The Inaugural Vista's Official Trippingpara Mayhem in the Mediterranean Review

On the edge of a nice piazza sat a large, yet inviting cafe named Fiorino D'Oro. We asked the waiter if he had any seats overlooking the piazza and he smiled and proudly exclaimed "But of course!" He led us over a table in the corner of the cafe right on the edge of the piazza.

Lady Trip ordered a fresh cheese and fruit salad while I went with the tried and true lasagne. You know what they say, "When in Rome..." or in this case Florence! It was absolutely delicious!! We lazily enjoyed our lunch along with a nice Italian beer and watched the crowd in the piazza.

Lady Trip sure enjoyed that menu!

Oh yeah, I'm digging it!!

Houston, we have a problem...

It was funny to see how true some of the stereotypes of people are true. Like how Italians talk with their hands. Or how they will all talk at the same time. I saw instances of this all over Italy during our travels so far. But I almost spit out my beer across the piazza when I watched two deaf guys adamantly sign each other simultaneously. As these guys both “spoke” to each other at the same time, their hand signals become more and more animated like they were trying to sign over each other. All I kept thinking was “good grief, even deaf Italians try and shout over one another!

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Nice table location!!!! Glad you liked your lasagna but I think I would have gone for the same thing as Ladytripp (and your excellent photos are making me hungry :p

Wow! Just caught up after coming to the party a bit late! Excellent review and wonderful photos. I would love to visit Malta!

The Vista is definitely on my list. We are cruising the Eastern Med in less than two weeks, with four days pre-cruise in Rome. Can't wait! We were on the (almost) inaugural on the Magic in '11 and your photos brought back some great memories!

I was surprised how cool it seems to be when you went. I don't cruise during those times of the year (not yet anyways) but I assumed the Med was pretty warm in the spring.

Nice to read a post from a fellow NE'er. Raised in Boston, currently in CT, with property in RI! The best of all worlds.

Wow! Just caught up after coming to the party a bit late! Excellent review and wonderful photos. I would love to visit Malta!

 

The Vista is definitely on my list. We are cruising the Eastern Med in less than two weeks, with four days pre-cruise in Rome. Can't wait! We were on the (almost) inaugural on the Magic in '11 and your photos brought back some great memories!

 

I was surprised how cool it seems to be when you went. I don't cruise during those times of the year (not yet anyways) but I assumed the Med was pretty warm in the spring.

 

Nice to read a post from a fellow NE'er. Raised in Boston, currently in CT, with property in RI! The best of all worlds.

Hey fellow NE'r. I live in RI, was working in CT but am now working in Boston. I guess we just keep running around each other! Thank you for such kind words about my review and photos. I found the weather to be comfortably cool. But then again, I live in NE so I'm very comfortable with its cool. Athens was warm as was Malta and Palermo. As you can see, Slovenia had just got pounded with snow the week before we got there!

It was finally time to meet back up with everyone and head over to Pisa. A couple of us had tickets to climb the Tower of Pisa at 3:15 pm. Unlike the Accademia, the Tower of Pisa is very strict with the timing of their tickets. You have a 15-minute window to appear. If you don’t show up during that time, too bad, you’re out of luck as there is a limit to the number of people in the Tower at any given time.

As we pulled into Pisa, we seemed to run into delays at every corner. At 3:15 pm, the van came to an abrupt stop about 2 blocks away from the Tower. Suddenly our guide just shouted “Let’s go!” and she was off and running. And I don’t mean just a nice trot down the street. She was doing her best Jessie Owens impression! I wish I had a stop watch! I think her time on the 40-meter dash would have beat most of the rookies at the NFL Combine!! Holy hell I thought! The other couple and us jumped out of the van and took off after her. Man, the last time I ran that hard was when I got a text from my best friend telling me that the local beer distributor’s price registers down the street were broken and everything was selling for just a buck!! That was a good time!!! Anyways, the five of us came flying up to the guards outside the Tower huffing and puffing. Okay, so the guide was just slightly winded and the other couple were in their early 20s so they didn’t even break a sweat. Lady Trip looked radiant as the sweat glistened off her face. And then there was me…I was the one laying in a heap on the grass crying for a medic.

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The guard looked at us like the crazy Americans we were with one crazy Italian in tow and scanned our tickets. We made it! Barely!

“Ahhh crap!”

I quickly realized we now had to climb the couple hundred steps up to the top of the Tower now. Hey, isn’t there an oxygen bar we could hit up first? I need some oxygen and a chilled vodka martini shaken on the double!!! Alas, there was no oxygen and no martini James Bond style to be had. Just 296 steps up a leaning tower. And you could really tell it was leaning when you were climbing the stairs!

Looking up the center of the Tower

The steps were worn from hundreds of thousands of people climbing the Tower.

The steps weren't for the faint of heart!

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The view from the top was so worth the effort!!

Of course this old Jarhead needed to take a quick rest. As we used to say in the Marines, 'never stand when you can sit!' Actually, that really came from the Code of Conduct for the Canadian Infantier. But us Marines aren't ashamed to steal anything that's halfway good and claim it as our own!

I normally never play with any of those gimmicky options on modern cameras but for some reason I dig the "model" look.

The same area without the "model" effect

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Thoroughly enjoying your cruise review and photos, you have some amazing shots. Love your writing style. I visited many of these places by land last year, and it is bringing back so many positive memories, and I am visiting a few different places next year by land and it has me optimistic! Can't wait for the rest :D

Thoroughly enjoying your cruise review and photos, you have some amazing shots. Love your writing style. I visited many of these places by land last year, and it is bringing back so many positive memories, and I am visiting a few different places next year by land and it has me optimistic! Can't wait for the rest :D

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave me such kind feedback. I would love to go back to many of these places on a land vacation and spend more time there. Someday!

We begrudgingly climbed back down the stairs. The views from the top of the tower were so mesmerizing but we were on a schedule and we still wanted to have a chance to take a look at the grounds surrounding the tower too. The 2 other couples that did not go up the tower with us had been touring the grounds while we were gawking from high above so we had limited time to check everything out. Our first stop was into the Pisa Catheral which sits right next to the Leaning Tower. And just like all of the other cathedrals that we’d seen in Italy, it was gorgeous! Although they were doing construction on the inside so that did take away a bit from it. We then ran around the immediate grounds watching all of the tourists take their photos with them holding up the tower. It was pretty funny to watch some of the people. There were some very inventive ways that they were integrating themselves into the picture with the Leaning Tower.

The glass coffin of St. Ranieri, the patron saint of Pisa

The tomb of Emperor Henry VII

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Here are some photos from the grounds surrounding the Leaning Tower

Statue of the Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus

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We finished off our day in Florence and Pisa the proper Italian way…with a gelato! Our guide took us to her favorite little gelato shop. Gelateria De’Coltelli was a quaint little shop that sat on the banks of the Arno River. One by one the members of this weary gang ordered a gelato (or two!) and sat down outside and enjoyed the Italian sun shining down on the brightly colored ancient buildings sitting on an even more ancient river.

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Thank you for the great review . I feel like I am there .

Thank you for the great review . I feel like I am there .

You are very welcome, glad you are enjoying it!!

After everyone finished our delicious gelatos, we loaded up the van and headed back to Livorno. Once we got back to the ship, we took it easy. Dinner, a donation to the casino, a drink or two at the Alchemy Bar and finally SLEEP!

Up next...Marseilles, France

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Thanks for taking the time to do this review. I have been following along for a few weeks now. Your pictures are absolutely amazing and getting us excited as we leave for the Vista next week!

Thanks for taking the time to do this review. I have been following along for a few weeks now. Your pictures are absolutely amazing and getting us excited as we leave for the Vista next week!

Thank you so much for such kind words. I'm so jealous that you're going to be Vista next week! You're going to love her!

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Friday, May 13th - Marseilles, France

You know, I have to be honest here. I was pretty dang scared to step on French soil on Friday the 13th! If there was ever a day I was going to pay for all of the anti-French statements I've made over my lifetime, today would be the day. On the other hand, Lady Trip has been dying to visit France for as long as I've known her. Sigh, guess I'm just going to have to take one for the team!

When I was planning the excursions for this port, I opted to use ItalyTours.EU. Yep, I decided to use an Italian company for a tour in France. I know, makes sense right? They actually had exactly what we were looking for, an off the beaten path tour that still hit some of the sights we really wanted to see. Since we were hosting the tour, we just prayed that 6 other people wanted to see the same things we did. hey, what do you know, they did! One couple on our tour we met during our morning excursion in Trieste. Another couple we met and chatted with for quite a while during our Meet and Greet and the other couple was Lady Rose and...well... she had to bring Rosesgt with her. I offered to pay for her excursion if she left him at home, but she insisted on bringing him. Something about him being a big fan of Van Gogh or something like that. Alright, I said, he can come too.

Here's a synopsis of our tour and yes, I'm stealing straight from their website!

Tour #1: Arles, Les Baux , St Remy & Avignon:

After the personal pick-up at the Marseille port, we will drive to the town of Arles – capital of the Camargue, (wet land), and famous ever since Vincent Van Gogh made it his home. Along with its Roman Amphitheatre and charming narrow streets, it makes an attractive site to visit on any day of the year. Our tour will continue with a drive to Saint Remy de Provence where you will admire and understand why Vincent Van Gogh fell in love with this place. We will than depart on a visit to Les Baux de Provence to enjoy medieval atmosphere in one of the nicest perched villages in France! The tour will end with a visit to the town of Avignon – Stunning fortified city with iconic Bridge and one of the largest papal Palaces ever built – Palais des Papes. After the visit to Avignon, we will bring you back to port with plenty of time to catch your ship. This is the best shore excursion from the Marseille port – You will love it.

And you know what? We did!! Anyways, after our normal morning routine, we rushed off the ship to meet our guide and the peeps joining us on this little adventure. The one thing that I'll give the French, is that they know how to greet you. When you exited the docking area into the bus area, there were a couple dozen French in traditional old outfits playing what I assume was traditional French music. They even had a little arch of flowers for us to walk under. Very cool! We then pulled into our van and headed out into the French countryside.

Guess the French wanted their own version of the Hollywood sign! Here they are in the middle of constructing a giant Marseilles sign.

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Goats??? That's baaaaa-d. (just Kidding, eh?)

Still loving the review.....

Still following along, and I'm sad you're getting close to the end of your review! [emoji22] I'm really excited to hear more about Marseille, as we picked the same tour for our Oct cruise.

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Goats??? That's baaaaa-d. (just Kidding, eh?)

Still loving the review.....

Not sure about Canada, but in the U.S. we call them sheep. And they are baaaaaa-d! Glad you're still enjoying the review!

Still following along, and I'm sad you're getting close to the end of your review! [emoji22] I'm really excited to hear more about Marseille, as we picked the same tour for our Oct cruise.

 

 

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Glad you're still following along. This review has gotten so long, I'm afraid that I'll lose everyone. You're taking the same tour with ItalyTours? That's awesome! We loved it and everyone on our tour said they loved it too! Hopefully you'll have better weather though. It was cloudy all day and the sky finally opened up on us in Avignon. But no amount of rain could possibly take away how beautiful the areas that we got to see are.

Not sure about Canada, but in the U.S. we call them sheep. And they are baaaaaa-d! Glad you're still enjoying the review!

After a much closer look, I believe you're right.......I just saw the floppy ears....they must have been recently sheared....... Ya pulled the wool over my eyes that time......;) I Think of sheep being big, white and fluffy looking with black legs and face. (like clouds with legs and a head)..... Too many Serta commercials I guess.....

As an aside going to take a Saturday drive to Saint John tomorrow and the Sunshine is supposed to be in port so I'll see her while crossing the Harbour Bridge.

...This review has gotten so long, I'm afraid that I'll lose everyone. ...

Not a chance! Thanks for the pics and updates, looking forward to seeing the rest.