PORTOFINO AND CAMOGLI — MAY 10, 2026

If Saturday was picture perfect, Sunday was anything but. It was an ugly duckling, at least as far as the weather was concerned. The brilliant blue skies and abundant sunshine of Saturday had vanished and left us with gray skies, low clouds, heavy seas, and intermittent, sometimes heavy rain. If I was home I would have had a pajama day, but since I was in Portofino I decided the thing to do was get dressed and take my tour!

We had chosen a Celebrity tour called Portofino and Paradise Gulf by Land and Sea for Portofino. I wanted to see the town from the water, and I had visions of those classic Portofino shots filling my head. I also liked the ease of getting off the ship with a ship’s tour since Portofino is a tender port and they use the ship’s lifeboats to get passengers ashore.

The day started with a whole lotta waiting and (somewhat) controlled chaos. Celebrity is still using the archaic system of giving out stickers and attempting to get everybody to sit until their number is called. Nobody listens, so the person on the microphone ends up having to repeat themselves several times. Everyone winds up clustered in the back of the theater, because of course everyone thinks they need to be the first one out the door. We got our numbers, joined the cluster near the back, and waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed like forever, but in reality I guess we waited about 45 minutes until our number was called.

The tender ride into town was relatively short and not too rough, although I could see how it wouldn’t have been fun for someone who is prone to seasickness. When we got to the town pier we found our guide and lined up on the pier to catch the boat for the “sea” part of our land and sea tour. There were a lot of people on the dock, and our guide was quite petite so I found it hard to see her. It was also hard to hear her despite having the little tour headphone things.

I didn’t love the boat ride, but I think that was more a function of the weather than the ride itself. There just really wasn’t much to see because of the mist/clouds, and we had chosen to sit outside so we really couldn’t hear the commentary either.

The trip to Camogli didn’t take too long, and when we arrived we were greeted by the sight of many, many people lined up around the square. We learned it was the weekend of the annual Fish Festival (Sagra de Pesche), and after a weekend of celebrations and bonfires, the festivities culminate on Sunday with a giant fish fry featuring free food for all. Here’s a picture of a representation of the giant pan they use, a picture of the fish they serve, and a short video that tells about the weekend.

Camogli Fish Festival

The Fish Festival wasn’t part of our itinerary, so we followed our guide on a short walking tour of the town, and then we were given free time until lunch. Rain was threatening all during the walk, and it was very difficult to hear the guide, so I admit to removing my ear buds and just taking it all it. Camogli really was a charming town, it just didn’t show well on the day we were there.

During our free time we found a coffee shop that also had a restroom for customers, so we grabbed a table and split a delicious apricot pastry. We also had enough a time to purchase a travel magnet and look for tacky souvenirs. We found an abundance of tacky magnets — some were so raunchy I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture! Who buys that stuff and what do they do with it?

By the time we met for lunch the rain had really settled in. Lunch was down a set of steep, scary, wet stairs, but I managed to get into the restaurant without breaking my neck (or tearing any ligaments!) so I’ll call that a win. The restaurant appeared to be a combination restaurant/bar/beach club. I’m not sure how much business the restaurant would get outside of the tour groups on a regular day. Perhaps people using the beach and changing facilities would also eat there?

Lunch was OK…not particularly memorable, but at least we were inside out of the rain! We had focaccia bread and pesto pasta, which are two of the things the Ligurian coast is known for. The wine and Limoncello were plentiful, and we were also served dessert, but I didn’t take any pictures at lunch and I don’t remember what it was!🤷‍♀️ The meal was filling and very carb heavy. I found myself longing for a lettuce leaf or some cucumber!🥬🥒

After lunch we made our way through town and the fish festivities to the boat for the “scenic cruise” back to Portofino.

We chose to sit inside on the boat for the trip back to Portofino since it was raining pretty hard. That meant we really couldn’t see much. The seas had gotten angry and it was a rough ride along the coast. We stopped briefly in the secluded Bay of San Fruttuoso to see the 10th century Benedictine abbey, but the visibility was so poor by this time that I didn’t even pull out my phone, much less my camera!😳

By the time we got back to Portofino Jim and I were more or less done. We walked with the group for a while, but we couldn’t hear the guide and we felt like we were just shuffling through crowded, wet cobblestone streets that looked very much like other towns we had seen but with more expensive stores. When the group got back to the main piazzetta (central square) we decided to call it a day instead of climbing up the steep, wet stone steps to the historic Church of San Giorgio perched above the town.

In hindsight, this tour was probably not a good choice for us. It was the only thing I found that would allow me to see Portofino from the water, and I had visions of the beautiful travel brochure shots I was going to take of Portofino from the water and then from above when we climbed to the church. You know the ones…you can find them everywhere when you look for things to do in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately there were just too many people on the tour for us, and that combined with the weather made it a not-memorable day.

Of course, we couldn’t leave Portofino without adding to our travel magnet collection, and I found another tacky souvenir — a pair of socks with pictures of classic Italian things. From the socks, I can conclude Italians like sunshine, wine, basil, lemons, peppers, and penises!😳

The tender ride back to the ship was interesting to say the least. I was lucky enough to grab a seat near the door where I got some fresh air, but even near the door the air in the tender was thick and the ride was uncomfortable.🤢 We were pitching all over the place, and the crew had a very hard time securing the tender so we could get back on the ship. Stepping off the tender onto the platform required timing, patience, and agility. We saw many people who were shaken up by the experience. It didn’t really bother me, but I admit I was relieved to be back on board.

We were leaving Italy and heading to France for our next two ports of Nice and Marseilles.🇫🇷 Nice was first — thankfully we had booked a private tour and we were hoping for better weather!

CINQUE TERRE — MAY 9, 2026

Every so often things come together perfectly — weather, location, companions, timing — and a magnificent travel day is the result. So it was with our day in Cinque Terre. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Cinque Terre (which means five lands) is a series of five seaside villages built on the steep hillsides lining the Italian coast. The villages, the coastline, and the surrounding land now form the Cinque Terre National Park and are a major tourist attraction. The villages are connected by ferry, train, or hiking path. Cars can only reach the area with great difficulty, parking is scarce, and there is little to no vehicle traffic in the villages.

The early residents of the area were farmers, and the land around each village was originally used primarily for growing grapes and olives. You can still see evidence of that today in the terraced land stretching down the hillsides. Interestingly enough, fishing was not a primary industry even though the villages of Cinque Terre are now thought of as fishing villages. Only Monterosso al Mare had an established fishing tradition, and in the remaining villages fishing was only for local sustenance.

The brightly colored houses that attract so many tourists are a fairly recent development. Until the 1970’s most of the houses were natural colors, with a few brightly colored houses here and there so fishermen could spot their home from the sea. The painting of all the homes started as an effort to attract tourists. I’d say it worked! Today the color of each home is regulated by the National Park. Although a homeowner can’t be forced to repaint or make repairs if their home falls into disrepair, once they begin a renovation project their paint choice will be made for them!

Our day in Cinque Terre began when we met our guide outside the cruise terminal about 8:15. Even though we could have done this trip by ourselves, our day was much richer and more stress-free touring with someone who knew the history of the area as well as the ins and outs of travel in the region.

I booked our tour through LivTours and Filippo Coari was our guide. What a fantastic tour he gave us! Filippo works as a contractor for several travel/tour providers, and also has his own business. I highly recommend Filippo! Here’s his contact information:

We walked from the cruise terminal to the ferry dock. Here’s where having a guide really paid off…Filippo knew how early we needed to be there to be first in line to get on the first ferry of the day, and he knew exactly where we needed to sit once we were on the boat. We grabbed our prime viewing seats upstairs in the back corner, and we were off!

The ferry makes five stops on the two plus hour journey to Monterosso — the first is in Porto Venere, and then four of the five villages. The ferry doesn’t stop in Corniglia since the village is built high up on a hill and there is no pier.

Porto Venere is not part of Cinque Terre but is often referred to as the sixth village because of its location along the same coast. Porto Venere is older than any of the five villages, and is a beautiful town in its own right.

After we left Porto Venere we stopped at or passed by each of the villages as we made our way up the coast. Each village has its own unique features and history, and Filippo shared his knowledge. We also considered our options and formulated a plan for the rest of the day. We decided to go all the way to Monterosso on the ferry, then travel back by train stopping at one or two of the other towns. We settled on Vernazza and either Riomaggiore or Manarola, depending on how my ankle felt near the end of the day. Riomaggiore would require navigating steep slopes immediately after exiting the train station, whereas access to Manarola would be relatively flat. We ruled out Corniglia. It looked charming, but there are almost 400 switchback stairs between the train station and the village and that seemed like something I probably didn’t want to attempt yet! Little did I know what was waiting for me in Vernazza!

Once decisions had been made, the rest of the journey was spent viewing the Cinque Terre coast and villages through my lens!

I loved every minute of the ferry ride, but I was also excited to disembark in Monterosso and start exploring.

We wound our way through the narrow streets and Filippo explained how the houses would have been used “back in the day” and how they have changed over the years. Most of the homes have very large double doors at street level that were used for storage of oversized items such as wine casks. Entrance to the home would have been through a separate, smaller door or a door that was inset into the larger storage door.

We took time to look in a few shops, and we were rewarded with a magnet, an ornament, our “nice” souvenir from the trip, and a photo of the tacky magnet of the day!😂

Lunch was at a wonderful restaurant on the hillside overlooking the beach and town. Jim was brave and tried some fried anchovies (a local favorite) based on Filippo’s recommendation. I stuck with the other favorite local dish, pesto pasta. The food was excellent, and as with every place we went everything was very fresh and grown/made locally.

We knew we had to get moving if we wanted to see more of Cinque Terre, so we reluctantly left our table with a view and headed to the train station.

Monterosso is split by a mountain into 2 parts — the old town and the new town. The two distinct sections are connected by a tunnel, which we used to access the newer part of town where the train station is located.

The train connecting the villages is fast and runs frequently, so we were in Vernazza in a matter of minutes. Vernazza is the most “popular” village and the one most frequently seen in photographs. It is also just as crowded as you would expect a top attraction to be.

Still, it wasn’t unmanageable, and we enjoyed walking the narrow streets and seeing the differences between Vernazza and the much larger Monterosso.

No visit to Vernazza would be complete without climbing to the lookout point above the village to see the famous views of the colorful town. This was my first real test of my ankle. We had walked a lot and I had navigated a lot of stairs, but the climb in Vernazza took things up a couple notches! According to AI (I didn’t count!🤷‍♀️) the climb to the panoramic viewpoint is 700-800 steep, uneven stone steps.

It was worth it!

Getting down proved to be more difficult and a lot scarier than the climb. There are few handrails to be found in old European villages, and absolutely nothing resembling an ADA law! Luckily Jim and Filippo were very patient and helpful. Jim carried all the bags and Filippo held my hand on the rough parts to make sure I didn’t slip and fall.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and our day in Cinque Terre was no exception. We decided it was too late to try to walk around another of the villages, so we caught the train and headed back to La Spezia.

It was a day I wouldn’t go back and change even if I could. The villages of Cinque Terre were picture perfect!

PISA, LUCCA, AND WINE TASTING IN TUSCANY — MAY 8, 2026

I’m going to start with a quote by Elbert Hubbard. He said, “No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.” Looking back, that quote sums up our vacation, and it was on full display with what we did on our first day in La Spezia.

It started out innocently enough. I saw a great tour to Florence and Pisa and booked it immediately without really digging in to what a day trip to those places would entail. My plan was to return to the ship and have a leisurely evening, then a morning boat ride to Porto Venere on Saturday followed by a quick wine tasting through Celebrity in the afternoon.

Well, as Jim often says, our plans are only our plans until I change my mind, and never was that more in play than our two days in LaSpezia. Once I realized we would have spent more time riding in a van than sightseeing, Florence and Pisa became a tour with Bella Italia Tours (https://www.bellaitaliatour.com) to Pisa, Lucca, and a Tuscan winery. Saturday’s plans got scrapped for a full day tour of Cinque Terre. As if that wasn’t enough, I started wondering why we were going to eat dinner on the ship when we were in Italy, and a Sunset Dinner Cruise got added to our itinerary.

I’m glad we changed things around. Our tour with Bella Italia was fantastic, and the dinner cruise was pleasant and relaxing, even if it wasn’t quite what we expected. But more about dinner later…I have three other places to write about first!

Our tour with Bella Italia was in a van with two other couples from the ship. We started in Pisa, where we had plenty of time to walk around and take the standard tourist pictures.

We saw something in our wanderings that became a joke focus of our trip. While we were casually shopping the “Flea Market” by the leaning tower we came across a rather graphic David magnet. When we really looked closely every stall had their version of David! From that point on we made it a point to look for tacky souvenirs, and we saw some doozies! Since I know you’re wondering, at the end of the trip we were able to determine that the French are much classier than the Italians or the Spanish when it comes to producing souvenirs!

We left Pisa after about an hour for the short (30ish minute) drive to Lucca. Our guide Mossimo (Max) provided great commentary during the driving segments of the tour which helped pass the time in the van. Once we reached the destinations Max gave us an overview and suggestions, but beyond that we were on our own. That was a little surprising and unexpected, but we still had a very nice day.

Lucca is a charming walled Renaissance town with narrow cobblestone streets and wide ramparts surrounding the old city. Jim and I walked around town on the ramparts, and wove our way through the narrow streets until we found a place for lunch.

Lunch didn’t disappoint! One thing that always strikes me in Europe is how good the food is. It’s fresh and not over-processed or loaded with preservatives. I can easily taste the difference between the food in Europe and at home.

The drive from Lucca to the Valle del Sole winery (https://www.valledelsole.eu/en/) was only about 15 minutes, but it was very scenic and I especially enjoyed seeing the pelotons we passed.

At the winery we were treated to a tour of the production facilities and a seated tasting. Such a pleasant afternoon!

The drive back to the port was about an hour. There was plenty to look at, but I was already thinking ahead and hoping we would have time to get back to our cabin for a quick refresh before our sunset cruise.

Here are a couple of ”windshield shots” of things that caught my eye on the way back to the ship.

We ended up having just enough time to get back to the ship and freshen up a bit before we had to leave for our evening tour. It was an enjoyable evening with a handful of things that weren’t expected, but I’m still glad we went. We booked the tour through Get Your Guide: https://www.getyourguide.com/la-spezia-l1348/portovenere-aperitif-tour-at-sunset-t439640/?ranking_uuid=0e355c98-dcdd-4da6-8e50-1a64aae74fcb&referral_redirect=1&q=sunset%20cruise.

It was about a 20 minute walk to get to the departure point for our sailing tour. I’m glad it wasn’t more than that…this day was one of just two during the trip that my ankle needed to remind me I had surgery in August. It didn’t hurt, but it was TIRED, and it reminded me it was tired with every step.

The ride to Porto Venere was very relaxing. Unfortunately one of the “unexpecteds” for the evening was that the captain spoke very little English. There was one passenger who spoke Italian, but translation was sporadic so I had to do a lot of Googling to find out exactly what I took pictures of!

We got to Porto Venere about 7:20, and this is where we had a second unexpected moment. We were dropped off, and told to be back at the dock in an hour!😳 I had so many questions! What about sunset? When is dinner?😂

Apparently one of the ladies on the sailing had mentioned she wanted to swim, so we all had to get off the boat so she could spend some time in the water. Of course she decided not to swim, but there we were with an unplanned stop in Porto Venere for an hour! I wasn’t happy…we really didn’t know what was going on, and to this American it was way past dinner time!

We looked at a few restaurants that all seemed like more than we wanted or had time for, and finally settled on a cone of fries. They were hot and delicious and enough to tide us over until dinner which at this point I was hoping wouldn’t end up being breakfast!

It was close to 8:30 when we got back on the boat and the captain seemed surprised that we wanted to see the sunset, but with some convincing from the man who spoke Italian he reluctantly took us back out to the bay to see the end of the sunset.

We headed back to the calm waters near Porto Venere for dinner, and that was when we had another unexpected glitch. The captain and his helper were just about to serve dinner (at 9:00) when one of the ladies made a big stink about not liking pesto. Dinner was delayed again. We all had to wait while the cook/helper made a separate bowl of pasta with red sauce.

The food was fine, but by that time I was exhausted and had kind of lost interest in dinner. I nibbled a little, enjoyed the view, and was very thankful when the crew cleaned up the food and headed back to port!

We had a great day, but we were beyond exhausted and knew we had to get up very early again the next day. This trip really let us know that we need to do a MUCH better job of scheduling our tours and allowing for down time when we’re in Europe. I can’t imagine trying to keep this pace on the next trip when we’ll be gone almost 5 weeks!

MAY 6, 2026

I had been looking forward to our day in Naples ever since we chose this cruise and started planning. I was very torn on what to do with our day — Jim hadn’t been to any of the places on the list of possibilities, so he was noncommittal. I really wanted to go to Pompeii but I also wanted to go to Sorrento (for purely nostalgic reasons) and so the Positano/Sorrento day trip won.

This would probably be a good time to mention that we had a great time, but the Sorrento we saw bore little resemblance to the Sorrento where I spent a week as a teenager. I’m not sure what I was thinking…I was there over half a century ago so I have fuzzy memories of a beautiful, idyllic town atop a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. It’s still a beautiful location, but I had a hard time aligning my memories with what I saw. More about that later, back to our day!

We took a small group tour through ItalyTours.EU and were paired with two other couples from our ship. We had all met at 7 Bell’s House in Civitavecchia and made arrangements to disembark together for our tour. Our driver Enzo was waiting for us and we headed out to Positano.

Honestly, the drive was a little tedious. It was pretty overcast which limited the views, and the traffic was INSANE! It took two hours to drive 36 miles to Positano! We stopped once for pictures overlooking the Amalfi Coast, but we were pretty happy to get to Positano and get out of the van for a while.

The last couple miles of mountain road leading in to Positano were lined with cars parked bumper to bumper. Enzo explained there is so little parking in Positano that’s where residents have to park! I can’t imagine having to walk a couple miles up a steep road just to get to my car! Can you imagine if you got to your car and discovered you had forgotten your keys?😳

Positano was beautiful from land but I would have loved to see it from the water. We enjoyed walking around the narrow streets and exploring, but I don’t think I would want to stay in Positano. I thought it was congested considering when we were there it was still not “high” season. To me it would be a great place to visit by ferry for the day and stay in a town like Sorrento that’s more accessible.

We left Positano after about an hour and a half, and headed to Sorrento where we were going to spend most of our day.

The drive into and through Sorrento was beautiful. Enzo took us past the hotel where my family stayed in the 70s, but outside of the hotel itself nothing struck a chord in my memory. The quaint seaside town I remembered had, like so many other places worldwide, become a major tourist attraction.

We were treated to a wonderful Limoncello tasting! My favorite was the Limoncello Cream.

Remember I mentioned the view across the Bay of Naples? The view hasn’t changed, but the weather didn’t cooperate!

As in the 1970s, there are many paths and terraces along the sea to walk, relax, and take pictures. These days, that means large groups of tourists waving selfie sticks, but we were successful in having Enzo take a picture that only required a little cropping to get rid of the selfie-takers!😂

We had a great lunch at Donna Sofia. Unfortunately I didn’t make a good choice. I thought my ravioli was weird and way too heavy, but everybody else loved their food. The restaurant was beautiful and it was a very relaxing break in the middle of a busy day.

After lunch we had time to walk around and shop. Jim and I added to our growing travel magnet and ornament collection, and I found TWO backpack handbags I couldn’t live without. Not a bad haul for a short amount of shopping time!😂

We were supposed to see Naples on the way back to the ship, but Enzo offered a “drive by” of Pompeii instead and we all jumped at the chance. We didn’t go in, but we did have time to get out and look at what could be seen from the street.

Much like Sorrento, the Pompeii I saw didn’t look anything like my memories. It’s much bigger now due to continuing excavation, and much more touristy. It reminded me a lot of visiting Stonehenge in 2018 for the first time since the mid 70s. What was once a quiet site had become a major attraction complete with traffic, souvenir shops, and lines.

All in all this was a really nice port day. I would have liked clearer weather, but it didn’t rain and we were able to see everything we wanted to see and then some!

MAY 4, 2026

We had chosen to bypass the Rome crowds in favor of a short two-night stay in Civitavecchia. It was a good decision for what we wanted on this trip! We had just finished a very busy two weeks including volunteering at/riding in the MS 150 the weekend before we left, and we knew we’d have very little down time once we got on the ship.

Civitavecchia was much less crowded than Rome, and although Rome has more than its fair share of popular sights, we found plenty to see and do in Civitavecchia. We scheduled a History and Food tour of Civitavecchia with Pamela Marchetti/Window on Italy who had been recommended by friends.

Window on Italy

The ancient city of Civitavecchia (Centum Cellae) was founded by Emperor Trajan in 106 AD as a major port for Rome, although there is evidence of Etruscan habitation as far back as the 6th-7th Century BC.

Civitavecchia is a city of layers, with Medieval Structures built atop Roman ruins. The modern port follows the basic outline of the ancient Roman port, and there are still some structures standing from Roman times. Civitavecchia was heavily bombed during WWII and modern buildings were built around and on top of ancient ruins. The city is a mix of old and new, with occasional glimpses of ancient structures, city walls, and gates.

In addition to a big dose of history, we tasted some wonderful local food in the kinds of places that are hard for tourists to find.

My only criticism of the tour was that I was so tired by the end that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. The combination of jet lag, little sleep, good food and wine, and thousands of steps meant I was practically sleepwalking by the end of the tour.😴

Despite my tiredness, I didn’t get a great night’s sleep. I found the bed too hard to get comfortable, although I did finally doze off after I moved to a different bed (our room had four!). Other than the bed, I found the 7 Bell’s Guest House to be a great place to stay. The owner couldn’t do enough for us, our room was large and very clean, and a simple but adequate breakfast was included.

One thing that I found interesting was that our “hotel” was one of two guest houses in a building with several apartments and small businesses. I don’t think the residents appreciated us, especially when there were 8 of us moving cruise luggage down the elevator on Tuesday morning!

Our first afternoon and evening on the ship were pretty uneventful. It had gotten unbelievably windy by the time we sailed, so we went to the Sunset Bar for sailaway but didn’t last long.

Our first impression of the ship was that the Equinox was showing her age in places. For example, our cabin was in excellent condition, but our balcony looked almost as old as some of the ruins we saw in Civitavecchia. Other than our balcony, there was nothing that impacted our cruise, but we both thought the ship was overdue for a major renovation.

We went to Le Petit Chef for dinner the first night. What an entertaining meal with great food! This would probably be a good place to mention that I LOVE the way Celebrity handles their beverage packages. Once you show your card you’re done. There are no annoying slips to sign and keep track of. Just show your card and the bartenders/waiters/sommeliers will keep pouring!