We missed the boat on this one, and people who write about cruising should never miss a boat…
After an Oceania cruise that ended in Venice, we embarked on a nine-day driving adventure of Italy. If you've never been on a nine-day driving adventure of Italy, do it. You get lost. You make friends in unusual places. You even learn a little Italian.
Back to the missed boat…
We drove to Cinque Terre, the "five towns" along the Italian Riviera that up make a huge tourist attraction. Cruise ships that port at Livorno, and there are many that do, run shore excursions to Cinque Terre. Cruise passengers often take local shore excursions, or create their own.
Ours was a few days after leaving the other Riviera…the one Oceania just launched. On the drive into Monterosso, the town at the northern tip of Cinque Terre, we witnessed some of what we'd heard about — devastation from an horrific winter storm that left four people dead and roads washed out.
The "boat" we missed was Vernazza, town No. 2 going south and apparently the jewel of Cinque Terre. We skipped it because we were riding the train by then, it was raining and we'd already had a full day. More than its four siblings, Vernazza needs tourists to assist the re-building process and there's even concern that it won't survive a year or two of waiting for business to return.
In hindsight, we wished we'd gone.
Carnival Glory
7 nights
September 8, 2012
New York (return): Halifax, Saint John, Portland, Boston
Inside: $529
Cost per day: $75
www.carnival.com