Tuesday, 4 October 2016

October 4, 2016

We are en route from Barcelona to Rome.   At 7 a.m., the ship was half way between Barcelona and the French island of Corsica.  The temperature was 19 C faint clouds on the horizon and there was a bit of a breeze.  We started the morning with cappuccinos at Café al Bacio on Deck 5, then, continued to Deck 14’s walking track to walk just over three miles before showering for breakfast.  At breakfast in the dining room, we sat with Mike and Sharon from Chattanooga, Tennesse.  There were shallow waves and some small white caps topping the waves.
We went to two presentations this morning.  One about the next three ports – Civitavecchia, about a 90 minute drive from Rome; Salerno with excursions to Sorrento, the Amalfi coast, Pompeii, and the island of Capri; and the Greek island of Santorini.   It looks like a lot of great ports in the next three days.  We won a raffle prize of an excursion for one to Ephesus, but we had already booked an excursion.  Following was a lecture about the history of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. Brendene and Brian joined us for the presentation.  When we decided to go to the dining room for lunch, we asked to share a table with other passengers and were directed to a table where a couple, from Cincinnati, was chatting with Brendene and Brian. We were one of the last tables to leave the dining room.  We spent a leisurely afternoon walking around the pool and chatting with Flo and Carol and later with Pat and Frank.
About 2:30p.m., the ship started through the Strait of Bonifacio, between the French island of Corsica and the Italian island of Sardinia.  The body of water, between these islands and the western coast of Italy is known as the Tyrrhenian Sea.  The ship sailed through the strait in about three hours. We took some picture of the coast of both islands, including a lighthouse off the coast of Corsica which looked like it was sprouting from the water
Tonight was the first “Evening Chic” dining room dress code dinner, where people were asked to dress up a bit more than usual.  Attire ranged from sports shirts and trousers to tuxedos for the men and short sleeve blouses and capris to gowns or sequined cocktail dresses for the women.  The ship’s photographers set up background screens for formal portraits as couple went to the dining room.
Tonight’s dinner starters were Frogs legs, Spinach Salad or Tomato Watermelon Salad followed by either Beef Torunado with onions, mushrooms and green beans in a truffle sauce or Shrimp Scampi with linguini.  Dessert choices were New York cheesecake or Apple Crumble a la mode.
The house band Front Row was playing in the Grand Foyer, again there was photographer’s portrait station at the bottom of the Grand staircase and 15 or so couples dancing as people with drinks weaved through the crowd.  It was a very crowded dance floor, although we did manage to dance a few dances.
The production show was “Life” with the ship’s singers and dancers in colourful costumes.

Total distance today 5.6 miles.






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