We’ve spent the past week on a big Italian cruise ship, plying the Adriatic, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas. We chose an Italian cruise line, (Costa), because we thought it might be more interesting to cruise with Europeans than with our compatriots back home. Was it more interesting? I’m not sure. We’ll just have to do it again on a U.S. cruise line. Oh well! Here’s a Greek Isle cruise recap.
Our big Italian cruise ship departed early one morning from Venice. We made our first stop in Bari that afternoon. It’s a busy little port town on the southeastern coast of Italy.
Bari isn’t a big international tourist destination, so it’s like visiting a “regular” Italian city. Bari was interesting. Even more interesting is Bari’s secret history. It’s no longer a “secret,” but it’s certainly not well-known, either.
Onward to Greece!
Our next stop was at Katakalon, Greece, where we boarded busses to visit Olympia – the site of the first Olympic games.
Before that visit, I had no idea that the first Olympic games were held in the 8th century BC. Back then, “Ancient Greece” as we know it didn’t exist. The association with Greece came later. Olympia was an interesting stop.
From Katakalon, our big Italian cruise ship made it’s way to the Island of Santorini. Santorini is a little Greek island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It’s a popular cruise stop today, but guess what? It’s very likely one of the oldest cruise stops on earth.
Santorini and nearby islands in the Aegean Sea were the home of the amazing Minoan civilization – one of the first civilizations on this little planet of ours.
Santorini is one of the places we see in those photos of a pristine Greek villages with panoramic vistas of the sea below. Many were taken in Santorini’s hilltop village of Fira.
It’s beautiful, but getting up to Fira can be a challenge. And we’d find out that getting back down can be worse!
Too Much Fun in Fira
We had too much fun at lunch in Fira, so we were too late to stand in the long line for the cable car down the hill. There were two other options: ride down a 588-step stairway on the back of a donkey, or walk down the same steps that the donkeys use.
We chose to do it on foot. It was rough. We might not have made it if we hadn’t made the trek with three crazy girls from “New Yawk.” I’ll never forget beautiful Santorini and the 588-step downward walk of doom.
Next stop: Mykonos. Mykonos is famous for its beautiful beaches, windmills, and for being a playground for rich and famous jet-setters. So of course WE had to stop there!
We had a fabulous Greek dinner in Mykonos. We dined on a big outdoor patio while watching a big, red-orange sun sink into the Aegean sea.
On the way back to the ship, we stopped for a nightcap at a beachfront cafe. It was 10:00 PM or so. We could see that the party crowd was just starting to come out of hibernation. The action in Mykonos starts late.
Rhodes & Dubrovnik
We left Mykonos that night and cruised to the island of Rhodes. Rhodes isn’t as well-known to travelers as Santorini or Mykonos, but it was my favorite Greek island.
Rhodes is exotic. Especially in the narrow streets of Rhodes’ Old Town. They lie in the shadow of the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Hospitaller. In Rhodes, it doesn’t take much effort to imagine that it’s back in the day, and you’re in the bazaar, shopping for a new hookah.
We left Rhodes, headed for Dubrovnik. Visiting Dubrovnik’s walled Old City provides a glimpse of both ancient and all-too-modern history.
It’s a short cruise across the Adriatic Sea from Dubrovnik to Venice, where we’ll say good-bye to our big Italian cruise ship and to our new friends.
It’s been a great cruise, but the trip isn’t over yet. After disembarking in Venice, we’ll find our way to the train station. From there, it’s an easy train ride to Florence. Andiamo!
To be continued…
