Salerno, Sorrento and Pompeii in 3 parts (Part 1)

Yesterday evening and night we crossed from Croatia to Salerno, Italy.  I had signed up for an excursion called Taste of Sorrento and included a visit to Pompeii.  My dad grew up fascinated with National Geographic and I always enjoyed the issues that showed the excavations going on in Pompeii.  So this might be my chance of a lifetime to see it.

The ship was docked by 7 am and all aboard would not be until 6 pm.  My excursion left at 7:30 am so it was up early to get breakfast before we left.

Up there is where we are headed as we leave the port area.

This was the view from the top.

Our small tour bus, maybe 10 of us, left Salerno and headed to Sorrento.  Along the way we stopped at a small hillside farm for our taste of Italy.

They demonstrated how them make mozzarella cheese, cot to cheese, salami, bruschetta and lemoncello.  So during the demonstration on a lovely covered veranda we were served a plate with each of the items on it.  It was funny because 2 of the farm dogs suddenly appeared about the time the food was served.  They would lay there head in your lap hoping for a morsel.

We also went down the hillside further to where the family also produces lemoncello.

A little quilt inspiration in some old tiles.

Then back in the van to take us back up the hill to the bus to more on to Sorrento.

Day at Sea

Today we are crossing from Croatia  to Salerno, Italy.  It was a quiet day.  We, the quilters, got to see some of the craft programs she had filmed.  I think for Craftsy, but am not sure.  We found a nice covered area  with very comfortable, cushy chairs and sat and sewed.  Dinner tonight is in the formal dining room with formal dress suggested for tonight.

Split, Croatia

Overnight we sailed across the Adriatic Sea toward Split, Croatia.  We will be here from about noon and all aboard at 7:30 pm.  It has been an adjustment to get comfortable with the heat here.  Today it was about 88°.  After all the walking in Venice I was going to take it easy today.  I know some people were excited as I think some of King of Thrones is filmed in Croatia.  Excursions were the first to leave at noon.  We non-excursioners left at 12:30. It was quite a long walk from where the ship was docked to get to the tourist area.  

There were Roman ruins to visit and interesting city in general.

I kept bumping into a couple of quilters who I recognized from the ship so we kind of followed the same paths.  Stopped in tourist info to get a map. We walked around looking at a lot of the Roman building in the Old Town district.  Of course, because of the temps we had to try some gelato.  Yummm!

I also stepped into a church while walking.  I am still amazed  at the number of different marbles that are used in these churches.  It was also this was in Ireland 2 years ago.  The variety is staggering. It will be interesting to see if it is like this in Rome.

Every day when we are on board the waiters from the specialty restaurants like Chops, Sushi, Giovanni’s Table would come around offering discounts on meals at these restaurants where are paid separately.  Generally the cost started at $60 and up.  A waiter approached Deborah and I the day before, and offered a 3 course meal for $35, which we thought was more reasonable.  So we are having steak tonight at Chops. We also had a bottle of wine, our splurge.  Since we were neither big drinkers, they hold the rest of the bottle and then we can have it another night in the formal dining room.

Day 7 - More on Venice

There seemed to a church on each island, so there were lots to see.  This was where our walking tour ended. about noon. The ship wasn't scheduled to leave until 6 pm so I had plenty of time to walk to St. Mark's Square to catch the shuttle back to the ship.  I did want to shop for a few souvenirs.  I had studied a little bit about finding my way back to St. Marks and knew the signs to look for up higher on the corners of buildings.

The tour guild took a long time telling the story of Marco Polo and how this was his home.  After he had us hook, line and sinker he admitted that no one is sure this was his home, but it's a good place to stop in the tour.

Bell towers galore.

This was the little restaurant that I found for lunch.  Had pizza.

Most of the morning walk was not very crowded.  Looked at some glass shops and of course jewelry always catches my eye.  As I got closer to Piazza San Marco it started getting much more crowded.

The bell tower in Piazza San Marco.

Basilica San Marco

These are the shops surrounding Piazza San Marco.

This is some of the interesting jewelry in those shops.

The Doge's Palace

This is the Torre dell'Orologio, a 15th century clock tower.

The winged lion of St. Mark.

I think I headed for the shuttle back to the ship about 2:30 pm.  The ship sailed at 8 pm, and I never wanted to risk missing the last shuttle.  Besides by then I was pretty tired and looked forward to a short nap.  And to see how Deborah enjoyed her excursion that day.

Tomorrow we have a day in Split, Croatia.

Day 7 - 2nd day in Venice

The second day I had scheduled the "Secret Venice Walking Tour.  Since the departure time for this tour I had to be up at 6 am to get to the gathering point to join the group and leave the ship at 7:30 am
The walking tour was 4 hours and then we had some time on our own but had to be back to the ship by 6 pm.  At the terminal we got on a smaller boat that took us west and around the end of the islands to the back canals.

Something that hadn't occurred to me was how all the daily supplies got to the island.  I think most come by rail and then are loaded onto these smaller boats that then got through the canals to deliver items.

Once we had gotten to the back of the island we got off and began our 4 hr. walking tour.

Business on the 1st and 2nd floors, living space on 3rd.

Since all the building are build one onto another, each island has a little square where kids can get out and plan and older people can sit and visit under the shade of a tree.