Saturday, April 11, 2015
Today we began the first day of the
5th segment, 18 days, of the World Cruise from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale. Our first stop was Portofino, located in the
beautiful area of the Italian Riviera not far from the French border. We choose to again visit the UNESCO World
Heritage Site of Cinque Terre, a national park comprised of five unique
villages.
Upon arriving in Portofino, we
encountered very big swells, not allowing for the ships tenders to safely
transport passengers shore side.
Unfortunately, the Captain made the decision to abort our call to
Portofino and instead relocate to Genoa, about 25 miles west of Portofino. He will also extend our all aboard time to
7:30pm. Most of the tours will operate
but certainly with revisions.
Genoa is a metropolitan area with
nearly 1 million people. Here you find
the San Lorenzo Cathedral, dedicated nearly 1,000 years ago and Chelsea del
Gesu (Church of Jesus) containing priceless relics and artwork by Reubens. The city has old boulevards with many
palaces. Also Genoa has museums, the
largest aquarium in Italy, countless galleries and opera!
As promised, the Captain extended
our stay to allow the excursions to complete as much of their visits as
possible and at approximately 8:15PM we slipped the lines, blew the whistle and
headed for Nice, France.
