We have finalized our first post retirement trip. We are going to Italy, Turkey, Greece, and back to Italy for a month. The heart of our trip is a two week Seabourn cruise from Istanbul to Venice on the Seabourn Odyssey. You can find the itinerary on Seabourn’s website.

In booking the trip, I thought we would fly to Istanbul and spend a few days getting over jet-lag before embarking on the Odyssey. The most reasonable flight I could find into Europe for our travel dates was a flight into Rome connecting to Istanbul. Sooo, why not spend a few days in Rome before going on to Turkey? We will now fliy to Rome for four days, then fly Pegasus Air to Istanbul for four days, embark on our “Retirement Extravaganza” (I hope so), disembark at Venice for four days, then off to Florence for five days.

Of course the cruise has excursions at each port of call. Together with our travel advisor, Pam Harper Horst of Pam’s Path to Travel, we have selected a shore excursion roughly every other day of the cruise. Some days we will just saunter around the old town on a Greek Island, some days we’ll hire our own car. Sure we do not speek Turkish or Greek or even Italian, that only heightens our sense of adventure. I have had no problem communicating in foreign countries with gesticulations, though sometimes I was not sure until we arrived that all was well.

This is the most exciting thing we have done since our first trip together to Sicily, before we actually knew eachother well. We have taken a number of safaris with good friends in Africa, which was exciting, but it is not the same when travelling with another couple who knows the ropes.

I love Italy. The peole, the history, the weather/climate, the architecture, the art (oh the art), and music. These are the most civilized people in the world. Life is an art form; yet historically the Italians were engineers when compared to the Greeks who were philosophers. The rennaisance may well be the high point of civilization on the earth. Perhaps I would not think so had I lived then. Seen through the eyes of the brilliant artists; yes, Carravagio, Michelangelo, and Bottecheli represent for me the perigy of art in the world. Then there is the ancient architecture and the modern. Incredible.

You will find poor quailty Italian export goods, designed to be flash and cost very little. However, Italian design and engineering is among the best in the world. It is not mass produced and it is very expensive, but it is among the highest quality you will find anywhere but for a price. Italy is not heaven. It has political and economic troubles, social dischord born of cultural clashes between old and new, aged and teenager, corrupt and honest. If you look closely, you will find this in any country in the world; some more some less.

Anyway. We will both start and end in Italy. We will have internet access for the entire 31 days of our trip and we will report the good and the bad as we go. I will post our detailed itinerary and accomodations in a forthcoming blog.

I have the sea in my blood and I think that the cruise through the Greek Islands will rekindle the adventurer in me, even if abord so sedate a vessel as the Seabourn Odysse.

Be Well, Be Honest, Be True

Ron