Sunday, August 26, 2012

Week One: Cruisin'

Welcome to week one of my mom and my Eurotrip.  After getting about zero hours of sleep post-Lollapalooza Momma Graf and I headed off to the Chicago airport (after a near fiasco of thinking we lost the rental car keys which somehow ended up packed in one of the suitcases).  Fast forward about 12 hours, one layover and a whole lot of coffee later and we finally arrived in Nice Airport where we decided to take a bus to our cruise ship in Monte Carlo.  *Note to anyone traveling to Europe for the first time: if you give someone euros and get back less coins than you would in the US, don't panic!  It's perfectly normal and apparently French airport employees aren't too keen on naive Americans questioning their currency.

Day 1: Monte Carlo
The first day on the cruise consisted of napping, a mandatory security drill and scenic picture taking...from the safety of the ship; there was no way we were going back on land after our exhausting day(s) of traveling.
Port of Monte Carlo
Day 2: Florence
Day two marked the start of our love affair (sarcasm) with the excursion crew.  The excursion that we were supposed to go on to Florence and Pisa left without us this morning, so being the flexible travelers we are we did the "Ultimate Florence" trip instead.  Which actually might have ended up being better anyway because we got to see Michelangelo's Statue of David which was unbelievable.  "The most beautiful boy in the world" was larger than life and unbelievably accurate anatomically.  You could truly feel the emotion coming from this piece of marble which I never would've believed possible if I hadn't seen it for myself.
Couldn't take pictures of Michelangelo's version so I got the next best thing.

We had a great guide who took us all around Florence until lunchtime at which point we ate at an adorable restaurant and I had some delicious genuine Italian pizza.  Italy definitely is not the place to go if you're trying to lose weight.  Or on a cruise for that matter.
Yum.
All in all Florence was pretty easy on the eyes to say the least.
Day 3: Rome
When in Rome...see all that you can.  Rome was definitely one of the highlights of this trip for me.  I know it sounds corny but I felt like I was walking through one of my old history textbooks and / or had traveled back in time thousands of years.  Everything was massive.  The US is such a relatively new country, so standing next to these giant monuments built by people thousands of years ago was unreal for me.
A typical US fountain

A Roman fountain. Casual.
We had an extremely busy day in Rome.  That's right - just one day to see as much of Rome as we could.  We wandered by ourselves for awhile, stumbled upon the Pantheon and didn't even have time for a lunch break before it was time to move on to our guided tour of Saint Peter's and the Coliseum.  Saint Peter's was undoubtedly the most gorgeous church I have ever seen.  Michelangelo's famous sculpture of The Pieta along with beautiful green and pink marble everywhere are just a couple aspects of this church that made it so impressive.
St. Peter's
After running through Saint Peter's we headed to the Coliseum.  It was hard for me to grasp the fact that a couple thousand years ago Romans were standing where I was standing watching multiple murders for sport.  I obviously disagree with all that the Coliseum stood for, but when it comes to architecture there's no denying that Romans really knew what they were doing.

Day 4: Pompeii
We initially weren't even planning on seeing Pompeii but thank goodness we changed our minds.  This was another highlight of the trip for me.  It was creepy in the best and most interesting way to be walking through this extremely well preserved town.  For instance, our guide told us that every day around 1 pm everyone would close the doors to their shops for the day.  We walked past a few houses with closed doors and our guide explained that Mount Vesuvius erupted shortly after 1 pm so of course everyone had closed up shop for the day.  It was eerie. 
If you look closely on the ground you can see the tracks that their carriages ran on.
Pompeii wasn't the most upstanding of cities and we also saw the gladiator training grounds (to which rich women would go to have affairs) and the town's brothel.
In the brothel men would choose their room based on the depiction above the door of the specialty of the woman inside. Classic Pompeii.
The city square and its volcano in the distance.
After the tour we had some free samples of limoncello, the area's specialty drink.  Then it was back to the ship...where we had more limoncellos.

Days 5 & 6: Villages and Wine
Day 5 we went to the tiny town of La Maddelena in Sardinia.  It sounds terrible to say it, but this little port town was probably the least favorite spot for us just because of how much it reminded us of Fort Lauderdale, FL (my hometown).  Clearly, this cruise spoiled us.  The town was still beautiful though with extremely clear, blue water everywhere you looked.
The dynamic duo.
Day 6 we decided to change our excursion at the last minute to a hilltop village and wine tasting tour in the Provencal region of France.  I think the two of us would've been happy just sitting all day (or forever...) at one of the little village cafes that overlooked everything beneath it.  Everything was just so quaint and serene up there, we really could've spent a lifetime wandering around.
Table for two for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. Please.
After our guide dragged us back to the bus, we headed out to our wine tasting.  We got a tour of the facilities by the owner and then it was time for the tasting.  Their rose wines were almost as light as our white wines and we learned that if they're any darker people in the area will send them back and refuse to drink them.  We ended up buying a bottle of their white wine which was made from two varieties of local grapes.
Our token souvenir.
Later that night when we were eating dinner on the ship, we befriended our wine waiter who gave us another lesson in wines.  At one point we had five different glasses of wine on our table.  So yes, it would probably be accurate to refer to us as wine connoisseurs now.

Day 7: The Pope's Palace
Our last full day on the ship!  We made the most of it by choosing one of the only full day excursions.  We went to the Pope's Palace in Avignon as well as Les Beaux, another hilltop village.  I'd try to explain more about the history of the Pope's Palace but honestly at this point of the trip my brain was so overloaded with history that I don't think it could've physically handled any more information.  The key take-aways that I got were that a few of the popes used to live here way back when and it was HUGE.  
The perks of being a pope.

We were given a tour of the palace then we had a few hours to walk around Avignon by ourselves.  
Being artsy in Avignon.
After Avignon we stopped by another hilltop village called Les Beaux then it was back to the ship for our last night of the cruise.  
Les Beaux

Emotions were definitely bittersweet as we packed up our clothes for the next adventure.  Might have shifted more to the bitter side of bittersweet over the next couple days once we realized that we quickly went from desserts of gluten free chocolate souffles to desserts of sour pineapple and seeded grapes.  And from a cozy room with a little couch and TV to an even cozier room with two chairs that collapsed into our beds and left us zero room to walk next to each other.  But that's another story for another post...  
Cheers to what will undoubtedly forever be one of the best weeks of my life.



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