LIVE - VISION Med and Greek Isles - 6/11-23

[aring75]

We stopped for a look at the Circus Maximus on our way to lunch before our priority ticket appointment at the Colosseum. 

 

We asked our guide, Francesco, for a lunch recommendation and he took us to this tiny place at the end of an alleyway. It didn’t even have an actual name that I could tell. It just said “Ristorante” above the door, and when I asked Francesco about it, he just kind of thought about it and said, “Eh...is Mario’s Restaurant, yes?”

 

The owner’s name was Mario. It was his restaurant. So, yes. I guess it was Mario’s Restaurant. And it was very, very good. And I could never in a million, billion years tell you how to get back there again. 

 

We rolled ourselves out the door and back in to the car after lunch. We were headed to the Colosseum (wishing we hadn’t eaten so much food). When we arrived we found out they had stopped the stand-by line because of overcrowding inside. The wait was over an hour and a half. I was so glad we did the pre-purchase. We waited less than fifteen minutes and part of that was the security line. 

 

 

 

 

It was getting incredibly hot now and it’s only June. I don’t know how hot it feels in August, but it can’t be good. 

 

After the Colosseum, it was on to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica. My one main suggestion for anyone doing any of these tours would be, “Don’t bring a large backpack.”  They don’t like that. 

 

 

The Vatican was packed. At least, I thought it was packed. We walked through most areas shoulder-to-shoulder and, I have to honest. I hated it. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to walk through when I didn’t feel like a salmon spawning upstream, but most of the time my minor claustrophobia threatened to become a more major issue. 

 

THIS was what most of the hallways were like the entire time. And this one wasn’t too bad because you could actually see floor space in front of me. 

 

 

It was truly beautiful though. 

 

 

With exquisite works of art everywhere you looked. 

 

 

And then, of course, there was St. Peter’s Basilica. 

 

 

 

I would absolutely LOVE to return to Rome. In fact, I’m sure we will. But I think we will plan a trip in the shoulder season. Sometime when the weather is a little cooler and the crowds are a little lighter. 

[aring75]

Dinner was in the main dining room again.

 

The menu.

 

 

And, again, because I have such a hard time resisting the basket of assorted breads and rolls.

 

 

I was boring tonight and had the simple Caesar salad.

 

 

Mark must've had the same thing because I have no pictures. However, neither of us really likes mushrooms and I have only ever had one pea soup that I have liked. It was homemade with fresh garden peas. It was delicious and all others have been ruined for me now.

 

Mark had the Buttermilk Fried Chicken for his entree.

 

 

And I had the Linguini with Shrimp.

 

 

Mark said his was great. Mine was good, but not great. However, I had just had amazing pasta in Rome, so probably not fair to order pasta that same night on the ship.

 

We both ordered the Banana Bread Pudding for dessert. It really needed some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. If you do order this, remember to order some on the side!

 

[depplep]

I've been wondering what happened to you. Been anxiously awaiting the rest of the review. Your pictures of Rome don't even look real. They are amazing. I hope to get to Rome someday soon. I wondered how hot is was as the picture of the two of you are both wearing pants. We were in Venice last October and it was very warm.

Edited June 24, 2019 by depplep
Added content

[aring75]

Livorno was our next port and from here we would visit Florence and Pisa. We disembarked the ship first thing again and we were a few minutes early to meet our driver at our reserved time of 8:00 am. Well, 8:00 am came and went and we started getting a little worried.

 

8:10

 

8:15

 

I sent a message to the tour company, but couldn’t be sure it had gone through. Tour buses were leaving ahead of us now and all I could think of was how crowded everything would be getting.

 

Finally, at almost 8:20am a driver walked up holding a hand-written sign with our last name. Okay. Here we go! (We found out later that the tour company had a last-minute change with our driver. Things got even better.)

 

He introduces himself as Fabrizio as we were driving out of the port area and says, “So where are you supposed to meet the tour guide?”

 

Oh geez.

 

We don’t know that. You’re supposed to know that. At least, someone is supposed to tell you that. It’s kind of what we’re paying for. We were feeling very uneasy because, at this point, we were already driving toward Florence.

 

Luckily, we got everything straightened out. We found our guide (Another Francesco) in Florence and eventually started our tour. 

 

We began at the Cathedral of Florence and Duomo and the Baptistry of St. John. 

 

 

 

 

We opted for a walking tour of the Uffizi Gallery. I was so thankful for the climate control. 

 

 

 

During our walk-through, there was a group of teenage/young-adult boys who thought it would be absolutely hilarious to stand right in front of paintings and sculptures for 10-15 minutes at a time during the tours so people were unable to take clear pictures. We did our best to avoid the little cretins, but they just kept popping up. No one in their own tour group (of nearly 25-30 people) would say anything to them. I do not have that kind of self control. 

 

We wandered toward the Ponte Vecchio and took pictures of the Arno river. 

 

 

 

Next. On to Pisa. 

[aring75]

On our way out of Florence, we stopped for a beautiful overview of the city at Piazzale Michelangelo. 

 

 

Then we headed to Pisa. I didn’t realize it was such a small area. It’s very compact and everything is close to everything else. Easy to see it all in a couple of hours. 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know why I didn’t realize the tower of Pisa was a bell tower. But it is. Was. And no, we didn’t climb to the top. We just didn’t have the energy left. 

 

 

 

We had lunch at a small outdoor cafe in Pisa, then headed back to the ship. 

 

The Vidalia Onion Tart was on the main dining room menu tonight. One of my favorites. 😊

[voyager70]

Your Rome pics are amazing.  My favorite city in the world and your pics make me want to go back soooo bad.

 

[erby2283]

so happy you came back to finish. I was having withdrawals. And I love your sense of humor. We could be best friends. Lol. 

 

Speaking of August heat, that’s when we are going. But I also live in south where it’s 90+ with extreme humidity almost every day in the summer so I’m thinking it will just be like home. I will have to remember to keep my knees and shoulders covered on days we’re in Rome though. 

[aring75]

1 hour ago, voyager70 said:

Your Rome pics are amazing.  My favorite city in the world and your pics make me want to go back soooo bad.

 

 

Thank you! We loved it too. So much. There wasn’t nearly enough time to enjoy it all, but we certainly did our best in a day. We will definitely be back!

[aring75]

2 minutes ago, erby2283 said:

so happy you came back to finish. I was having withdrawals. And I love your sense of humor. We could be best friends. Lol. 

 

Speaking of August heat, that’s when we are going. But I also live in south where it’s 90+ with extreme humidity almost every day in the summer so I’m thinking it will just be like home. I will have to remember to keep my knees and shoulders covered on days we’re in Rome though. 

 

Lol, yep. That’s why the pants in our Rome photos. We were visiting the Vatican and we weren’t sure how strict they would be with the dress code. They were definitely enforcing it at the church. I did see one man in shorts turned away.  Another was asked to remove his hat. 

 

As as far as the heat goes, we are from Florida so we get heat and humidity here too. I just hate it. Always have. Born here. Grew up here. Hate the heat. 

 

We will plan our next Rome trip for February or November or something. 😑

[aring75]

The Cruise Compass for Livorno (I have looked and looked for Rome and can’t find it. If I do I will post it later.)

 

 

 

 

 

[aring75]

 

The menu for our evening leaving Livorno. 

 

 

And because I promised drink Menus, I took a photo of the wine list in the Main Dining Room. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark loves the chilled strawberry soup. To me it has the consistency of puréed food. I’m very glad there’s something for everyone. 

 

 

I on the other hand, love the Vidalia Onion Tart. I get it every time. It’s changed a little over the years, but I still think it’s one of the better apps. 

 

 

However, we both agree on the Caprese. And we shared this one. Mostly. Okay, I ate almost all of it. Gotta be quick Mark. 

 

 

Mark ordered the Jumbo Shrimp. 

 

 

And I got the Prime Rib again. I was tempted by the shrimp, but I just couldn’t do the mushrooms. I was glad I got the Prime Rib this time. It was SO good. 

 

 

For dessert, Mark went with the cheesecake (he’s a fan).

 

 

But I had to try the Chocolate Molten Cake. So good!

 

 

I didn’t eat all of (I’m not supposed to do too much dairy as it’s a migraine trigger for me, though I often stretch my limits). Mark finished it up and said he wished he’d ordered it instead. 

[aring75]

So remember I said we were scheduled to go to Marseille on our last port day? Then it was changed to Corsica at the last minute due to protests in France? Well, they gave us our Cruise Compass for Ajaccio, Corsica and due to the last-minute nature of the change and our short day in port, we opted for a ship-sponsored tour. 

 

Cruise Compass - Last Day - Ajaccio, Corsica 

 

 

 

 

 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, erby2283 said:

so happy you came back to finish. I was having withdrawals. And I love your sense of humor. We could be best friends. Lol. 

 

Speaking of August heat, that’s when we are going. But I also live in south where it’s 90+ with extreme humidity almost every day in the summer so I’m thinking it will just be like home. I will have to remember to keep my knees and shoulders covered on days we’re in Rome though. 

It is currently around 100° in most of Italy,France and Spain.

August in the Mediterranean is always very hot and humid.

[erby2283]

17 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

It is currently around 100° in most of Italy,France and Spain.

August in the Mediterranean is always very hot and humid.

Right, so not much difference since it’s only June. 🙂 lol. 

[erby2283]

3 hours ago, aring75 said:

 

Lol, yep. That’s why the pants in our Rome photos. We were visiting the Vatican and we weren’t sure how strict they would be with the dress code. They were definitely enforcing it at the church. I did see one man in shorts turned away.  Another was asked to remove his hat. 

 

As as far as the heat goes, we are from Florida so we get heat and humidity here too. I just hate it. Always have. Born here. Grew up here. Hate the heat. 

 

We will plan our next Rome trip for February or November or something. 😑

So if my bf wears shorts but they go below his knees, is that okay?

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, erby2283 said:

Right, so not much difference since it’s only June. 🙂 lol. 

Our best friends have just got back home after 5 weeks in Orlando and said it was incredibly hot and humid.

[voyager70]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Our best friends have just got back home after 5 weeks in Orlando and said it was incredibly hot and humid.

 

Florida has been ridiculously hot lately, even by their standards.

 

[aring75]

1 hour ago, voyager70 said:

 

Florida has been ridiculously hot lately, even by their standards.

 

 

Yep. Today’s heat index was 111 degrees.

 

I stayed indoors.

[Calbeeman]

3 hours ago, erby2283 said:

So if my bf wears shorts but they go below his knees, is that okay?

I have done that on the trips that we have made to the Vatican and had no problems with security especially if they come close to the knees. If he’s concerned though I suggest buying pants that have the zip on/off pant legs and that way he could put them on just prior to going and take back off when you get out.

[aring75]

Our day in Ajaccio was going to be relatively short. We were scheduled to depart at 1:30pm. We opted for a 3-hr island overview tour that included a walking tour of the city. It was hard getting on a bus with around 40 people after all of our blissfully small tours up til now. 

 

We docked in Ajaccio and we were the only ship in port. 

 

 

We started off by driving to Parc du Casone, one of the many monuments to Napoleon Bonaparte on the island. 

 

 

We continued on to Iles Sanguinaires while our guide pointed out sights along the way. 

 

 

Heading back into town, we got some great views and photos of the inner harbor. 

 

 

We started our walking tour of the downtown area. We saw more local monuments and buildings. Plus there were lots of places for lunch and shopping. 

 

 

 

We loved the little open-air market they had in the square. 

 

 

 

If we’d had more time, I would’ve loved to have taken one of the more in-depth tours to the countryside. This seemed like a quaint and very beautiful place. 

[bobmacliberty]

I didn't sense a lot of love from you for Pisa.  Was it the location, the heat, both?  Or am I misreading?  We went for Cinque Terra over Florence/Pisa on our last cruise (stopped at La Spezia).  We'd like to do a couple of weeks on land in Italy after our next cruise and figured we'd catch Florence/Pisa then.  I'm now thinking that Pisa will just be a side day trip while staying in Florence.

 

[Bobkat26]

Thanks for the great review.

[grapau27]

7 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I didn't sense a lot of love from you for Pisa.  Was it the location, the heat, both?  Or am I misreading?  We went for Cinque Terra over Florence/Pisa on our last cruise (stopped at La Spezia).  We'd like to do a couple of weeks on land in Italy after our next cruise and figured we'd catch Florence/Pisa then.  I'm now thinking that Pisa will just be a side day trip while staying in Florence.

 

Pisa has the leaning tower which made it famous but little else to see.There are many stalls selling leather bags on the way from the bus drop off ( about half a mile away) to the small centre of Pisa where the leaning tower is.

Rome,Naples,Venice, Florence and Milan are the main to see places in Italy.

[grapau27]

18 hours ago, aring75 said:

 

Yep. Today’s heat index was 111 degrees.

 

I stayed indoors.

Thank you so much for a brilliant review and all your fantastic photos of your cruise.

I really looked forward to your reports especially as we know this area well and it brought back to us memories of these wonderful ports.

Graham & Pauline.

[aring75]

7 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I didn't sense a lot of love from you for Pisa.  Was it the location, the heat, both?  Or am I misreading?  We went for Cinque Terra over Florence/Pisa on our last cruise (stopped at La Spezia).  We'd like to do a couple of weeks on land in Italy after our next cruise and figured we'd catch Florence/Pisa then.  I'm now thinking that Pisa will just be a side day trip while staying in Florence.

 

 

It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy Pisa. We definitely spent more time in Florence, and I suppose I did kind of gloss over our time in Pisa somewhat. Be aware that Pisa will be a rather short stop. Even if you stop and look at everything (I added a photo of the map of the Square of Miracles which is where the tower, church, baptistry, and museum are all located). We liked it here, and we kind of felt like the tower was one of those “icons” that we really wanted to see at least once. However, I would definitely schedule the bulk of your time in Florence. There is a ton to see there.