On The Sea Again, I Just Can't Wait To Get On The Sea Again: July 2025

Today will be a shorter entry since I'll just be covering our day in Sorrento, Italy. First I'll hit on a couple of items from last evening. Linda and I did a Moet and Chandon champagne tasting. Good champagne, food, and dialogue from the terrific Head Sommelier, Vitaly.

We were then treated to a sunset view of the Stromboli volcano.

Nice but not as dramatic as when we sailed by at night 3 years ago and she was showing off!

Today we had views of Mt. Vesuvius as we sailed in.

This morning we took the tender in and strolled around Sorrento. We have been here several times and we always enjoy walking around the city (despite the summer crowd!). We started at Parco Lauro.

We then made our way over to the main square, Piazza Tasso.

From there, we walked along Corso Italia, the shopping street.

We stopped at the Cathedral and admired the inlaid wood panels in the altars.

At the end of Corso Italia we walked down to the small, crowded street, Via San Cesareo.

And then it was time for lunch where a mistake paid off. Last time we were here, we had lunch at a small pizza restaurant and it was my intent to return. However, I misread my own blog and we went to the wrong restaurant, O'Parrucchia La Favorita. We dined in the lovely garden. I had an unusual and delicious spaghetti with clams in a yellow tomato sauce and Linda had veggies stuffed with cheese.

After lunch we walked to the Villa Communale for the views.

We then walked down the steep switchbacks to return to the tender pier. There were lots of people taking advantage of the good weather.

We spent about 3 hours in Sorrento which was about perfect. It's a city that we always like to walk around in.

After today's restaurant "mistake", I'm going to use my own words of wisdom:

It's better to be lucky than good.

BTW, in the last post, I failed to mention that Malta was country number 20.

Also, I'd like to request that, if you leave an anonymous comment, please identify yourself so I can respond. Thanks.

Peace, blessings, and wonder,

Linda and Larry

. . . But I'll try. The first port of call after the turnover day in Piraeus was to be Mykonos, Greece. When we woke up that morning and looked out, we saw the wind and the waves and suspected that we might not be going in. Sure enough, in a few minutes, the captain made the announcement that, due to those conditions, we would not be able to dock so it became a sea day. We had booked an excursion to the island of Delos, which we haven't been to in, probably, 30 years. A bit disappointing, but we really felt bad for Yasuko and Marc who have not been to the Greek Islands. Our disappointment was eased by yet another bingo win for Lucky Linda!

The next day, Saturday, we were in Santorini, Greece. It was a nice sail in to our anchoring position in the caldera.

Linda and I took an excursion, Santorini Winery & Oia. I like Greek wines and we liked Oia when we were there a few years ago. The excursion started with a long tender ride to one end of the island.

After the curvy ride up the hill, we arrived at the Santos Winery. The experience there was disappointing. The place is essentially a wine tasting factory - crowded with many tour buses and mediocre wine.

It did provide good views!

After that, we were driven across the island to the town of Oia. It was interesting to see the way the vines are grown - pruned very low to the ground to protect them from the wind.

In Oia, we had free time. We walked directly to the restaurant that we had eaten at many years ago. Good salads, good wines and good views - what could be better.

After lunch we had time for a quick walk through Oia. It was hot and crowded.

We have found many of the places we have visited on this cruise to be hot and crowded. Just check out the number of tour buses in the parking lot in Oia. Our advice is not to book a cruise to this part of the world at this time of the year!

We were bused back to Fira, the main town of Santorini. We took another quick walk through town to get to the cable car station. I was tempted to walk down to the tender pier, but it was simply too hot. Kudos to Marc and Yasuko who got up early and walked up the steps to Fira! On the tender ride back to the ship we got a good view of the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. It is the same ship that we were on for an Alaska cruise 2 years ago with our California family. We'll stick with Oceania.

The evening gave us a different view of Santorini.

One venue we have enjoyed on Allura (as well as her sister, Vista) is the Founder's Bar. They have very creative cocktails served in unique ways.

Sunday was a planned day at sea which turned out to be very busy. The first activity for us was Majority Rules Trivia led by Cruise Director Paul. The object is not to give the correct answer to a question, but rather to give the answer that most of the teams will provide. Linda and I take a very different approach - we try to give the most ridiculous answers which usually bring good laughs from the crowd.

And then, guess what? Lucky Linda did it again! When she went to buy the cards, she even let a woman behind her go next because she had a feeling that she wanted the one after the next one.

The real highlight of the day was the Cellar Master's lunch which featured six courses paired with six wines. Yasuko and Marc joined us, but silly us did not get a picture of the group. I did get pictures of the food, of course.

Because, we do not eat meat, they replaced the Chateaubriand course with a delicious fish course for us.

It was a filling and fulfilling experience!

Monday we were in Valletta, Malta. We had one main objective for our visit. Our granddaughter, Phoebe, is getting married in October. She and her fiance, Carter, decided on a destination wedding and the destination they picked is Malta. Phoebe asked us to check out the wedding venue which is outside of the town of Mdina. We took the Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) bus from the port to Mdina.

Once there, we walked into the walled city.

We continued through the walled city and then down to the venue, Olive Gardens (no, not the restaurant chain!). Though the venue was closed we were able to "sneak" in and get a good look. We think that it will be great (and so does Phoebe).

Mission accomplished, we climbed back up to Mdina, walked a bit through the town and settled down for lunch. I have to tell you that Linda continues to love the beers in this part of the world!

After lunch, we walked to a view point and got another look at Olive Gardens.

On the walk back to the shuttle bus stop, we passed a parade of young people taking part in a Catholic conclave.

Our original thought was to take a big loop on the HOHO but when we realized that it would take about 3 hours to circle the island, we opted for the short ride back to the port.

The sail out of Valletta gave us a reminder of the christening cruise for Vista although this time there were no cannons being fired and no fire boats spraying!

And finally I have caught up to today which is a momentous day but not because of the port we're in. I'll touch on the port first. It's Messina, Sicily, Italy. We've been here before and the last time I noted in the blog that we were not impressed. We thought that we might go to the beach town of Torre Faro which would require a taxi or Uber. When we arrived in Messina, it was raining and checking I found that the Uber fare was 40 Euro each way. Change of plans. I had noticed this monument across the bay from the port and it looked like a doable walk to get there. We set off after the rain had stopped. However, it soon became obvious that it would not be a very nice walk so we turned around and just did a short walk through Messina, dodging rain showers along the way.

After lunch back on the ship, we went for another short walk. At least we found a park to give us a respite from the old and rundown city of Messina. Sorry Messina, but we are still not impressed by your city.