spinnaker2

Then we arrive and meet Giotto

its Easter Monday, a holiday. Everything is quiet.

spring poppy

more Tuscan countryside as we head towards the SURPRISE! we are on our way to Montanelli, a village in the municipality of Palaia.

countryside of Tuscany

Coming into Livorno the old fort of the Medici that we passed by on our way out of town.

Madonna of the Harbor - Livorno Protector of all seafarers

Thanks Davey and Terry! Mr. Silver, the weather hasn't held for very long. Rain and more rain with strong winds. The first timers do not seem to be bothered much by it and off they go, happily, for tours. One woman I spoke with said she packed clothes for summer. Let's just say its not even close to warm! The ship is being enjoyed! When I saw the gentleman below, all that came to mind was Vitruvian Man. It was raining, but if one is already wet, what's a little more H2O.

Straits of Bonifacio, which must be spectacular in daylight. The narrow channel between Corsica and Sardinia. This view is from the starboard side of the ship, looking at Sardinia.

as we sailed in this morning

the bandwidth remains a huge issue. i try and upload reduced size photos and they fail. even the fail time takes forever. we are in monte carlo. went through a lot of rain to get here, and then it stopped temporarily only to start again in a constant pour. stopped around 2 and then started again around 3:30. now pouring again. we are packing. well starting to pack. we are ready to go home. this second leg of the cruise has had ups and downs.

one of the beautiful mosiacs, orpheus playing the lyre

We also walked to the ruins of the Roman City of Turris Lisbonis, founded about 46 BC. The museum is closed at this time, but we did have a guided tour through the site. Excavated thus far are the central baths known as the Palace of King Barberian consisting of a calidarium, a frigidarium and tepidarium (hot, cold and tepid baths).

Porto Torres A small community of 22 thousand But very important in terms of history As it was Easter we walked around and tried to find a colomba de pasqua. We did find Aria, a border collie, who was very interested in my camera. One blue eye and one brown eye!

Rapidly approaching Livorno and the SUN is out! More later.