Guide Books

There are thousands of guides to every continent, country, region, city and neighborhood. There is something of value in each. The amount of time one gets to spend in a particular spot should determine the type of guide to purchase. Cruises generally afford you a day or so in each port; I have found the DK Ëyewitness Top Ten Travel Guides to be the most helpful. They run about 12 bucks each and are packed with pictures, maps and information in a relatively small easy to handle format. I particularly like the 3-dimensional drawings of neighborhoods and the "exploded" views of churches, galleries and such. Each has a pull-out map, eating, sleeping and shopping recommendations as well as a "phrasebook." DK also publishes an Eyewitness "Cruise Guide to Europe and the Mediterranean." It includes ports of call for Northern Europe as well as the Mediterranean. There is a practical "Survival Guide" and a directory of cruise lines. They even include a "Glossary of Nautical Terms." Time to read.

Finding the right hotel in Rome

Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity all provide a good starting point to finding the right hotel. After selecting a half dozen possibilities [based on location, price and amenities] I looked for travelers' reviews. There are dozens of sites which provide reviews by past customers of each facility. In my search one property stood out. Il Gattopardo [Leopard] Relais received top marks on almost every review. I read some 40 capsule reviews and found two that were negative and they were either petty or not that negative. This "boutique" hotel is located on the "noble" or "first" floor [not the ground floor] of an old Art Nouveau building about three blocks from the Vatican in the Prati[?] district. It has only six rooms and we have three of them upon our arrival on and our return after the cruise. They have a shuttle service to and from the airport but none for the port [Civitavecchia]. There are many photographs of the interior and a couple of the exterior. It looks absolutely perfect. We now have our air, cruise and hotel booked. The next effort is to determine what we will do at each port.

Change of Plans

Well, the Panama Canal cruise is postponed. August 2009 will be devoted to a grand Mediterranean cruise. We [JW,DW,CW and I] will be flying to Rome on the 2nd and staying for 4 days before boarding the Noordam at Civitavecchia and cruising to Livorno, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Palma [Mallorca], Tunis/Carthage, Palermo [Sicily], Naples, back to Rome, Dubrovnik [Croatia], Corfu, Katakolon {Olympia, Greece], Santorini, Kusadasi [Ephesus, Turkey], Piraeus [Athens, Greece], Messina [Sicily] and back to Rome where we will spend another 4 days. We fly home on the 31st. More to come... I just got through booking everything.