Greek Isle Cruise with Milan sidebar….

The Greek Isle cruise was amazing ,commencing in Ravenna and finishing in Trieste due to flooding from torrential rains in Italy . Ravenna is a great spot to spend a couple of days , it is less touristy and more of a “local” feel . We walked mostly as its a small town but did take the local bus to the Mall. Sampled some great restaurants and went on a Mosaic tour for which the city is known.
Our Cruise was aboard The explorer of the Seas , it is a Voyager Class ship which is much smaller than our previous ship the Odyssey . The crew and amenities were awesome though and shared nightly dinners with two amazing young ladies from the U.K. Our visits took us first to Kotor Montenegro where it rained the whole time in the excursion to Our Lady of the Rocks. This lovely church was assessable only via boat , it was located just off mainland Kotor and was still awesome to experience even while we were being drenched! One of the highlights here for me was in Perast where I ordered hot chocolate to warm up and received a literal cup of chocolate….It was warn however and I ate it! LOL! . Next stop Corfu Greece, sunny and bright a welcome change from the previous rains. Walked into town to experience some of the architecture and the local market. Mykonos was next , very sunny as well , by this time we were wishing for cloud cover and some rains ….Just some. We went on an excursion to the small island of Delos the birthplace of Apollo the Sun God and his twin sister Artemis the moon goddess. This is a UNESCO world Heritage site with loads of very interesting monuments, statues and ruins from the 3rd Century BC . The Aegean Sea surrounds the island .One of the interesting points for me were the. Any cats around with most having a left ear missing. It was explained by our guide that this missing ear alerts the Vets who visit the island that those cats are already spaded or neutered .
Argostoli was interesting as well but the next stop was my favorite! Athens was the pinnacle of the Greek Isles for me, the Acropolis was long ago on my wish list and finally I was there. The ruins did not disappoint and our tour guide was a walking wealth of Acropolis knowledge. The hills across the way were aptly known for the place where Democracy was founded making Athens the birthplace of our Democratic existence. The city of Athens boasted monuments, historical firsts and great weather . Our Cruise was rerouted to Trieste instead of ending in Ravenna as planned, it was a little hairy at first but we made it to Mika where we spent our last three days in Italy. Milan was just ok for me , very touristy and somewhat rude restaurant and store vendors. Our hotel The Hilton Milan was great and close to Milan Central station (a fabulous building in it’s own right). See my experience in pictures below. Message me to help you with your visit to Italy or any of my awesome experiences in my Blog. Enjoy !