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Star Princess Cruise From Rome to Venice - Part II

By John F. Rooney

As John Lazzatti and I continued our Star Princess cruise, we found ourselves on Day Six docked in Kusadasi, Turkey, the gateway to the ancient Roman city of Ephesus. It was an impressive sight walking downhill through the ruins to the two story famous library façade. In Ephesus a sign on the ground near the library still points to a brothel. Ephesus many years ago was a port on the sea, but now it is several miles from the water.

The guide said that in the amphitheater of 24,000 Paul delivered his Speech to the Ephesians. Concerts are still held in the theater. Outside the ruins a tout proclaimed, “Genuine fake watches. Have a look.”

We visited the large ruin of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary’s small stone house high up in the mountains where she spent her last days. It was recently reconsecrated by Pope Benedict.

We had lunch in the yard of a railroad museum where forty-five ancient steam engines and other railroad cars are on display. An ethnic dance show was presented during our meal. Day Seven we were on the Greek island of Mykonos, a very pretty resort destination which due to the presence of Onassis became the playground of the jet set. Mykonos had been having a drought. Right before we got there, they had three days of rain. The island was now green again. An interesting sight as we stood outside a whitewashed private chapel, was watching a large herd of sheep stumbling off a boat onto a pier. They had been brought back from a nearby island to graze again on a verdant Mykonos.

Many house windows were closed off with blue shutters because the season was over. Mykonos blue is a particular shade of blue that stands out against the whitewashed buildings. The island has many private chapels. They were once a tax dodge because if you constructed a chapel on your property, you could build a house and escape taxes. “Little Venice” is a charming section where houses overhang the sea. Legend has it that pirates brought their booty there to sell it to the islanders.

The word Mykonos means piled rocks. Across from Mykonos is Delos, the birthplace of Apollo, renowned for its perfect light. In the central resort town three huge white pelicans have the run of the town. It can be a very windy island off season.

On Day Eight we landed in Piraeus, the port of Athens. A light rain fell occasionally as we walked around the Acropolis. On this trip the Acropolis was disappointing; huge building cranes have been set up there, and a lot of ancient pieces have been moved down to the foot of the hill to be housed eventually in a new archeological museum.

I was also disappointed by the huge area below the Acropolis known as the Plaka. Years ago I can remember ascending steps going up the side of the Acropolis hill in what was part of the Plaka. Along the steps were terraced restaurants, tavernas, and shops. The Plaka today has all of these ingredients in abundance, but I couldn’t find the long flight of steps busy with bars and cafes which was such a delight in the old days. We did find a taverna in the present-day Plaka which served excellent food and wine. We were shown the Olympic sites from the 2004 games.

On Day Nine our ship tied up in Katakolon which is the take-off point for Olympia, Greece, where the ancient Olympic games were held. Olympia proved to be the most impressive and interesting of all the archeological sites we visited. Our guide pointed out how close the forest fires of the summer of 2007 had come to destroying the site.

According to legend Zeus’s father Cronus tried to swallow him, but his mother saved him, and he was brought up by five shepherds who acted as nannies and raised him. As a reward to them, Zeus set up the games as a way of pacifying the warring Greek city states. For the period of the games, at least, there was peace.

Olympia also had the best museum of our trip, one which correlated with the games site. As you take these land tours you learn history and get an education in architecture, art, and culture. You are reminded that the capitals at the tops of columns fall into categories: the plainest and oldest ones are Doric, the Ionic have scrolls, and the Corinthian, the most ornate, have acanthus leaves Many tourists kept asking on which Greek island the musical “Mama Mia” took place. It turned out to be a fictional island. Time was allotted for a walk around the little village of Katakolon, some of it shuttered because we were there out-of-season.

Day Ten was spent on the Greek island of Corfu. It has a seaside esplanade and park, a cricket pitch, and a busy shopping area which includes a Marks and Spencer. In the old section amid the narrow streets, we were brought to the Church of Agios Spyridonas where the remains of Saint Spyridonas, the patron saint of the island, are kept. He didn’t live on Corfu. His remains were brought from Constantinople. His remains in an upright position are carried throughout town four times a year.

Day Eleven saw us in Dubrovnik, Croatia. We did not take a guided tour on this stop, but rather took a shuttle bus from the ship and walked over the moat into the walled city still bearing the scars of the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian wars of 1991-92. We walked atop the battlements, through the streets and had an excellent lunch on the quay facing one of the harbors. We failed to see the maritime museum because the matron wouldn’t accept dollars or Euros and insisted on the local currency which we lacked. I cannot guarantee the veracity of the information that I was given by tour guides because they have a tendency to embellish and entertain rather than to enlighten their charges.

Day Twelve: We spent overnight on ship docked in Venice. It was a night of packing and saying goodbyes to new friends.

Day Thirteen for our disembarkation in Venice we had to get up at 6:30 and be out of room by 8:00. We were off the ship by 9:30 and on a vaporetto shuttle boat to St Marks Square. We checked into our hotel very near the square for our five night stay in the city of dreams. We paid $32 to have our luggage delivered to our hotel and $15 for a shuttle boat back and forth to the ship for the day before. On board I bought 150 minutes of computer time for $75.00 to read and send e mails and check on Amazon and Google sites.

It was sad leaving our newfound friends and the luxurious accommodations of the ship. We remembered the very elaborate jack o’ lantern pumpkin display in the atrium made for Halloween on ship and the hilarity of toga night. On a cruise ship we knew it’s wise not to try to eat your money’s worth so I don’t think we put on any pounds.

As our vaporetto pulled away from the dock headed for St. Mark’s, we watched as the Star Princess, the biggest and tallest structure in Venice, became smaller, and we realized that our floating home was no more. We were on our own once again. Oh well, we were in Venice, and there was always Harry’s Bar to rejuvenate us with those delicious martinis.

John (Jack) Rooney’s latest novel is “The Rice Queen Spy.” His first book was the thriller “Nine Lives Too Many” featuring his series detective Denny Delaney pitted against the arch-terrorist Felix the Cat. That was followed by the suspenseful “The Daemon in Our Dreams” a blend of the naturalistic and the paranormal. His work schedule includes “Clawed Back from the Dead” a new Delaney effort.

He was born and educated in Springfield, Massachusetts (Classical High and American International College), went on to receive a master’s degree in English from Columbia University, and finished course work for his Ph.D. at N.Y.U. He has written book reviews, and feature and travel articles for newspapers and magazines. He served in the U.S. Army as a military policeman in AWOL apprehension and in Times Square and Vienna, Austria. Rooney’s website is http://www.senneffhouse.com

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