La Spezia, Italia

Setting foot in Italy after two years!

I can't even begin to express my joy, the day I set foot back in Italy.  For those of you who haven't read my blog since the beginning, I began it for my year long adventure of studying abroad in Florence during my senior year of college.  I didn't speak a word of Italian before arriving and knew absolutely nothing about this beautiful, romantic country.  I fell in love with the country and with the language, and it will always have a special place in my heart.

The Port of La Spezia

Our first port of Italy was La Spezia; one we would return to the entire summer of my Mediterranean cruise adventure.  From here, in theory, you can visit many surrounding towns and cities...if time permits--which, for crew memebers, not all destinations were possible.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Today is about La Spezia.  Like Villefranche, we anchored further out in the port and took tender boats to shore.  The process was easy, painless and frequent in Villefranche.  Not so much in La Spezia.  The boats were bigger--which required a longer wait time to bring them to maximum capacity--and the distance was longer (about 20 minutes each way).  Not to mention, waiting for the tender to arrive if one had just departed, and allowing all Disney guests to be the first on the tender as well as the first ones off.  All this to say, if you were cutting it close in La Spezia, you were really playing the odds.

What a joyful day this was for me!  Kristine, Kaila, Kev and myself enjoyed our first Italian meal of the summer

Of the four Italian ports we frequented over the summer, La Spezia reminded me most of Florence, making it my favorite.  I mean, that should come as no surprise since it is the closest of the ports to Florence.  This quaint little town had a small farmer's market and a decent shopping scene, but mine and my friends' destination was usually a little "bar" (cafe) called Lo Sfizio.  The people were wonderful, the wifi was always reliable (and always is not a term used liberally when it comes to this matter).  It may not be a city full of breath taking views and adventures, but it was wonderful to me.

Gelato is always a must.

Una bici pittoresco 

My friend, Princess Aurora, on a port morning.