(Lin) Linda Roy Cross
Randy Cross
Copyright pending 2015
My husband, Randy and I had been on two cruises before. In 2008 for a 10-day cruise in the western Mediterranean and last year in 2014 on a 17-day cruise through the Panama Canal from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale. This year Randy selected a 21-day cruise. Two back-to-back cruises through the western and eastern Mediterranean.
Two days before departure our fortune cookie read, "A bold and dashing adventure is in your future." What a positive bon voyage that was for us. And speaking of Bon Voyage we worked with a travel agent, Vicki Orr, with a company of the same name. We couldn't have been more pleased with her service.
If you read this website on an I-Phone the photos within each chapter (a day or two) may be out of sequence due to the way I-Phones read websites, but it's not too distracting.
We hope you enjoy reading and taking this journey with us.
Randy Cross
Copyright pending 2015
My husband, Randy and I had been on two cruises before. In 2008 for a 10-day cruise in the western Mediterranean and last year in 2014 on a 17-day cruise through the Panama Canal from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale. This year Randy selected a 21-day cruise. Two back-to-back cruises through the western and eastern Mediterranean.
Two days before departure our fortune cookie read, "A bold and dashing adventure is in your future." What a positive bon voyage that was for us. And speaking of Bon Voyage we worked with a travel agent, Vicki Orr, with a company of the same name. We couldn't have been more pleased with her service.
If you read this website on an I-Phone the photos within each chapter (a day or two) may be out of sequence due to the way I-Phones read websites, but it's not too distracting.
We hope you enjoy reading and taking this journey with us.
The two itineraries above were changed slightly from the original plan. Specifically, Carthage in North Africa was dropped as a port of call perhaps due to internal unrest. All other ports of call remained on the itinerary.
Day 1. March 5, 2015: Day 2. March 6:
Flew from Tucson/Dallas Overnight flight via Madrid to Rome
After getting checked into the Rome Airport Hilton we took the 55-minute ride via shuttle bus into Rome that evening. We walked around to stretch our legs after the long flight.
Day 3. March 7: Rome
A friend, Fr. Chris Corbally SJ, with the Vatican Observatory in Tucson, flies to Rome frequently. He suggested we visit Ostia Antica with the limited time available the morning before our cruise.
A friend, Fr. Chris Corbally SJ, with the Vatican Observatory in Tucson, flies to Rome frequently. He suggested we visit Ostia Antica with the limited time available the morning before our cruise.
Why is it I've never heard of these ruins and where St. Augustine's mother fell ill and died here so long ago? That's the wonder of travel. I returned home even more curious. I learned that Ostia was once the sea port for ancient Rome. "It was founded in the 4th century BC at the mouth of the Tiber to guard the water-route to Rome. Two hundred years later it was a flourishing city with as many as 100,000 inhabitants, for Ostia had become the main landing place for cargos destined for Rome and as that city prospered, so Ostia also flourished. By the time of Christ it was the place where the grain ships from Egypt and Africa unloaded, where exotic animals for the circus landed on Italian soil, where the thousands of merchants, politicians and tourists who had business in the capital of the world arrived." For more see www.diggingsonline.com. The water has receded and now where the port use to be is a freeway.
On the shuttle from Rome to the port city of Civitavecchia
Day 4. March 8:
First port - Livorno, Italy (Lucca & Pisa). Ship docked at 8 a.m. and soon we were catching the train to Lucca in the region of Tuscany.
First port - Livorno, Italy (Lucca & Pisa). Ship docked at 8 a.m. and soon we were catching the train to Lucca in the region of Tuscany.
From Lucca we continued on by train to Pisa and its famous landmarks.
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