APRIL 11, 2008 – CIVITAVECCHIA

We were awakened by the sounds of the ship’s routine into the berth. This port serves Rome and many of the passengers were off to tours in Rome. We have one this afternoon to parts of Tuscany.
Ed got up first and went through his ritual with the drugs then went off to exercise. I’ll upload this blog and then go into Civitavecchia to see what there is to see and return for lunch. It is overcast and chilly outside with a light mist. There are 3 cruise ships in port that I can see besides ours. I can already hear the scraping of the paint on our side of the ship. They are in constant motion keeping the ship up to shape. When we are in port, they really work hard.

APRIL 10, 2008 – AMALFI COAST

The alarm rang at 6:30 am but it wasn’t a welcomed sound even though I had turned down the volume. I had awakened earlier and never really got back to sleep. Since my regular watch is losing time, I am no longer able to turn on it’s backlight to see what time it is when I wake up in the night.
I got ready first while Ed greeted the room service fellow with our nibbles. We were in the Cabaret Lounge by 8 am as we were directed. It took a little longer to get the ship cleared by the local authorities but eventually we went to the tender for the trip to the pier in Sorrento. As they boarded a wheelchair onto the tender, I recalled our conversation the other night about how many back injuries the staff sustain helping disabled passengers onto and off the ship. The swells were 3-4 ft. and so it requires that they give us their hands as we transfer onto the tender but many of these folks require much more assistance.
AMALFI COAST TRIP: It’s everything you’ve heard and more. We had plenty of seating to choose from; there were 20 of us on a bus that holds around 50. I try to get on the side opposite the driver so I’m on the sidewalk side. However, on this trip, it meant that I was frequently looking a few thousand feet straight down to rocks and broiling sea. The habitats look like someone glued them onto the side of these steep cliffs. At one point I saw an old retaining wall about half way down the side of a cliff. The only possible way to get there would be by rapelling!
The weather was in the 60s which suited me just fine; the locals had jackets on. It was overcast and when we got back to the ship, a few sprinkles arrived. We had Patrick, the drummer in the band, with our bus. He’s a talented musician and a fun young man. We had fun talking with him during lunch.
The tour took us through lots of towns you’ve heard of. On the tender ride back to the ship, I sat next to a man who was a US soldier who landed at Salerno in 1943. We talked a little and I asked him some question (I can’t recall what it was at the moment) and he started tearing up. I started tearing up as did his wife. He was between the two of us and we both hugged him. The wife gave the man and me a tissue to wipe the tears. We wound up laughing that someone would ask us how we enjoyed our tour and we’d say it was marvelous as we dabbed at the tears rushing down our cheeks. This was his first visit back here since the war. Later he told me a few things and his wife said this was the first time she’d heard these things. As many of you know, there’s a special place in my heart for these WWII vets.
AMALFI CENTER: We had about 45 min. to walk around this cute little city center. There is a large and absolutely stunning cathedral in the middle. I would love to have toured it but there wasn’t enough time. We found a restroom and a diet Coke, in that order, and then just looked and walked. I got some great candid shots of these old streets. Ed picked up some spice packets.
LUNCH: We were in a restaurant in Mayori (not the right spelling I’m sure; my Latin and Spanish helps me a little with some Italian; I wouldn’t starve in other words). We had a local red wine, sparkling white wine, and still water. We started with cannelloni stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. Mmmm good. Then we had chicken breast with Parmesan cheese, peas and onions. The breads included really thin bread sticks, Ed’s favorite, and a healthy, and delicious, hard roll. For dessert we had an egg custard with a caramel sauce. I’ve probably forgotten something but I cleaned my plate and we finished all the wine among the 4 of us (we were joined by an older gentleman named Charles.
The wisteria were blooming everywhere and the lavender color was a delight along with bright yellow and red flowers. Speaking of yellow: this is lemoncello country and the lemons grow to be the size of cantelope and larger. The peel is used to make this local liquer which is exported all over the world. And be forewarned (we had it at supper on the ship), it is a high proof liquor. Wooo wee.
MT. VESUVIUS: You can often see it and it’s easily recognizable. It has little wiffs of smoke from the top. As you probably know, it is studied by volcanoligists daily.
DROP OFF: We were dropped off in the city center of Sorrento to wait for the shuttle bus; the streets are too narrow for anything larger. Sandy, another passenger and I, decided to walk down the stairs. We’re talking steep and several hundred if not over a thousand feet. We found the 4 flags to which we were directed. There a man pointed us in the direction of this nondescript set of stairs so off we went. There were several decision points as the trajectory of the stairs changed but we made the right choices and found ourselves at the bottom where there was a hairpin curve and lots of tall, walls made out of clearly old stones. We soldiered on and pretty soon we saw one of the shuttle busses coming from the other direction so we knew we were on the right path. Quickly enough, the tender was seen at the pier which rises out of nowhere.
One tender left just as we arrived and the final tender of the day was on its way to pick up the “left overs” as this was to be the last tender of the day. So back on board.
GOLDEN RITA: Ed wanted to go up to the Pacific Lounge to watch the “sail away” and have a blended margarita. These margaritas come in gallon size (I am exaggerating but…) upside down pyramid gigantic stemmed glasses. He picked a seat at the front of this Lounge looking out over the front of the ship. My seat had a tremendous view of the enormous snake plant next to the line of sight, just beyond the window were several struts and other supports for the ship, and just beyond that was the wind break for the spa on the deck below. And oh yes, in the far distance I could just make out that there was a bow on the ship and something blue beyond. Clearly I wasn’t understanding the charm of this location, so I asked Ed to change seats with me. Not much improvement I’m afraid. I tried to crane my neck to see out the side windows of the lounge and as you may expect, that had its own set of problems. Just between you and I, I could have enjoyed a better view with less hassle from our balcony.
But I think I have it figured out. It wasn’t really the view of the “sail away” that was his interest. It was the woman singer backed by this grammy winning musician. They really are both quite good but…
SUPPER: We met Erna and Hank on the way to supper. They had gone on the farm tour with Dave and Twyla who were waiting for us at the table. Erna and Hank said they had eaten too much already today and wouldn’t be joining us for dessert. Twyla remarked that she was hungry as they had only eaten samples everywhere though they did have a great trip and thoroughly enjoyed the farm.
Dave bought himself a bib with bottles of wine on it and he proudly wore it through supper. Our head waiter gave us an up close and personal appraisal of the value of the various wines shown on the bib.
It seems that Mauritzio, the head waiter, had been so excited to get back to Italy. He had talked about it for days. So as soon as he could, he went on shore. As you leave the ship, there is a sign alerting everyone to the next port of call, the time of the last tender, and at the bottom the time the crew must be on board which is always about an hour before the last tender. Somehow Mauritzio hadn’t picked up this little bit of information in his zeal to be back on the soil of the motherland. So when he came on board and stuck his cruise card into the machine, the ghurka guards took his credentials from him (which effectively means he cannot get off the ship again until the Captain gives him permission). He was stunned and wanted to know why they were taking his papers away from him: he was 1 hr and 5 minutes late returning to the ship. It’s a funny story as much because the staff farther down the food chain are usually the ones who get busted.
LEMONCELLO: Since we had not had lemoncello, we decided to take advantage of the ship’s special tonite of lemoncello in a small glass with a cute bottom to it. This was $5.25 and you couldn’t buy the glass for that much less the whole megillah. I expected some sickeningly sweet, watered down version of the real thing. Oh no, this stuff would start a bonfire if you lit it with a match. Is there something above 100 proof? If so, that’s what this is. so I’ve now tasted it, and that’s enough drinking today to last me for a long while yet.
COMEDIAN: We had asked Patrick about the show tonite as we were ambivalent about going. He told us a little about it and we decided to go. This guy, (web site –I think—is ComedianJimMcDonald.com) is good looking in the Rob Lowe sort of way. He kept us entertained for the hour and had created a very eclectic show that included slide shows at various times and some props now and then. Several of the ladies were cackling more than I was so that’ll give you and idea of how the crowd received him.
NEW CAPTAIN: Fr. Austin and Capt. Lupo leave us tomorrow.
CIVITAVECCHIA: I have the pronunciation from real Italians: cheh-vit-a-vek-kee-ah. We berth at 7 am and leave at 6 pm. Our tour isn’t until 2 pm in the afternoon and we are supposed to tour Tuscania. I hope to get some window shopping done in the morning.

APRIL 9, 2008 – SORRENTO TOMORROW

The 7:30 am alarm wasn’t welcomed but I finally rolled out at 8 am and got ready. Ed went to breakfast and met me at the lecture later.
PORT TALK: SORRENTO: This was interesting to me for several reasons. Not until I heard this talk did I have a sense of the relationships among Capri, Naples and Sorrento. This is a tender port and the boat shuttle ride is 20 min. which seems longer than I would have expected. We have signed up for a tour along the Amalfi Coast and that will take up all the time in port. The speaker does a satisfactory job but it is pretty much by the book except for a few spontaneous questions where he is much more spontaneous.
COOKING AROUND THE WORLD: Yesterday the Commandatore personally delivered our certificates and the cookbook with recipes from the passengers. As it turned out, our book had 2 blank pages so we got another. I had many folks autograph their recipes and that started the idea for others. It was kind’ve fun actually.
He did two recipes today and a dessert from the cookbook we bought. This was his last denmonstration and we have, by now, become accustomed to the usual: salt shaker that doesn’t work, dials on the burners that he can’t make work right, and the hoo yah expression when something is hot.
YACHTIES & KNOTIES UNITE! This was an interview and Q&A with Phyllis and Ralph about their 6 yr sailing experiences on their 50 ft. ketch over 45,000 miles throughout the So. Pacific. This was very interesting as you may expect and we had been looking forward to it but I left before it was over for Trivia.
TRIVIA: Only Mary, Sid, Ed and I. Bill stayed to the end of the interview and we never knew what happened with Elizabeth. So we soldiered on, just the 4 of us. We did ourselves well but two other groups (full 6 complement I might add) tied and so it required a tie breaker question. The prizes were passport holders today.
Elizabeth came as we were ending and told us she didn’t want to play anymore. Apparently there was some kind of temper tantrum in the group while we were gone and it’s no fun she said. I know enough about the individuals mentioned to have some idea of what happened. While we were sitting there, another group asked if the 4 of us would join them this afternoon as 4 of their members weren’t going to show; we said yes, of course. Mary leaves us in Rome so there will be several shortages among us. I asked Sandy if she and Berk would be interested in joining us but she declined; they may show up sometime and if there’s an opening in a group, they’ll play with that group. That’s too bad; Sandy and Berk are great team additions and we’ve always enjoyed playing with them.
LUNCH: I went to the buffet so I cold have salad and fruit. I guess we’re running low on fruits as only cantelope and honeydew were the only offerings. Then of course there was the cookie (raisin oatmeal) to top it off. So no cookie at 3 pm today. We visited with a couple from Seattle and discussed the housing situation and Boeing’s impact on that area.
SPECIAL NOTE TO AMY: You have no idea how much I am going to appreciate my next haircut with you. My bangs are past pupil level by now.
NEWS: We got CNN for about 10 minutes just now, then no signal. Forget the BBC and the newspapers were stopped in the library on 4/1 with the note that we would be getting the BBC News as of that date. We all think it was an April Fool’s joke on us.
I was looking at the International Herald Tribune in the Cabaret Lounge before the speakers today and one lady in an excited voice said: “Is that an English newspaper!” Then Phyllis came along and stood looking dumbstruck quickly followed by the look of someone who’s been starving when they first see food again. However, I don’t know when I’ll have time to quietly savor it. The first part is the general world news by the way with an insert in English which contains only Greek news. Pretty clever.
NEGOTIATING IN FOREIGN CULTURES: this was most interesting. Ambassador Fritts described the model used by the Russians during negotiations: like a game of chess. The Japanese and others don’t want explicity language, nor often do they want them in writing. They prefer words like “best effort” and “work toward”. Americans want instant gratification and that’s not what the rest of world works on. In many countries, they are taught from a young age to lie and he outlined how this came to be the survival tactic in that culture. He gave an example where LBJ made a major faux paux by having a private conversation with the Japanese Prime Minister with only the Japanese translator. LBJ’s understanding of what was decided at this private meeting was different than the Japanese’s version. It could have been avoided if LBJ had done things through the experienced and knowledgable people in the State Dept. had aided him and certainly he should have had his own translator with him as well; you never rely on the translator from the other country.
DISASTER AT THE OPERA: We were laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. He described the story where Tosca jumps off the ramparts; the stage hands were to put several mattresses on the other side for Tosca to fall into. The stage hands were angry with the diva and put a trampoline there instead. Another was a performance of Aida where an elephant crapped as it went across the stage. Someone said something to the effect: Terrible manners, great criticism. There were more. And the way he describes things, even when innocuous, is hilarious. He’s Irish after all.
TRIVIA: We joined the group who calls themselves the something birds. Well we joined two of their six members; the other four had another obligation. We were invited for this session as I described in the morning. When I sat down, one member gave me the “rules” and how this group does things. Fine with me; I liked them all. So anyway, Ed, Mary, Sid and I did our bit. It was a fun experience and very cooperative without the anxiety we’ve often had in our regular group. And we WON! And we won by 2 points! Our reward was can covers and one of the group gave me his as he has plenty. I told him it wouldn’t go to waste.
FORMAL NIGHT: Yuk, but we got dressed up anyway. We were all there except Bill and Lea. It was fun with our usual wide ranging discussions. I had given Hank and Erna some papyrus pages and he put our names in hieroglyphics on one of the pages and gave it to us as a thank you. It had his name in hieroglyphics too! I love this kind of spontaneous, unique gift.
ENTERTAINMENT: We didn’t do this. I got into my sleeping gear and finished some stuff that had been waiting for me. We’re still tired. Ed went to listen to some music after he finished some emails he “had” to get out.