Cannes and Corsica!

On the 27th we arrived in Cannes, France, home to the International film festival. Cannes is full of fancy hotels, expensive restaurants, and designer shops. I have never seen so many Ferraris and Lamborghinis in one place. Kim, Kass, and I grabbed a French baguette with brie cheese and ham, and strolled along the promenade. We then met up with a bunch of friends at the beach and swam out the the rocks. The beach was great, and the weather was so hot! Cannes is set on the Cote d’Azur, a coastline home to St. Tropez, Nice, Cannes, and Monte Carlo, along with thousands of gorgeous yachts!

The day we arrived in Civitavecchia, Italy, most people went into Rome. However since I saw it last summer, I chose something else instead. I did a tour to Bagnaia, Italy, a little old town a few miles from Viterbo, close to Tuscany. I didn’t think my tour sounded too exciting, but I accepted it anyways and was pleasantly surprised. I had to laugh because I was the only person out of 16 under the age of 50. We had a tour of Ville Lante Gardens, very beautiful but not what I expected. There were no flowers, only fountains, which is typical of Italian gardens. I took many pictures in this quaint Italian town, there were little alley ways, windows with clothing hung, and villagers meeting at the corner café for a morning coffee. Hard to imagine living in a little place like Bagnaia, life seems so uncomplicated and peaceful.

Ajaccio, Corsica was one of my favorite ports yet. Corsica is the third largest island in the Med, after Sicily, and Sardinia. This French island is gorgeous! I was scheduled on a tour to Calanques de Piana, which are rose coloured granite cliffs plunging into the ocean. A world heritage site recognized my Unesco. The roads were so winding and narrow. I slept the whole way there to avoid motion sickness, and then walked about 20 minutes along the cliffs edge. The views were amazing. It was almost a cross between being in the Rockies, and the Grand Canyon. We later drove to a pretty little Greek village called Cargese. The little town looked just like a postcard, with colored window sills, quaint little bakeries and shops, and a cat sleeping outside a doorway curled up on a chair. At the waters edge perched on a cliff were two beautiful churches, one Roman Catholic, and one Greek Orthodox, facing each other like rivals. However, these days the priest usually stands in for one another. Our tour guide Mark, was actually German, he had come to Corsica 15 years ago on a vacation, and had never left!

Yesterday we were in Gibraltar. Located at the very bottom of Spain, this British rock town is a short distance across the water from Africa. A big group of us got off together, looked around the town, and had lunch in a British pub. I had fish and chips, and a pint of Strongbow. You only have to walk about 15 minutes until you reach the border of Spain.