Italy

Well I must admit I didn't think that Italy would appeal to me. I'm not an arty farty person. I'm not a great fan of museums or art galleries but I absolutely loved Italy. The architecture, the colours, and the scenery - especially in Tuscany.

I was lucky enough to get to go to a few places in Italy - Naples, Genoa, Portofino, and Florence just name a few. Italy is one country that I definitely have to go back to and explore in more detail.

Naples was our first stop at a city in almost 2 weeks so it was a shock to the system to see so many people again and so much traffic. We only docked here as the weather was too rough to go to Sorrento. I took the funicular up to the top of a hill thinking I would get good views on the way up. I was wrong - it was just like the underground tubes but it went up the hill. At least I saw some beautiful buildings and residential apartments. I also loved the quaint narrow cobblestoned lanes off the main roads.

We went to Genoa twice because the sea was too rough for us to go to Portofino. I just wandered around the waterfront and then tried to find an internet cafe. At least the taxi driver knew where to go and I saw a little bit of Genoa. What I saw I liked.

Portofino

This is meant to be the world's most beautiful small port and I would have to agree. The only thing I didn't like was that it was really touristy. There was no way you could imagine locals living here.

This was taken at the fort overlooking Portofino. I felt as though I would never make it to the top of the hill.

Also taken from the fort this time looking at the next bay around.

Santa Margerita

Really beautiful little town. You could definitely tell this was a real town - not just for tourists. There were lots of window boxes full of flowers in bloom. I absolutely loved the walls of the buildings. At first glance you thought that the walls were made of brick and decorated ornately. But it was all just a facade painted onto the walls. These photos are examples of them.

Portovenera

This little port was gorgeous. I actually loved it more than Portofino. You could definitely tell this was a real town - not just for tourists. All the narrow buildings and different colours used to paint them.

Messina

Messina is a town in Sicily. We were there on a Sunday and found it really hard to go somewhere for coffee. There was nothing close by that was open, but after about 2 hours we finally found a cafe.

I had to take a photo of this clock tower because it has the signs of the zodiac instead of numbers on the clock face.

Florence/Pisa

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