Katakolon Greece, Port for raisins and Olympia, where the ancient games took place for 1200 years, 700BC to 500 AD ROUGHLY. The Olympic flame is lite here and delivered to Athens before its trek around the world, for each Olympic games. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Olympia
We awoke to the sail into the beautiful bay of Kotor, a very large bay with Kotor at the farthest point. Our private tour went to Perast, with the island church, our Lady of the Rock, and the walked old city Budva, finishing in the old walked city of Kotor. Our guide Mike, or Milo’s, was excellent. He taught us a lot about both the country’s history and each location.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Montenegro
Our first port of call is Dubrovnik, but since we spent a week here in July, we contracted a tour driver and guide to Bosnia Herzegovina to visit Mostar. It was a really long but great day. We had a great lunch of lamb on the spit at a traditional restaurant. We also visited Kravica Falls in Bosnia, traveled across the new bridge connecting both parts of Croatia and drive thru Ston to see the long protective walls. Back in Croatia, we walked thru the old city so Kathy could see it and took the bus back to the ship.https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Bosnia-Herzegovina-
Another first for us, a visit to Borghese gallery and museum. After visiting the gallery’s treasures, we opted for the golf cart ride around the property, now a public park.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Borghese-Gallery
We visited the ruins of Ancient Rome today. The Coliseum, or Flavian Amphitheater, as it is really named, the Palatine Hill, the homes of the elite, and the Forum, the marketplace.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Ruins-of-Ancient-Rome
The forum in the foreground, the 3 large columns are the remnants of the temple of the vestal virgins. The large white building in the background is the Victorio Emmanual monument, to the first king of Italy, who united all the city states into 1 kingdom
Vatican Museum and St Peter’s basilica on a very hot day!
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/St-Peters-Basilica
We got to skip the Line at the Museum but the connecting passage to St Peter’s has been shut down by covid except for special group access, so we had to hike back around the Museum to stand an hour long queue in the 90+° heat. The thunderhead over the colonnade did manifest into a thunderstorm a couple hours later, after we got back to our apartment, thankfully!
Rome! We arrived this afternoon via train and found our lodging not quite ready, so we visited 2 close sights, the Trevi fountain and Spanish Steps. A little good news, because the dollar and euro are actually equal today, and we paid for this lodging today in worries, we saved $150! Check out our photos at this site https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Rome
We took the train from Florence and arrived below the town of Assisi about 3PM. The taxi dropped us off at our lodging, a little house near the very top of the town, near the ancient Porta Perlici, Roman gate. and we made our way down to the Basilica of San Francesco they the streets. Enjoy the walk with us at https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Assisi
We enjoyed a very full day bus trip, 12 hours almost, visiting sights in Tuscany. We were just 1 day after the last summer Paleo, race around the Campo, so we saw the evidence, the compacted soil on the brick and some of the barriers still in place. We toured the marble covered cathedral there! Since the stop in Siena was punctuated by a vigorous thunderstorm, we were a bit late leaving the city, but the weather eased so it was pleasant for our wine tasting / pairing lunch at a San Gimignano winery and then visit to the old fortified city. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to an overlook where you could see the towers and the city skyline, you will have to look that up! Our view was from the narrow streets! Our last stop was for Pisa, and I realized the miracle mile, the walled cathedral complex with the Baptistry and leading tower, is all I’ve ever seen of Pisa in 3 or 4 trips there! But an iconic image you can’t miss in Tuscany, so we went so Kathy could experience it as well! We just couldn’t climb it, like we did with Malik! No time! Enjoy https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Siena-city-and-cathedral
We visited the authentic statue of David by Michaelangelo at the Academia today, as well as the replicas, in Piazza d Signoria and Piazza Michaelangelo. More photos of the art in the Academia are at https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/The-Academia-and-David
