Should We Stay or Should We Go

  Ravello in the Rain When we left Amalfi, we headed up to Ravello, the town Alex, our driver for the day, had told us was his favourite on the Amalfi Coast. We were looking forward to seeing it for ourselves, but by the time we arrived, it was pouring rain. It was lunchtime, so we thought we'd have something to eat and hope the weather cleared up while we were eating. Unfortunately, by the time lunch was over, it was raining even harder! Just off the town square where we were having lunch was an old building with a beautiful entranceway. We'd been looking at it throughout our meal, and since we weren't going to be doing much exploring in the rain, we decided to see if what it was. As it turned out, we'd stumbled upon Villa Rufolo, one of Ravello's most famous historic buildings. Discovering Villa Rufolo Villa Rufolo dates back to the 13th century, when the wealthy Rufolo family built an impressive residence in the heart of Ravello. The family was influential ...

  We had been looking forward to our day in Naples, or Napoli as the Italians call it. We had a special day planned for the whole family, with a private tour that would take us to Mount Vesuvius, Positano on the Amalfi Coast, and Herculaneum. There was one thing that made the day a little bittersweet, though. This would be our last full day together as a family before Son #3 and our daughter-in-law headed home after the cruise ended the following day. We wanted to make the most of it. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. The forecast called for rain all day long. What can you do? We decided to make the best of it and hoped the forecast was wrong. We met our driver, Alex, at 7:30 a.m. The rain had already started, although it was only spitting at that point. We crossed our fingers and climbed into the van, hoping things would improve as the day went on. Alex was a local Italian man who spoke perfect English, complete with the most beautiful Italian accent. I know I don'...

  Photo by Mingwei Lim on Unsplash We're coming to the end of our Adriatic cruise, and after four consecutive days of visiting ports, I'm beginning to appreciate the value of a sea day. Don't get me wrong. We've enjoyed exploring the places we've visited, and each has had its own character and history. But when you're visiting one beautiful old town after another, with narrow streets, historic buildings, churches and squares, some of the experiences inevitably begin to blend together. By the fourth day, it has become a bit of a blur. When we plan a trip like this, we're excited about all the places we'll get to see. Each port offers something new, and we want to make the most of our time there. We head ashore, explore the town, take in the sights and try to absorb as much as we can before it's time to return to the ship. Then we do it all over again the next day. The trouble is that there's only so much sightseeing you can take in before i...

Our next port of call was Corfu, and this was another first for us. After three days in a row of getting off the ship and exploring old towns, we were ready to change things up a bit. Our original plan was to head to the beach and enjoy a relaxing day. That sounded pretty good to us. But when we got up that morning, it was drizzly, and the forecast was calling for rain throughout the day. A beach day wasn't looking quite so appealing anymore, so we decided we'd be better off going back to Plan A and exploring the Old Town. We opted for a slower start and eventually made our way to the New Fortress. It was interesting to walk through, but there was very little information explaining what we were looking at or telling us about its history. We wandered around for a while, but left without really knowing much about the place we'd just explored. Later in the day, when we were back on the ship, I did a little reading about the New Fortress. I learned that it was built by the ...