After our UNIWORLD riverboat docked in Luxor, we flew back to Cairo and then to Sharm El Sheikh International Airport on the Asian side of Egypt. To say we were fagged and weary was an understatement; we were overwhelmed by all that we had previously experienced and the daily five a.m. wake up calls on the riverboat added to it.
In Palermo, Arab craftsmen carpeted the Norman palace with glittering mosaics and 18th-century artisan Giacomo Serpotta fashioned fanciful scenes from stucco in chapels around the city. Few interiors in the exotic, enchanting, and at times exasperating capital of Sicily, though, are as enchanting as the stately dining room of the Palazzo Lanza Tomasi.
You would never guess that you didn’t have to leave the mainland USA to find an Island with lush gardens, oceanside views and fabulous food all minutes away from downtown San Diego. I wondered what exactly we were heading towards, an Island in the middle of a city? It sounded slightly absurd, never-the-less, we drove onto the property of Paradise …
As I window shopped along the pristine streets of Monaco’s Golden Circle, where the chic clothing venues of Hermes, Christian Dior, Gucci and Prada are located, I decided then and there I would save my Christmas shopping for later. Passing the legendary Casino de Monte-Carlo, it occurred to me that I could fatten my billfold at the palatial establishment.
How was your journey? The Gambardella family, several generations of whom are usually on the scene, have been asking this question ever since they began welcoming guests to their villa-like retreat on the edge of a cliff along the legendary Amalfi Coast of southern Italy in 1904.
PORT LLIGAT, Girona, Spain - What's old in Girona, in Catalonia, Spain, but as tomorrow as a trip to Mars? Not the ancient ruins at Empuries, nor the coast-hugging Roman road, the Via Augusta, now paved and numbered. Nor is it Girona's ancient vineyards or the Costa Brava's sandy shores and emerald coves.
I imagined that a story about my trip to Ibiza would be about the constant party of hedonistic abandon the island’s reputation led me to expect. Instead, while that scenario may still play out occasionally in Ibiza, mostly I saw couples in their late twenties, early thirties – often with children – and some older couples and singles of both …
Stand by to set lower top sail,” shouted the captain. Backlit by a late Mediterranean sun, he made a striking figure in his maritime attire. “Pull sheets, lower top sail coming out!” I gripped firmly on the rope. “Heave! Heave! Heave!” commanded the first mate. My group of eight joined in unison as we pulled on the rope. I felt …