#3067 The Trip: Kotor, Montenegro

entering the bay of Kotor

 Of all the ports on this cruise, I think MT and I were most interested and excited to go to Kotor, Montenegro. We've seen so many photos and videos of the place on Instagram that we were eager to see it for ourselves. The best part? It did NOT disappoint!

As usual, there were several ships in port that day, and since Kotor's port is very small with only enough room for one ship, we had to anchor about 20 minutes away and get on a smaller boat to get to town. In cruise talk, this is called tendering. The ship arranges for boats to pick us up from the ship and to bring us back. It works perfectly well and we had a good ride into the town. 

Again, we chose to wander around on our own. MT wanted to hike the city wall up to the fortress, so we figured out where he could buy a ticket for that, and off he went. T and I chose to stay in town and walk on the lower city wall.  Here are some photos from the day:

one of the main squares in the old town

narrow streets

I like this photo

Kotor has kitty-cats everywhere

MT hiked up to that fort high on the mountain

incredible

check out how that wall behind the dock is painted!

gorgeous

The European heat wave of June 2026 did not by-pass Kotor; it was warm. I don't remember being quite as sweaty as I'd been in other places, though. T and I walked along the entire city wall.  T found a "hidden" entrance to the fortress trail that I'd read about, and he did a little exploring while I hung out in what may have been someone's back yard. Here's a pic of the stairs he took:

no thanks

T was gone for maybe 20 minutes. When he came back down, he said the trail got a little scrubby, not maintained, and he didn't want to go further. We went into some souvenir shops to buy our requisite postcards and magnets. I saw this tote bag which I thought was hilarious:

A young woman who came in after me didn't find it quite as funny, but the man she was with laughed out loud. 

It had been a couple of hours, so T and I decided to sit at a cafe by where MT had started the hike so we could see him when he was done. We ordered a couple of pivos (beers) and soaked up the atmosphere.  MT arrived shortly after we got our drinks. He was sweaty, energized, and really happy to have hiked and had such pretty views of this beautiful area. He went off to look for souvenirs. T and I ordered another beer and hung out to wait. 

T and I enjoying a pivo in Kotor

When MT came back, we walked to the main square and into the cathedral. 

Cathedral of Saint Tryphon

Inside the cathedral, the most remarkable thing happened. There were a couple of young men of the cloth standing by a collection box. MT put a couple of euros in the box. The men thanked him, then went a few steps over and began to sing. Their voices were so beautiful, and the acoustics in the church were exceptional. It was a wonderful few minutes, an unexpected gift. 

After that, we decided it was time to go back to the ship, but first, MT and I took an ussie near the clock tower. The clock tower was originally built in 1602, but was rebuilt in 1979 because of an earthquake. 

loved Kotor!

Kotor is another place where I didn't get an ussie with the three of us. 

Back on the ship, we assumed our positions at our favorite pool deck table and enjoyed the scenery around us. 

Montenegro

Such a great place! I remember thinking as I was walking around, "I just want to pull our my sketchbook and sketch and paint everything!" What would it be like to stay in Kotor for a few days and just paint and sketch and soak up the cool vibes? I really liked this place, even with the crowds. It felt good there. 

In the next post, we will talk about Split, Croatia and the Game of Thrones tour we took. 

xo

#3066 The Trip: Corfu, Greece

ussie on the HOHO bus in Corfu

The third port of call on the cruise was Corfu, Greece. The island is off the northwest coast of Greece. We decided to mess around Corfu Town on our own rather than go on a tour off the ship. Did we make the right choice? I'll let you know at the end of this post.

First off, the port is kind of far away from the cruise terminal, so the port has busses to take you from the ship to the terminal. Second, the bus pickup area was kind of haphazard so we spent some time running back and forth from where we thought we would get on the bus to where the bus actually stopped, which was different for each bus. It was odd. Third, there were three or four ships in the port that day, so there were hundreds of people trying to get on these busses. Then, when we were able to get on a bus, the cruise terminal was packed. Old Town Corfu isn't that far from the terminal, maybe a 30 minute walk, but it was already blisteringly hot - that Greek sun is no joke - so most people were trying to get tickets for the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus or getting a taxi. We actually got both. MT stood in the line to get the HOHO tickets, then the line for the bus was so long that he got fed up with the whole thing and paid a taxi to drive us five minutes to the Old Town. It wasn't a great start to our time on the island.

Once we got into the town, it was cute and reminded me a bit of Chania, Crete with all the flowering trees and tiny streets and colorful old buildings.

T and MT in Corfu Town

tiny little street

the church tower reminds me of Chania

a street in Corfu Town

There didn't seem like much to see of historical interest. We did go to the main church, which was quite small compared to the churches we'd seen in Italy. I was hoping to get some Greek food, so we ate at a little place that had covered outdoor seating off the street. The server must have thought I was going to pass out from the heat because he sat us directly in the path of a couple of fans so we had some air flow around us. The food was good. You can't beat souvlaki and fries in Greece. Without a doubt, some of the best fries I've ever had have been in Greece. 

After lunch we were going to go see the old or the new fort - there are two big forts and they both look old. There was one close to the old town, but when I put in the directions, it had us going the opposite way, so we decided to get on the HOHO to take us back to the ship. When we got on the bus, though, we decided to just take a ride all around, but no hopping off. 

The bus took us past some buildings and a beach with an airstrip. It took us past both forts.

New Fortress (opened in 1572)

Old Fortress (opened in 1545)

From where we were in Old Town, it really would not have been a long walk to the Old Fortress, and even closer to the New Fortress, although there is a steep hill to go to that one. We were kind of disappointed that we didn't just wait for the HOHO in the morning because we definitely would have gone to one of these fortresses. 

view of Corfu Town from the cruise terminal

Probably the best thing we could have done was to take a beach day on Corfu. It was so bloody hot, and the beaches looked so wonderful. Missed opportunity. Certainly not the first or the last mistake of this trip. Still, I enjoyed being in Corfu Town, having Greek food, and wandering around the little streets.

Next time I will write about our day in Kotor, Montenegro. It was definitely a highlight of the cruise! Until then, I'll leave you with this pretty sunset pic I took from the balcony of my stateroom.

sunset off the coast of Albania

#3065 The Trip: Catania, Siciliy

 

view of Mount Etna from the cruise ship

The second port of call on the cruise was Catania, Sicily. Sicily is an Italian island off the southeast coast, right at the toe of the boot. Our time in port was kind of short; we arrived at 7am and had to be back on board by 3:30pm. We decided to spend our day walking around the city on our own. I looked up a walking guide and created a walk for us to see the things we though sounded interesting on Google maps. Lizzie usually handles this aspect of travels, but since she wasn't with us, I figured I'd give it a try. She makes it seem easy. My walk wasn't the most efficient, but it was fine. 

It's a quick walk from the port into the city. Our first stop was to see the Cathedral of Catania, Basilica Cattedrale di Sant'Agata. We didn't go inside. 

Cathedral

The Cathedral is in Piazza del Duomo (of course) and is in the heart of this older part of the city. There's a cool obelisk with an elephant, and that white building on the right is City Hall.

Piazza del Duomo

There are fountains and fancy baroque buildings. My initial thoughts about the city on the walk from the ship to this piazza is that Catania is a little gritty. It doesn't have the historical magnificence and grandeur of Rome or the beauty and charm of Florence, but Catania has something that made me want to go a little deeper. Maybe it's Mount Etna looming over the city. Maybe it was the overcast sky giving the whole town a vibe. Maybe it was all the stories you read and movies you see about Sicily. It is Italy, but feels different from Italy at the same time. There have been many other influences at play on this island. 

Directly off the piazza when we turned a corner, there was a fresh fish market in full swing. It didn't smell like fish because all the products had been swimming earlier that morning. It was really cool to see it. I kinda wish we could have found our way down to the market just to look around a bit more, but we didn't. 

fish market

Just up ahead and around another corner, we came upon streets where umbrellas provided shade. It was unexpected and made MT and I feel delighted.

ussie with umbrellas

T was maybe a little less excited.

T didn't like the umbrellas?

I realized just now that I didn't take an ussie of the three of us in Catania. Bummer.

The next thing we saw was Castello Ursino. This 13th century castle/fortress is huge, and at some point had a museum in it, but now it's just sitting there. The neighborhood all around it is decrepit and kinda sad-looking. Even the little piazza in front of it is all dried up and unwelcoming. It was puzzling.

Castello Ursino

From the castle, we went back to Piazza del Duomo and made our way into a chapel across the street from the cathedral. There was rooftop access for views of the city and Mount Etna. MT is a sucker for a view, so we paid 10 euros each to climb up a bunch of stairs. There was a sub-roof where I decided to end my climb because I couldn't handle the tiny spiral staircase to the very top.

I wasn't interested in climbing up the spiral column of steps

my view of the rooftops of Catania and Mount Etna

It was hot in Catania that day, and I was glad to find a bit of shade where I could gaze at the volcano. Did you know that shortly after we got home, Mount Etna started erupting? The airport in Catania was closed because of heavy ash and the volcano has been active for a couple of months now. Glad it was quiet while we were there.

Our last stop of the day was not what I thought it would be, but it was interesting. We walked up a long hill and found this:

San Nicolo l'Arena

This is the Church of Saint Nicholas the Arena, and is the largest church on the island of Sicily. The neoclassical facade is unfinished, leaving it looking kinda strange. It is absolutely massive.

MT looks so small!

The church is part of a monastery that is attached to it, and there is a dome that you can walk up in order to have an excellent view. We didn't go to the monastery or the dome because it was getting late and we had to get back to the ship, plus, I was plumb tuckered out from the walking and the heat, so we headed back down the hills to the port.

My initial impression of Catania is the same as my final impression of the city. The vibe goes from charming to gritty one street to the next. 

That takes care of our day in Catania. Next we will leave Italy for awhile as we make our way around the boot of the country into the Ionian Sea and Corfu, Greece.

xo

#3064 The Trip: Salerno/Pompeii

ussie in Pompeii, Italy

We now begin the cruise portion of The Trip, seven nights, six ports, beginning in the port of Rome, which is in Civitavecchia, and ending in Ravenna, which is a couple of hours from Venice. We had a driver to take us from Rome to Civitavecchia. The driver and MT chatted the whole way, about 90 minutes. I think MT was very pleased to have someone to talk to other than T and I. LOL That first day, we just stayed on the ship, staking out our favorite area on the pool deck where we would return each day of the cruise. We left late in the afternoon, and in the morning, we had arrived in Salerno, Italy.

view of Salerno from the ship

Salerno is in southeastern Italy, and is the gateway to the Amalfi Coast. From Salerno there are many options for day trips, including Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Naples, and Pompeii. We chose to go to Pompeii. The allure of seeing the ruins of this ancient city was really strong. This was one of the few excursions we booked from the ship, but we didn't make a very good choice. We booked the "Pompeii on Your Own" which basically just gave us a ride to Pompeii and back. Once we got to Pompeii, we had to pay to get into the archaeological site and figure our way around the place. We would have been better off to spend the extra money for a real tour. We did get audio guides, but we really didn't use them. The site is huge.

map at the Pompeii archaeological site

There was no way we were going to see much of it in the two hours we had, but the audio guide desk gave us a map and told us about some places we could see in the time we had. We did see cool stuff, and I'm just going to show some photos I took. Sadly, I do not know anything about these places, other than I thought they were amazing. These walls and floors were buried under ash and volcanic debris for nearly 1700 years. The fact that you can see anything at all is mind-blowing to me. 

frescos!

details and colors

zoomed in photo of the little image from the photo above this one

look at the floor!

the detail!

a temple for Isis

amphitheater

pano of the street

pottery

It was extremely hot in Pompeii the day we were there. I'm glad it wasn't rainy, though. I saw some video of rainy Pompeii, and it was kind of scary. Those stone roads are a bit slippery even when they are dry and with the rain, they looked like rivers. Another thing about Pompeii is that there are lots of hills and steps and not much is even footing. I saw some older folks really struggling to get around there.

Tonight T and I watched a show on Disney + called Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston. What I liked about the show was that Hiddleston was trying to help us remember that the people in Pompeii in 79 AD were real people. He focused on three individuals who historians and archaeologists know were in Pompeii on that day and he imagined what their life might have been like and what they went through. It's just three episodes, and I was a little skeptical at first but then I was into it. Worked out perfectly that I was planning to write about Pompeii tonight anyway!

I feel like we missed out here by being cheap. I'd love to go back someday to take a tour and be able to spend as much time as I want on the site. Excavation is still being done, and I think more cool stuff will be found. I'd like very much to go to the museum in Naples, and if I'm in the area anyway, it would be awesome to go to Herculaneum. Ahh...maybe someday.

When we got back to Salerno, we decided that we needed to have pizza since we were so close to Naples (you know, where pizza was invented.) The guide on the bus told us that pizza is serious business in Salerno, so we found a nice-looking restaurant not far from the waterfront that had outdoor seating, and ordered pizzas. My pizza was the signature pizza, Giagiu: The Dream. It was a white pizza with mozzarella, yellow cherry tomatoes, pecorino, Cilento bacon and Cilento extra virgin olive oil, finished with coffee powder and "coffee air." How could I possibly pass on coffee air?

my pizza at Giagiu

See that foamy brown stuff in the middle where the knife is pointing? That is the coffee air. It was basically really light coffee foam. It actually tasted really good with the cheese and the salty bacon. After lunch we got a gelato and walked along the promenade back to the ship. We had a nice day!

Next time, join me to hear about walking around Catania, Sicily. 

xo