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Overview
The cruise aboard the Westerdam began on Civitavecchia on August 9. We had
arrived in Rome two days before; we wanted to allow that extra time for
potential travel delays and jetlag adjustment. We were part of a small group of
10 men traveling together. After separate flight plans, we met in Rome and
shared a van that took us to the port.
Once on board, we settled in our comfortable cabin with its own veranda. As
usual, the food was quite good and plentiful; the service and accommodations
were also very good; and being able to see all those places without having to
constantly pack and unpack made the trip more pleasant. Of course, we'd
forgotten that the Mediterranean summers are hot, humid, and overcrowded with
other tourist and that on-board entertainment tends to be aimed at younger, loud
disco loving crowds. But, we managed to put up with the humid heat and crowds
and found other, more to our taste, entertainment on board.
Upon our return to Civitavecchia, our group again hired a van to take us back
to Rome. After another day in Rome, we flew back to San Francisco and returned
home.
Here are some pictures, along with brief descriptions of our stays in Rome,
the ship, and some of the ports of call. To see the picture galleries (in a
separate browser window), please click on the thumbnail picture
on the left.
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Rome. During the day
before the cruise began and the day after returning from the cruise, we
had a chance to walk around Rome. We had not been here since 1975. We
walked around and had a great time. |
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Pompeii. The first port
of call was Naples, but the only thing we did was to visit Pompeii. The
site is more extensive than we had imagined and a fascinating look at an
ancient Roman city. |
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Mount Etna. The port of
call was Messina, Sicily, but as in Naples, we chose only the Mount Etna
excursion. The bus took us up the mountain as high as the road goes. Etna
is an active volcano that, obviously, continues to erupt regularly. The
pictures have no captions; they are views of the immediate area of a
recent eruption and the panoramas that can be seen from there. |
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Korfu, Greece and Dubrovnik,
Croatia. Two ports of call in two countries other than Italy.
Both are very beautiful cities. We walked around on our own enjoying the
sights, but we took very few pictures in these two ports. Here is what we
rescued from our camera, only one in Dubrovnik. |
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Venice. If we had to
pick, this could be the highlight of the cruise. Our first time there, and
even though we could not see much in just one day, we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
The city is so unique and there is so much to see. Since the tourist areas
are motor vehicle free, the crowds seem a bit less problematic. Mostly we
just took in the city by walking around, but we did a couple of museums
also. |
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Valletta, Malta. The Maltese
archipelago has been occupied by every civilization that has dominated the
Mediterranean. We took an excursion to the Tarxien Temples, one of
the oldest archeological sites in the Mediterranean dating back to
3600-2500 BC. |
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Salerno. The last port
of call before returning to Civitavecchia and then Rome. It is just
another beautiful Italian city. The only excursion offered was to Pompeii,
which we had already seen. So, we just spend the day walking around the
city and enjoying it. |
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