DAY 115 - DAY 109 CRYSTAL SERENITY

4/9/2019

WELCOME TO GENOA

Thank you so much Doris. The good news is there is more to come.

Eileen, thank you for your comments and we are glad you are enjoying the Blog.

Catherine, it's been good to be away from Winter for this entire adventure.

Thank you Patricia. Keith has fruit almost every night for dessert. Anne Marie usually has a decaf. cappuccino coffee and in the specialty restaurants one or two of the very small desserts they bring to the table.

Jonathan thank you for your comments about the Blog. It does take quite a bit of time to keep it up to date. Yes, Crystal does create so many special events. It is amazing.

We enjoyed a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Plaza. There was a mandatory muster drill for all newly embarking guests at 5:00 PM. There are 850 guests who joined the ship in Monte Carlo. As we sat at the Plaza some guests were still arriving and checking in. With a midnight departure some guests were arriving into the evening. For guests arriving after the muster drill took place a second one was scheduled for 8:00 PM.

These are the dinner menus from Waterside.

We dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. We intentionally booked Prego for the first night of this cruise knowing that Waterside would be very busy and hoping that Prego would not be so busy. Our decision was spot-on as many of the newly arriving guests chose Waterside. Prego was not too busy for most of the evening. We enjoyed a leisurely meal.

The menu has gone back to the original menu.

We began with a Creamy Crab Tower which was followed by Caesar salad. Anne Marie had Veal for her entree and Keith had Bronzino Fish.

Everything was perfect including the cuisine, service and overall ambience of the dining venue. While some nights are going to be very busy this one was not given that it was the first night of the cruise.

We departed last evening at Midnight for our next port of call at Genoa, Italy. We began the day as usual. This included a workout at the Fitness Center for Keithfollowed by coffee and breakfast in our room. We arrived to Genoa by 8:00 AM.

We wanted to note during this ten-day cruise we sail from Genoa to Venice, Italy. This is a port intensive cruise with only one sea day. We will make portions of the port days sea days.

On port intensive cruises Crystal Cruises still provides enrichment including lectures. For example, at 5:00 PM today destination lecturer Marcus will discuss things to do in Livorno, Italy including visit to Florence, Pisa and Lucca.

Today's schedule also included other activities including: Two Fitness Classes, Social Bridge, Seminars on wellness, Complimentary Dance lesson, Golf Clinic and other items on the program including an afternoon movie.

We arrived to Genoa on-schedule.

We last visited Genoa last October. Our first visit was on the 2008 World Cruise.

The city has close to 600,000 residents.

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451. He has one of the longest and prestigious maritime histories in all of Italy.

Highlights of Genoa include:

Via Garibaldi Palazzo dei Rolli which is a group of palaces and mansions and is a UNESCO site.

Aquarium which is the largest aquarium in Italy and one of the largest in all of Europe.

Basilica di Santa Maria di Castello which is a Romanesque church erected before 900 CE.

Piazza Raffaele de Ferrari which is the main square of Genoa.

Museo di Palazzo Reale which is the Royal Palace of Genoa.

Spianata Castelletto which is a residential quarters of Genoa situated in north-western area.

Today we enjoyed a private tour that we arranged with Crystal Cruises.

Our tour began at 8:30 AM.

We were mat by our tour guide Anna and our driver. They are both from Genoa or as spelled in Italy Genova.

We were driven to the village of Rapallo, Italy. We drove along the highway and must have gone through 30+ mountains due to all of the mountains.

Rapallo is located in the Ligura region and has 30,000 inhabitants. It was settled in 8th century BC. Many of the villas are built into the hills that rise behind the city protecting them from strong winds from the north.

Following our visit to Rapallo we were driven to the village of Sestri Levante. It is located 35 miles south of Genoa and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. It used to be a quiet fishing village and has also become a favorite of Italians as a place to visit over Holiday.

We took the coastal road to get there. It was beautiful. While at Sestri Levante we saw the destruction to many vessels from the Hurricane that hit in mid-October of 2018. We were in Lisbon on the last night of our cruise last year when high winds were expected in Lisbon and the hurricane was hitting this region. This is certainly an exception as Hurricane's normally do not hit this region as they become Hurricane's in the Ocean.

Instead of going directly back to Genoa we were able to add in another village of Camogli. We took the coastal route to get there. It was another beautiful drive and a lovely village. From there we enjoyed lunch at Ristorante Zeffirino. We will post about Camogli and Lunch tomorrow.

All in all we had a great day and tour.

Anne Marie with Tour Guide Anna