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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.