Oct 23 – Gallipoli, Italy

we are here

Weather – 24º

a slice of Gallipoli life

Steps – 11,550

Gallipoli is a small fishing village of only 18,700 people. We spend the morning on a walking tour throughout the old town. The tourist infrastructure isn’t terribly developed, so there are few guides. I suppose we are lucky to be on this tour, originally, we were on a wait list. The lack of guides may account for the large number with each guide – about 40 with each guide! That is a huge number, but we all had listening devices and no having to get on and off buses, this isn’t terrible.

Gallipoli sea side

The first thing we stop to see are the many fishermen bringing in their catches

fresco in the entry way to a building

and selling. It was interesting to see them pulling fish from nets and arranging the fish to be sold. All of this took place right on the dock.

There are many churches in Gallipoli despite the small population – we visited 3 - the 17th-century Cathedral of Saint Agatha was the highlight.

St Agatha Cathedral

We also visited an ancient underground olive oil press and the exterior of Gallipoli Castle.

A local beer or spritz is usually on our agenda, but we weren’t really feeling it today, so we headed back to the ship for lunch and a relaxing afternoon.

St Agatha interior

Dinner was with the ship’s captain tonight. Whenever we are invited to eat with any of the ship’s staff we accept. We aren’t ones to ask to share a table – that is a lot of a commitment. We are happy to chat at the bar, on a tour, or randomly to the people who sit at the table next to us. In fact, we chatted with a lovely couple from Manchester, England at lunch today who sat at the table next to us. We predicted that dinner with the captain would be a large crowd and we were right. This doesn’t make for easy conversation. Nonetheless, it was a fun evening.

olive oil press

The show tonight was the comedian who we saw a few nights back. Neither of us loved him, so we passed on his show tonight.

Diana - STARE works a lot of the time, lots of good letters. Then the trick is...what's your word #2? Depending...I like ADIEU.

my store

St Agatha side alter

Oct 22 – Catania (Sicily)

Sicily flag

Weather – 25º

sepulchre surrounding the site 

Steps – 11,568

Today we are back in Italy for a day on Sicily. We were here once before and visited Mount Etna, so weren’t joining the masses who went there. A visit to Mount Etna is one of those one and done things, at least given the experience we had there…it was super windy and cold that day, so I’m glad I did it, but I’m also glad I’ve done it.

Instead, we visited Syracuse (pop 115,000) which is famous for its 2,700-year

history as a major Ancient Greek and Roman metropolis. Syracuse is a 1-hr drive from Catania where the ship is docked. The thought of a long bus ride never thrills, but in reality, it is nice to have time to listen to the guide tell us all sorts of things about the area (not just about where we are visiting), see the countryside, and have bus naps – there’s nothing like a good bus nap.

natural water source

The highlight of the visit to Syracuse is its archeological site. We follow Matthew, our guide as he described what we were seeing…a massive 5th-century BC Greek Theatre, a Roman amphitheatre, and maybe the coolest of all, a limestone cave known as the

amphitheatre

Ear of Dionysius. This cave is massively tall (23m), sort of shaped like an ear, with acoustics making it possible for Dionysius to spy on his enemies/prisoners.

Next, we were back on the bus for a 10 min ride to Ortigia Island in Ancient Syracuse. This place was settled by Greeks in the 8th century BC. There are ruins here too – the main focus being the Temple of Apollo and the Syracuse

Ear of Dionysius

more of the caves

Cathedral, which was built directly over the ancient 5th-century BC Temple of Athena, preserving much of its original columns. It seems very civilized that churches and temples weren’t destroyed but transformed and built upon. This means that today, we see some of the original structure even though over the centuries the religions that occupied the building changed.

Syracuse’s old town’s streets are very narrow and interesting. Today they are filled with artists’ shops, gelaterias, and restaurants.

other amphitheatre

By now, it was hot and we were chasing shade. Matthew released us for about 45 min of free time. We went inside one part of the church of St Lucia to see a copy of Caravaggio’s The Burial of Saint Lucia. The real thing is nearby but not near enough for us to visit.

temple of Apollo

We had just enough time for a refreshment stop – a couple of beers and the accompanying snack were the perfect finish to our visit to Syracuse. The beers (€4) were served with 6 pizza dough balls 2, filled with spinach, 2 with cheese and tomato and 2 with anchovy. We were semi-convinced we would be charged for these as they were quite substantial to be at no charge, but nope…no charge, and very tasty.

This was a tour with an extra charge – most Regent tours are included in the fare. The tour was good but was it worth an extra charge…don’t think so.

streets of Ortigia

Once back at the ship, the lunch buffet was closed so we had a bite at the pool grill. The pool grill is absolutely sufficient for lunch. The pool grill has a buffet and items to order from a waiter…we did a mix of both.

refreshement break

It was then back to the room to watch one of the enrichment speaker’s recorded lectures. There is a former Anglican priest on board as an expert speaker on art – woot! Often the speakers Regent has are interesting, but not so location specific…his first 2 lectures were on Italian art…we are in Italy, so seems appropriate.

Then it was a nap and chilling room time before the ship’s ‘block party’.

Burial of Saint Lucia

Everybody spills into the hallway outside their room to meet their neighbors over a glass of
wine. This is a very charming tradition that I think is unique to Regent. We met one of the ship’s vocalists, a couple from San Francisco, another from Phoenix, and another from Switzerland.

got it in 3!

Dinner was at the ship’s Asian restaurant. It was good.

The show was Argentinian tango theme with the ship’s singers and dancers. It was OK.

Cathedral of Syracuse

Thanks for the birthday wishes. No one sang to me…they asked how I’d like to be celebrated…in the room or in the wild…I chose the room.

Kathie – the chocolate and rabbit were tasty! Could you do it!

Oct 21 – AT SEA, Cruising the Mediterranean Sea

Happy Birthday!!!

Weather – 24º

they do a great job celebrating me

Steps – 5,766

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Today is the second time I have EVER not been in Calgary for my birthday. Last year we were in New York. I guess I really am retired, when I’m not tethered to Calgary in the fall. I turned 25 in Fredericton when I was at UNB for school, that counts, but having a shot of straight vodka at the Rockin’ Rodeo isn’t exactly the same. That was a great time…I think, but I’m an old more sophisticated lady now.

caviar appitizer

Today was a great birthday. Lots of messages of happy birthdays, the room decorated with balloons, a happy birthday message, a cake and champagne. It was a sea day, so there was no alarm set.

ship's senior staff

We spent the morning at the reading at the pool, lunch at the ship’s French restaurant, more champagne, then a nap.

Predinner was the captain's welcome - this isn't always my favourite, but we

knew the general manager from way back - a Canadian, so were able to reconnect with him.

All in all, a great birthday!

birthday celebration

Oct 20 – Valetta, Malta

first 12 days

Weather

one of the coolest embarkations

– 25º, much less windy than yesterday

Steps – 8,189

Cruise embarkation day is always exciting. The anticipation of stepping foot on the ship, unpacking everything, knowing how the ‘system’ works - not wondering if I’m being scammed in anyway, tasting the first glass of

champagne, and settling in for the cruise – in this case…for the next 19 days.

The Regent Seven Seas Grandeur is docked in Valetta, so we have to make our way once more from St Julien to Valetta. Check out time at the Westin was noon and our check in time on the ship was 1230 – seemed perfect. Post-covid, Regent has assigned check in times for boarding day. These are never strictly adhered to and usually you can’t

last 7 days

unpacking

even tell when you are checking in – the common understanding is that if you show up any time after 11/1130 when check in starts, you’ll get on. What you want to avoid is arriving just after a busload of other passengers – we slipped in just as a bus was unloading – whew! Otherwise, we’d have been behind 50+ other passengers.

Because of the number of nights we’ve been on Regent we’re big deals…being big deals means we are still assigned an embarkation time, but there should have a special line for the special folks that we are. Embarkation was so smooth today, we barely had to swing our bigdealness around.

Security was in the terminal but check in was on board – this was fantastic! We’ve checked in a few times on a ship, but the vast majority of the time it happens in the terminal. Today there were only a

a lovely sight

few people ahead of us checking in, but once we told the woman managing the check in line, she made very sure we were the next ones to check in. It really isn’t that obvious that we are cutting the line. There are a bunch of check in people, so she just took us to the next available.

not a bad place for a spritz

Even if without priority embarkation, we would have been checked in super fast.

Another perk that comes with being a big deal is being able to access our room sooner than other – us at 1, others around 230. It was nice to go straight to our room to begin settling in rather than waiting for a while. We could certainly check

in later in the afternoon and go straight to our room, but on embarkation day we want to get on with things.

Malta and the moon

Laundry service is included on Regent. This used to be a perk for bigish deals but recently has become included with every fare. In my opinion, this is a huge advantage of sailing with Regent – to be able to put a bag of laundry outside your door in the morning and it coming back perfectly clean and pressed in the evening (at the latest the next day) feels like a miracle!

There is always the option for DIY laundry in the ship’s launderettes. Having been on the road for the last 6 days, means we’ve accumulated some dirty laundry that is nice to just take care of on our own. The day-or-so turn around for Regent to do it is hard at the beginning when we have a bunch that is dirty. After

we get to our room, we head straight to the launderette.

The Grandeur is Regent’s newest boat – built in 2023, capacity of 750. This is the only Regent boat we haven’t been on.

Regent Signature Orchestra

The rest of the afternoon is spent unpacking, eating lunch, meeting Julie (our room attendant), changing and adding a tour for the next week, and having our first spritz at the pool bar made for us by Eshwar, the pool bar bartender.

We quickly slipped into our cruise routine of a predinner cocktail while listening to the duo. Each Regent ship has a musical duo who play pre-dinner oldies, post-dinner more upbeat tunes, and post-show more current stuff. Vivace duo is fine…typical, nothing that knocks my socks off, but fine.

Dinner was in the main dining room – Chris made our usual request for a table by the window which is always nice in a busy dinging room.

always available

tonight's menu

Icons was the name of tonight’s show, and showcased the ships singers and dancers around Hall&Oats, Celine Dion, Pointer Sisters, songs. It was good, the theatre was packed.

Since tomorrow is a sea day and we have nothing to get up for, we decided to go to the Meridian lounge to see the ship’s orchestra. The orchestra is a 7-member group who tonight played mostly jazz

tunes. These orchestras usually have a front man
(we have only in the history of Regent orchestras seen one female player) who talks a bit but only says what’s necessary. This front man is a-typical – definitely over the top and almost uncomfortable.

Oct 19 – Valetta, Malta

Malra

Weather – 23º, very windy, a few

Maltese orzata

sprinkles

Steps – 11,200

Malta, an island (pop.588,000) is world’s 10^th smallest country by area and is in the Mediterranean Sea to the south of the foot of Italy’s boot. It is very congested traffic-wise – it reminded me a lot of Mayotte, more and more cars and a finite amount of space. It is also very hilly, so traffic is up and down the hairpin turns – no one drives a pickup. Malta is actually the name of one the 2 main islands – Gozo being the other, which we will visit in a couple of weeks when we

St Christopher

are back for the day on the cruise. Valetta is the capital city where the cruise terminal is, the Westin is in St Julien about a 15–30-minute drive depending on traffic. Maltese and English are official languages.

We experienced the 30 min drive on the way from St Julian to Valetta, we knew it was going to take a while and accounted for that. We were to meet our walking/food tour at 10, so pre-booked an Uber for 9:00 (€14). We’ll be back

Triton fountain - main meeting spot

tomorrow – the cruise terminal is in Valetta.

We spent the half hour before the tour wandering the old town of Valetta and enjoying a cappuccino.

There were 18 of un on the tour which would typically be a nice number, but given the tiny places we were visiting, was a bit large. About a third of the tour was Canadians.

We of course eavesdropped on one woman from BC talking to a British couple before the tour – telling them all about Alberta’s referendum, with less than 100% accuracy. She seemed like a bit of a know-it-all at the time, but by the end of the tour…WOWZA. She loved sharing with Matthew our guide many, many bits of

waiting for the sandwich

her wisdom. This wasn’t all that obtrusive to the rest of us, but there is always one on a tour!

chocolate tasting

For 3.5 hours we wandered the old city of Valetta (including one stop at the bus station outside the city walls) listening to Matthew telling us the history of Malta and describing the foods we were trying. The highlights were Pastizzi – a flaky pastry filled with ricotta or mushy peas (we both tried the ricotta), pulled rabbit, and cisk beer.

We also tried:

-        Maltese chocolate (goat cheese flavour was the most interesting – the goat cheese was very obvious; I really liked it),

-        Maltese coffee (coffee with strong clove flavour)

-        Orzata – an almond flavoured drink

      Nougat

-        Bigilla (garlicy bean dip served with crackers)

-       

WWII Victory Kitchen

Ftira, a sandwich made on dense chevy bread – filled with kunserva (a sweet, sun-dried Maltese tomato paste).

We also learned about Malta’s Victory Kitchens from WWII. To combat hunger and lack of food, Maltese citizens were encouraged to only take half of their food rations in exchange for one hot cooked meal each day.

After the tour we hopped in an Uber for a 15 min ride back.

Back at the hotel we got a spritz for the pool/sea area to drink overlooking the sea. The sea area is fantastic. There is no beach, but the lounge chairs that

random Maltese street

would normally be set up at the beach are set up around a stone ledge where the waved crashed flooding the deck – very cool.

Dinner was a few appetizers at the hotel lobby bar.

We were in Valetta about 15 years ago on a cruise stop and I don’t remember it being nearly as busy as it was today. I remember a sleepy place with a few tourists. Today was thronging with people.

hotel sea deck

 

Oct 18 – Fiumicino, Italy – Valetta/St Julien, Malta

Weather – 23º in Fiumicino, 25º in Malta

Steps – 10,108

Travel days are never fun, today was typical as far as travel days go. No delays, problems, or unexpected causes for frustration. I remarked to Chris today that one thing that would be a pro for a bus tour is no waiting around in airports. Bus tours have always seemed too busy and rushed for me (us) but there would be no waiting around for plane travel.

We took the hotel shuttle (€6 each) to the airport around noon for our 3:30 flight. Arguably, too early, but sit around at the hotel or sit around at the airport – I’d

Westin welcome

rather not be late to the airport. We were even too early to drop our bags, so had to wait for about half an hour for that. We of course checked Chris’ big suitcase as we did on the way over here, and this time we checked my small suitcase – although I’ve never had a problem with my bag being too big, it’s pretty big for a carryon size. Since we would be waiting for our large bag anyway in Malta…I figured I’d be more comfortable checking.

Despite the flight to Malta being only an hour we got a full meal – a cold meal, but a main, dessert, cheese, and bread! With a glass of Maltese wine of course. It was one of the fastest meals I’ve ever eaten!

The Malta airport is small, so we had our bags and were on the road (another Regent supplied ride) quickly. These Regent rides are efficient, but silent. There is little driver/passenger banter. I suppose we could have engaged James in conversation, but we didn’t. I was busy watching him drive on the ‘other’ side of the road – I forgot that about Malta.

busy pub street

We are staying at the Westin Dragonara for the next 2 nights…it is a lovely place. Not exactly modern, not old either, but lovely. It is a resort style hotel with multiple pools and restaurants (mostly closed due to a large Seiko function at the hotel.)

We were unpacking as our welcome gift arrived…fruit, snacks, and a bottle of wine…lovely. The room is about as big as the one we just left, but a lot more comfortable. Still has a rain shower head, but the wand thingy is at a height that’ll do for me.

After unpacking (there’s not much to unpack when we’re only here for 2 days) we enjoyed the wine on our balcony. It was almost too chilly, but still lovely.

Eventually, we ventured out. First to the Westin’s casino – had to sign up for their players’ card and we thought that was too much trouble. We weren’t planning to play but thought it might be interesting to take a walk through.

Then we walked up and down the tourist streets filled with bars and restaurants – it was thronging. We tried a couple of pubs, but they were packed. We settled on a pub-ish place. A couple of beers and a pizza and we were satisfied.

Oct 17 – Fiumicino, Italy

archaeological ruins

Weather – 24º

Steps – 20,177; broke 20,000!

ruins

It’s amazing how many seemingly minor archeological sites there are to visit around Fiumicino. The Archaeological Area of the Ports of Claudius and Trajan is about 3 km from our hotel - an easy walk. €6 for entry and €5 for the audio guide to wander around this site with only a handful of other people.

This place was an artificial port (7m deep and paved with stone) that served as the main port for ancient Rome. For more than 500 years this port and warehouse area provided a way for goods to be brought into Rome. Around the site were the ruins of warehouses that held the goods.

The columns were theRoman Empire's largest storage complex.

columns

columns

The main attraction of the area was the artificial hexagonal (no one knows why it is this shape) bay/port measuring 357m/side which was made to solve silting issues of the port at the mouth of the river Tiber. There is on-going excavation of this, so we couldn’t see it. We knew this going in, but it was a real shame not to be able to see it. We could see a tiny sliver of it, but not the enormity of it.

On the way back, we stopped in at the ‘Taste of Fiumicino’. It had just opened when we arrived, so just like the ruins, there were no crowds. We were parched after our archeological visit, so found a beer stall straight away! 2 craft beers for €7 each – Chris had a pilsner called ‘Demon’ and I had an IPA called ‘Angel’. In

ruins of warehouses

retrospect we probably overpaid as other drinks in the festival were less, but oh well…drinking beer in the shade definitely hit the spot!

bathhouse mosaic

A bit more of a wander through the stalls and we found a spritz seller… spritzes are all the rage in Italy, but Fiumicino spritz flavour selections are on another level! We’ve probably seen 10-15 different flavours of spritzes here. I had a passion fruit spritz – molto bene, and Chris had a Campari – also good, but not nearly as good as mine. I’m inspired and will definitely be making passion fruit spritzes at home! I may even have to talk to a bartender on the cruise to make me one.

so many choices

In addition to the drinks, there were many interesting foods on offer…kind of the usual offerings for a food stall/festival situation, but the one Italian difference was the fried fish! Fried

moscardini

calamari, shrimp, anchovies, and…my choice…moscardini – a tiny species of octopus. These were breaded, fried, and served with a lemon wedge in a paper cone…another molto bene. €13.

Our next destination was naptown, but not before hitting a couple more grocery stores. I am always on the lookout in European stores for tiny, pop-in-your-mouth

cone of fried moscardini

salamis. We came across these a few times on previous trips and can’t find them again. We may have found them only in France, so maybe that’s the problem because again…none to be found.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the room, napping, blogging, and watching the sunset.

Dinner was pizza, wine, and fried calamari/shrimp. This meal was OK. Everything about it was just OK, I’m not sad about it, but was so looking forward to pizza and it was just…OK.