As mentioned before, we had an overnight stay in Venice during our cruise. This allowed us plenty of time to explore the canals and alleys of this unique city and even get lost numerous times. The first thing we did once in the center of town was to take a walk across Piazza San Marco. It was packed with people, so we quickly took a vaporetto (water taxi) ride the length of the Grand Canal. This was a cheap way to see a ton of the city and get oriented with it’s layout.

From there we continued on the vaporetto out to the island of Murano. This island is famous for it’s glass, but unfortunately we arrived a little too late to see any of the glass making. We did enjoy the peace and quiet of the island for awhile, and when we were ready for dinner we headed back into Venice where we spent the evening before retiring to the ship.

The second day we arrived first thing at the Doge’s Palace and explored it for an hour or so. From there we went inside of the Basilica di San Marco, and enjoyed the view from the Horses Loggia. Next up on our busy day, was a trip to the top of the Campanile. Fortunately there’s an elevator in this bell tower, and the views from the top were very nice. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the ship and onto our next destination. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this stop.

If judging solely from the number of pictures I took, Naples would have to be my favorite stop of the cruise vacation. And looking back on it, I may have to agree with that statement. What it may lack in famous landmarks, it made up for in sheer beauty and ancient history. I mentioned a wide variety of things to do in the planning post for this stop, and we did all of them!

Upon arriving in Naples, we took a stroll down to the train station walking through some run down areas. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned, but once we were on a train and moving out toward some other sights I knew we were going to have a good time. We stopped in Ercolano first, hoping to catch a bus to Mount Vesuvius. After leaving the train, we found the company that offers shuttles to the top, but they were not yet opened. I had also read that the city buses would stop nearby and one of them went to Vesuvius. Well after waiting for awhile at the stop, and after a few frustrating conversations with a mix of languages, we finally found a taxi driver who offered to help us out.

He spoke very good English, and said he would take us to Vesuvius, wait for us to make the short hike to the top, and then bring us back down to the train station for 35 euros. He said that we wouldn’t have to pay until back at the train station. So we did it, and I’m really glad we did. We talked with him throughout the 45 minute drive, learned about his life near Naples, and he even sung Italian songs to us. Well worth the cost. And so was the hike up to Vesuvius. Though the crater isn’t much to see (it’s a really big hole) the views of Naples and the nearby coast were amazing!

After this excursion, we proceeded over to Pompeii, which was just a few more train stops away. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much but I was absolutely blown away. This ancient city was buried in AD 79 by one of the eruptions of Vesuvius, and has been excavated since 1748. These ruins are so well laid out and organized, it is easy to imagine yourself living in those olden times. Seeing the plaster casts of some of the victims was horrifying, imagining being buried by the volcano. I’d highly recommend this site.

Next up on our tour was Sorrento, which was at the end of the train line we had already taken so far. This small town is built into and on top of the seaside cliffs. It’s a beautiful little place that I wish we could have spent more time in, but we had to move quickly if we wanted to make it to Capri and then back to the ship in Naples. We took a hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capri, which allowed for great views of the coast, and amazing sights as we pulled into the port on the island of Capri.

We didn’t make it up to Capri Town, as we just explored the port area, had lunch in a cafe overlooking the sea, and waited for our return hydrofoil to Naples. We didn’t want to push our luck too much and end up stuck on the island so we took an early boat back. Once in Naples we explored some of the city, ate a little more food, and then wound up back on the ship with a few minutes to spare. I really loved nearly every minute of our time in this port.

This day has really crawled by. What weird is that I’ve been swamped with work, so typically that makes the days fly by. But not today. I still have over an hour left, so hopefully the pace picks up a bit. Apologies for the boring post. I promise to add more pictures on Monday. Have a nice weekend.

With the onset of fall weather comes the new season of TV shows. Just as it starts to get cooler outside, the good old DVR goes into double time recording all of the new episodes of our favorite shows. In fact, I had to find a way to tune into a third channel this past Monday to watch something live as we can only record two shows at a time. Tonight, a new season of the show Survivor starts and I’m pumped! Also, I’m glad to see My Name Is Earl back with new episodes once again. And obviously I can’t wait for the second season premier of Chuck next Monday. Anyone watching any new shows that are worth trying out?

My fantasy football team is almost as bad as the Bengals, almost. I blamed my 1-1 start on being out of the country on our honeymoon, but I have no excuse for an embarrassing loss this past week. I think the problem is that my team just isn’t good enough. Even if I had played all of the correct players, I still would have lost by over 40 points! Maybe this is the Bengals problem too, though honestly I didn’t have high hopes for this past week. Playing the defending champions is never a fun thing, and it was actually a better game than I expected. Still the best part of watching the game had little to do with the game itself. We finally made it back to the local Denver Bengals bar, Wyman’s #5. If I’m going to watch bad football, I might as well do it while eating delicious pizza!

The third stop of the cruise took us to Rome, well actually Civitavecchia. Once again we quickly took a train from the port town to the city of interest, exactly as planned. The first stop we made was at Vatican City, and I’m glad that we did it this way. I’ve read all about horrible crowds for the various sights, but when we arrived there were more pigeons than people in Saint Mark’s Square, and we walked right into the Basilica with no problems at all. From there we headed off to the Vatican Museums (which houses the Sistine Chapel) and though there was a small line, it was nothing like I had imagined. So we took some extra time to visit various rooms, especially Raphael’s Rooms, and then finished off the visit in the Sistine Chapel, where photography is banned.

From there, we took a quick walk over to Castel Sant’Angelo, a castle with great views of Rome from the top. Once finished there, we continued walking and stopped by both the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain with little problems. Both were swamped with people at this point, but still worth a quick visit. One thing I quickly learned is how close together so many of the sights are, which makes for a perfect walking tour. Next, we visited the Pantheon and then continued over to the Forums and ancient Rome.

Our last stop of the day was at the Colosseum. I knew it was going to be an amazing sight to see, but I was completely blown away by the engineering and architecture of something this old. We ended up with plenty of time to spare, so we took our time walking through it, and even got audio guides to listen to along the way. I hope that some of my pictures do justice to this magnificent structure, but really you just can’t get a feel for it’s massiveness without actually being there. By far one of the cooler things I’ve ever seen.

Our second stop was in the port town of Livorno, Italy. Once again, we stuck to our plan for the most part, though we did head to Pisa first and then Florence later. We did this as I had pre-bought tickets for us to climb the leaning tower first thing upon our arrival. Climbing the steps wasn’t too bad, and we were awarded with pretty nice views from the top. One problem is that there really isn’t too much to see in Pisa, so there wasn’t much to look at from up top. But we can now say that we’ve been to the top.

With little to do in Pisa, we immediately headed back to the train station and continued on our way to Florence. Once there, we headed straight for the cathedral known as the Duomo. And as if we didn’t climb enough for one day, we decided to hike the steps here to go to the top of the Dome. This climb was much harder, tighter, and crowded than the leaning tower, but the views from the top were absolutely worth it! I could have stayed there for hours, but being on a short stop, we headed back down and into the Piazza della Signoria after a quick stop for lunch.

The Piazza della Signoria is dominated by the town hall of Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, and the tower Torre d’Arnolfo, which were both great to see up close. Also in the piazza is a copy of the statue David, among many other sculptures. The original David was moved into a museum, which we decided to skip over due to long lines. Just south of piazza is the Ponte Vecchio, which is the old bridge flanked with shops that spans the Arno River. It also has very nice views looking down the river, which I snapped some of my favorite photos from.

With little time left, and an hour or so train ride back to Livorno, we had a glass of wine and were back on our way toward the ship. Florence is on my list of places that I could easily go again and spend more time. Pisa, on the other hand, I feel can be checked off the list and will likely not be visited again. Here are some pictures from this stop.

Has anyone downloaded Chrome yet? If you have no idea what I’m referring to, google has released their very own stripped down web browser. I know they announced it weeks ago, but you have to give me a little break as I’m still playing catchup from the trip. I haven’t downloaded it so far, but from a few reviews I can’t wait to give it a shot. I love the fact that each tab runs independently from others, so if you have a crash on one site it isn’t going to bring the whole browser down. One item that concerns me are some of the add-ons I use with firefox and the fact that I may not be able to function without them.

While catching up on some blog reading over lunch today, I stumbled upon an article on Boing Boing discussing a recent visit to Casa Bonita. Just a little bit of background, this is a Mexican themed restaurant in Denver that features cliff divers, escaping gorillas, cowboy shootouts, lost caves and caverns, amusement arcade and more. It has always been a favorite to local children since it’s opening in early 70’s, and has established a bit of a cult following after being featured in an episode of South Park. If anyone knows where I can view this episode online, please let me know.

Anyway, I was reminded of the first time we had heard of this restaurant. Back in April of 2007 friends from KC, the Kenagy’s and the Martin’s, visited us in Denver. In an email, Kelly Martin mentioned a restaurant in Denver with cliff divers and food that was rated as marginal. Though we didn’t get around to visiting Casa Bonita during their trip, Kim never forgot about the restaurant and decided to drag Amy and I there during a visit of her own.

None of us that went to Casa Bonita that day will ever forget our first (and currently only) experience with the restaurant. The food was definitely marginal at best, bordering on inedible would also be a proper description. And the entertainment was ridiculously amusing, though I’m sure with the right amount of alcohol it could have been much funnier. As most commenter’s on the Boing Boing article mention, the sopaipillas were probably the highlight of the adventure. Any visitors to Denver, consider yourself warned.

Here are pictures from our first stop on the cruise, Cannes, France. As mentioned in this planning post, we immediately left Cannes upon arrival and headed to Monaco first. We used the train system for our travel for the day, and the first ride of the day was about an hour long to Monte Carlo, Monaco. We were just barely able to catch the changing of the guard ceremony at the Prince’s Palace, which had a large crowd gathered. From there we toured the Cathedral and then the Aquarium.

Later in the day, after some lunch down near the port of Monte Carlo, we headed toward the famous casino. Despite what I read earlier, a jacket and tie are only required in the evening. So we tried getting into the casino, but they wanted us to drop off our backpacks first. Since we don’t gamble, we just decided to skip out on the inside, especially since you can’t take pictures. From there we headed back to the train station and headed back toward Cannes, stopping in Nice, France along the way.

Our time in Nice was limited as we spent a little too long in Monaco. Looking back on it, we should have skipped the aquarium, as it wasn’t as impressive as I was hoping for. We were able to quickly see the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Nice, which is a very interesting building. After that, we strolled around the streets near the train station before it was time to head back to Cannes. Once in Cannes, we walked along the Boulevard de la Croisette before heading back for the ship. It was a very enjoyable day on the French Riviera.