After we left La Coruna, we got caught up in a frenzy of port visits that left little time to maintain this blog, so apologies for the lack of substance.

We stopped at many interesting places and some we don’t need to revisit!  The highlight of this segment of the cruise was a visit to Gallipoli, which included laying a wreath at Lone Pine.

 Marseilles

We were docked about 1.5Km from the centre of the old town which was an easy walk – or would have been if we had turned right off the ship instead of left.  We were slow getting off the ship and by the time we did, the tourist information person who was meant to be available pierside had disappeared so we went the wrong way.  At least we got a decent number of steps up to counteract the indulgences on board.

Setting for The Count of Monte Christo

Marseilles Cathedral

Notre-Dame de la Garde

Reflective Shelter at Old Port

 Cannes

We walked around the old part of town which involved some significant hill climbing and then made our way down to the centre of the town to meet up with Alex for lunch.

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo was a showcase of yachting extravagance.  Although our ship was the largest vessel in port, there were private yachts that came close.

We did a hop on hop off bus tour that took us around the key sights of Monte Carlo which gave us an overview of the town.

Casino

Our Yacht

Yachting Mecca

Monaco

Livorno

Livorno is a town on the Tuscanny coast that serves as the gateway to Pisa and Florence.  Having been to both of those places before, we elected to go to Lucca, about an hour away from the port.  Lucca is a quaint old city famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

Naples

The ship was offering tours to Pompei and Sorrento but as we had been to both recently, so we elected for a hop on hop off bus tour around Naples.  We didn’t bother getting off as it was very crowded and we might not be able to get back on a bus for some time.  The traffic around Naples was very bad and we spent a fair amount of our bus journey stationary.

There were major excavations going on around the port which added to the congestion but also had a major impact on pedestrian traffic.