The Great Adventure! VISION OF THE SEAS 12-Night Med Cruise: A Full PICTORIAL Review!

[Nicole721]

About two hours into our drive, we made our first stop: the Pierotucci Leather Factory. We had a half hour to observe the leather making process, shop (after all, when you’re in Italy, you have to buy some leather), use the restrooms and redeem a voucher Leti handed out to each of us for a bottle of water.

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t good about doing my shopping research before we left, so I wasn’t sure what a good deal on leather would be and the prices didn’t seem all that great so I left without a purchase. Mom and Stephanie found some nice coin pouches to take home as souvenirs for friends. Apparently the lower priced baubles and gift sets were hidden away a bit towards the door.

[Nicole721]

As we left the leather store and headed out on the final leg of our drive to Florence, Leti gave us a small Italian lesson on how to say a few things that would be particularly helpful should we encounter any language barriers (please = per piacere, thank you = grazie, too much = troppo), but the word I picked up on and kept throwing at my family for the rest of the trip? Andiamo! Or, “Let’s go!”

 

 

 

 

The bus left us off just outside of the main area, and similar to when we entered Saint Paul-de-Vence, I found myself impatiently wondering when we’d get to the good part – that larger than words city that would bring everything I’d learned in high school history classes to life.

 

 

[Nicole721]

And then, through the end of a narrow street, it appeared: our first glimpse of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and Il Duomo di Firenze.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence (and one of the largest churches in Italy), built in the late 1200s. It’s a behemoth – you can’t fathom how vast and imposing this structure is until you’re standing against it. Even now, I’ll look back at my uncropped pictures where the height of the tourists is dwarfed by the magnitude of this church that my breath hitches a little bit.

 

[Nicole721]

The façade is designed in Gothic-inspired marble paneling in patterns so intricate, you could stare at it for hours.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, Leti walked us over to the Florence Baptistery to see the Gates of Paradise (a name dubbed by Michelangelo), which depict scenes from the Old Testament. These aren’t the original doors – those are in a museum for safe keeping – but the replicas stand in the same place as the originals did for more than 500 years.

 

 

[Nicole721]

We strolled alongside Leti, paying close attention to the history lesson she was giving us along the way and trying to take in as much as we could of everything around us.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We made our way along the streets of Florence, ultimately coming to stop outside the Piazza della Signoria, where a replica of Michelangelo’s David stands in the same place where the original once stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio. The Piazza della Signoria is the main square of Florence and was (and continues to be) the political center of the city. It’s this big, open space surrounded by these gorgeous, Renaissance-style facades. I’ve said this too much already in this post (and this series of posts, really), but it was a lot to take in. Overwhelming in the most beautiful of ways.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

The most fascinating area of the Piazza, for me, was the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Loggia dei Lanzi is a kind of open art gallery featuring rows of Roman sculptures. The famous Medici Lions have been on display at the Loggia dei Lanzi since the late 1700s, but the sculpture that captivated me the most was a bronze sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini called Perseus with the Head of Medusa. Leti told us the sculpture had been standing there since the 1500s. 500+ years. Can you even imagine?!

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

From the Piazza della Signoria, Leti walked us past the Uffizi gallery, where masterpieces like Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus hang on display. As we were walking past the gallery, we walked past many artists and street vendors and Leti explained to us that if merchandise is on a cart or in a shop, it’s legal, but if the merchandise is on a blanket, it’s an illegal vendor.

 

 

 

 

 

Just beyond the Uffizi Gallery is the Ponte Vecchio, one of the most famous (and oldest) bridges in Italy. The Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval three-arch bridge crossing over the Arno River. What makes the Ponte Vecchio so visually compelling is the colorful storefronts that line the façade of the bridge. It’s unusual and captivating and I spent a good bit of time just standing there, admiring it (then again, I have a thing for bridges and have spent literal hours at Chrissy Field in San Francisco just staring at the Golden Gate).

 

 

[Nicole721]

Once Leti had given us the history of the Ponte Vecchio, she led us on a walk to where our meeting place would be later that afternoon, near the Basilica of Santa Croce. Florence isn’t too big, so as long as we didn’t let ourselves get lost, our walk to the meeting place should be no longer than 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

And from there? Leti set us free to do whatever we wanted. The next three hours were ours and I was really glad we’d done an excursion that began with a guided walking tour because it provided the perfect context and balance for our free time, and it gave us a good sense of the layout of the city. We could tour the Uffizi Gallery. We could cross the Ponte Vecchio. We could shop at the leather market or climb to the top of Il Duomo. But first thing on our mind? Finding a good place to have lunch!

 

[Nicole721]

We roamed the streets, checking out the menu of each restaurant we passed (and there were many). There were so many options that we couldn’t decide which one sounded the best – they ALL looked good – and we ended up at the closest one when Mom was too hungry to keep looking, a small café called Caffé San Firenze. Caffé San Firenze wasn’t a traditional restaurant, but rather a European style cafeteria where you could grab a quick snack or light meal.

 

 

There were so many options on display, but I’m a cheese girl and a large board of local Italian cheeses caught my eye, and with my first real Italian cappuccino, it made for the perfect lunch. It continued to amaze me how (relatively) inexpensive food was in Europe – my cappuccino, cheese platter and a bottle of water ran me less than €15. A cheese plate like that alone here in Chicago would set me back at least $20.

 

 

[Nicole721]

Full from lunch, we set out to explore the streets of Florence. We’d heard horror stories of pickpockets and gypsies, but at no point did we feel unsafe or did we feel our belongings were at risk.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

And we couldn’t very well travel all the way to Italy without getting some gelato! Gelato in Italy is a little more expensive – whereas a cappuccino will only run you €2 or so and you can grab a freshly baked pastry for €1, a scoop of gelato in a cone can run upwards of €6.

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

With lunch (and a snack) and some aimless wandering under our belts, we set out to finish our visit with some shopping. The shopping game in Florence is among some of the best in the ports we visited and it was slightly unfortunate that Florence was our second port in a series of seven because we held ourselves back a bit. Small boutiques are nestled amongst heavy hitters like Chanel and even H&M. There’s an open-air market with just leather goods. You can even score a pashmina for as little as €5. My must buy from Florence was a leather handbag and I found myself in a small boutique where I scored two gorgeous leather bags for less than €50 (the shop owner handed me back €5 with a wink when I couldn’t decide between a blue bag and a black bag and ultimately bought both).

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

All that shopping called for a little break for (another) Italian cappuccino. Caffeine overload to have two cappuccinos in one afternoon? Maybe. But they’re so, so good. Nearly every store and café we stopped in had free wifi, but I couldn’t get a decent signal in any of them.

 

 

We took our time walking back to our meeting point at the Basilica of Santa Croce, heading back early just in case we got lost while using a paper map Leti had given us as our guide and leaving ourselves enough time to buy some scarves and snap some more pictures.

 

 

 

 

The rest of our group slowly trickled into the square, but we were a little delayed in our departure as a few people decided to do a last-minute bathroom run before the two and a half hour non-stop drive back to La Spezia.

 

[Nicole721]

The ride back was quiet and I alternated napping with looking out the window with some Andrea Bocelli on repeat.

 

 

 

 

There was a bit of traffic going back into La Spezia, and our bus pulled back into the port just around back onboard time. We said our goodbyes to Leti and headed back to our room to drop off all of our new purchases and freshen up.

 

[Nicole721]

Ciao Ciao, La Spezia

 

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we headed outside to get some fresh air before dinner. The promenade outside deck five quickly became one of our favorite spots on the ship and we spent much time out there before and after dinners when we wanted a breath of fresh air or to catch the sunset.

 

 

We faced no wait for dinner again and were quickly seated at our window table in Lloyd’s area. The food was good, the service was better and chatting with our servers and Marc, the head waiter, became the best part of our dinners.

 

Albacore Tuna Rillettes

 

Paupiette of Roast Beef

 

Greek Salad

 

Chilled Tropical Mango Soup

[Nicole721]

Tempura Fried Mahi Mahi and Tiger Shrimp

 

Lemon and Harissa-Spiced Roasted Chicken

 

Mexican-Inspired Beef Salad

[Nicole721]

Dessert – when Lloyd insisted we taste everything on the menu!

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

After such a heavy meal, we headed outside to pace the deck and watch the sunset as we sailed out towards Rome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

The first major production show was on the schedule for this evening – a Broadway revue – and I was super excited because there are few things I love more than a good Broadway show. We got to the Masquerade early to get good seats for showtime, but we were a bit taken aback by aggressive bar servers (one who muttered “I knew you weren’t going to order anything” after we politely declined a drink).

 

 

 

I’ve been pretty critical of Carnival’s post-2.0 shows – the elimination of the dance troupe, the switch from actual sets to animatronic screens and the live band getting replaced by an audio track amongst the chief complaints – so I was really excited to see a traditional production show. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite live up to what I’d hoped it would be. The show must have been produced in the 90s and hasn’t been updated since. Everything from the sets to the costumes to the song list was outdated and the only part of the show that shined was the talent of the performers.

 

 

After the show, we walked around the ship a bit, checking in on the new offerings in the shops, before heading back to the room to get our stuff together and ready for an early morning in Rome. Our Compass for the next day mentioned worker strikes potentially affecting visits to the Colosseum (a highlight we were really looking forward to) and Stephanie was reading about some Isis threats on Twitter, so as much as we were looking forward to a day in Rome, we closed our day in Florence hoping for a safe visit to our scheduled stops.

[LizSS]

Another flawless update! I was hoping (and well assuming) you would stop for some gelato, I just had some from Mariano's the other day, wish I was eating it in Italy like you lucky ladies were!

 

Your pictures are divine. I think you can be a professional cruise reviewer

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[JD26]

Wow, I can't wait to visit Florence. What a beautiful city.

Was your room on the port side of the ship? Our balcony is on the port side and I am hoping that I can look at the beautiful shoreline.:):):)

[Virtopia]

Yay!!! What an amazing update. Hope you enjoyed both of your trips.

 

Your pictures are amazing ... you almost have me forgetting that I'm going on a Caribbean cruise in 9 days. I almost wish I was going to the European one instead!! I'll be doing so much planning for this adventure.

[lola2013]

Good morning,

...and WOW! I feel like I am on the cruise with you, your mom and sister. Our group visited the same leather factory in Florence and came away with some beautiful bags. Also visited Santa Croce for more great leather and GELATO. We were treated to Andrea Bocelli over the ship's loud speakers as we pulled into Venice. Honestly, reading your review is like re-living my trip.

As for the Leaning Tower on Touhy Avenue in Niles (or is Skokie there?)...........well, you know you'll have to visit the real thing on your next trip.

Can't wait for Rome...

Susan