May sound strange, but…  We felt overwhelmingly welcome and comfortable in Sicily.  This is OLD world Italy, not really tourist-y or accommodating for Americans, but the charm and mystique simply consumes you.  We met some new friends here that we’d been sailing with for a few days but just hadn’t met on-board or on other excursions, and we really enjoyed exploring the city with them.

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Our Mediterranean cruise afforded us the opportunity to spend some time in North Africa.  We were privileged to spend time in ancient Carthage, modern-day Tunisia.

One of the real highlights of the day was shopping in the market.  On the bus, the guide told us that Tunisia has 2 official national sports: soccer and bargaining.  Houston wanted to try his hand Read more →

So, funny thing about Napoli…..

We flew into Rome and rented a car to get to Naples, where we initially boarded our week-long Mediterranean cruise.  Eric got his international drivers license, and was truly excited about a) getting to drive on the wrong side of the road, and 3) strolling down the West Coast of Italy to kill a few hours between landing in Rome and getting on the cruise. Read more →