Loves' 2023 World Cruise

April 28, 2023 Mostly sunny, 65 deg F Monaco is a most interesting place.   At 1.5 square miles It is the second smallest city in the world, the Vatican being the smallest.   It is probably the wealthiest in terms of wealth per capita.   The harbor is crammed with mega yachts.   It took some maneuvering for our captain to even squeeze our ship in.   Monaco is home to the mega casino Monte Carlo and the annual Grand Prix Formula One Race that runs through existing roads in the city.   Something to consider for the future:   you can dock your yacht right at the Grand Prix race track and watch the race from your the aft deck of your boat   - only $50,000 per day, 4 day minimum.   Monaco is definitely a destination for the rich and famous and infamous. Monaco is ruled by Prince Albert II, son of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III.   The population of the city state is only about 39,000 of which only about 9,500 are citizens.   Many wealthy people rent or buy condos in Monaco to establish r

April 27, 2023 Sunny, High 63 deg F We docked in Civitavecchia, the closest port to Rome.   We are here with 5 other cruise ships, most much larger than ours.   Tourism is back! As we have previously spent some good time in Rome and we knew the bus ride to Rome was about 2 hours (remember, Kristi, Shelli?), we decide to take a more local tour.   We went to the town of Tarquinia, a place where ancient Etruscan underground tombs of the ruling class have been discovered, and then to a museum of artifacts from the tombs.   Many artifacts were buried in the tombs because they believed that would help the deceased in the afterlife.   The artifacts, tomb wall paintings and frescoes provided a lot of information about the Etruscan culture, although their language has not yet been fully deciphered.       The Etruscan period was around 900 BC to just about the time of the birth of Christ.   They were ultimately either assimilated into the Roman Empire or were crushed by the Romans.     It is a b

  April 26, 2023 Sunny, High 68 deg F After a short trip from Sicily we docked in Naples, Italy’s third largest city after Rome and Milan.   Like so much of what we have seen on this trip Naples’ history is measured in millennia.   Naples is home to 30 volcanoes.   Of these, 15 are monitored—including the infamous Mount Vesuvius which is still active.   Vesuvius erupted violently in 79 AD and buried Pompeii and several other smaller villages in the area.   It also erupted again in 1944 during WWII and was not as destructive, although an estimated 16,000 people still lost their lives.   Our guide said that about 600,000 people live in the area at risk.   Geologists expect the volcano to erupt again and are monitoring the pressure in the mountain to hopefully be able to give an alert before it blows its top again.     Moving on to lighter and happier thoughts Naples is credited with inventing the Margarita Pizza, the colors of red (sauce), white (crust) and green (basil) are the colors o

  April 25, 2023 Partly cloudy, Hi 68 deg F We would love to spend a week or so here in Sicily.   It is a beautiful Island with rugged mountainous terrain and beautiful beaches.   Villages dot both the hillsides and the beach areas.   The eastern side of Sicily is dominated by Mount Etna, an active volcano whose ash has made the countryside fertile for growing oranges, olives, lemons, grapes, olives, pistachios and more.     Our ship docked in Messina in the northeast corner of the island.   Just across the strait approximately 1.9 miles is the mainland of Italy.   Messina is the city where the Allies drove the German and Italian troops off the island in 1943.   In fact, today, April 23 is a holiday here for celebrating the liberation of Sicily from the Fascist regimes.   The movie Patton dramatizes the campaign where the Allies landed on the southern tip of Sicily and General Patton led his troops Northwest across Sicily and then East while Field Marshal Montgomery led the British tr