Adventures of the Golden Girls (AKA The Fab 4)

 This morning we arrived at Rome’s port - Civitavecchia.  We were to be out of our cabins and downstairs getting our luggage by 7:45 am.  It had been packed up the night before and we were given labels to attach to the handle, which is where we would find them.  And presto!  There they were.  Nice not having to wheel them around on the boat.  And the elevators were pretty busy. Once we got outside, we eventually found our driver to take us into Rome.  It was about an hour and a half trip.  Traffic. We got to our place, a VRBO property, which is just south of Vatican City…about a 15-20 minute walk.  We first went to a bank machine.  Turns out we can’t use the machine if we don’t have a 5-digit PIN.  Hmmm.  So we figured out what to do from there.  Good job we have someone that has one of those! We then sat down to have a pint.  It sure is hot here.  We then went to the Market to buy some breakfast things and ...

 Yesterday was a sea day, so we just trotted around the ship here and there.  I have to show you a picture of a bag I bought in Malta though. Love it. We did pass through the Strait of Messina.  It runs between Sicily and the toe of the boot of Italy.  You can see mostly Sicily in the picture, but you can see the strait as well. I went upstairs at one point and saw this island out of a window on the other side.  It’s another volcano that is active in Italy!  Stromboli.  (Those are clouds, not spewing smoke.) So we landed in Naples this morning where we had a full-day excursion booked with the ship.  After getting organized, we headed over to Salerno by bus - the east end of the Amalfi Coast.  But first we stopped at a cameo shop in Naples.  I didn’t know that real cameos are made from shells of shellfish.  Quite beautiful - and quite expensive.  This is a guy carving one.  I guess that’s why it’s so expensive. And on we we...

 Yesterday morning, we landed in Malta.  What a beautiful port!  Across from us in the harbour were 3 peninsulas that stuck into the harbour, and they had buildings, obviously from the past. It was hard to get all 3 from where we were, but this is sort of what it looks like, as we were leaving.   We didn’t have anything planned for Malta, and the city of Valletta, but as we were going to walk into town, a cab driver talked us into having him take us around.  It sounded like a plan. So he first took us down to the south end of the island to the town of Marsaxlokk.  We wandered the harbour there for a bit, with lots of goodies to purchase, if we wanted. It’s a busy harbour.                                                   Saw this ice cream truck that had a cute name. After we left there, he took us to the Blue...

Yesterday was a pretty easy day - totally at sea.  It’s nice to not have to go somewhere or meet someone or whatever.  Our biggest choice was where we were going to have lunch. Slept in and had a nap in the afternoon. After lunch though, our wonderful friends had a surprise for Judy and me.  They told us not to have dessert.  OK… We went back to their room, and there was cake there with these tiaras and banners we had to put on.                                                     I guess it’s the reason we’re here, after all.  So we obliged and Sue popped open a bottle of champagne. We celebrated with a toast and some chatter.  Awesome! We’re trying to figure out what time it is.  Our phones (electronics) are saying it’s an hour earlier than what it is.  We’ve crossed the time zone, but the ship...

 We arrived in Katakolon yesterday morning.  It’s a beautiful seaside town on the Peloponnese of Greece.  From here, it’s about a 45 minute drive to Olympia, which is the base of the ancient Olympics and also the modern Olympics in the sense that the Olympic torch originates here. For each Olympic Games, the torch is lit here and it is run all the way to Athens, to the Olympic stadium we visited while there.  From there, it is carried to the host city. Lots of ruins here. This is the Temple of Zeus (remnants). And this is the Olympic stadium grounds.  If you look closely on the left-hand side, you can see a stone thingy.  That is exactly where the Olympic torch is lit.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find that out until after we had left the site. And here’s Darlene, running a race. After visiting the ruins of Olympia, we went into the museum where tons of artifacts that were uncovered from the site are held.  This guy (Augustus) and other “people” - so...