I really didn’t know what to expect. Marseille turned out to be an absolute delight. Boats. Cafes (of course!). Clear sunlit views from Notre Dame de la Garde which stands high above the port. I want to return to Marseilles and spend rather longer. Please.
Actually Florence is our favourite city in the whole world. Or it is today. We have never actually managed to get into the Uffizzi – but thanks to an internet advance booking we have reserve tickets. For me all the exhibits were forgettable, compared with the view from the gallery towards the river and the Ponte Vecchio beyond. The Umbrian colours make this the most mellow of cities. Thank you for this chance to see it again.
Call us romantic! The eternal city is probably the most romantic and delightful place to wind up for our anniversary. After a drive from the port of Civitavecchia we find ourselves launched into the city from our bus right alongside St Peter’s Square. We walk from St Peter’s across the Tiber, past the Castel Sant’Angelo, made our way past the Pantheon, towards our destination, the Trevi Fountain. We’d tried to find it on a previous visit many years earlier, but here it is. Absolutely wonderful – a complete delight!
Having reached one goal we started on a further challenge – to track down the Spanish Steps, which we did, and then walked back towards St Peter’s to pick up our chariot. On the way we stopped for a late and fairly basic (for an Anniversary) lunch.
We suspected some surprises ahead when we returned to the ship. But the best surprise was waiting in our cabin. A wonderful bouquet and bottle of champagne from our amazing children. Thank you!
Having worked proudly with the Coastguard in the UK, I’ve become something of a Coastguard anorak! Here in Messina the Straits of Messina, between Sicily and Italy, are inevitably patrolled by a fleet of (inevitably!) smart Coastguard vessels. From the deck of the ship, parked alongside the not-terribly-inspiring port of Messina, we can see beyond the harbour and right across the narrow Straits to the mainland, or rather the ‘toe’, of Italy.
As we leave Messina, we head north up the coast of Italy we pass the extraordinary sight of Stromboli, a volcanic island roughly in line with Naples. The most extraordinary aspect of the island for us was the small settlement and extensive marina, right alongside the dark brown slick of a huge lava flow from the summit down to the sea.
The ship kept on going past the island … thankfully. Ahead of us is our special day, the 40th anniversary of our wedding, which we spend in Rome.
A day at sea on a luxury liner is a day to relish. Especially crossing south from the Aegean into the Med, round the ‘udders’ peninsulas that hang beneath Greece, under the foot of Italy, ending up in the Straits of Messina.
But what a ship she is, the Queen Victoria!
|
