Highlights
Our picks of the highlights of the trip.
We did see some odd things on our 21-day trip. Here are some of them.
Venice
The unique city of Venice
Small wine producing town of Soave, Italy.
Verona
Verona - the setting of Romeo and Juliet
Beautiful Lake Como, Italy
Milan
Milan, home of a real big church and one of the highest-end shopping malls ever.
Craig talks the group into driving off the freeway on a randomly-chosen road between Milan and Parma where we discover Grazzano Visconti.
Balogna
The ladies wanted to see Balogna. I discovered that Italy has a number of (very) leaning towers, and we found another one here.
We stayed the night on the Adriatic in small town, then visited Ravenna the following day on the way back to Venice to get on the cruise ship.
Croatia
Our first cruise stop - Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Our second cruise stop took us to Athens where we climbed around the Acropolis.
Turkey
We stopped in Izmar, Turkey, where we took a nice tour of ancient Ephesus.
We had a beautiful day in Sicily, visiting Toarmina and Mt. Etna.
Naples
Naples - or at least a view from the harbor!
A nice day in Capri, though a bit hazy.
Sorrento
Very cloudy and hazy in Sorrento - but we had another great Italian meal!
There is nothing like Pompeii.
Rome
Our stop in Rome was limited to the Coliseum.
Our tour of the Vatican included a trip through the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, no photography allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but we can assure you it was very impressive!
Florence
A quick walk around Florence was all we had time for.
In Pisa, we saw the inside of the Baptistry, the (beautiful) church, and of course the most famous of the leaning towers of Italy.
France
We had our worst weather in France. Short visit to Castellet and then Bandol.
Montserrat is well-funded monastery near Barcelona with a spectacular view. Famous for the Black Madonna.
Barcelona
We spent a couple of days in Barcelona, taking an open bus tour and walking around La Rambla.