6/19/09: Day 236: Lucca, Italy

Thanks to the three people who offered improv suggestion. I think I used one of them…no, not Larrance’s Choice.

This week has been, as I think I mentioned, a series of last-time-heres. I think we pretty much hit everything we wanted to do.

“Malta=internet.” When we first got off the ship around 10:30 and headed to the restaurant for internet we discovered the power was out…for the whole island. I don’t know what happened, but it fixed itself about an hour and a half later. I still have some photos I didn’t manage to get uploaded, but SOME of them are up on flickr.

“Naples=funicular to park.” Check. Naples was hot and humid. But, we walked to the funicular stop and headed up the hill to walk around a castle with a great view of the city, and a park filled with lovers and water-fightin’ teen-agers. At the end of it all I wanted to just get back to the ship and out of the heat.

“Rome=Sistine Chapel.” And the Vatican. I don’t know where I thought the Sistine Chapel was. I only remember people saying “you have to go through the Vatican Museum to get into it.” So, I figured…for some reason…the Vatican Museum like the bookstore that was connected to the Vatican just like every other place you go to has a bookstore at the end of it. Deanna and I viewed the Vatican, which was scientifically amazing…it was huge but designed not to feel huge. Hard to explain with words. Then Deanna, who knows where the Chapel is, leads me right back out of the Vatican and St. Peter’s. What? Isn’t the bookstore back inside? No. We go to the actual Vatican Museum which…is…HUGE. Two hours of walking around in that later I get to the Chapel. It was great and I wish I could have respected it more and enjoyed it more. I was just so sick of walking around the museum by that point that I skipped past a lot of stuff. Plus, it was hot and muggy again.

“Livorno=Lucca (rain or shine).” Every time we had been in Lucca before it had been at least cloudy with some level of rain. Deanna had come here before with her girlfriends and rode bikes around the wall. It is a walled city with a road going all along the top of the wall. We rented bikes and rode the wall! The weather was great, and we made all the shuttles and trains to get us there. After the prior two days, I wouldn’t have minded if it was raining.

The next cruise is a two-week charter and will have some different ports. We have one more shot at Barcelona, Civitavecchia and Malta, but the rest…for now…are gone. BYE-YIIIII!