Cruisin'

Michelle and I took another step into adulthood by venturing on our first cruise. We headed to the Mediterranean in search of sun, relaxation, food, and culture. We were most excited about the opportunity to see parts of Italy, France, and Spain all in one trip without the typically high cost of traveling to each country separately. Come along for the ride...

DAY 1: CINQUE TERRE, ITALY
Cinque Terre is located in northern Italy just outside the port city of Genova (Genoa). Cinque Terre is a National Park consisting of five villages nestled into the hillside. Michelle has wanted to visit Cinque Terre for the longest time, so expectations were extremely high. It did not let us down (the pictures speak for themselves)!


Port of Genova


Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre)


Corniglia (Cinque Terre)


Vernazza (Cinque Terre)


Via del Amore aka Lover's Lane


Monterosso (Cinque Terre)

DAY 2: CANNES, FRANCE
Cannes is really known for two things; the Cannes Film Festival and luxury shopping. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience either (the film festival is in May, and all of the shopping is closed on Sunday). Needless to say, Cannes was a major letdown...at least we able to attend church in the morning.


Bienvenue a Cannes


L'eglise


Finding home away from home


Patisserie of choice

DAY 3: CORSICA, FRANCE
Corsica is a French island in the middle of the Mediterranean. The island is probably best known as the birthplace of Napolean Bonaparte. We really enjoyed the chance to be at the beach all day and to get some much needed vitamin D.




One of the more beautiful places we've visited


Michelle enjoying the scenery...yes, I'm referring to the old man in his speedo. He wasn't as bad as the old woman next to us tanning topless (don't worry we didn't take a picture)!


Lunch

DAY 4: BARCELONA, SPAIN
After a relaxing day on the beaches of Corsica, we were ready for a packed visit to Barcelona. I have always wanted to visit this amazingly diverse city, and we were both blown away with how much there was to see. I was so impressed with the city's efforts to hold on to their Catalan roots and heritage. Nearly all the locals speak Catalan first, and Spanish second. The architecture and history is so unique. We could have probably spent a full week in Barcelona and would have still not had enough time to take it all in.


Mas que un club...life in the city evolves around FC Barcelona and we had to pay our homage to a soccer mecca, The Camp Nou


The MNAC Museum


Arenas de Barcelona...an old bull fighting arena in the city


Placa Catalunya...the heart of Barcelona



We stumbled upon a fun food market, Mercat St. Josep, just off of La Rambla


Catedral Barri Gotic...this Cathedral is located in the heart of the Gothic District where a number of the streets around the Cathedral have medieval origins.


Sagrada Familia...perhaps the most iconic building in Barcelona. This masterpiece, from famed architect Gaudi, is still under construction well beyond his passing.


We finished our time in Barcelona with a live Flamenco show...one of the cooler cultural experiences I've witnessed.

DAY 5: BACK TO ROME
Our last day of the cruise was spent on the boat as we headed back to Rome from Barcelona. We must have really had a lot of fun in our first four days because we slept for 16 hours while making our way to Rome. We finished our cruise in style at dinner with our new Italian best friends, Alessandro and Martina. They are from Rome, and were celebrating their one year wedding anniversary. We had a lot of fun eating dinner with them each night and clicked with them right away (they were an Italian mirror of us in many ways). Alessandro was a big jokester and he usually ate at least two entrees, two main courses, and two desserts each night (our favorite was the escargots). Martina was so kind and loved to arrange things to do together on the boat and in the port cities. They introduced us to their family friends Anna and Anastasio who happened to be on the cruise as well. Anastasio was your typical old Italian man; he only ate pasta, spoke in a low, Godfather-like voice, always had deep words of wisdom to share, and sung to the group during dinner. We don't really speak any Italian, and none of them really speak any English, so many of our conversations became a big game of charades. Thankfully Martina spoke enough English to facilatate coherent conversations! We hope to keep in contact with them (through google translate of course) for many years to come.


Our dinner group (L to R): Me, Michelle, Alessandro, Martina, Anna, Anastasio (waiters Enrique and Angelo)