Our Costa cruise allowed us half a day to explore Kotor, Montenegro in early November. While we really wanted to visit nearby Perast’s Our Lady of the Rocks island, with limited time we decided to focus all our efforts on Kotor. The cruise into the Bay of Kotor in the early morning was quite pretty,…Continue reading Montenegro – Kotor
Category: Europe
Croatia – Split
We had an afternoon in the port of Split, where we quickly disembarked and made our way to Diocletian’s palace, entering the city through the Bronze (south) gate. After cutting through the basement of the Palace (now converted into a museum and gift shops), we emerged into a tourist free Peristyle (the central courtyard of the…Continue reading Croatia – Split
Italy – Murano & Burano
Our Costa Mediterranea cruise was supposed to dock in the port of Trieste today, but due to “inclement weather”, the captain had cancelled the port and given us an extra day to explore Venice. We were a bit bummed out about this because Trieste looked like a fabulous port and we had already planned for…Continue reading Italy – Murano & Burano
Italy – Bologna
An easy train ride from Florence to Bologna brought us to our destination at around noon. Our lodging was at the Bologna Center Town (64 Euros incl breakfast, shared bathroom), a B&B with great reviews located on Via Guglielmo Marconi, a 1 km bus ride or 10 min walk from train station. We caught the…Continue reading Italy – Bologna
Italy – Florence
We arrived in Florence (Santa Maria Novella train station) on an afternoon train from Pisa. Our lodging for two nights was the centrally located Wow Florence Hostel (good value at 52 Euros a night, with a private room/bathroom and kitchen facilities). Dreading the thought of lugging our gear through the city for the 20 minute…Continue reading Italy – Florence