We arrived at Catania at 7 am and this industrial port seemed a bit different than all the other ports we have visited. We are taking a bus later in the day to Taormina.

There is a spectacular view of Mt Etna from the stern of the ship.

We drove an hour to Taormina but once we got there it was amazing.

We stopped and had lunch at Amigos Bar and I warned that if they didnt have a wood oven cooking the pizza it would be as good as they were expecting and sure enough it wasnt cooked in a wood fire oven!

We stopped by for a few items then boarded the bus back to Catania. We leave for Naples this evening.

Categories: Italy
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We arrived at Valletta Malta at sunrise like a ship scene in an episode of Game of Thrones, just wow.

Our initial impression of this place was just wow. Just looking around we instantly felt we needed at least 3 days here instead of one. While we arrived early we wont be able to get off the ship till 11 or so for all the “bureaucratics” to take place but we are eager to get going. We are doing the beach here but that is a 40 minute bus ride away.

We arrived at Ghadira and plunged right into the perfectly temperatured water.

The time flew by and we needed to head back and on the way we saw some magnificent sites!

There are plenty of things to see and do in Malta and we barely scratched the surface. There are some downsides though, the traffic is bad and the overall infrastructure needs improvement. At the beach there were no places that we could find to wash off the sand. The food at the beach was mediocre and there were people peddling goods on the beach right at our beach chairs, very annoying.

While we were at the beach, Alpha Team and the 10th fleet headed elsewhere parts unknown…

It goes without saying that the first thing we do when we board the ship is hit the showers. It is too hot and everyone is sweating profusely. Next summer we will likely do a Norway Fjord or Scandinavian cruise but not on Norwegian…

We will be off to Italy soon…but here is the view from Alpha team

Today, I had an enchanting experience exploring Medina, the City of Knights. The limestone streets whispered tales of valor as she wandered through the historic pathways. The beautiful blue sky above added a touch of tranquility, creating a picturesque setting that connected the past with the present. Medina’s timeless charm left her in awe, immersing her in a journey where history meets the heavens.
Following that, she found herself in the breathtaking city of Valletta. There, she stepped into one of the most stunning co-Cathedrals she had ever laid her eyes on, St. John’s Co-Cathedral. The tour left her captivated by the grandeur of the historical setting.

As the noon sun blazed down, I sought refuge at a charming café outside St. John’s Co-Cathedral, facing a pivotal decision. The historical ambiance and a delectable brownie provided solace and contemplation. Lost in her thoughts, she savored each bite, finding comfort in the bustling city. The weight of the moment lingered, and the world awaited the outcome of her journey under the unyielding gaze of the sun.

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We set off for Touris Club in Olympia for a fabulous meal. It was a 30 minute bus ride out from Katakolon to Olympia. We started with a cooking class, moved on to eating then finished with traditional Greek dancing.

After lunch we stopped at a souvenir shop to pick up some last items as this is our last day in Greece.

Of the places we visited in Greece I would rank them as follows:

1. Mykonos – With restaurants, bars and beaches within walking distance to each other, Mykonos earns the top spot on this trip. As an added bonus there are historical sites to visit and plenty of other things to do such as sailing or fishing.

2. Athens – The key drawback to other locations in Greece is restaurant/food variety. You wont have that problem in our number two stop which includes a huge variety of food dining options in addition to a large array of museums and historical sites as well as bars and other entertainment. The biggest drawback is the heavy traffic and air quality.

3. Santorini – This is a beautiful place but it is too crowded, the narrow passageways in city spots make navigation difficult especially when cruise ships offload 5000 people. The cable car ride had a 2 to 3 hour wait and if you are staying in the hilltop it will be a long way down to the beach. You really need a car to get around this island. I doubt I would return to this location in the future.

4. Katakolon/Olympia – I expected more from the birthplace of the olympics but the whole area is boring. We had great food and entertainment at Touris club but that was about it.

We are off to Malta!

Categories: Greece
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Another early start today, we boarded a small boat at 7:40 am sans half the team (due to illness) to the island of Delos. This is the birthplace of Athena and one of the most important archaeological sites.

Lots of walking and ancient history from 3000 to 8000 years ago…

We were given ipads which had 3D virtual simulation of what these structures were supposed to look like..

Amazing color from 3000 years ago!

After our Delos visit we had a treacherous 10 ft seas in Gilligan’s boat to Mykonos, there were a few people puking their guts out.

We visited a small church where we were dropped off and then opted for lunch at a restaurant named Kadena.

The lamb chops at Kadena were amazing. They were served with a refreshing arugula and strawberry salad with a sweet strawberry puree. I asked the waiter if he knew the seasonings and he said salt, oregano and olive oil. So simple but he added the the lamb was fresh from the island. I stripped the bones bare on this tasty meat.

So far Mykonos is far more enjoyable than Santorini. Although the winds are strong it has far cooler temperature. The city center is right on the beach with plenty of restaurants and bars along the bay. We noticed several people using the beaches too.

After a little shopping we sadly had to return to the ship for departure this afternoon around 3 pm to our next stop.

Here is my view as I publish this post…

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Our day started at 6 am since our bus to Athens left at 7:30 although we didn’t actually leave till 8 am.

As you can imagine, the traffic in Athens was as bad as any typical city.

We arrived at the Acropolis and had over an hour wait – too many people visiting at the same time. The line stretches about half a mile.

After waiting we had a slow hot crowded climb to the top.

After the Acropolis we had lunch at a restaurant named Acropol where I once again experienced a foodgasm.

Well oiled, crisp veggies, feta cheese, black olives, cucumber, tomato, red onion and peppers

During lunch, a team member of elite force sahifu 4 left to visit a local office.

After lunch we stopped at this museum but I was too tired to walk it so I snuck away to have some ice cream and cool off.

Then a few minutes later I spotted Dutch tearing up a mountain of gyro…oh Greece you have done it now.

After the museum visit we headed back to the ship…

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We arrived at Santorini around noon today. We had to take a tender to shore then take a bus up to Santorini. Kudos to Norwegian on this for the sheer efficiency of getting so many people off the cruise ship in a short time. The cruise staff warned us that there were 5 cruise ships trying to offload 12,000 people here. We landed onshore and then took a 30 minute bus ride to the city up on the hill. It is then a 10 minute walk up and another 20 to 30 minute walk up and down various passageways to various spots.

There were far too many people on this island walking the narrow steps and corridors throughout the city.

The pictures above are from Oia but we also visited Pyrgos and did some sight seeing there too.

Our tour included lunch and we were happy to get a break from the Blasphemous Breakaway Buffet.

We ate at a restaurant named Pyrgos and I experienced my first amazing foodgasm in Greece.

From clockwise at the top are tomato balls made with onion and local herbs (exquisite), seasoned red pepper melt-in-mouth flavors, salad with amazing olives and peppers, rice, juicy, moist and tender pork. Bread with cool and seasoned tzatziki sauce (delightful). I wish all my meals could be like this on our vacation. Washed it all down with some local white wine.

We left dinner on our own via private car because Dutch had an appointment at 8 pm and there was no way we would get back to the ship on time if we waited for the tour. We got dropped off at the cable car but the line was HOURS long to get on the cable car so we did the death march down by the donkey trail on foot. It took 30 minutes to walk down about 1000 ft and we slipped a few times due to the cobble stone being slick.

We leave in a couple of hours so we will check in again tomorrow from our next stop…

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We call this day zero because we left Rome at 5 pm and spent a day at sea heading to Santorini. We took advantage of some of the shows onboard to pass the time.

We started with a magic show by J Alexander. J was a bit funny with his magic tricks and the show was entertaining and worth the visit (once).

After the magic show, we headed to O’Sheehans Bar and Grill. It is supposed to be an Irish theme sports bar but the food features was the typical American fare: burgers, wings, nachos, cobb salad…

I ordered the burger and true to form I was thoroughly disappointed. The meat patty tasted and chewed like it came from a frozen slab a beef from the 19th century. The slice of cheese had white streaks which I presume came from frost from a frozen slab of individually wrapped cheese slices.

The tomato and red onion were the only good thing on this burger.

The next morning we headed out to breakfast at the Garden Buffet.

The buffet eggs had that powdered egg look and feel so I opted for an omelette with tomato, ham and cheese. It was edible but not delightful. The eggs werent fresh but from some some liquid state. I later found out you can request fresh eggs so I will try that next time.

The bacon was a bit greasy and low quality and sausage was bland.

We opted to do the wine tasting at noon. You would expect that on a cruise from Italy to Greece we would taste Greek or Italian wines but you would be wrong. We ended up tasting 4 wines and 4 chocolates.

Port – Portugal

Pinot – Oregon, USA

Zinfandel (Kendal) – USA

Cabernet Sauvignon – USA

At the wine tasting we had an interesting conversation about the cruise choices for wine with others and the sommelier. We wondered why if we are on a Italian/Greek cruise are they serving wine from California and Oregon? Further in the discussion is why all the food is “Americanized” on the ship. We have visited 4 restaurants (Savor, Taste, Garden, O’Sheehans) and the menu is primarily “Americanized” food. Yes there are some “Italian” or “Asian” options but hardly anything truly Italian, Greek or Asian.

After the wine tasting we had lunch at restaurant named “Taste”. I ordered a veggie bowl taco salad. You would think it would be hard to screw up a salad but Taste did it by putting too much ranch dressing on it. The veggies would have been ok were they not drowning in sauce.

The restaurants do a fine job in asking if there are any food allergies but do a horrible job in accommodating those allergies. One member in our group had dairy allergies, we asked if we could get “Chicken Flautas” with no cheese and it was impossible indicating the mixture was preprocessed and bundled chicken+cheese. We asked if we could get the “Milanesa” and the waiter advised it may have dairy! A milanesa is supposed to be breaded cutlet of chicken or beef so not sure how dairy got into it.

The manager suggested we call ahead to accommodate for allergies so we asked for the dinner menu. We asked if they could prepare spring rolls on the dinner menu ahead and manager said no because it was from offshore prepackaged food and could not tell if it had dairy or not. We inquired about another item and received the same answer.

The only item on the dinner menu was filet mignon which came with a $25 up charge.

We decided to try another restaurant for dinner.

The Manhattan Room

This is the largest restaurant on the ship we have eaten so far. The restaurant features live jazz band ambiance but the singer couldn’t be heard over the double bass, cymbals or piano.

Spring rolls – The rolls were crisp and savory but just a tad bit too oily.

Pepper crusted roast beef was a bit tough, unsalted, and not peppery. The spinach was overcooked.

The breaded fried flounder had no seasoning and tasted rather bland.

The tartar sauce did not help the flounder as it lacked a tartar taste. It seems the default option on the ship is to make foods as bland as possible.

Asked waiter for Chianti and we got a Merlot so sent it back and got the Chianti.

Steak and fries – fries tasted as they came right out of the freezer bag.

We finished the evening with a production show at the Theatre called “Burning Floor show” which was truly delightful and entertaining. The show was essentially ballroom dancing but set to modern music. We enjoyed the show.

At this point we wont be doing any more food or restaurant reviews. The pattern of poor quality, poor prep and poor cooking has become abundantly clear, the food is mediocre. FULL STOP.

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We left Rome via a €350 Uber van to take us to Civitavecchia. The ride should have taken an hour but ended up 90 minutes due to traffic and road work but we finally made it onboard our ship. The check in process for luggage was simple enough but security check thru took way longer than it should have and we think its because of staffing shortages.

We were hesitant to book a cruise on this ship after reading some bad reviews, especially about the food so our first stop was to grab some lunch at a ship restaurant named Savor. The place should be renamed Savorless and here is why…

Pork chop – The pork chop was dry, tough, bland and flavorless. Evidently the chef hasn’t discovered something called spices. Or perhaps the chef knows but the ship is too cheap to buy better ingredients.

Fries were unsalted, too crisp (over fried) and featured a hint of burnt oil. We would have preferred savorless over burnt flavor.

Chicken soup – The highlight of the meal was the soup, served with a variety of noodles, basil broth, fresh aroma and seasoning.

Fish and chips

Fish – The fish was slightly over fried cod fish fillet, fries were too salted strangely because the fries that came with the pork chop were not salted at all.

Vanilla ice cream – not properly chilled, a bit too warm and mushy.

Creme Brûlée – tasted rubbery and mushy.

Service – excellent service provided by Sheila. Attentive, dedicated, and professional.

Although the service was excellent we would not return to this restaurant for the rest of the trip.

After lunch we walked around the ship and took a look at all the venues. We will write more about them as we visit them.

Our rooms wont be ready for another hour and we have some massages booked for later this afternoon.

We set sail at 5:00 pm to Greece.

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We’re going to tell you a story. It’s a story about a creature, some believed to be named “Dutch” because the first story of this creature started in The Netherlands at a place called Sumo. The story of the creature in Holland starts here. This is where “Dutch” showed up one day to the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant and began devouring all the salmon nigiri in the restaurant. After a few visits by this creature, the restaurant chain decided to change their business model and limit their nigiri for the all-you-can-eat buffet. There are rumors that this creature had been spotted in Austin, Texas at a place called Barchi Suchi where the creature is legendary for ordering 50 pieces of nigiri at a time.

We thought the story of “Dutch” was but a myth passed on from year to year until we visited a place in Rome, Italy named Boa Sorte. Boa Sorte is an all-you-can-eat sushi place and when we got there and sat down, we spotted the legendary “Dutch” creature. We captured the creature devouring all the nigiri in the restaurant. I know you doubt this but let me tell you we captured it on timelapse on our cell phone. Sadly, we ran out of battery as the creature feasted for hours on nigiri but here is what we captured.

Click link for video.

The restaurant was good value for the money. We ate very well and the best item some of us had was the Carbonara Roll (picture below). The item has unique flavor and taste, almost like beef Wellington in a sushi roll.

Another favorite was the tempura dish.

Our journey this morning started to a walk to the Vatican. We had already visited the Vatican in a prior visit so that wasn’t our primary goal. Our primary goal was to visit the Hard Rock Shop to buy a family member back home a souvenir magnet. Unfortunately our the Hard Rock near the Vatican did NOT have the item so we were forced to travel across the city to an alternate Hard Rock that didn’t open until 11:30 so we stopped at a nearby cafe and had some snacks.

I had a salmon on avocado toast (€14) and “Dutch” tried a truffle toast that didn’t taste as good as it sounded.

We visited the second Hard Rock store and they did not have the item in stock either so we bought some other items and left for the Trevi Fountain. We dropped the customary 10 gold coins into the well.

After the Trevi Fountain we headed our way to the Pantheon and took a walk around.

Since we had visited this place in a prior visit, we did not go in but headed to our next stop the Piazza Navona where we went to a nearby shop and loaded up on some more water. We’d burned through at least two liters of water already.

Upon completion of our site visits we decided to head back to our apartment and take some much needed showers. Our clothes were drenched in sweat, we were tired and thirsty.

Tomorrow, we head off to Greece via ship so there may not be a post until a day or two till we get to our first stop.

Categories: Rome, Italy
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With the scorching heat outside and with a family member (A) not feeling well, we decided to sleep in today and await the arrival of someone special, Big J and the doctor for A. While we awaited our special guest, we decided it would be a good time to review some prices of goods and services in Rome, Italy. So let’s take a look at some receipts for things we bought down at the grocery store, Crai, a few blocks from our apartment.

The most prominent item on both receipts here is Acqua Levissima Naturale (bottled water) and a liter of water will cost €0.65 ($0.72 USD). On the right, there is a micro-fiber towel (€1.49) I bought to scrub with in the shower because of the excessive sweat we’ve been enduring with the heat. On the same receipt is a charge of €1.25 for some honey. Overall, the costs of items isn’t high unless it is an imported item.

While the doctor came for a house visit to treat A, Big J arrived and we decided to head out to lunch. We initially wanted to try Japanese restaurant named Taki Giapponese Roma, we discovered the restaurant was closed on Sundays until August. We opted then to try a Chinese restaurant but it was full and had a 20+ minute wait so we finally decided to head to a pizza restaurant named Salvatore Di Matteo Le Gourmet. The restaurant features wood burning pizza ovens and the food that came out was spectacular!

Feeling hungry? Check out the menu.

After lunch we headed back to the apartment and the doctor had finished up with A and gave us a list of prescriptions to retrieve from the local pharmacy.

Most of the medications listed above are actually over-the-counter meds in the U.S. but here require a doctor’s prescription. Fortunately, A, had Italian health insurance so the doctor’s in-house visit was covered however the meds were out-of-pocket, about €60 ($67 USD).

After the walk back from the pharmacy, it was straight to the shower to wash off all the sweat. Did we tell you already that this will be our last summer holiday?

Right now, Big J and A are sleeping, one the jet lag the other the meds so we’ll gonna be chill tonight and maybe sneak out for dinner later.

Categories: Rome, Italy
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