We are sailing the Mediterranean! It’s been about a year since the cruise line offered to let us move to a different date and we postponed by a year. We are back in Europe and having a ball!

We flew from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, then onto Rome from there. The Dutch immigration officer just smiled and shook his head when Nathan started rattling off our itinerary. You might me doing the same thing a few weeks in!

Since we just visited Roma last spring and 2025 is the “Jubilee” year, we decided to skip the city and do things just outside of the crazy zone. We stayed near the airport in Ostia/Fiumicino.We were trying to fend off the jetlag after an overnight flight with little sleep, so after picking up our little Fiat, sitting in rush-hour traffic, and checking into our AirBnB, we took a walk to find groceries and an ATM. We tracked down a little place for a burger and then stumbled back to our place and bed.

The next morning, we headed for the archeological area of Ostia to tour the excellent ruins of the old Roman city. It was a big site with a forum, theater, and necrophilia. The Baths of Neptune and the market area had gorgeous black and white floor mosaics.

We then drove to the very southernmost part of Rome to see the aqueduct park. We saw the remains of the huge Roman aqueduct amidst a wild parkland covered in poppies and other wildflowers. It was a beautiful walk.

From there we wiggled our way up to our final stop of the day, Tivoli. The town is in the hills outside of Rome and was a favorite retreat for popes, cardinals, and other powerful richies.

The town center is only one way, so we ended up going around the entire thing three times in order to meet our AirBnB host. Nathan has nerves of steel when it comes to driving in Italy. Our host recommended a delightful seafood restaurant and we had an amazing meal. We were surprised when the check came and it was halfprice–apparently the off-season discount!

We wanted to tour one of the famous villas in town, Villa d’Este, the next morning. It’s a beautiful baroque palace with restored ceiling frescoes and gorgeous gardens. The fountains are elaborate and the flowers and trees were gorgeous. It is definitely spring here, with cool (sometimes cold) mornings, but mild afternoons and evenings.

We went from Tivoli to the north of Rome and into a National Park area around Lago di Vico. The lake is in the caldera of a volcano and we booked an AirBnB in the town of Ronciglione. We took a great hike along the rim of the crater, but the trees were so thick, it was hard to get much of a view of the lake. Our room was in the medieval borgo part of town and was great, except we didn’t find the thermostat to kick on the heat until the next morning. I filled a plastic bottle with hot water to warm up my feet at bedtime because they were little ice cubes.

It was time to end our little road trip. Our drive from. Ronciglione to the port city of Civitavecchia was so nice the next day. We drove through the hazelnut farms and the beautiful green countryside. There was fog wrapped around some of the valleys and the little hill towns always look great. We returned our car and made it onto our cruise ship with no problems and it felt good to unpack and settle in. The ship, the Sun Princess, is stunning and we enjoyed exploring it. We had lunch in the buffet and then dinner in the main diving room and it was all very good food. We didn’t even realize we had sailed away because the ship is so stable and we couldn’t feel a thing.

We saw a “sand show” with a lady named Eva. She has a lighted glass podium where she uses sand to create intricate scenes. The art is projected onto the screen and it’s all set to music. It was fascinating to watch each picture unfold and then morph into the next image as she added and subtracted sand to create the details. We’ve never seen anything like it.

Our first cruise stop was Napoli. We visited there with the kids in 2006 and it was fun to return. We took a tour that took us around the Bay of Naples and over the peninsula far a little drive along the Amalfi coast and a stop in Positano. Last time, we didn’t stop, so it was nice to have a chance to walk around that beautiful town. It’s so stunning, with the buildings stacked vertically on the cliffs down to the sea. We had a treat of an arogostina pistachio. Then we went to Sorrento for a stroll and some lunch (a classic pizza Napolitano). We went looking for the black-sand beach where we played with the kids all those years ago…such happy memories. We hit the gelato shop on our way back to the bus. Nathan had the hazelnut (nocciola) and pistachio. I had dark chocolate with orange (fondente con l’arrancia) and chocolate with hazelnut (gianduja).

Our last stop on the tour was Pompeii. It was great to walk around the ruins with a guide. The weather was nice, since we haven’t hit peak summer heat yet. The site can be pretty brutal in the summer. Sometimes it’s worth it to do the tourist things, even if you’ve done it before.

If you made it to this point, thanks for sticking around! I’ve said it before, but I keep up on the blog mostly for myself and for Nathan, so we don’t forget this singular time of our life. But it’s motivating to be able to share it with people we love. I apologize for not having more photos…the connection is a bit iffy this week.

Ciao and have a great week! ♥️