CRUISING EUROPE

We set sail from beautiful Barcelona Spain, on a very fast 7 day cruise through Italy,France and Spain. The Norwegian Gem was our luxurious home away from home, this is a new ship in the Norwegian Cruise line fleet and it has many great features, one being the dinning anytime anywhere. The choice of restaurants was amazing from Chinese to Italian to a Steak House to rival any Ruth Chris, however be aware that some of these restaurants have a cover charge from $15 to $25 a person,but well worth it. Traditional dinning is still available in two dinning rooms and of course the deckside barbecue and buffet, and if that is not enough how about room service.
The itinerey was one day at sea and then a port every day.First stop Malta,this beautiful island is just full of history and we had a lovely day wandering through side streets,stopping at street cafes for expresso and just taking in the unbelieveable architecture.

Day three found us docked in Civitecchia Italy, the port for Rome which actually was about one and a half hours away. We headed to Rome on a motor caoch and was dropped in the center of Rome by the colosseum, from here we went alone. First we took a tour into the colosseum which again was such a terrific experience. When we came out we found a hop on hop off bus tour, perfect to see everything in a day, this was reasonable and we were supplied with plug in headsets so we could listen to the narration in english. We saw everything, the vatican the spanish steps, the Trevi fountain and so much more, another full exhausting day.It is really hard to put Rome into just a few sentences, but this was a very wonderful experience


Day four found us docked in Naples, we chose to do a full day and I mean full day tour here, although we are very experienced travellers we felt a tour would best utilize our time,so her we were at the dock at 7am taking a jet foil to to Capri, a beautiful port with colorful buildings. From here we went on a funiculor railway, where the views were unbelieveable. We walked through the narrow streets and gazed in the fabulous shops. Then came another boat ride and a bus ride to the hills above Sorrento a quick lunch stop for what else pasta and wine! and time to explore the small stoned streets of Sorrento . They say the best is always last, and in this case it is very true, we went by motorcoach to Pompeii. this was without a doubt a memorable experience, Pompeii is so well preserved you can see many fine details that reveal the lifestyles of the residents all those years ago. After many hours of walking we headed back to the motorcoach and the ship, where room service now sounded very very good!

Day fuve found us docked in Livorno Italy, the gateway for Tuscany,Florence and Pisa. Here we decide to take the motorcoach into Florence again about one hour from the port. Florence is a fascinating city full of museums, architecture and beautiful gothic churches. we wandered the streets taking all the surroundings in , the famous Ponte Vecchio,Piazza Del Duomoo and the Plazza del Campo. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant again pasta and wine! This day was about 9 1/2 hours, another exhausting but fabulous day.

Day six found is Villefranche France, the port for Nice, from here you can take tours to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Nice. We had been here before so decided to take the local train to Nice, and do this port on our own , we walked through the town and down onto the world famous Promenade de Anglais. stopping at side walk cafes and enjoying the french riviera, we took the train back and headed for the last nights festivities abord the ship.

Arriving back in Barcelona we had booked an extra night, hearing that this was such a fascinating city we decided to check it out. we stayed downtown in the heart of the city, and again decided on the hop on hop off sight seeing bus, we travelled all day this way enjoying everything Barcelona had to offer from the castilian architechture to the sight of the Barcelona Olympic Games. a great way to end this whirl wind european vacation.

Prior to the cruise we did spend 9 days in England and Wales my home. I recommend taking some extra days and visiting England either prior or after the cruise, if you spend so much on air fare a few days more are well worth it. we can customise any itinerery to suit all tastes and budgets.