Vista 7/1/16 8 day Med Review - a Vista like no other

[jimbo5544]

....and some more......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

.....and some more.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

....and some more......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

.....and some more.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

.....and some more....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

While in St. Peter's we gathered for a Knights picture (our local council) some of which were traveling on this trip. It happened that it was under the dome, and the sunlight coming through the rotunda, fell on the group. Some say it was a coincidence....I am not so sure ;)

 

 

 

[3redheads]

There sure are a lot of people packed in!

 

Love the last photo, with the sunbeam.:D

[jimbo5544]

There sure are a lot of people packed in!

 

Love the last photo, with the sunbeam.:D

 

This is prime season at the Vatican. If you went in say....November on a weekday, there would be a fraction of the people....

[jimbo5544]

The vans were waiting and we made our way back tot he cruise ships. While some dozed on the trip, I did notice we approached the land speed record on the highway getting there. :eek: Getting back on the ship we changed to go for a swim before dinner and headed up to the aft pool. Much of the group was up there already. We decompressed, cooled off (it was a very hot day), and then went down to get ready for dinner.

 

Flat Stanley was kind of a no show during our busy day, so he came to dinner with us that evening, I think to get a picture with Ken Byrnes. A terrible thing happened..... One of the side issues with American Table is that there is only a table cloth on cruise elegant nights. The result can be with placing water on the table that there could be water on the table at the end of the meal. We had placed Flat Stanley on the table and near the end of the meal, my wife picked him up and this was the result.

 

[jimbo5544]

We took him back to the room to see what we could do, we ended up laying him out for the night. We had decided to hang out with the towel animals for the rest of the night.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

When we retired for the night, we found Flat Stanley no better and decided on emergency surgery. We cut him off the paper, taped him to a new page and mounted him to two straws. Here is how he looked at breakfast the following morning. Flat Stanley's issues were not done however, not that would come later in the day.

 

[jimbo5544]

The port today was Livorno. Our group was splitting up, all doing different things. These ranged from Tuscany, Piza, Florence, and we had decided to do a Carnival based excursion in Cinque Terre.

 

On our last med cruise, the wife and I split up on this stop. I did wine tasting in Tuscany and the wife did Piza. The wine tasting we had done was OK, nothing better. The only redeeming factor was we stopped at this little town on the way back and we strolled the town enjoying the shops, the gelatto and the expresso. She had been also under wowed with the Piza excursion. All of this was motivation to do something different and Cinque Terra was the choice. We made the the right choice!

[3redheads]

This is prime season at the Vatican. If you went in say....November on a weekday, there would be a fraction of the people....

We will be there in October.

 

Thanks for the wonderful review. I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

[jimbo5544]

As was the case with a lot of our excursions, it started with a bus ride. We were to travel to Portovenere, then travel by boat making stops at each of the five towns and end up in Monterosso. We would have a couple of hours there on our own and then take a short train ride to where we would re-board the bus for the trip back to the ship. Here are some pics from Portovenere.... Flat Stanley was glad to be back in the spotlight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

and some more as we escorted through the town by our guide....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

......and some more....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

......and some more.......

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

We then got some time to explore on our own and walked up to San Pietro church. Here are some pics from there.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[etwright]

Jimbo, Thanks so much for your review. I have been reading and following the past couple of weeks as it is getting us much more excited before we fly out to Barcelona next week. Your pictures are amazing! :cool::D:cool:

[jimbo5544]

.....and some more......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

We will be there in October.

 

Thanks for the wonderful review. I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

 

You will have a wonderful time, glad you are enjoying the review, I am sure enjoying doing it.

[jimbo5544]

Jimbo, Thanks so much for your review. I have been reading and following the past couple of weeks as it is getting us much more excited before we fly out to Barcelona next week. Your pictures are amazing! :cool::D:cool:

 

Thank you for the kind words. With so many pictures and the way I have to load them, it takes a while so I have to do some and then come back later and do some etc. I will be done by then with the review. Enjoy your cruise! Let us know your thoughts when you return.

[jimbo5544]

.....and a few more....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

.....and a few more.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

We then made our way to board the boat that would take us to each of the towns where people would be getting on or off. We would be staying in the boat until the last stop Monteroso. Here are some pics that I took on the boat as we made the stops along the way.