Wandering West

Early this morning, we passed Stromboli, one of Europe’s active volcanoes. A couple of hours later, we transited the Straits of Messina. It was very foggy and overcast, so we couldn’t see much. I am glad that we will be passing this way again on our way back to Rome, so I might get a better look.

We are now in the Ionian Sea sailing past the heel of Italy’s boot to the Adriatic Sea en route to Dubrovnik. We arrive there tomorrow. I am spending the day catching up on my laundry and resting.

Additions and Corrections to Previous Posts

Even though I can go back and edit previous posts (which I will when I get home), I am not doing it now because it just takes too long and time is precious on ship internet. Therefore, I thought I would just post some Additions and Corrections to Previous Posts as a reminder for me and to keep my information to you as accurate as possible. Most of the information and stories I post are from the guides, so I don’t know how accurate they are or if they are just spicing up the narrative to make it more interesting….as I am trying to do, too.

Almeria: The village where the story Blood Wedding took place is Cortijos de Fraile. The name of cured ham is jamon Serrano that I saw in Nijer.

Ibezia: The artist who did such great fake Impressionist paintings that they even fooled the experts lived here. Orson Wells made a movie, FAKE, based on him. Clifford Irving, the guy who wrote the unofficial biography of Howard Hughes, also lived here and was friends with the artist. The movie about him was called HOAX.
St. Paul de Vence: The name of the game is not bocci ball, but petanques (accent on the e) or boules. (Sorry, but I am not using the Spanish and French accents because it is too difficult to switch from keyboard to keyboard. I’ll fixed those when I get home.)

Orvieto: The rock was not cut by man, as our driver said. (I thought that was a bit unbelievable when he said it.) In a tour book that I read this morning, it described the rock this way, “a shear tufa outcrop, the remains of volcanoes fractured by millennia of ice, sun and rain.” Sounds more like it, doesn’t it? The name of the lake at Marta is Lake Bolsena.