Cake Eaters and Mouth Breathers

Later Thursday afternoon, we discovered that Jean Louis had returned with another seed planter. He went to buy cases for the 2 seed planters he already had, but the man offered him the cases for free if he bought the machine so of course he bought the machine with the intention of reselling it. This was Joelle's nightmare, because it means cramming another conveyor belt into the already limited storage space (because literally all of the ground has crops growing in it). So despite it being my day off, I helped haul this machine down the mountainside and into the semi-garage. We fired it up and it forms the dirt bricks very well but the seed-placing mechanism needs some work. We were in the midst of getting that done when Joelle ran down yelling about a fox in the chicken coop. There was genuinely a fox in the chicken coop, and they "lost" 2 chickens. "Lost" in this case means literally can't find, so they could just be hiding. It turns out one did eventually turn up and come out of hiding, but one was probably fox dinner.

After all that excitement, I headed downtown to meet up with Rob and Mary. We had falafel and pizzadillas for dinner, and chatted about the farm work. Apparently Rob's farm had lost 4 chickens to foxes that same day. We also ate Rob's celebratory "welcome to france" cake, although a little later than initially planned, and made a lot of noise doing it.

The next day we caught our train to montpellier after picking up breakfast at the boulangerie. We were a group of five total, a mix of germans and americans. The train ride was beautiful, we stayed very close to the mediterranean and saw all the yachts that were in town for the Cannes film festival, which some of the girls had gone to the previous weekend to see Leo. They described it as "not real life" (referring to the atmosphere in Cannes in general, not simply Leo's presence). Just north of us were mountains and mountaintop villages that flashed by, which were consistently gorgeous yet too elusive to capture with cameras. We had a french lesson and watched Django on the train ride. Our train also stopped briefly in Marseilles for a connecting train, and although I didn't leave the train station I am adding it to the list of cities I have visited in France. It was very pretty, nestled in the mountains with a chapel on the peak overlooking the city.

Upon arrival in Montpellier I told everyone I would be the tour guide, they could just follow me around like sheep. Bob thought that was a baaaaaa-d idea, but I remarkably still knew my way around after 2 years (can't believe it's been that long). We rented an apartment through a place called airbnb, and the landlord met us at the tram stop where we got off. It turns out that it was genuinely her apartment we were living in, she was just going away for the weekend and therefore rents it out while she is gone (at a pretty low price relative to comparable lodging). It was a beautiful apartment, she had a terrace with a flower/herb/vegetable garden, a full kitchen (complete with eggs, milk, juice, brioche, and croissants for breakfast), and a nice living/dining room area. The landlord (Emily) seemed to have a strong affinity for the UK (especially the queen), and spoke in a british accent. We eventually found some rather creepy masks of the queen that probably took a few years off of Bob's life. Initially we weren't sure if she was indeed british or if she was French and had been instructed by British teachers, which is often the case. She eventually stumbled on a few words (dishwashing detergent) and wrote a note on the whiteboard saying "welcome in our apartment" which gave her away, but overall excellent english.

She left and we started walking around the city looking for good places to go for dinner. We found some very nice parks, a cat in a bow tie, and places for happy hour, but we eventually landed in a Chinese food place.

After dinner we finished our walking tour of Montpellier and went to Australia Bar.

The next day was our vineyard tour! Took the tram to St. Jean de Vedas to rejoin the DeBoisgelins. It was great catching up, I told them about what I had been up to and Eliza talked about her plans, and afterwards she said that she could actually understand them quite easily.

The DeBoisgelin's second-eldest son had just gotten married, the wedding pictures were gorgeous. They held the wedding on the vineyard/in the chateau (as would I if I lived on a vineyard). The son was just setting up shop as an organic vegetable farmer nearby with his new wife. Gregoire is probably going to take over the vineyard, he is building his house on the property now. Manon is studying to work in finance.

I was also joyfully reunited with the stained glass that my mom made as a gift, they say they receive regular compliments from guests.

After lunch the rest of the crew met up with us and we went for a comprehensive tour which included family history, history of the city, the history of french agriculture, the mechanics of wine making (including the perils!), the history of the vineyard, the history of the wine cellar, a singing lesson, a cherry tasting, a tour of the family graveyard, a discourse on bee farming and reproduction, and finally a wine tasting. We ended up tasting around.... 12? different wines, several straight from the barrel, and one particularly exclusive micro-batch. 

I had a wonderful time, as did most of my friends. I thanked the DeBoisgelins again (repeatedly) and said I hope to see them again. We went our separate ways in search of dinner, and bought some American sandwiches (The french version of an american sandwich is a baguette filled with hamburger patties and french fries topped with ketchup and mayo, it's delicious). 

For "real" dinner we ate crepes, mine had bacon, potatoes, creme, and onions inside, but there were all different varieties available. It was also delicious. 

For the evenings activities we went to "Nights at the Museum" at Musee de Fabre. They projected various images onto the front of the building and it made me feel a little like a moth drawn to the flame. This was around 10 PM that we actually entered the museum, which was enormous. I could've spent a month in there. 

After that we chatted with some french youth in the local park, and learned some new vocabulary. Most importantly, "dragon" is french for "dragon". We also met an individual who had either just gotten married or had his bachelor party, he was wearing a dress.

The next day we found a bagel shop for brunch. It was incredible. The bagel was great, but I think it tasted better because it was in a sunny french square on a sunday morning.

We took the train home, and enjoyed paiella for dinner followed by honey-topped ice cream and cake.

The next day I worked on laying those huge tiles some more. Basically every time I work in or around this greenhouse an old lady walks by and chats with me. She usually asks if I am building a night club or a castle or talks to me about her kids and the importance of balancing work, travel, and play, or asks about the other WWOOFers. Jonathan tends to stick out because he speaks french in italian, so people know something is up. For lunch monday we had an omelette and homemade pickles and sauerkraut (vinegary and delicious), and finished with fried acacia beignets. Cinq etoiles.

Monday afternoon Bob and Katjya (the WWOOFers chez Pierre) walked over to visit. I gave them a farm tour and then offered them some champagne and eventually made them help me cook dinner. We enjoyed the view from right outside the caravan, which is spectacular, and chatted. Later that night I got sucked into watching Grey's Anatomy with the girls. They seemed to enjoy getting me up to speed (I didn't know who anyone was), and it has a particularly special place in their hearts because Washington was an extra in Season 1 episode 4 that can be seen rather clearly.

Tuesday was a full day of work planting tomatoes and peppers. After about nine hours of that I quite literally laid down in the dirt between the rows of plants.

Winter is Back

Day off! But it's raining sideways and really cold (for spring).

Yesterday we planted peppers, and set up irrigation and structural support systems. At lunch I chatted with Joelle and learned a little more about the history of the farm. Jean Louis' dad was a mason and a homebuilder, not a farmer. Jean Louis and Joelle started cultivating the land, but didn't have any neighbors who would help them out. They were young and didn't know what they were doing. The lettuce was tiny the carrots were short and their other plants bore little fruit. She said she didn't care since she was young, but they were made fun of at the market, ridiculed as a couple of hippies that wouldn't last. They needed to sell everything they took down to market with them, because their (deux chevaux) car couldn't drive uphill encumbered with produce.

So they learned any way they could. One way was through reading. Another way was through looking at the neighboring farms with binoculars. They would literally look out their window and note the date when their neighbor was ploughing or planting. A couple weeks later they would go over and say "Hi how's it going", and see what vegetables were being harvested, retroactively discovering the identity of the seeds. Despite humble beginnings, they are now rather well known as an enormously successful organic farm. They have passed the test of time, and most of the other local farms have shut down and moved on. In the market, many of the vendors are re-selling vegetables from various farmers (usually not local) and are often not organic. The only neighbors that produce locally and organically are the Magnanis, which is where Bob is now. Jean Louis and Joelle helped the Magnanis get started, about 10 years after they got their start.

In the afternoon/evening, we finished the french film Amelie. It is quirky, but very well done. It is best enjoyed with a big bowl of old-faashioned popcorn and chocolate.

This morning we went up to the house despite the weather, and Jean Louis asked us why we got out of bed. We enjoyed some tea, and Joelle told me about a particular business that just popped up in America. In order to avoid long lines at amusement parks, you can rent a handicapped person for a couple hundred dollars an hour. This allows you to skip the long lines. She said this was worse than the japanese cat Cafes.

I also heard a story from Washington about her moving experience. One of the people working for the moving company was from Boston, and upon walking into the house asked "You have a lot of Pahties in heah?". He meant to ask "Do you have a lot of parties in here", but Washington heard "Do you have a lot of potties in here?". She responded, somewhat hesitantly, that they had a pretty average number of potties in there.

Broccoli MRI

With my power of Science

Worked at Cremat today. Jean Louis and I were going to make soil cubes for the cucumbers, but as soon as we fired up the machine it looked like something was out of line, the cubes were crumbly and too short. He quickly said "oh that's an electrical problem" and went to change something with the wiring. I commented that it's good he's run into this problem before because it looooked like a mechanical issue. He said yeah, he's pretty good at plumbing but electricity is not his forte. He said he had a friend die working with electricity like this, its 320 odd volts and I assume some dangerous amperage, which elicited an instinctive step back on my part. I'm sure I was much safer 8 inches further away.

We got the machine working and then I spent some more of the morning planting cucumbers with the other WWOOFers in the baby greenhouse. Whilst therein, I heard a loud oinking coming from just outside the greenhouse and shrieks from California WWOOFer. My first thought was "Oh no Betty came back to finish the job". My second thought was "but she never comes down here". A laughing Jean Louis confirmed that it was nothing more than a good impression, rather than the dark terror herself.

After the cucumbers were done we went to plant something (forget the name, it's small and green with leaves) in the greenhouse where the spinach had previously been. I was eventually joined by Washington WWOOFer and we talked throughout the morning, mostly about agriculture policy/economics, but eventually branching into the subject of mini houses. Tiny houses were something I had never heard of, but which are gaining popularity (at least in Washington). Basically, they are between 100 and 200 square feet, and often mounted on a trailer. The idea is to simplify your life and reduce the cost of renting/buying/maintaing a larger property. Imagine what it would be like if you could clean your entire house before morning tea? There is also the mobility aspect, moving from Washington to Southern California could be done in about a day. Anyway, she has a couple of friends who built their own Tiny Houses, but one of the almost complete homes was lost in a fire. Nobody was hurt but it was a substantial financial loss. Their story can be found here, summarized in a nicely done video. They are raising funds to rebuild, feel free to donate if you wish.

Lunch was Pizza, and we talked about Colorado's bed. The one he is using is from the 50's, and you may recall that he ordered a cardboard one but the credit card din't go through. Anyway the ultra-old bed broke and he fixed it with a wooden plank, but the moisture from the plank went into the mattress and the mattress started to mold. He really can't catch a break, he did look a bit tired today.

Then we put the weight-loss debate to bed. I will be returning to America 8 kilos lighter than when I arrived, and I don't know how exactly that happened. Proof is in the pudding though (or lack thereof), vegetables are good for you.

I finished doing laundry in the afternoon, and then talked to Washington for an unexpectedly long time. She is a plant-nerd also, and we could talk very casually about arcane plant genetics. A couple interesting (to me) things popped up:

-Genomic Imprinting in plants. I have heard about this happening in animals, but not plants. It is basically a momma plant modifying which genes are on/off in her baby plant. The evolutionary basis for this is greedy pollen. In reproduction, the female puts in a lot more time and energy than the male. The male shoots pollen into the wind and hopes for the best, but the female has to grow a fruit (which takes a lot of energy). Greedy pollen is a simple way of saying that males put genes in their pollen grains that direct any female that they land on to devote all of her resources to this one offspring. Females may want to devote resources to more than one seed, and also save some for themselves, so they evolved this defense where they turn off the greedy pollen gene.

-Microbiome influences on the immune system. The bacteria in you do not just prevent further infection through competitive exclusion, but actually complement your immune system.

-Vertical and horizontal immunity. Vertical immunity involves "R" genes that confer total resistance to a single pathogen, whereas horizontal involves partial resistance to a wider range of pathogens attributable to the additive effect of multiple resistance genes. This led to a discussion on seed banks and GMOs, which relates closely to a book Washington is writing about using locally based interactive plant breeding to build community and genetic diversity in seeds. She's got a website.

-Human evolution/brain evolution. Savannah Hypothesis (wrong), Polite ancestor (ludicrous), and Semi-aquatic ape (tenable).

We concluded by agreeing that local changes are the most accessible way to institute a change, and fortunately her geographic location lends itself to that kind of behavior. There is room to farm and there seems to be an engrained sense of community.

I made fried rice for dinner and was asked for the recipe, and I was flattered.

Bob is enjoying his farm, which actually does a fair amount of outreach.

California showed me a new website for vegetarian recipes, which is called "Thug Kitchen", which seems to blend solid recipes with an antithetical persona.

I also heard of Kombucha for the first time today. It is basically really gross tea. Maybe I will try it someday (because Washington swears it's delicious), but then again maybe not.

The Cherries are getting better every day.

Revised reading list:
-Survival of the Sickest
-The Botany of Desire
-Brain Bugs
-Guns, Germs, Steel
-The Omnivores Dilemma

Buck Up Buttercup

Friday I gave my first farm tour to the city folk, and we ate some of Jean-Louis' Pizza and then baked cookies in the wood burning stove. During the tour we got to enjoy the company of Betty the attack pig, who sometimes thinks that people are food. If you feed her enough she figures it out though.

We are starting to have actually produce at the farm, not just glorified leaves (although I've been enjoying life as a rabbit). We have courgettes that can be harvested daily (we fried the flowers one day yum), the first cherries are ripe, the figs are coming along, asparagus is shooting up as fast as we can pick it, and tomatoes are happily rooted. There is also a lot of mint, garlic, and spring onion floating around.

Despite all of this new food I am still losing belt sizes. Joelle thinks I've lost 20 kilos but she also has a tendency for hyperbole and a half. We will take it to the scales tomorrow. I started at about 99 kilos.

The WWOOFer getting eaten by betty is from California, and has a ton of interesting stories. She is Craig Ventner's second cousin, her friend is currently working as tinkerbell in disneyworld, she bent a fencing sword in half when someone stabbed her in the leg with it, and she saw 3 wolves when she was working on the goat farm. This last tidbit attracts the most interest from the locals, in fact she is often introduced as "this is the girl who saw the wolves".

The other WWOOFer grew up farming, and is a part-time leatherworker. She and her brother are traveling around Europe (occasionally meeting up with one another) for a few months, and she was able to recommend a Berlin Burger Joint to me. She speaks very little french, but I am teaching her when I can.

My French has gotten about as good as I think it's going to get. I can carry a conversation without trouble, and Joelle keeps nagging me to find someone to speak with when I get home so I can retain the language. I keep reminding her that my girlfriend and one of my best friends speak french, and are both here learning, but that isn't enough for her I guess.

Saturday was a beach day, followed by a long night of Harry Potter and Mojitos. Sunday we trekked up to St Paul de Vence, which is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. I was thinking about my mother almost the entire day (maybe because it was mothers day), but also because she would've loved it there. Think French mediterranean hilltop village in the foothills of the alps overlooking the Cote d'azur that is packed with art galleries and old men playing petanques. I also got to chat with my family, congrats to my brother for completing Spritz training!

Monday was tomato day, we planted them all day long at broc. Jean Louis was chipper, joking about John's gerber knife and how we needed to weigh down one of the wooffers with a rock-laden backpack so she could be heavy enough to push stakes in the ground. Allergies hit everyone very hard, hopefully the season will be short.

One of the other WWOOFers is an actual botanist, not just a phycologist. She mentioned something about cleaning her hands with cleavers when she was in a pinch, but obviously I thought she meant cleavers which are a very different animal. I'm glad we got it cleared up.

Yes one of the WWOOFers made the "Je suis pleine" mistake again, as well as the "Je suis cool (cul)" mistake, again.

Bob is enjoying WWOOFing, he apparently helped host a party on Saturday. I haven't seen him much, but it sounds like he's keeping busy.

Tunisia, Ibiza, and the like

We decided to pay for the bus tour in Tunisia because we didn't really know much about the city or how to get around. Our tour guide spoke very good (british) english, and introduced himself as Lotfi, which was not to be confused with Lofty. They do not have daylight savings time, so it was an hour earlier locally, and our bus drove through rush hour traffic but it wasn't too bad. We were dropped off at Government square, and learned a little bit about the layout of Tunis. The whole city is called a Medina. The Port we landed in was called La Goulette, or "The Throat", because it is the passageway between the seawater and the lake of Tunis (which would be the Stomach in this analogy). Government square was so named because it was surrounded by government buildings, literally the department of the interior and the department of finance and the department of you name it are all located in the same square. The square is protected by a Casbah, or an ancient fortress. Within the Medina and protected by the Casbah are several Markets called Souks. Since trade was one of the principal components of the ancient economy, it was important to protect the markets. We visited several markets, starting with essential oils and hats and moving on to rugs.

At the rug market we got a presentation during which I learned more about rugs than I have in the rest of my life combined. There are three types: woven, woven and embroidered, and knotted. Woven carpets are a solid color, or contain bands of color. They can later be embroidered to introduce patterns. Knotted carpets are the most time consuming, as every thread is added to the carpet individually. Think of each knot as a pixel on a screen. Higher quality carpets will have a larger number of knots per square meter. The highest quality carpets have a MILLION knots per square meter, and are characterized by intricate patterns woven in silk threads. One girl was particularly eager to take one home with her.

Depending on the thread count, the carpet may take between a few months and a few years to create. Unsurprisingly such carpets cost a couple tens of thousands of euros. It was quite interesting to watch the presentation, which is neatly tailored to act as a tourist trap. The carpets could very well be machine made, but you will attribute more value to it if you know (think) someone has spent years making it. Also, there was free shipping! But a 20% discount if you chose not to ship. This was an interesting way of framing it, though it probably attracts more buyers than saying "add 25% for shipping costs". They also gave us mint tea (which was really good), and were quick with a joke and a smile. Handshakes also seemed to linger longer than usual, presumably to keep your attention for an extra second or two. 

From there we wandered around markets as we wished, usually speaking french or spanish rather than english. We found identical pillowcases that ranged in price from 4 to 35 euros depending on bartering ability. 

Then we went to Carthage. Carthage has a fascinating history, which I have probably heard before but hadn't really assimilated until I visited. A princess fled from Lebanon to escape the tyranny of her murderous brother (Pygmalion!), and bought a small amount of land in Tunis. The ruler of Tunis charged her an enormous amount of money and said she could claim an amount of land "no greater than the size of a cow's hide". The clever queen cut the hide into thin strips and encircled the area that was to become Carthage. They quickly became enormously successful, which angered the tunisians to the point that they eventually helped the romans sack the city. There were 3 Carthaginian wars, but the Romans used some propaganda and called them "Punic wars". The word Punic is meant to downplay the importance of the carthaginian empire (because it sounds measly), and is derived from the Phoenician origins of the Carthaginians. 

We visited 3 sites, the Toffit, the ports, and the roman baths. The toffit was described to us as a sacrifice site for children for about 5 minutes, and then the guide totally turned that around and said "most historians actually don't think this anymore because there is very little evidence supporting this". The ports were very pretty, and were the first man-made ports in the world (probably) equipped with mechanisms for lifting the boats out of the slat water to protect them from corrosion (and expose them to dryness, kind of out of the frying pan and into the fire really). The roman baths were some of the largest in the world, despite no fresh water sources. It was an Imperial Bath, meaning the Roman Emperor ordered it to be constructed while Carthage was under Roman rule. 

In the end Carthage lost every war it fought and was sacked by every major empire of the age. But it was a beautiful vibrant city that everyone else was jealous of. We rode a Camel.

We then started our 22 hour cruise to Ibiza, a trip that spanned over 500 nautical miles. We spent our time on the boat playing ping pong (ding dang), eating free gelato, watching french variety shows, hot tubbing, and eating the bottomless gelato. We also got to watch a storm brewing behind the boat at night. 

Upon arrival we walked to the castle (which was steep), and then walked around town and bought tapas and tickets to pacha. Pacha opens around midnight so we had a nap and arrived at 1. 

The next day we started the Journey back to France. 

Crystal was surprised that I showed up for work on Friday. Friday night we went to a Villa after meeting up with yet another Terp in Nice. The next day was beaches and picnics, followed by a trip to Monaco. 

Monday we got back to work, and I was happy to see that we had 2 new WWOOFers! They are both american, from the West coast. We planted seeds using the seed-o-matic 8000, which worked like a dream after we fixed it with tape. I spent the next 2 days building a greenhouse floor, and then went to pick up Bob. 

Bob flew in from America, arriving Tuesday night. We gave him a quick tour of Nice and a place to stay in exchange for his company, and then the next day he went off to start his own WWOOFing adventure. 

Thursday was a day of weeding at broc, but we got some more interesting stories from Joelle. One of her friends is a russian fox-coat maker, and analyzes generational changes in foxes. Interestingly, domestication results in a noticeable and heritable change in demeanor and coat color, which I thought was due to some epigenetic changes. 

Also, essential oils were distilled. 

The huge metal container was filled with flowers, and heated to between 90 and 100 C (Ideally parsing the different boiling points of fragrant oils and water). Cooled under reflux, the phases separated naturally. What you are seeing is droplets of water falling through an oily organic layer. 

Photo uploader is functional again

Joelle is a seemingly endless source of interesting stories. While growing up, there was a pair of elderly identical twins living in her town that had some kind of malady that left them incapable of opening one eye, unless they manually opened the eyelid with one hand. They always dressed the same also, which led to the rather frequent illusion of one lady being in two places at once. For example, she said, driving through town you might see one on your way in and one on your way out, which led the kids (Joelle included) to think she was a witch.

Naturally Joelle thought it was a good idea to try to steal berries from the witches' hedges, but one day she got caught and grabbed by the scruff. She was still pretty young, and shrieked in terror and eventually started crying while her friend laughed.

The mornings' work was to shovel manure. After several hours of that, and a rushed pasta lunch with Jean Louis, I started packing for the cruise. I said goodbye to Charlotte, who was going to leave right before I returned, and to Crystal, who would still be here in a week.

We caught the bus to Villefranche, and it was the perfect date to set sail. The cruise ship was too big for the port in Villefranche, so there were little ferries shuttling everyone out. At check in, Eliza's last name attracted some attention because it is Italian, apparently originating near Genova. After boarding we grudgingly  sat through the safety demonstration, which explained what the general emergency siren was, and what to do if it sounded (explicitly stating that it did not mean "abandon ship"). Then we started exploring the ship, which was outfitted with about 7 bars, a casino, a theater, 2 pools 4 hot tubs (maybe a 5th on the bow that was inaccessible).

We had dinner and then found a quiet bar where we met Todor, the Bored Bulgarian Bartender. As we started looking over the drink menu, he said let me make you something while you wait. He came back with a shot called a Monkey Brain, which looks scarily like a monkey brain. This reminded the equally bored but much less bulgarian bartender next to Todor of a Jellyfish shot, which, yes, looks like a jellyfish.

We went on to place second in an "ideal couple contest", that seemed somewhat biased towards the italian couple (which is strange because we were on an italian cruise line).

The next day we arrived in Genova. Todor had told us that we needed to go to the aquarium, but we had just been to an aquarium in Monaco so we decided to walk around the city some. It was drizzling from time to time, but just by wandering we stumbled upon several universities, courtyards, and churches that were truly impressive. We also ended up at a design gallery, which had some very neat stuff and a host that spoke a nice melange of French English and Itowelian. The gallery was on Rue Garibaldi, named for Giuseppe Garibaldi, who I am pretty sure is the most popular man in Italy (and southeast France). Ever city seems to have a statue, a street, and a plaza dedicated to him. Some cities have interior design galleries dedicated to him also.

We then went on a hunt for Pesto, which originated in Genova. We found ourselves in the restaurant district, and after passing a few quirky places (one all you can eat Sushi place called "Jay Restaurant"), we landed in a nice hole in the wall that seemed authentic and popular and reasonably priced with Pesto on the menu. We sat down, devoured the bread, and tried to communicate to the Italian waiter. After he performed a chicken dance we were able to gather that the only pesto-containing menu item was chicken, so we went for the pasta. Which lived up to it's reputation.

We started making our way back, finding a few more Cathedrals, a stylish Ghandi, a Pirate Ship, and the worlds largest aquarium.

For dinner we went to the sit down restaurant on the ship, and we were paired with an American couple. The wife had lost her voice so she was a little restricted in her conversation potential. The husband was opinionated yet tolerable, and offered some partially useful advice regarding cruise etiquette and on-shore excursions. Rome was to be our next stop.

We got up early, and thankfully we had done our research and knew the fastest/cheapest train from Civitavecchia (where the boat landed) to Rome (where we wanted to go). We got off the train, bought a sightseeing map, and sprinted from one monument to the next all morning. The list of attractions included the Vatican, Saint Angelo's Castle, Piazza Navona, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, Vittoriano, The Colosseum, The Arch of Constantine, The Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, The Mouth of Truth, and then decided to take a lunch break. For the afternoon, we went to the much quieter southwestern section of Rome called Trastevere. We got the best pizza in Rome (and therefore, quite possibly the world) at Dar Poeta. And for dessert, my first nutella and ricotta calzone.

We then took the tram to the train station and seamlessly returned to Civitavecchia. As soon as we got off the train in Civitavecchia, it started to pour. Sprinting through the rain we made it back to the ship, changed clothes and went to visit Todor.

We saw an on board acrobatics show that evening, which involved a couple Mongolian contortionists (which were unsettling) and a juggler who played off the dropped pins very well.

The next day was in Palermo, Sicily. Making use of our guidebook, we discovered that a few miles north of Palermo was a coastal beach town called Mondello. We got of the boat and tried to take a cab there, but they were charging "Oh you just got off the cruise that'll be 600 euros for a 3 minute cab drive" prices. So we took the bus. The bus was crowded, but drove through some of the scenic areas of Sicily, and took us straight to the white sandy beaches. The beach was nice, crystal blue with white sand and a very gradually drop off (it was below knee level for the first 40 feet of water). After we'd had our sun, we hopped on the bus back and looked around Palermo. Interesting fact: the city had so many narrow, winding, criss-crossing streets that it became unnavigable, so they tore down many buildings to make way for 2 huge straight main streets. You can tell which ones they are, it's like walking out of a forest into a clearing.

Then we went to Tunisia and Ibiza, which will be elaborated on later.