… to make the Renaissance Passage …

… on the Ocean Princess, flying across the Atlantic with Sally Fritsch, just to cruise back over 18 days. First stop: Rome, Italy, or more correctly, Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome. Flying on Lufthansa through Frankfurt, we hoped there would be no strikes to delay our flight – and learned from the flight attendant that there had been union meetings the day before. Sure enough, Lufthansa did strike the very next day, delaying some fellow cruisers!

We stayed in a charming hotel in Fiumicino, a short ride from the airport. The hotel was a converted house, and all of our needs from arrival to departure were ably taken care of by Federico. We made the hour-plus ride to the port the following day, and boarded through a nearly empty cruise terminal. Stuff stowed, we explored the tiny Ocean Princess; holding just 680 passengers, it’s less than half the size of the Amsterdam, our Grand World Voyage ship. It’s easy to get around.

    

By 7 am the next day we were in Livorno. Our excursion was an endurance challenge, consisting of a bus ride to Florence, followed by a long walk through the city’s streets, with time spent at the Academia viewing the always handsome David (his pupils are shaped like hearts!); the picturesque Ponte Vecchio; the Duomo and Baptistery, both currently undergoing restoration; the leather market; the Piazza delle Signoria; followed by a wonderful Tuscan lunch in a beautiful room at the Bargello Palazzo.

        

  
 
We had a few moments of free time at the Piazza Santa Croce after lunch, where Frank viewed the final resting places of Machiavelli, Dante, Galileo and Michelangelo. Then it was back on the bus for an hour and a half ride to Pisa to see the “Square of Miracles,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Baptistery, Cathedral, and cemetery. Traffic delays made ours the last bus back to the ship.