the singing sailor

Sunset off the coast of Italy

This week’s voyage is all about Italy, with a stop in Malta thrown in for good measure!  Considering all the places we travel and all the views I see, you would think it’s kind of easy to catch a sunset through the porthole –we have to be sailing and it has to be setting on my side of the ship to get a good photograph…not to mention, I actually have to be in my cabin with the curtain open and not running around somewhere else on the ship working!  So I guess although we have one everyday, I’m certainly not always lucky enough to catch it through my porthole like I was today.  After doing the Med for the second season now, I realize more and more that Italy is where most of my favorite ports are: great good (pesto, house wine, cannoli!) not to mention really nice coffee!  Plus the places are interesting and the people are generally very warm and kind to us “outsiders.”  There is just nothing quite like an Italian Sunset!

Quest in the Shipyard

I’ve had plans to share this porthole picture for some time, but never had the chance to get it up to the web.  When I post my next entry – you’ll see why…

When I re-joined the Legend last November after my holiday, she was lifted out of the water for a two-week period called a “dry-dock”  (for obvious reasons).  It’s the hotel divisions chance to clean and update the interior of the ship, and the marine divisions chance to look at the bottom of the vessel, and well…do “marine” things.  We were in a shipyard in Genoa, Italy and it’s exactly what I imagined a shipyard to be like, and when I stepped on board and saw cardboard on the floors and plastic covering the walls, experienced water and electricity being turned off numerous times throughout the day I realized that I was glad to be an entertainer!  However, it was good to see the behind the scenes of making the Legend a beautiful ship again!  At the end of the two weeks, we placed the Legend in the water and set sail out of the shipyard. It was a rare moment when it was a ship full of crew only.  Not a single guest was on board – we were Civitavecchia, Italy bound to embark our first voyage post-dry-dock the next day.  The Captain announced that we would be sailing past our sister ship the “Quest” scheduled to join the fleet the following Spring.  I jumped at the chance to grab a photo and I’m glad to share it with you!

looking across from Portofino

After an extremely interesting travel experience (let’s just say Delta hooked me up with lots of Bonus Miles), I have arrived safely back to the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea.  I was so exited to visit one of my favorite ports within my first few days aboard: Portofino, Italy.  It is a tiny marina area, once an unknown gem, but it is now filled with posh stores such as Louis Vitton.  Those of you who know me well would question why I would love a place that has been taken over by the fashion kings, however, it has some of the best (and most importantly, affordable) Italian pizza, and the tastiest gelato I’ve had in Europe!  This is a far cry from both the expensive shopping and food that was found in St. Barths during our Caribbean voyages.  It still has an old world charm that allows you to ignore the expensive shopping and still have a nice afternoon.   There was also something fun about going back to the same place I was at last summer and say “hey, remember me?” almost like I was a regular customer!  Last summer we had a large group of crew eat together and by the end of the meal the wait staff were bringing us complimentary limoncello!

The ship anchors in the sea outside Portofino, and on this day because of our position – my porthole view is across the water to St. Raphael.