Gastronomic Tour of Spain

Sausage with white beans, more tapas than I can count, seafood, doners, patatas bravas (oh the garlic), palmera de chocolate, horchata, lots and lots of sangria….oh yes, the foodies have done Spain.  Over the past 8 days we have been to Seville, Granada, and Barcelona, eating our way through Andalusia and Catalunya.  We tried sangria cava (white sangria made with the champagne-like cava wine and orange juice), I tasted anchovies and sea snails, we had more ham and pork products than any two people should in a lifetime, much less a week, and gallons of fresh fruit juices like mango, coconut, papaya, and cactus pear from La Boqueria.  If only we’d had a kitchen…oh the cooking we would have done!

Then, as if that wasn't the epitome of gluttony, we boarded a cruise ship that took us through France, Italy, and back to Spain.  Our tour ended in Palma de Majorca, with a swim in the Mediterranean, and a stroll down the boardwalk.  Beautiful by day and night, this was a lovely last port.  Onward to Paris for more eating...

First Journey to Africa

Finally, another continent and another stamp in my passport.  Today we stopped for a morning in Tunisia.  We were able to join with a couple from our dinner table to take a taxi.  Maximizing our time on such a short tour, we managed to squeeze in visits to Carthage to see the ancient Phoenician city and Roman ruins as well as the Mediterranean village of Sidi Bou Said.  Even at 9:30AM it was 38°C – hot here in the desert!  Tunis is a fascinating combination of ancient and modern, east and west, Muslim and Christian, French and Arabic.  Some of you may know and remember that when I first considered teaching overseas, Tunis was one of the schools at the top of my list.  I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit.  Though our time in port was minimal, we saw a lot.  And after 5 ports and a whirlwind 17 days of traveling, we were happy to have a little time to enjoy our ship. 

Ciao, Ciao Italy

Our final Italian port was Palermo. Several people had told me they didn’t like the capitol of Sicily, but I loved Messina and Taormina the two times I’ve gone, so my expectations were a bit mixed. We were both pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed Palermo. Danny really liked the architecture; I enjoyed the vibe of the city. I’m always happy when I’m in the Mediterranean, and something about Sicily speaks to me. They say Paris is the city of love, and you all know I find Baden Baden to be a town of great romance, but it’s here in Italy that love abounds. Even the grafitti says so! We spent many hours pounding the pavement and were rewarded for our efforts with a great lunch at a family run trattoria. After indulging in antipasti, pasta, pizza, and copious pastries, we headed over to Monreale to see the church and the sprawling view of Palermo from the mountain top. This was a great final port in Italiy, leaving us both wanting to return to the island again soon. Our journey is almost complete, tomorrow we have a brief stop in Tunis and then back to Spain and finally onward to Paris.

The Foodies Return Home

People often remark about the beauty of Capri and the ghetto factor of Naples.  I wholeheartedly disagree with the second part of that assessment.  Capri is indeed a Mediterranean paradise; I could live there happily.  We spent a few hours wandering its hilly maze of streets, admiring the beauty of the flowers, sea, and mountains.  Perhaps most importantly, we ate gelato…lots and lots of gelato.  We’ve been tasting the ice creams in every country we’ve visited, and there is no doubt that Italy does it best and Capri best of all.  Sadly, in the port with the most to see and do, we had only a few short hours.  We missed our hydrofoil back to Napoli because we were so enthralled with the beauty of Capri, so our time there was cut a bit short.  Not to be deterred from our chance to eat pizza, we hired a taxi who gave us a whirlwind tour on our quest for a late lunch.  Napoli is beautiful in its own rough around the edges way, but sadly I have no photos because we were in such a rush (and got back to the ship 15 minutes late anyway…lucky for us they still let us onboard!)  Don’t worry, we still managed to consume two pizzas, pizza fritte, beer, wine, and limoncello…all in about 45 minutes.  We are impressive gluttons.  I may have failed you on photos of Napoli, but I never fail on food photos – enjoy!

First Italian port

As we pulled into shore, we could see that Genoa used to be a city of splendor.  The magnificent hills, the beautiful architecture, the pride of the people.  But today, Genoa is a quiet port city, closed for Ferragosto, the 15th of August.  For those of you who don't know, this is why going to Italy in August is less expensive, and a little less authentic (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Ferragosto is an Italian holiday celebrated on August 15. Originally, it was related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. In time,Roman Catholicism adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the real physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.

Before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence, however, this holiday was celebrated in the Roman Empire to honor the gods—in particular Diana—and the cycle of fertility and ripening. In fact, the present Italian name of the holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Festivals [Holidays] of the Emperor Augustus") ^[1].

Almost the entire month of August was taken as a holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day.

Genoa, Italy…the home of great pesto!  As our ship docked on Sunday, Genova was a ghost town.  We wandered through the streets and saw little India, little Marrakech, and Chinatown, but Italy was nowhere to be found.

Finally, after photographing beautiful, but empty buildings, we ended up at Port Antico near the aquarium.  We had lunch at a little outdoor restaurant (gnocchi with pesto and linguine with clam sauce, tiramisu for dessert).  

Slowly, we made our way back to the ship.  Genova is a hilly port city that has echoes of its splendid past.  We hiked up steps and cobblestone streets.  If you use your imagination while gazing at the architecture, you can experience what it must have felt like to be here hundreds of years ago.  Today, it was a great port stop, but not someplace I’d want to stay.  Next time I’m in this region, other than perhaps a quick stop for pesto, I plan to head to Cinque Terre or Portofino, something we did not have time to do today.  Instead, we spent some time enjoying the ship…pool, drinks, sunshine, the wind in our hair, and the YMCA!  Even on an Italian cruise line, American cheese music abounds…enjoy! 

YMCA
Some Italian song
Cha Cha lessons

Next…Napoli, the home of our ancestors.