Pizza and Piazzas in Napoli

by | Sep 21, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

For those who were worried because I missed a day, never fear. We were in Monaco yesterday and did an eight-hour excursion that had us wiped out by the time we got back, so we had dinner and slept. But I am back now with my short tail of pizza and Piazzas—a Napoli excursion.

We had initially decided to do this elective (as opposed to included) excursion because, being the pizza-crazy Italian-American that I am, I wanted to watch them make pizza in the home of pizza—Napoli. But first, the Piazzas.

Wait! I should mention that when I got up for my morning walk on deck 2, I was treated to an incredible display of lightning on the sea about (I am guessing now—using the old count, the time between the lightning and thunder) 20 miles behind us. Every time my walk would take me aft, I would see five or ten streak lightning bursts hit the sea behind us. As we were trying to get into port, the storm caught up to us. Luckily for me, I had finished my walk by then and was safely inside. The storm was pretty much very heavy rain by this time. But it also meant that the visibility was cut down so much that we could not get into the port. It wasn’t because we couldn’t see to get in by because the pilot boat could not bring us the pilot. So Viking Sky kind of went back and forth just outside the port until the pilot boat could come in and get us. Here are a couple of photos I took while I was waiting for us to be able to dock. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I should mention here that when we eventually got into the harbor, we (Viking Sky) were moored very close to Wonder of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. This Royal Caribbean behemoth made Sky look like a lifeboat. We have 9 decks; she has 18. We carry 928 passengers while she carries as many as 6,590. I didn’t notice a huge difference in how crowded the port was, but my brother, who went to Pompei (we had been there before), said the place was swamped with her passengers.

Before I tell you more about the pizza, I should tell you that Kathleen bowed out of this excursion. She still had not been sleeping well, and we were worried that the old stones of granite and marble that made up most of the walking surfaces in Naples would not be conducive to her not falling again as she had in San Francisco on our last trip and in Taormina on this one. So I was off on my own. The “luxury motor coach” picked us up just outside a flooded parking lot at the cruise terminal in Naples, and off we went for about two hours of just driving around. I think we stopped once to take pictures, but that was it.

This needs to be mentioned here (and it was just as true when we were here on a previous trip); Naples is a dirty city. There is garbage everywhere. Since it is highly industrial, the air isn’t the cleanest. So when you see my pics, realize that they do reflect the place.

Then it was lunchtime (we were running late due to getting into port late), so it was pizza time. This was fine with me because that’s why I was there. We stopped at Viking’s designated pizza stop. As you can see from the sign, Solopizza has been in business since 1979. Since pizza was invented in Napoli, I kind of thought we would get a place that had been in business since 1799, but it was not to be.

Inside we all sat down and waited while our pies were made. I was under the impression that we were going to be able to see a demonstration of how the pizzas were being made. I love making pizza, and I am always looking for new techniques, so this was the real reason I signed up for this tour. I asked the guide, and she said she would see what she could do. I got really lucky. Since I was the only one who even asked about it, she got them to let me watch them make the pizzas in the kitchen and take as many pictures as I wanted. I got some great technique ideas from the two pizza makers. You could tell they had been working together for quite a while as they made the pizzas with very little discussion, just one after the other. And let me tell you, the pizza was amazing. The hit was the Pizza Margherita, the most traditional Napoli pizza with just tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil and olive oil on it. The crust was as close to perfection as I had ever eaten. They also had a rule, “One person, one pizza.” Thankfully when they brought the pizza, it was to be split among the groups at each table. But then they just kept bringing pizzas. They brought enough (and left the empty trays in the middle of the table) that we (9 of us at the table) realized we had almost eaten one pizza per person. It was a great lunch.

We then hopped back on the “luxury motor coach” and drove back into downtown Naples where we disembarked for a short tour of downtown followed by 30 minutes of “on-our-own” time. To me, this meant go take some pictures, which I did. Here are the fruits of my picture-taking in Naples. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After our downtown walk about, it was back on the “luxury motor coach” and off to Viking Sky at the pier. Kathleen had a relaxing day, and we kept in touch by text. I want to conclude my report on Naples by showing this amazing work of art. The best thing I saw there all day.

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.  —Yogi Berra

Messina, Taormina and Mount Etna as well as some ship observations

by | Sep 19, 2022 | Photography

Before I get to the fun/destination part of this post, here are a few more observations about onboard life.

Yesterday, while we were in Rome, a large part of the ship’s passengers got off and another group got on. As I mentioned earlier, this three-week cruise we are on is actually three one-week cruises stacked one on top of the other. It is actually four one-week cruises (starting in Istanbul). The very large group that got on board in Rome was much louder and party-types than the group that got off. For that reason has become a more raucous ship. Something we did not expect from Viking. Kathleen was awakened a few times that first night by the person above us talking loudly and walking heavily. We would have called down to Guest Services, but we couldn’t tell if the noise was coming from directly above or one of the staterooms on either side of it.

This brings me to going back to the Main Dining Room. Our new friends Corky and Larry said they had an outstanding server, and if we came to dinner with them, we would have amazing service. They were right. They have a waiter (whose name I believe is Joku0) who takes great care of them. Not only that, but we met THE wine steward. We asked him if he was the ONLY wine steward on board, and he said he was not. There was one in Chef’s Table and in Manfreddis, but he told us, “I am the only one in THE Restaurant. Therefore, I am THE wine steward.” But we still did not have that great an experience. The food was “fine” (we still had much better in the World Cafe), but the noise was off the charts. Corky and Larry are not overly quiet people, but I thought I heard about half of what they said. And my friends know that I am not exactly a quiet guy, but Kathleen had to ask me to repeat a couple of things—and she was sitting right next to me. I felt like you needed to shout to be heard, and obviously, so did everyone else. There is no sound deadening when the room is full, and it was slammed.

Back to our previously scheduled port excursion tour, on Thursday morning, we woke up in Messina, Sicily. Or I should say Kathleen did. I woke up REALLY early (even for me) at 4:45, so I could see us sail through the Strait of Messina. The last time I sailed through this strait, we were in a storm so bad that waves were breaking over the top of our 13-deck ship (Celebrity Century). I had never heard that being there to take pictures as you go through was that great, but the cruise director RAVED about it the night before, so I decided to get up and get out there to take some photos. ?

Yup, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Here is the only photo I took that morning that I would even think about bothering with. Not sure why I am even showing it to you.

See what I mean? I should have stayed in bed. But that’s OK because the day got a lot better as we were booked to head down to Taormina and then up to Mount Etna.

Messina is a pretty nice port to sail into. It doesn’t take long, and there are lots of things to take photos of if you are on the right side of the ship. Since we would be on our excursion to Taormina and Mount Etna for the rest of the day, this was my only chance to get some shots of Messina. Here are those pics. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Beautiful Taormina

After breakfast, we headed down to get on our “luxury motor coach” to tour Taormina and Mount Etna. The drive was most interesting with a bunch of tunnels to pass through, some very tight curves that our driver did an amazing job of negotiating and just beautiful coastal scenery to see. After about an hour’s drive, we arrived in the beautiful mountainside village of Taormina. It reminded us a lot of our previous trip to the Amalfi Coast. Lots of beautiful villages above cliffs that lead down to the sea. You will see that when you check out the Taormina photos below.

Besides a beautiful Italian village, Taormina is home to a huge Greek theater set on the side of a cliff that dates back to 301 AD. It is still in use today, as you will see from the photos. I am amazed at how many of these open-air theaters built almost 2,000 years ago are still being used. We saw one on the side of the Acropolis that was even older and was hosting a Sting concert the night after we were there.

To learn and see more of our Taormina experience, check out my pics below. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

On to Etna

After about two hours in Taormina, we were back on our “luxury motor coach” to head upwards to Mount Etna. If we had thought the first part of the trip was a windy road, we had seen nothing yet. This was the most amazing piece of “luxury coach” driving we had ever seen. I am still not sure how our driver negotiated some of the turns he did. We finally wound up at the highest point that “luxury coaches” can go. There were a couple of restaurants, a few gift shops and the bottom station of a gondola ride to the top of the volcano.

Etna was not erupting when we were there (thankfully), but she was letting off a lot of steam. And we did see plenty of lava lands and craters. Our first stop at the top was for lunch, where we were served a nice lunch with appetizers, pasta, bread and wine. It was all great, and they offered us much more than we could possibly eat. Especially when you are on a cruise. Some of it suffered from having been prepped way too early in the day, but it was all “fine.” I forgot to mention that the restaurant we ate in had displays showing that it had been rebuilt twice after being burnt down during Etna’s last two eruptions.

After lunch, we had a few minutes to shoot some photos before we were back on the “luxury motor coach,” and we drove about a mile or so away, where there were five smaller craters that opened up in previous eruptions. We had the chance to hike up and take photos. Kathleen stayed on the bus while I did my usual run-around thing, snapping away. Here are the pics I got as we approached Etna and at the top. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That was our day, and it was a long one. Took the “luxury motor coach” back to the ship, got on and collapsed. Quick dinner in the buffet and off to bed after another couple of Downtons.

I feel like a person living on the brink of a volcano crater.  —Agnes Smedley

 

Beautiful Bari and Alberobello, Italy

by | Sep 17, 2022 | Photography

Since I have some time today while we are docked for Rome, I will try and do a couple of posts covering the next two places on the cruise. So watch for another one later in the day.

The day after our restful time in Sibenik, we arrived in Bari, Italy—a port I was really looking forward to. We both felt great so off we went on a shore excursion labeled “Alberobello, the Trulli Village.” Alberobello is about an hour away by motor coach (a fancy term for bus). The ride was a good one and the walk from where the bus parked to where the village started.

A trullo is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut so more than one is trulli. The village of Alberobello is the home of a whole bunch of trullo/trulli and they are very cool. Our day consisted of a bus ride from Bari to Alberobello, a walk tour of Alberobello followed by a visit to a nearby conference-type place where they fed us appetizers and some wine. Kathleen tried the food but I just wasn’t up to it. The food didn’t look that good and there was plenty of good calories to waste my caloric intake with onboard. After about an hour it was back on the ship and on our way home.

Below are the photos I took that day. Hope you like them. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I hope you enjoyed your photographic journey to Alberobello. Come back later (or watch your inbox) for Crotone, Italy.

You may have the universe if I may have Italy.  —Giuseppe Verdi

Slacking off in Sibenik

by | Sep 16, 2022 | Photography

After our three days in Venice, we were both totally wiped out so when we arrived in Sibenik, Croatia, at midday on Monday. We both decided that we would pack it in that day. I did take some pics on the way in and on the way out that I will share with you below but first, a couple of things I have really loved on this ship.

First, those of you who know me know I love to walk. At home, I walk a minimum of four miles a day, sometimes more. And yes, I fully realize that I am walking when I do tours, but, to be honest, walking and taking photos is not exercise. So pretty much every morning since we have sailed, I have walked four miles before breakfast. On most ships, I have to walk around a top deck, running track. Never liked those walking tracks; they were too small and had too many people. But Viking Sky has a full circuit walking/jogging track on deck two. It goes completely around the ship with no breaks and is exactly one-quarter of a mile. It’s really wide (except for a few feet at the front of the ship), and very few people use it. In fact, most days, there’s one other runner and me. I was so happy to find a totally wrap-around deck. On modern cruise ships, they are few and far between.

We have also been eating most meals since Venice by ourselves in The World Cafe (buffet). The food is still the best we have had on the ship, and the service is WONDERFUL! On our second day after Venice, we went up and sat at a small table way at the aft (back) of the ship, where there is a wonderful young lady taking care of the tables whose name is Nanci. The first thing she said to us that first night we sat there was, “Would you like to see our wine list?” I almost fell over. Finally, after almost ten nights, someone offered us a wine list. And when asked for suggestions, she looked at what we had selected from the buffet, and she came back with two outstanding glasses of Italian red. Not only that, but when I told her how much I loved the chocolate desserts, she asked if I was going to try them that night. When I came back from getting them, she had brought me a glass of Chianti and told me, “Nothing goes better with chocolate,” and she was right. We have been back to her table every night since. She is wonderful and thoroughly fun to talk to. When we asked her where she was from, she asked me to guess. I told her (because I had heard her say a few words in Italian) I thought she might be Italian. She told us she lives in Italy but is from Guadalajara, Mexico. She is a gem and has really improved our dinners.

Tomorrow night we will miss her because we are joining some new friends for dinner in the dining room. They have a favorite server and promise us we will have a great meal. We shall see.

As I am writing this, we have just finished our day in Naples. Since Sibenik, we have stopped in Bari, Crotone and Messina, so I still have all that to catch you up on. Here are the pics for Sibenik. You may not believe it, but I took every one of them from our stateroom’s verhanda.

Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please… (I have heard a vicious rumor that a close relative is looking at my pics on a phone. For that, she will have to eat my food again and watch all of them on our TV when we get home?).

Tomorrow we will be the port for Rome. Kathleen and I have been there quite a few times before, so we are staying on board. So that means I will do my best to catch up with the four ports between Sibenik and Rome. Lots to share.

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.  —William Hazlitt

Venice, Day 2: Photographic Perfection, Vaporetto Dejection

by | Sep 14, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

After a great night on a great bed (I still find Viking beds pretty hard, but I am getting used to them) at our Venice B&B, I was up for the entire reason for us making the additional travel investment in staying two nights in the city when we had a perfectly fine place to stay back on the ship—my pre-dawn photo walk in a city I love. (Nothing like getting an entire paragraph in one long sentence ?).

I woke up around 5;45 and checked my Photo Pills app on my phone. If you have never heard of Photo Pills, it is an iPhone (I am betting it is on android as well) app that tells me all I need to know about the light conditions where I am. For instance, as I write this, we are in Crotone, Italy (way down at the underside of the tip of the boot that is Italy) and when I opened Photo Pills this morning, here’s what I see.

First, it tells me the extent of my daylight; then, I get all the important times for photography, from Astronomical twilight to Day time. I know that I will get the best photos (if the weather cooperates—which it did on Day 2 in Venice) between 6:05 and 7:30 or so. So I made sure that I was up and out, camera in hand, no later than 5:30. In Venice, some of your best pictures are of artificial lights (doorways, streetlights, shop windows) before the sun even starts to come up. And to me, early morning are so much better than late night because there are a lot fewer people to get in the way. One or two people in a shot to set a mood is one thing but a whole bunch of people in different bright colors, looking everywhere, is not something I am after in a city like Venice.

My first few photos were in the dark. I did that on purpose. And a lot of Venice photography is vertical. That’s because a lot of Venice is tiny streets that lead to more open squares (called Campos). Those tiny streets make for great vertical photographs. They also make it easy to get lost…very lost. But in Venice, getting lost is the whole point. I just wandered. I could always see a sign nearby that pointed to a place where I recognized. For instance, from where we were staying, I knew that I had to cross a bridge over the Grand Canal someplace to get to Piazza San Marco (where I wanted to go), so I just kept following every sign that said, “Per Rialto” (to the Rialto Bridge). Sometimes I would find myself in an amazing little street that would give me one amazing photo I would love. Other times, those streets were just ways to get to where I wanted to go. If you go to Venice, get lost. That’s what you are supposed to do.

Since I have a LOT of Venice photos from this walk, I think I will break them up into smaller galleries, like this one that has photos from before it was light at all. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

As the light becomes brighter, you move from twilight to the “Blue Hour.” From the chart above, you can see that the “Blue Hour” really isn’t an entire hour. In fact, today, it was more like 10 minutes. But it always comes before the ever-popular Golden Hour that most people have heard of. During the “Blue Hour,” you get some great shots with lovely blue tint. Come back during the “Golden Hour”, and the entire scene is different. Here is maybe my favorite shot of the Grand Canal during the “Blue Hour.”

After a couple of more shots of and from the bridge, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. Here are my shots from there.

I made my decision about which way to go next when the first sign I saw after crossing the bridge said, “Per San Marco,” so I was off to Piazza San Marco, and I am so glad I went that way. Besides the light being amazing and the sky turning to fire, I got to see the piazza in all its glory—empty (or almost empty except for three other people and me and one—that’s all—pigeon). Here are my shots with comments. Again, Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

From the piazza, I headed out to the promenade, where I would get a chance to see the entire sky for the first time. As Secondo said in the film “The Big Night,” it was so good, “I have to kill myself because I knew nothing would be better.” The sky to the east was on fire. And that made the city look awesome in the light. This morning had been a walking, talking photo lesson for me. It made me realize I had never done a post about my best travel photography tips, so I need to do that as soon as we are home. Here’s the next set of shots I got after getting out to the promenade.

I walked up and down the promenade to get photo after photo in that incredible light. Hope you like them. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

By this point in our morning story, it was getting close to 7:45, and I had told Kathleen I would be back at the B&B by 8:30 so we could get breakfast. I thought about walking back, but then I saw that the #1 Vaporetto was almost completely empty, so I jumped on board and found myself a spot in the rear seats where I could continue to shoot photos as we went up the Grand Canal. Here’s what I got between San Zacharia and St Stae.

The Rest of the Day

A quick rundown of the rest of the day would start with a walk to Campo San Polo for a very traditional Venitian breakfast of cappuccino and croissants. This may not be traditional for everyone in Venice, but it is exactly what we had for breakfast when we were here before, so it is our tradition ?. And this particular Campo (where we had never ventured before) was a must-see because one of our favorite fictional characters, Commisario Guido Brunetti lives near this Campo and often walks through it in the books. We felt like we knew the place. BTW: If you are going to Venice, try to read at least a few of Dona Leon’s Brunetti series before you go. It will truly improve your trip.

I mean, wouldn’t you take a water bus to get this?

Later that day, we had planned to take a Vaporetto to one of the two major outlying islands, Burano. Our friends Jayesh and Lisa had eaten an amazing late lunch there in July that included a plate of Frito Misto to die for. I am using his photo to show you what we missed. I really wanted that. Lisa said they had some good pasta that Kathleen would like, so we headed to Burano.

But it was not to be. Partly because we didn’t listen (or understand) the person loading and unloading the Vaporetto and partly because things changed a LOT in 20 years. When we were here the first time, we went out to the two big outlying islands on a Vaporetto. First, we stopped at Murano and walked around a sleepy little Italian island town known for its blown glass. Then we jumped right back on the same Vaporetto that took us out to the further island, Burano—where we wanted to go that day.

The first big change was Murano. What had been a sleepy little island town is now a major tourist attraction with chain convention hotels and six different Vaporetto stops. SIX! When we went there before, Murano had ONE stop, and then the same Vaporetto went on to Burano. Not anymore.

When we boarded at Piazzale Roma, we specifically asked numerous times, “Burano?” and every time, we were assured that the water bus was going to Burano. So we get to Murano, and we wait while passengers get off the Vaporetto and others get on. Then we go to the next stop, and the same things happen. We are marveling at how big Murano has become, how commercialized. Then another Murano stop, and another. After six stops on Murano, we are mostly empty, which makes sense because Burano is a small island, and not a lot of people head out that way…at least they didn’t in November 2002.

So imagine our surprise when the Vaporetto starts heading back to Piazzale Roma. I went up and asked the man I had asked when we got on, “Burano?” He laughed at me and said, “You should have changed at Faro (a stop on Murano). No one told us this. No signs said we needed to do this. It had not been this way before, but we guess now it is. So we are more than an hour into this boat ride and have to decide what to do. Do we go back to our hotel, rest up during the heat of the day and try to go out later who do we go right back out to Murano and switch at Faro and take the Vaporetto to Burano? We decide to do the latter. So we go back in, change boats, come back out…and this time we get off at Faro. We have now been on the Vaporetto to and from and to Murano for about 2 hours. When we do get off, a sign points further down the waterfront and says, “Burano Ferry, 50 meters.” We head down that way and can see the boat unloading, so we think, “YEA! We made it!” We should have been able to jump right on…except when we turn the corner to get on, there is a three-boat waiting line standing against a wall we could not see as we walked up. They were standing there in the direct sun, sweating like the proverbial swine waiting for more than 2 hours. We gave up!

Defeated, we walked back to the Vaporetto stop to go back to the main part of Venice, but since we had about a half hour to wait, we grabbed an Aperol Spritz and a panini sandwich (because by then, it was about 3:00 pm and we had breakfast at 8:30 and NOTHING makes you feel better about stupidity than an Aperol Spritz in Venice) and some water as well.

When the next Vaporetto stopped, we made very sure to ask if it was going to Piazelle Roma, where we could catch the #1 back to St. Stae and our hotel. We were told it would. What they neglected to mention was that it would also go the LONG way around and drop us at San Marco, where we could move to the #1. So what coming out had taken us 45 minutes now took us twice that to get back. Suffice it to say that by the time we got back to the St. Stae stop, we almost had to crawl back to the room; we were so tired. And once we got there, we stayed there just to try to recover for our last big day in Venice. And the panini they had brought us was so big, neither of us were hungry for dinner. Watch the next post for my Day 3 photo walk.

A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.  —Arthur Symons