March 8. The Italian Riviera.

Today our stop was in Genoa, Italy. I had booked a tour… I thought. It ended up being more of a car service. The listing said we would have an English-speaking driver to take us around the Italian Riviera. Our driver, Laura, didn’t speak much English. She tried here and there though.

That ended up not mattering because we had a great day. Our first stop before many people were there was Portofino. It was absolutely crazy to me and I’m still thinking about the Universal Orlando Portofino Bay Resort being an exact replica of Portofino Bay. I was not expecting that. I thought the real Portofino Bay would be larger honestly. There are mountains around it and churches and things, but the actual bay and surrounding buildings are compact. I also still need to look up where the style of painting stucco buildings really fancy at all these cities on the Italian Riviera came from. Anyways, Portofino’s population is about 350. The bay is just packed with little eateries and stores, so that was cute. But we saw everything in about an hour after walking around and up to an overlook point. I am happy to say I saw it, and it was beautiful, but I don’t need to go back.

From Portofino we backtracked to Santa Margherita Ligure, or, from what I gather the locals call it, Santa Margherita. This city was a little bigger, with a population of about 3,500 and we liked this one much more. There was the main bay and beautiful waterfront area, but there were tons of little streets with shopping areas, restaurants/cafes, and squares off that. We walked all over for a couple hours. I got a shirt to remember the trip by. Then we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant with seven tables. It was called, “Time Out”, and it drew us in because they had a 16-euro fixed price lunch with first pasta course, second meat course, side, half bottle of water, and half bottle of house wine. I don’t know how they made any money because we had a delicious lunch. We don’t have any pictures of the fantastic pasta because we dove into it too quickly. We each ordered something different and mine had crispy bacony slices in it which is exactly my taste. My pork chop and roasted potatoes were delicious, as was the wine. We left stuffed and happy we got a great lunch during our stop.

 

The last city we visited was Camogli. It was on the other side of the mountain and was more modern, but just as beautiful. On the waterfront promenade there were tons of locals out on a Sunday afternoon lying on the beach or sitting at the cafes with their coffees or restaurants eating all types of seafood. I liked seeing the contrasts of Camogli packed with cars and people compared to the first two places we stopped.

 

 

We headed the rest of the way back to Genoa and Laura passed by a few Genoa sights and main streets before taking us back to the ship. We had a full seven+ hour day of touring around, so we just had a low-key last night on the ship. We had our last big meal, checked out the photos the ship took and spent time packing everything up.

 

Overall, I liked the cruise and all its offerings. It had many unique bars and drinks and food. We didn’t go to nearly the number of shows or entertainment as we usually do. It was crazy to me that the cruise director and activity director ran through everything they said in six different languages. When they did trivia or similar activities they put the questions up on screens in six different languages. There was definitely a diverse crowd of people of many different nationalities and ages on this cruise and I loved that variety. Though it is a huge ship with 5,000+ guests it never seemed overly packed or crazy. It was also much less stressful boarding and departing the ship because people start and end their cruises at all different stops. (Unlike in the U.S., where everyone gets on together on the same day and get off together on the same day.)

I can only think of a few critiques. Decor… very stark all around the ship. It wasn’t a “pretty” ship. Seems like they were just going for upscale chain hotel in lots of grays and a minimal amount of boring artwork. Also, the entertainment can be hit or (mostly) miss because they are trying to appeal to such an international audience. I am sad to say much of the entertainment could have been an S.N.L. skit. So, maybe it WAS entertaining in that regard? My final though is that though we didn’t spend much time in the casino, it is very small and definitely not U.S. cruise ship sized…Where it seems like there can never be enough casino space.

We encountered almost universally happy, chipper employees who always went out of their way to say hello and help with anything requested. We requested the same servers at the restaurant we went to several nights because they were so fun. And the speakeasy was so cool and unique, definitely a highlight of this ship. In summary, I don’t think I’d go out of my way or anything to cruise MSC again. But I wouldn’t rule it out if it was an itinerary we wanted at the right price.  

March 5, 6, 7. Day at Sea; Barcelona, Spain; Marsaille, France.

Three days in a row here since there isn't too much to report...

After leaving Malta we had a day at sea to get across the Mediterranean to Barcelona. We did the normal sea day things... ate a lot, spent a few hours in the thermal spa, drank too much, etc,

 

We then arrived in Barcelona to pouring down sideways rain and gale force winds. I could tell our ship was fighting the wind to get docked. We had a tour booked for Sagrada Familia, so we got off the ship and took a taxi there. It is probably the forth or fifth time I have been there and it is always so unique and beautiful to me. It is really more like an art museum to me. It was originally master planned by Gaudi, but after his death there were so many different artists that added their flair. The stained glass is stunning. Hopefully it is all finished in my lifetime so I can see it in its complete form, (if there is such a thing.) 

 

After our tour and spending time in the museum we went back outside to the continuing terrible weather. We decided it just wasn't our day to see Barcelona and cabbed it back to the ship. We relaxed in the afternoon and then went out and about for cocktails, the main theater Broadway show (which was terrible... seriously, but at least it was only a half hour,) and dinner which is always a highlight.

 

Today we were in Marseille, France. Originally we had booked an all day tour to go through the city and then out to see the countryside in Provence. We decided yesterday that we were overloading too many early activities and it looked like the weather wasn't going to be great again... so we decided to cancel the tour and wing it when we arrived.

We ended up getting a cab from the ship to the "Old Port" historical area of Marseille. We took the hop on hop off bus tour on its hour long loop (but didn't get off anywhere). There were some beautiful churches, like just about everywhere in Europe, but other than that, it didn't look like anything to interesting or out of the ordinary was here. (Translation - I don't need to come back... lol... unlike Nice or Eze or parts of the French Riviera closer to Monaco which we loved.) 

After the bus loop, we wandered trying to find a place to eat for a long while but most of them were expensive seafood places being near the sea. We finally found a super awesome food hall that will definitely be my happy memory of Marseille. I had breaded chicken cutlet, patatas bravas, and chorizo with fresh herbs in wine sauce. Nom nom nom. We were thankful it didn't rain at all when we were off the ship. After about five hours we'd had our fill of Marseille and had a CRAZY taxi ride back to the ship. The guy was friendly and funny and obviously knew every other taxi driver in town... but he was honking at everyone and was a speed demon. Now, back on the ship we are just getting ready for dinner and a low key night before our early wake up for our Italian Riviera tour tomorrow!

March 4. Malta.

Today's stop was Malta, the smallest independent island in the world. The population is only 600,000 and this is almost double what the population was when Malta joined the European Union in 2004. Tourism is the main economic engine. They also have a lot of online gambling, banking, etc. type of businesses because of the tax laws and the fact that though Maltese is the main language, English is also an official language of the country and everyone speaks it. Malta's only exports are potatoes to Holland and Bluefin Tuna to Japan. 

We had a private tour and our guide Raymond was amazing. He took us all over the island. At its widest point it is 9 miles by 13 miles. It is known for having been ruled by just about everyone... including the Romans, Moors, Knights of St. John, French and finally British from 1800-1964. They still drive on the "wrong" side of the road because of that... So Penny got to experience that on this trip. They have only been independent since 1964. Their language is very interesting because Maltese is a unique Semitic language with strong Sicilian-Italian and English influences, written in the Latin alphabet. 

We worked our way all around the island. We started at the old fisherman's village, then went to the Megalithic Temples, the oldest standing building in the world, that were built between 3600 and 2500 B.C. They were ruins, but it was interesting that we could walk through them and the walls were still in place so we could make out the various areas and rooms. We also went to the highest point in Malta to look over the picturesque rock cliffs over the blue sea. We had some time at the end of the tour to spend in Valletta, the capitol and another Unesco World Heritage site. It is again just so unique to see this city that was built in the 1500s that has stores and apartments and normal life in and among these structures that were built so long ago.  

Raymond had a few funny sayings... Every time we got to our next stop on the tour he would say, "Hail Mary, Full of Grace, Let me Find a Parking Place". We also went over speed humps often and he said they called those the "sleeping policeman".

 

 

 

When we were back on the ship, it was gala night. We put on our (slightly) fancier cloths and headed out to the champagne bar, had a drink and then to our dinner. The highlight of the night was going to the secret speakeasy on board. It was super fun. We had heard about it before coming onboard and got the reservation. At the appointed time we went to what looked like just a traditional red London phone booth and dialed the number. Someone opened the back of the phone booth and took us down two floors in the crew area to "Jack's Place", a super themed little space for a few dozen people that was decorated with lots of stuff from the 20s and 30s. We had fancy cocktails and listened to the two different jazzy groups that rotated through. It was a memorable experience. Then we headed to the Gin Project bar to wrap up the night. Sea day is tomorrow, so that means sleeping in and relaxing.  

 

March 2. Boarding the Cruise

We had a low-key day. We got up and had hotel breakfast and then made our way back to the airport for the bus transfer to the cruise ship. It took about an hour to get to the Civitavecchia cruise port. 

It took less than 10 minutes to check in and we were quickly aboard having welcome champagne. 

Our ship is the MSC World Europa, currently in 10th place for the largest cruise ships in the world. I've never been on an MSC cruise. This ship was basically picked because the other major cruise lines are only here in the summer. 

It's always a process, (and a relief,) unpacking our suitcases for the week. When we were done with that task we headed out to explore the ship and barhop. We also went to the evening show. A fantastic British singer sang the hits of woman icons - Adele, Cher, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston. Then we headed to dinner and had funny servers who I think were as entertained by us as we were with them. Then more drinks, then bed.

Good first impressions of the ship so far. It's also amazing that it seems like most of the people working speak five different languages. This is a very international crowd.