Now we faced a dilemma. We could return to the Rome airport and get a car there… this would waste 3-4 hours in terms of travel/transfer time and mean we’d only have time to spend the day driving to our hotel in Arezzo rather than sightseeing. Or, we could scrap the rental car idea (and San Marino) and just get a hotel in Rome.

Realistically, with the delayed start, I knew that the driving made far less sense, as we’d have two days with a lot of “car hours” for only a day or so of sightseeing. Just staying in Rome clearly made sense. Nonetheless, I was rather frustrated at the thought of having made plans that would now have to be undone and would ultimately be more of a hassle than had we just stayed in Rome from the start (as we’d originally considered).

Oh well. I’m nothing if not resourceful.

On my iPhone (thanks AT&T for the $60 data international data plan!), I found a good deal on Hotels.com for a five-star hotel on the Via Veneto called the Hotel Majestic, a few blocks from the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. It wasn’t a Marriott or Starwoods property (I checked them first because I hate not getting points), but the price ($250/nt.), location, and reviews were very good.

As for getting to Rome, since we were already halfway to the train station in Civitavecchia, I saved the 150 euro cab fare and spent 25 for train tickets to Roma Termini. From there, we took a short taxi ride to the hotel. Aside from schlepping some heavy luggage, it was a relatively pain-free transfer.

In the end, the cost differential given a high car rental rate made the swap more-or-less a wash economically.

We spent the afternoon strolling around central Rome doing a variety of walks provided by Rick Steves’s guidebooks. We took in all of the famous sights: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and any number of greater and lesser churches. We had a good time…

For dinner, we ate at a sidewalk cafe near our hotel. Unfortunately, Emerson started to feel poorly and threw up after we returned to our hotel room. So, it seems that she was suffering from whatever I had the night before.

All in all, not the best of days…

In contrast, Luigi agreed to take us to the station, seemed like a nice enough fellow, and offered us a deal (80 euro) on the private trip — 10 euros below the government rate. This would save time (at least an hour… maybe up to two) and only cost 30 euros or so more than the taxi/train option. So, Luigi become our driver for the morning, and we set off to a soundtrack of 70s slow jams.

We arrived at Pompeii a bit before 9am and agreed that we’d meet Luigi at 11:15. For a guy that’s always so-so on touring antiquity, I have to admit that the scale of Pompeii was impressive. It also required far less effort than other sites to imagine what ancient Pompeii looked like as it had been. That said, it was still sort of “meh” for me. Two things did strike me:

First, I was disappointed by the overall lack of graffiti. As a teenager, stories of Pompeii’s graffiti were one of the few time I wasn’t bored in Latin class. In hindsight, it seems my imagination overran the facts at Mr. Peet’s innuendos.

Second, without a doubt, I was struck by the casts of humans in the forms as they had perished. While crude forms of people, these objects carried so much humanity. You could almost sense their mental state of what had to be terror and panic or perhaps, in some cases, resignation. This was the only part of Pompeii that was truly “alive” to me.

We returned to Naples and explored a little of it on foot, as the ship docks right at the foot of the historic city center. We then found a restaurant and grabbed some pizza, which ironically wasn’t the best of our trip (though I blame the pizzeria, clearly not Napoli). Afterwards, I picked up some sfogliatella for everyone to enjoy back aboard the ship, which were crispier than I expected but not as beloved by me as the prior day’s cannoli.

After lunch, we returned to the ship to pack, while Emerson went to Splash Academy for the afternoon. At some point in the afternoon, I started to feel, well, bad… very lethargic. Packing was a struggle. By evening, I’d lost all of my appetite, and I developed a fever by the time I feel asleep (or passed out) around 8pm. I had a fitful night, but at some point my fever broke. By the next morning, I was more-or-less ok again, just a bit fatigued.

Now, on to Tunisia…

Not knowing exactly what to expect, we opted for an organized shore excursion. Most were variations on similar themes, but we picked one that visited the remains of Carthage and a village called Sidi Bou Said.

The area that was ancient Carthage is now mostly buried under a fairly upscale suburb of Tunis. What’s more, much of it (especially after the Punic period) was hauled away and reused to build later settlements. As a result, the sights are relatively modest in scale and scope, though the Roman baths and water reservoirs were relatively impressive. The baths were also situated ideally overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Sidi Bou Said is a picturesque village located on a hillside along the coast of the Mediterranean. While it doesn’t have any individually “must see” sights, the town itself is generally a pleasure to experience. Although, I suspect some may be turned off by the somewhat aggressive street vendors hawking their wares (they’re more pushy than those in say the Caribbean, but far less so than the “gold medalists of touting” found in Egypt).

Overall, we liked Tunisia. It was a better experience than Egypt; less enjoyable than the UAE and Oman. But, I’d certainly return there again… I’ll be interested in seeing how their fledgling “true democracy” grows in the coming years. I hope it works out well for them.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Tunisia)

Within a few minutes of walking in to the city, it started raining. Then it started raining harder. And, then it started to hail. Thankfully, it stopped within a few minutes. But, we spent most of the morning walking in and/or trying to avoid the rain.

While this made our day slower going, we did manage to allow Mom to get a sense of Palermo. We visited a few churches along the way too. Most importantly, I managed to get us some cannoli (freshly made just for me) from a little pastry shop. We thoroughly enjoyed them back aboard the ship. Indeed, Libby thought it was probably worth braving the weather just for the cannoli.

Cagliari is a rather hilly town with most of the major sights located on top of the hill around or inside the of castle walls. So, we undertook the hike, which was a bit steep in places but was generally pleasant in the cool temperatures.

We visited the remains of a Roman amphitheater and let Emerson play in a park before continuing to the modest yet enjoyable archeological museum.

After the museum, we strolled through the old town and visited the Cathedral, which was perhaps one of my all-time favorite churches in Europe. Opposite the Cathedral was a museum featuring (primarily) Italian minimalist and op art, which is a personal favorite style of mine. This made for an unexpected and welcomed diversion from the normal diet of old religious art on offer in Italy…

We then walked back down the hill and through town before returning to our ship. All in all, Cagliari was a very pleasant surprise as we didn’t have a lot of pre-existing expectations going into this port.

Today’s box score: +1 “county” (Sardinia)

Emerson also tried out Splash Academy (the ship’s kids’ club) for the first time and loved it. Otherwise, we mostly spent the day relaxing, reading, and playing with Emerson. For dinner, we ordered NCL’s 24×7 pizza to our cabin — it was pretty uninspiring.

Unfortunately, my guidebooks had limited or no information about Valencia. So, we started at a bit of disadvantage. As a result, I just arranged for a $12/pp. shuttle offered by Norwegian to take us into the historic district of town (some distance from the pier). This seemed like perhaps a dumb move (as the shuttle schedule was fairly limited and $48 would be a lot of cab fare), but it turned out to be accidentally brilliant (as the cabs drivers had a strike / protest in the middle of the day)!

While logistics made out planned visit to the science museum and planetarium impractical, we enjoyed strolling around the historic center of Valencia. We visited a number of churches, including the cathedral, which Emerson always seems to particularly enjoy. We also visited the Mercado, which I think rivals Barcelona’s La Boqueria. We bought citrus, strawberries (and then more strawberries at Emerson’s request), and orange juice — all of which was delicious.

I was also especially enamored with the public citrus trees that perfumed the city. I picked a tangerine and ate it (not sure if that’s allowed or not) much to Libby’s chagrin. But, it seemed like the thing to do.

Libby’s parents took a bus tour of Valencia from the ship, which allowed them to visit the Cathedral as well.

For dinner, we all had an excellent meal at Cagney’s, the ship’s steakhouse.

To make the most of our day, we hightailed it off the ship as soon as possible and grabbed a taxi for Park Guell. Given the excellent weather, we thought it a good day to see Gaudi’s fanciful park for the first time (it’s one of the few major sights in Barcelona we’ve missed on prior visits). It did not disappoint any of us.

We then hoped in a taxi to La Sagrada Familia, which Mom had never seen. While I showed Mom the church, Libby and Emerson played in the park across the street.

From there we walked: into and through the Eixample to view the Modernista architecture and upscale shopping, down into the Barri Gotic for more Modernista architecture and a visit to Barcelona’s cathedral, over to Las Ramblas for some shopping and lunch (tapas!) at La Boqueria market, further down Las Ramblas to the waterfront, into the docklands, over a bridge, and back to our ship about an hour before “all aboard.”

Here’s a view from atop Barcelona’s cathedral:

Aside from Parc Guell, most of this was familiar to us. But, we had a great day — like visiting an old and cherished friend.

While we were out galavanting on foot, Libby’s parents took the ho-ho bus around town for a motorized tour. They’d been to Spain before but not to Barcelona. So, this gave them a good overview of the city.

In the evening, we all met up for dinner at Jasmine Garden.

Given that, we opted for one of the ship’s shore excursions: a day trip to Aix-en-Provence. This involved a somewhat lengthy but scenic bus trip the 70 or so kilometers to Aix. Upon arrival, we took a two hour walking tour of the city’s mostly minor sights. The city is quite charming.

Ultimately, Aix is an environment to immerse oneself in… to taste the produce, smell the flowers, eat the food, drink in the atmosphere. It’s a place to stroll and linger.

In the end, I was happy for a small taste of Provençal life, but I was left unsatisfied by the brevity of the visit. So, we’ll certainly have to return here sans cruise ship.

We had dinner last night in Le Bistro, the ship’s French restaurant. Other than a somewhat lackluster onion soup, the meal and wine were superb, including a delectable chocolate Napoleon as the final course.

At the top of the hill, we strolled amongst colorful gardens while winding our way around to the cathedral of Monaco, as well as the royal palace (sadly the State Apartments are closed this time of year). In the distance, we had seen bad weather approaching, and it started raining by the time we were ready to leave the palace. Fortunately, we’d anticipated wet weather and brought our rain gear.

Our next planned stop was the indoor Oceanographic Museum (which is really part museum and part aquarium). We spent a couple of hours exploring this facility, which is housed in a marvelous structure. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to folks without kids (unless you love natural history / marine life), but it’s a “must do” with kids.

After the museum, we found a little cafe and had a light lunch. Libby enjoyed a traditional ham and cheese sandwich, and Mom and I had Nutella crepes (yum!). Emerson ate a cheese pizza.

After lunch, we caught a bus down to the port (mostly to avoid the rain), and we returned to the ship around 2pm. This gave me time to get caught up on email and make a few calls via Skype. Had the weather been better, we would have stayed out much longer in Monaco, as it’s a great place to visit.

Libby’s parent took an afternoon driving tour of Monaco, Nice, and points in between, which they also enjoyed.

We ate dinner in the Grand Pacific Dining Room. It’s been a number of cruises since we tried dinner in one of NCL’s main dining rooms, and we were thoroughly unimpressed by both the service and good quality. I don’t think we’ll be back again this cruise. I’d rather pay a little more and enjoy ourselves more thoroughly — I just view paying for specialty restaurants as “deferred cruise fare” (especially since NCL is usually lower-priced than many other lines for comparable cruises).

Speaking of other lackluster things, we saw a performance of “Shout” last night in the theatre. Emerson seemed to enjoy it well enough (though some of the content wasn’t really suitable for her age). In contrast, Libby and I hated it. In fact, I think it was the worst performance I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. It was uninspired: the cast lacked talent and/or enthusiasm, the song selections were mostly lackluster, and it lacked a compelling plot. The members of the audience kept coming and going too, which pissed me off and distracted from a show that was already struggling to keep my attention. All in all: epic failure!

Oh well, at least Monaco was great, which is what matters.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Monaco).