea air and we couldn't get enough of their oversized lemons and lemoncello. We finished with an Italian lunch (wine, pasta and more wine - bellisimo) and a narrated tour of the ancient ruins of Pompei – a suggestion from Twin A from the Miller's explore Italy Tour 2012. It was a fast paced day but it was filled with jaw dropping sites of coastal towns literally being built into the cliff side and surrounded by volcanoes with discussions of their previously destructive events.
So there you are folks, a snip-it or teaser if you will of our 10 day cruise through the Mediterranean. Prepare yourselves for photos galore, points of interest and little hidden gems in our weekly posts.
Friday is the first of our weekly posts telling you all about our adventures and experiences. Until then, #adventureawaits.
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