Kotor, Montenegro April 16, 2017

It was a two hour sail into Kotor from the Adriatic.  They have a name for it, but it is similar to a fjord.  The scenery was quite striking with mountains down to the water and quant houses along the way.  Our tour began with a bus ride over the mountains and through a long tunnel to the city of Budva.  This city dates to medieval times and has high stone walls right to the sea.  We were told that it is very busy as a summer resort beginning this month and lasting until November.  Many Russians have homes here that they only visit for a week or two every year.  We saw many unfinished buildings that appeared to be abandoned.  The unemployment rate here is 40% and it shows.  We had a walk through the old city and visited the outside of a few churches then we had free time before taking the bus back over the mountain to Kotor.  We were then supposed to take  walking tour of the old city of Kotor but it started to rain so we just left the tour and went back on the ship.  It was a good decision as there was a lot of thunder and lightning along with some heavy rain. 
Being Easter Sunday the ship was decorated with large displays made of chocolate.  They were in front of every restaurant along with a large one in the atrium.  The whole ship smelled like chocolate!

Beautiful morning sail into Kotor with quaint houses along the hillsides

The old city walls go right to the sea

Small pebble beach in Budva

Huge chocolate Easter display in the atrium

Another chocolate Easter display in front of Chartreuse restaurant

Zadar, Croatia

It was a bright sunny day when we sailed into this port but very cool temperature made us decide to stay on board the ship and just relax and catch up on some things.  Tomorrow we will be in Venice and it is where we will be changing suites so we decided to do a little advance packing.  We also had a nice lunch in one of the specialty restaurants "Chartreuse" which is mostly French cuisine.  Not our favorite but a nice change from the buffet where we usually have lunch. 

Zadar appears to be preparing to receive more cruise ships with several new docks

View our balcony of cruise terminal under construction

Welcome sea day cruising the strait of Messina April 15, 2017

After so many full touring days everyone on the ship was very happy to have a relaxing sea day.  We passed through the strait of Messina early in the day and it was fairly clear and sunny.  While we were eating breakfast we sailed by the Stromboli volcano.  It was nice to finally actually get a good look at it as the last time we came to this area it was the middle of the night and we did not see the volcano.  There were a lot of activities on board today including a town hall type meeting with the President/CEO of Regent.  Noel participated in an Easter scavenger hunt and actually won a prize of a huge box of Easter candy which she gave to our room stewards. For lunch they offered something new, a "galley buffet" where we sat in Compass Rose restaurant but passed through the kitchen area to get our food.  It was very enjoyable and amazing to see the kitchen in action.  Our trivia team again missed getting a prize by one question . :(

Smoking Stromboli volcano still has snow

Tom with ice sculpture at beginning of buffet

Huge stacks of dinnerware

Display of fruits and vegetables

Civitavecchia and Naples, Italy, April 13 & 14 2017

Civitavecchia is the port city for Rome so it is quite a busy port.  Since we had been to Rome several times we decided to take a short tour that started with a visit to Bracciano Lake and a winery.  Most of the area we drove through was farming with crops of mostly wheat, olive groves, and artichokes.  There were also cattle and sheep and we saw quite a few horses.  After about one hour we arrived at the small town of Anguillara located on the shore of Bracciano Lake.  The day was quite overcast and hazy so we could not see the other side of the lake.  We visited a small fish market where the fish were nicely displayed.  Tom had a coffee in a small café, mostly so we could use the restroom!  After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus to drive to the winery.  It was a small family winery where we tasted a couple of different wines and they served some nice snacks of bread, olives, cheese, etc.  We arrived back at our ship at 1 pm and had lunch out on the pool deck.  It was pretty quiet around the ship as most passengers had taken all day tours to Rome. All of our trivia team was  on board and we finally won! 

We counted 22 tour buses lined up for our ship

The winery we visited

Snacks and wine

Small fish market

Mobile fruit and vegetable market

Naples was also quite hazy and cool so we could not see much of Vesuvius or Capri in the distance, just a faint outline.  We took a four hour "highlights" tour of the city of Naples.  The traffic is horrible and the whole city seems to be under construction.  Everyone honks their car horns and cars are double parked everywhere so our bus driver did a great job maneuvering our huge bus through the crowded streets.  Most of the tour was just on the bus but we did get out in the old part of the city and walked with the guide to a central square and a couple of churches.  We then had about 45 minutes of free time before we went back to the ship.  There were hundreds of tiny shops selling everything imaginable.  We especially noticed the food shops where all the food items are very enticing and beautifully displayed.  We made it back to the ship in time for lunch. 

Old castle at port entrance surrounded by construction

View of Naples from top of hill

Goodies in bakery window

Shop selling nothing but pasta

Livorno, Italy April 12, 2017

Livorno is the port city closest to Pisa and Florence.  Since we had been here before we decided to just stay on the ship as most of the tours were eight to ten hours and we were tired from the past two long days.  We had a nice lunch in the Prime 7 specialty restaurant.  Since so many people will be coming back to the ship very late we were able to get a reservation for dinner in the "Pacific Rim" restaurant for dinner.  Tomorrow we will be visiting a winery. 

View of Livorno from our suite

Prayer wheels at entrance of Pacific Rim Restaurant

Beautiful Asian Décor in restaurant

Each of the specialty restaurants has themed table settings



Beautiful yacht docked next to our ship

Monte Carlo, Monaco

We arrived in Monte Carlo on a very cool, cloudy day.  The scenery is spectacular and would be even better on a sunny day.  The preparations are underway for the Monaco Grand Prix that takes place in May.  It is hard to imagine that they will be driving up to 170 mph on these streets!  We had a morning tour that took us to Eze village, which dates to medieval times and  is very picturesque.  Our tour guide escorted us up some steep, winding steps to reach the upper part of the village where the church was located.  There were many small shops and a few cafes located along the winding paths.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours in the village before we boarded our bus for the trip back to Monte Carlo.  The infrastructure in Monte Carlo is amazing, large tunnels to carry traffic that have buildings above them and huge underground parking to accommodate the many tour buses.  We had a walking tour that included a stop at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral where all the Monaco Princes are entombed.  Princess Grace's tomb is also located here.  We were then shown where the changing of the guard takes place but it was already very crowded with tourists so we really did not see the event.  We had some free time to walk around before going back to the ship. 

Eze Village

St Nicholas Cathedral

Princess Grace's tomb

Grandstands going up for Grand Prix

Our ship among the yachts

The Grand Casino

Marseille (Provence), France April 10, 2017

We drug ourselves out of bed at 6 am to have enough time to get ready for our first all day tour that started at 8:30.  Our tour began with about a 45 minute drive to Aix en Provence, a very historical city with many beautiful old mansions and winding streets with lots of small shops and restaurants.  Our tour guide walked us around the city for about an hour and a half then we had some free time to shop and have lunch.  We ate an expensive lunch at a small sidewalk café and then it was back on the bus to drive about 45 minutes back to the city of Marseilles.  Our tour guide escorted us to the basilica on top of a very high hill.  It was about 150 very steep steps to the top but the view was spectacular.  We were also driven by several small beaches and shown some very nice homes on the hillside above the beach area.  We were then dropped off in the old port area and given an hour to be on our own.  We did not return to the ship until 5pm.

French soldiers guarding the dock area

Inside basilica "Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde"

Entrance to one of the historic mansions

Beautiful fountain in the center of Aix en Provence

Palace under reconstruction

Old port area with hundreds of boats

Front of the city hall in the old port area