Venice, Bari, and Corfu

There is no mistaking what city this is.

As promised, it is time to get caught up on our travels.  The itinerary of our first-ever cruise had us embarking in Venice, sailing to Bari at the end of Italy, then over to the Greek islands of Corfu, Mykonos, and Santorini, and returning by way of Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We are going to split up our photos into three posts, with this one covering the first leg of our journey.

We took the high-speed train to Venice on Monday morning so we could have a leisurely lunch before boarding the good ship Costa Fascinosa.  I had to stop calling it the Costa Fashionista because my ribs were getting sore from Carmen's elbow.  It was wonderful to have the time to walk around a bit in what may be our favorite city in the world and find a trattoria that we liked.

There were 2700 passengers on the ship, and naturally it took all afternoon to get us all on board.  We finally put out as it was getting dark, sailing right past the Duomo San Marco.

Several cathedrals

Bari is a city on the heel of the Italian boot, and one that we knew very little about.  We declined on taking a tour, preferring to go off on our own to discover who knows what.  Here are some of the things we found:

A fresco outside a small chapel

A massive medieval fortress

An orange tree on a balcony

A statue of a knight's horse, replete with armor

Early on Wednesday we docked in Corfu and went on a tour that started by winding up a mountain road to Achilleion, a palace that was built by Elisabeth of Austria in the 19th century.  As with so many palatial buildings in Europe, the ceilings are amazing.  Here is a montage:

The palace is named after Elisabeth's favorite hero from the Iliad.  Here is a 19th century interpretation of what he looked like.  Can you read the inscription in Greek characters?  It is really not that hard.

We then had time to prowl around Corfu town and have a very nice lunch.  We especially liked seeing Corfu because it was the location of one of our favorite books, "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell.

And then it was time to again board the ship and be off to the Aegean islands of Mykonos and Santorini, which will be in our next post.

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