Aboard Regent Again

A Different View of Monaco

We boarded the Regent Seven Seas Mariner at Rome's port on November 22, headed for Ft. Lauderdale with stops in Monaco, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Funchal.  As always, Regent put its best foot forward with excellent food, friendly people, a Thanksgiving Day parade (no kidding), and plenty of wine.

In Port in Malaga, Spain

In Malaga, we wandered around town after visiting the local market, and found a way to walk back to the ship instead of taking the bus.  A lovely walk through the town's park and along the beach.

Also captured on the way back to the ship...the local beach patrol enjoying siesta.

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on December 4 and spent a few days in Stuart, Florida with our friends Steve and Angie before heading home on a fun-filled Southwest Airlines flight.  So far, the weather in Naperville this winter has been unusual.  Not much snow, and temperatures warmer than normal.  If it just holds up until we leave for the winter in Nice on January 1, we'll be happy!

Inside the Pantheon, Rome

A quick video tour of the Pantheon in Rome!

Rome

When we got back to Rome, we checked into a great little hotel on the Via Nazionale called the Hotel Cortina.  It was one flight up, and the street below offered plenty of shopping, restaurants, and entertainment.  Great little find, and the price was right, for Rome.

Since we hadn't been in Rome for a number of years, we spent the next three days hitting the high points and checking out some areas that we had missed before, like the Circus Maximus.  We ate at some fantastic restaurants that were reasonably priced, and we returned to La Vecchia Conca, a restaurant that we frequented when we were there last, about 12 years ago.  It's still operated by the same family and the food was just as good as we remembered.

The Monte Pincio Park.  We call it "no-nose" park, since vandals seem to like to knock the noses off the statues.  The city replaces the noses, and the vandals get 'em again.

Piazza del Popolo from No-Nose Park

Castel Sant' Angelo near the Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

A light moment inside St. Peter's. 

The Roman Forum ruins, with the Colosseo in the background.

For our last night in rome, the cruise line put us up at the Hotel Parco dei Principi, which was a very nice 5-star property with a spa.  It was 'way nicer than anyplace we'd pay to stay...they fed us a nice breakfast the next morning and we boarded the coach for the hour-and-a-half drive to Civitavecchia and our boat.

Where's Bulgaria?

We were amazed at how many people have asked us where Bulgaria is.  If you just say "Sofia", they nod knowingly, though.  Uh huh.  Anyway, we know where it is:  it's at the end of an Air Bulgaria flight from Rome.  We visited Jeff, Sherry, and the gang for a few days, and toured the local area.  Bulgaria was a communist bloc country and its architecture is a mix of the pre-, the post-, and the new.   Pictured above is the central cathedral, named for Alexander Nevsky, a Russian prince.  The building dates to the late 1800's.

 

The historic city center has beautiful buildings and parks, and the different influences are seen everywhere.  Above, the Russian Church sparkles in the sunshine.

This good-looking guy guards the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Bulgaria has a lot of monasteries.  About two hours south of Sofia, and up in the mountains, is the most beautiful monastery, Rila. We drove up and spent quite a bit of time walking around the area and staring at the architecture and the monks.

Rila Monastery.  The mechanical clock in the central bell tower.

Beautiful frescoes (ancient graffitti) on the outside of the chapel in the courtyard

Monk's quarters as seen from the chapel

Jeff, Sherry, Leo, and Isaac. 

The gang at home



Three generations

After a great visit, and plenty of good food and Rakia (local liquor), we rubbed our St. Christopher medals and boarded the Air Bulgaria flight back to Rome.