Genoa, Italy

We thoroughly enjoyed yesterdays Private Tour of the Vatican Museum. Our tour got started at 3:00 PM with a bus ride from the port of call into Rome, Italy. There were only seventeen people on the tour. On our way to Rome, the tour guide provided a good deal of historical information about Rome, the Vatican and what we were about to see. We arrived near the Vatican at around 4:30 PM and we began our tour of the Vatican at 5:00 PM.

What makes this tour so unique is that the Vatican Museum is closed to the public beginning at 4:30 PM so other than the few employees who were there the seventeen of us were the only visitors in the Vatican. We had last visited the Vatican in September 2005 and we remember very well the tens of thousands of people who visit the Vatican on a daily basis. Therefore, we greatly appreciated the opportunity to look all around us without encountering the mobs of people that are commonplace throughout the daytime hours.

One of the highlights of the tour was to spend a good deal of time in the Sistne Chapel. Normally, you can only spend a short time there and the tour guides are not aloud to speak while inside the chapel. In our case, we spent about thirty minutes or more there and the tour guide could talk to us throughout our time in the chapel. We learned so much from him about the history of the Sistine Chapel and the evolution of the Michelangelo paintings. We are so very glad that we signed up for this very unique tour and highly recommend it to others who might at some point of a similar opportunity..

We arrived back to the ship by 8:30 PM and enjoyed the drive from Rome back to the Port. The ship set sail at 9:00 PM. Since we knew that we would be getting back to the ship fairly late we had made reservations to dine at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant at 9:00 PM. As usual, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner there and we were seated at a very nice table with our favorite Silk Road waiter.

This morning we woke early and had a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. Afterwards, we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. Even thought Keith was not feeling too well as he has gotten a cold, he was able to get through the workout.

We arrived in Genoa, Italy at around 8:00 AM. The harbor area is truly amazing as there are several harbors with so many different size vessels from cruise ship, to ferry’s, to small ships, to fishing boarts.

This morning Crystal Cruises offered a complimentary excursion to two nearby towns; Portofino and Santa Margarita. As we had already visited these towns in September of 2005 and had not ever been to Genoa, Italy we decided we would explore Genoa on our own. We took the complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal, which dropped us off at the city square. We then began to walk around the city. Genoa is a beautiful city, with wonderful architecture everywhere you look. We felt very safe and unlike many of the other cities we have visited in Italy in the past, the traffic flowed in an orderly manner, motorists stopped at all of the red traffic lights and pedestrians only crossed the streets either when the traffic light turned green or in areas without traffic lights but with pedestrian crossways. In short, Genoa is a very civilized city that we would rank up there towards the top of the list of cities.

We walked along one of the main streets and at one point stumbled upon an enormous food market. The market had several different areas of beautiful looking produce from fruits to vegetables. There were several meat markets and other markets selling fresh fish and other seafood. Then there were several areas within the market with pastries and breads. And, let’s not forget the cheese. We saw and smelled the most delectable looking cheese. Oh, how we wish we had a market like this at near our home. It’s the kind of place that one might shop every couple of days to purchase very fresh food items.

We continued our walk and at one point walked down a side street that took us onto small streets that reminded us of being in Venice. We then walked towards the aquarium.

Later in the morning, we visited the inside of the home that Christopher Columbus live in from the age of four (4) until he turned twenty-seven. The house contained the bell from the Santa Maria. We then walked around some adjacent areas before it was time to take the shuttle back to the ship. All in all we had a wondrous day in Genoa.

When we got back to the ship, we had lunch in the Lido Café. We enjoyed the views of this beautiful city from the café. After lunch, we ran a bunch of errands.

This evening we attended the Captain’s Welcome Reception for this final leg of the World Cruise. We sat with all of our fellow passengers who are on our Team Trivia Team.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a very nice dinner in the Main Dining Room.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Marseille, France.

Keith & Anne Marie