In my last trip report (you can check it out here), I shared our adventures in Monaco. Later that day, we were off to the village of Eze. Eze is a hilltop town on the Cote d’Azur. Overlooking the Mediterranean, this medieval village hosts a 12th-century castle and the Jarden Exotique with its graceful statues and beautiful vistas. It was simply stunning. Throughout the village, you can find local shops and art galleries. There were lots of unique, hand-crafted gifts. I bought an adorable bear, made out of quilting material, for my nephew.
On the way back to the ship, we took a little tour along the outskirts of Nice. We stopped at the memorial to Princess Grace, and there was also a stunning view of our ship.
France was amazing, and it is a place I would like to visit again. Next stop on this tour, Genoa, Italy!
Until next time,
Heather
Our adventure last summer came to an end on the Spanish island of Majorca. We spent some time in the cities of Soller and Palma. Palma is the capital city of Majorca and is famous for its beaches. Soller is a typical Mediterranean town with narrow streets, cafes, open markets and beautiful architecture. Upon arrival to Palma, we rode a bus over to the Palma Railway Station. There, we boarded the Ferrocarril de Soller, an electric train. This vintage train leaves the capital of Palma and heads north through plains, the Sierra de Tramuntana mountain range, verdantwoodlands and a valley of orange groves en route to the city of Soller.
The ride to Soller took about an hour or so. Once we arrived, we took a walking tour of the city. Like all our other excursions, in addition to our Adventures by Disney guides, a local guide was there to provide the history and highlights of this city. Eventually, our tour lead us to an olive oil experience and tasting at Tafona Can Det. Tafona Can Det is a family owned business dating back to 1561! The olive mill has not changed much and the way the oil is produced has stayed the same. The family feels if it were to move to a more modern continuous production, it would lose its high quality.
We watched a short video on the history of the mill and then saw how the oil is made, beginning with the olives being washed and ending with with a delicious meal. We were able to sample the delicious oil, along with breads, meats and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was amazing. We were given a bottle of olive oil to take home and an orange or two for the road. Once we finished our tour of the mill, we enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the center of Soller, Plaza de la Constitucion.
When we arrived back to the center of town, we headed to lunch at La Vila Hotel. It is a quaint hotel with a beautiful garden in the back. This is where we enjoyed our traditional Spanish lunch.
Our course, like every other meal on this trip, it ended with gelato from a local gelato cafe.
After lunch, we had some time to shop and take in this charming little city.
Soon it was time to head back to Palma. Instead of taking the electric train back, we took the Soller Railway. This was a trolley that ran between the two locations and made numerous stops along the way. It reminded me of the green line in Boston.
Once we were back to Palma, we were treated to this view.
It was a great way to end our vacation. I hope you have enjoyed following along our European vacation. I have loved reliving the memories and look forward to sharing more trips with you all.
Our second to last day of this European adventure takes us to Naples or Napoli, as the Italians say. A few facts about Naples. It is the 3rd largest city in Italy, after Milan and Rome. It is the birthplace of pizza. Mt. Vesuvius is located 6 miles from the city and is still an active volcano. Naples is also home to Pompeii. Pompeii was once a thriving city that was buried under the ash and pumice after the volcano erupted in 79 A.D. From what I understand, there you can visit the volcano and hike up it. However, our adventure took us elsewhere. Today, we visited Sorrento and Capri. Absolutely amazing.
In Sorrento, we arrived at Agriturismo Galatea. It is mainly an agricultural farm, established over four generations. Once at the farm, we were greeted with a snack of Italian meats, bread and olive oil, all of which are made right there. We watched a demonstration on how mozzarella was made. The kids even got to play with it. They loved it!
After the cheese demonstration, we were given aprons and hats. We were brought into another room with a brick oven. Here, made our own personalized pizzas. Let me tell you, once you have this pizza, you will never want a piece of pizza back home again. Americans put so much crap on pizza. Here is it very simple. We used a cup of cup of sauce, a handful of cheese and some pepperoni if you so chose. The pizzas were cooked in brick over and done in 5 mins! It was out of this world.
After a delicious pizza lunch, we had lemon cream puffs and Limoncello. I have never eaten so well on vacation.
After lunch, we had a little bit of time to explore the farm and see what it had to offer. There were all sorts of farm animals, lemon and lime trees, olive trees and more.
Soon it was time to leave our gracious hosts and set off to catch our ferry to Capri. Once we arrived in Capri, we had time for a gelato (of course!) and to shop. Such a gorgeous island. Capri is known for rugged landscape and high end shops. It is also home to the Blue Grotto, a sea cave, where the sunlight passes through and creates this amazing blue reflection. After gelato and shopping (Capri is known for coral as well), we jumped on a private boat and went sailing around the island. We sailed around looking at the coral in the ocean.
As you can see above, those are the Faraglioni rock formations. The one in the middle is the smallest and has an arch. Our boat took us through the arch. Legend has it, couples need to kiss while going through it. Guess what what we all did. 🙂
By far, this was one of my favorite days. It was much more relaxing than some of the others and I conquered a fear of mine, deep water. I jumped into the sea and really enjoyed floating around for a while.
Have you been to Sorrento or Capri? I would love to hear all about it.
Today I are going to talk about Day 6 of our embedded Adventures by Disney (ABD) trip. For those of you that don’t know, an embedded ABD is an Adventures by Disney trip that is done while on a Disney cruise. Instead of booking excursions through the cruise line, all the excursions are done through Adventures by Disney. I highly recommend it and looking forward to doing many more in the future.
The boat docks about an hour and half away from Rome. We were the first ones off the boat, onto the bus and off to our first stop…the Vatican. I was looking forward to visiting Rome, especially the Vatican. I am Catholic and as a Catholic, this is it. This is the where it all happens. There is so much history and power in this tiny little country. With that being said, as beautiful as it was, I was kind of sad that is has become this big tourist attraction. I had always envisioned walking up to it by way of the square. Well.. you don’t. You enter from the back (you do see the old Vatican wall, which is cool) and it is like entering any other museum. Oh and by the way, the square looks so much bigger in t.v.
First, our ABD guides and our local guide took us aside and told us what we would see in the Sistine Chapel. They had a map and pointed out all the different paintings. They did because, no is suppose to speak inside the chapel or take photos. I was disappointed about the photos, but I understood.
However, prior to touring the Sistine Chapel, we walked the museum. It is very lovely and holds so much history. It is also very crowded. You really don’t walked the museum, you do the Vatican Shuffle. There were different rooms that we walked though along the tour. There is a Gallery of the Maps, the Gallery of the Tapestries, the Gallery of the Candelabra and much more. Here are a few shots as we moved room to room.
The last room we were to see was the Sistine Chapel. I wish we could have taken photos. However, the photos probably would not have done it justice. It is simply breathtaking. Prior to going in, I mentioned our guides gave us a bit of history lesson on the chapel and Michelangelo. The chapel was created in 1508-1512. It is named for Pope Sixtus IV. Despite what people think, he did not paint the ceiling lying down. He had special scaffolding made so he could stand. There are over 300 figures painted in the chapel. There are numerous biblical scenes, such as the creations of Adam and Eve, the sacrifice of Noah and the Great Flood. Thousands of visitors tour the chapel each year. It is also where the cardinals meet to elect a new Pope. I encourage you to look online for photos. It is quite remarkable.
After visiting the chapel, it was on to St. Peter’s Basilica. This was another breathtaking work of art. I was hopeful we may run into Pope Francis. He has been known to wander about and meet people. No such luck for us. Inside the Basilica, we saw The Pieta, the statue by Michelangelo depicting Jesus in the arms of his mother after the Crucifixion. My photo does not do this justice either.
After visiting St. Peter’s we had our photos taken and then some time for shopping. From there we had another fantastic lunch. The food in Italy was amazing. Even our oldest, who will not eat pasta here at home, loved it. From there we did a walking tour and saw iconic sights, such as the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Venezia where the Vittoria Emanuele ll Monument is located, ancient Rome, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.
The Trevi Fountain was another must on my bucket list. While it is beautiful, it was extremely crowded. One has to really push their way to the front to have their picture taken. Of course, we had to throw a coin over our shoulder. This will ensure that we will return to Rome one day.
Our last stop in this incredible city, the Colosseum. This was remarkable. From a distance, it looked fake. It reminded me of a backdrop on a movie set.
The adults and kids split up and the kids did a separate tour that involved gladiator costumes. My oldest did that, but my 13 year old stuck with the adults. In his words, he did not need it to be dumbed down for him. God help me. This kid a something else! Some interesting facts about The Colosseum. It was built in under ten years, mostly by Jewish slaves. Over a million animals and over a half million people died in The Colosseum. Also, The Colosseum had a marble facade and marble seats, however when St. Peter’s Basilica was being built, they took the marble from the Colosseum and used it there. Finally, it is the most visited site in Italy. The Vatican does receive more visitors, but that is not part of Italy. It is its own principality.
All and all, it was a fantastic day in Rome. We saw so much, yet there is still so much to be seen. I am looking forward to heading back in the next few years.
Today I want to take you back to day 5 of our cruise. On this day, we were the first ones to board a bus and head to the birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence. As I mentioned, when traveling with Adventures by Disney, you receive VIP treatment. We were the first ones off the boat and last ones on. We made the most of our days and were first in line for all the attractions. On this particular morning, we were up early and took a beautiful drive through Tuscany. There were rows and rows of sunflowers on the roads to Florence. Unfortunately, I could not get a great photo from the bus, so you will need to take my word for it. Once arriving in Florence, we headed over to the Galleria dell’ Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David.
David was created out of marble, between 1501-1504, by Michelangelo. He is a Biblical character. It was breathtaking. The photos do not do this masterpiece justice.
From the Galleria dell’ Accademia, we proceeded with our walking tour of Florence.
The architecture was amazing. We saw the
Baptistery and strolled past vendors selling their wares along the Ponte Vecchio, a spectacular medieval bridge that spans the Arno River. We ended at the Piazza Santa Croce. Here we went to lunch at Cantina Vinicola. It was this lovely restaurant, that felt more like we were dining in someone’s home. We were served the best lasagna I have ever had. Lasagna is not something we eat at home, as none of us like ricotta cheese. However, they made their lasagna with sweet cream. It was amazing!
After lunch, we had plenty of time to explore the Piazza di Santa Croce. We went to a little wine store called Enoteca Pontevecchio. We had a wine tasting, along with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was amazing. We bought six bottles of wine, six tins of oil, and three bottles of balsamic vinegar.
We also visited a leather store. I bought myself a beautiful purse and wallet. Afterward, we had some photos taken at the Basilica di Santa Croce. This serves as the burial place of Michelangelo and other famous Italians. The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world. As you will see from the photos, the bell tower has a Star of David. A Jewish architect designed the church’s façade. He wanted to be buried there, but because he was Jewish, he was buried under the threshold and honored with an inscription.
Basilica di Santa Croce
Finally, on our way back to the boat, we stopped for this breathtaking view of the city. It was another magical day in Italy!
Last summer we went on a trip of a lifetime. We spent ten days cruising the Mediterranean Sea. We sailed on the Disney Cruise Line and booked all our excursions through Adventures by Disney. It was an amazing trip. I wanted to share our experience, just in case one of you may be looking to book this adventure.
On July 4th we flew to Barcelona and stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar. It was a 5-7 min walk to the beach and across the street from a mall. We spent some time touring Barcelona on our own and seeing a lot of the local sites. Upon arrival, we went straight to the beach and stuck our toes into the Mediterranean.
The next day we did a city tour and visited Monserett, the home of the Black Madonna. Barcelona is a beautiful city. There was so much we did not see. I look forward to going back some day. Monserett was gorgeous. It was a must do for me and did not disappoint.
On Saturday the 7th, we checked in with the cruise line and was told to also check in with Adventures by Disney. We went over and met James and Dusty. They were our Adventure Guides. We liked them right off the bat. They handed us our gift (duffel bag), some information about the welcome reception and took our picture.
In addition, gave us a new boarding number.. number 1!
We got settled on the ship and went over to the reception at 5:30. There were appetizers and drinks served. We received our name tags, lanyards and our first pin of the trip. I loved receiving the pins. I am not a pin collector, but love the fact that these are unique to this trip. Dusty and James gave us an overview of the cruise and then our navigator for the next day. For those that don’t know, a navigator is basically your interinary for the day. You will receive one from the cruise line each day, but ABD also has one specific to ABD. It told us when and where to meet in the morning and what time we would be back. It also told us if a specific dress was required.
Oh I forgot to mention, this time around we were sailing on the Disney Magic. This is our 8th Disney cruise, but only our second time on the Magic. Our very first cruise was on the Magic and it holds a very special place in my heart. Since, this was not our first cruise, we took it easy that night. We had a great dinner and off to bed we went. With Adventures by Disney, the days are early and long. Tomorrow’s adventure… Marseilles, France.
