Mon July 29 – Tues July 30, 2024
Hi Folks! I know, I know… you can’t believe it. Yes, the Wandering Italian and his copilot Kathy are off on another adventure. And yes we just got back from our last one about a week ago. But there’s no rest for the world travelers… we must feed the Wanderlust! Lol.
While we thoroughly enjoyed our last cruise on Holland America (and we especially liked Iceland and Greenland) we needed to get back to our favorite cruise line of all which is Regent Seven Seas. And what better way to experience it than on their newest ship, the Grandeur. They say this is the most luxurious ship at sea so we’re excited to cruise on it and show it to you!
This trip will be short by our standards (only 14 nights!) but it will not be short on adventure. It is packed full of cool ports and there are no sea days! In just these 14 nights we visit Italy, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro and Turkey. Now that’s a great line up of countries!
We flew from Charlotte to Rome on Monday July 29th and arrived on Tuesday July 30th. The port near Rome is in the town of Civitavecchia which is over an hour away and since we’ve both done Rome many times, we’ll stay the night in Civitavecchia and board the ship on Wednesday July 31st.
The cruise will go from Rome to Athens through both the Mediterranean Sea (the cool kids call it The Med!) as well as the Aegean Sea (the brainiacs call it an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean). So we’ll probably see the likes of Jeff Bezos and Brad Pitt hanging around the Med but somebody’s gotta do it! It looks like it will also be very hot while we’re there which will be a big change from the cold temps in Iceland and Greenland we had just a few weeks ago. Break out the sun tan lotion!
Our flight to Rome worked out great. We flew standby and got very lucky. They had one First Class seat and one Premium Economy seat for us, so I was a gentleman and let Kathy take First Class! I checked the cost on that seat before we left and since it was one way, the cost was $10,500!!! But we got it for FREE! Gotta love it!
We arrived about an hour late in Rome due to some weather issues when we left Charlotte but that wasn’t the half of it! They broke my big suitcase!! The zipper pull was off so I couldn’t close my luggage. Not sure how everything didn’t fall out. They gave me some tape and I taped it up for now. Maybe I’ll see if the Regent people can work their magic on it!
After we got our luggage, we went to see if our private driver was still waiting for us and he was. We got to our hotel and our room was ready so we got all settled in. We rested for a little bit and then went out exploring. This is really a cool town with a beautiful cathedral, a nice boardwalk along the ocean, some long sand beaches, a huge statue of the “kiss heard round the world” depicting the end of World War II, a fort named after Michelangelo and one of the best little pizza places right next to our hotel!
And hotel is literally right next to the port and there’s a free shuttle right outside the hotel so we should be good for tomorrow. Can’t wait to board the ship! Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!
The Wandering Italian 