Chapter 2
Crotone, Catenia,
Naples(1), and Civitavecchia
Nov. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Crotone is on the bottom of the boot of Italy
Sunday, Nov. 10: Crotone, Italy
The Town of Crotone
Crotone is a relatively small city in Italy, on the bottom of the “boot”. (See map above.) The only excursion that had been scheduled apparently didn’t get enough people signed up and was cancelled, so we were on our own. Below is a view taken from Google Earth with a few labels added. You can see how this is a rather small city and the harbor is very small for a cruise ship. I doubt that a cruise ship much bigger than ours, say, 600 or more passengers, could safely get to the dock. The large old fortress overlooked the harbor and the main part of the Old Town was just behind it. The New Town was separated from the Old Town by a large, multi-lane street with several large plazas or piazzas.
Google Earth view of Croton
As we entered the harbor, I was not sure exactly where we would dock and thought that we were rather close to the breakwater on one side and a large dock with multiple Coast Guard boats on the other side.
Crotone must be a major facility for the Italian Coast Guard.
After we had docked and the yacht had been cleared by the customs people, Susan and I were the 2nd couple to get off the yacht to take a look around. A short walk along the waterfront got us to the edge of the Old Town where a nice road appeared to circle the city close to that waterfront.
More dogs and dog walkers than cars
The street and most of the town was very quiet on this Sunday morning about 9:00. We decided that our primary objective would be to get into the fortress with a secondary target of an archeological museum that was said to be interesting. We looked at the map and where we thought we were and figured “it’s a small city, how hard can it be to find our way around?”
We climbed this hill and stairs 3 times trying to get in the fortress.
It turned out to be surprisingly hard. We went up the hill above, around the fortress, down another street, back up that street, and no sign of any kind of entrance to the fort, just big high walls with no doors. There were occasional signs with arrows to the fortress, but no specific “Entrance this way” type of signs.
Under the archway, we were right next to the fortress.
After getting somewhat confused, we decided to forget the fortress for a while and headed to the archeological museum, which we easily found. I think the museum had just opened for the day (it was Sunday) and we were the first visitors.
Much easier to find this than the entrance to the huge fortress
The museum contained artifacts from Greek and early Roman times that had been found in the area. There were quite a few examples of various containers, including some decorated in a very Greek style.
Nicely decorated Amphora (no relation to our yacht’s restaurant) and other containers
On the second floor an entire room is dedicated to the "treasure of Hera", a series of votive artifacts including Diadema of Hera: a gold foil crown or corona, decorated on the outside with a set of leaves (maybe myrtle) and berries interlaced between them from the 6th century. This piece appeared to be the effective centerpiece of the museum, although there was very little information about it available to read.
The Diadema of Hera
As we were leaving the museum, we ran into a group that we recognized from the yacht and they said they had been in the fortress. We asked them where the entrance was and they just pointed back to where we had been. At least we knew that entrance was possible, so we headed to the fortress again. As we walked around the front of the fortress (again) we did get a good view of the Star Legend not far away.
The Star Legend was still there.
At the bottom of those stairs again, I looked at the map, thought about the other group had said, and thought… “wait a minute!”. I’m thinking in only 2 dimensions, I need to think in 3. So, we climbed the stairs again, went under that arch again, out to the street we had walked several times, but this time we walked uphill further and in front of a row of apartments we had discounted previously. There was the entrance to the fortress, in the middle of the apartments. The walkway to the fortress was across the top of that archway that we had walked under several times.
The walkway to the fortress on the top of that archway
Yes, we felt a little dumb after that. We entered the fortress and looked around a while: there were some nice views of the Old Town and across part of the harbor but much of the fortress area was roped off.
The highest part of the fortress
You could still explore quite a bit of the fortress, even some of the interior areas. A couple of people did this and reported it was very dark and somewhat “spooky” with low ceilings and passageways. The “low ceilings” part did not sound good to me, so we skipped that area. (It had nothing to do with “dark” or “spooky”!) We looked around the fort for a while and then decided to make our way to and through the Old Town.
The Old Town area was primarily lots of old buildings along old, narrow streets that were often lined with cars. There appeared to be some Christmas decorations up above some of the streets, but we couldn’t read any of it.
Old Town was nice, but the bumper to bumper cars and air conditioners spoil the effect.
We walked through Old Town, and found what is probably the best known of the plazas separating Old Town from New Town, Piazza Pitagora. It was a combined open plaza and large round-about but it was still very quiet on a Sunday morning.
Piazza Pitagora: very quiet
We had been walking around for quite a while by this time, so we decided to start heading back toward the yacht. One of the streets leading away from the Piazza Pitagora and heading in the general direction of the harbor, was a very tree-lined road that looked rather inviting.
Trees on both sides of the street
This street led us to the road that went along the waterfront and harbor and thus back to the dock where the Star Legend was tied up. By that time, we had been walking a little over two hours so we decided that was enough and we boarded the yacht, recovered a bit from the walk, and headed for lunch in the Veranda restaurant.
Most of the rest of the day we just relaxed on board, although we did have a couple of interesting sights. There appeared to be some kind of regatta (sailing race) with quite a number of small sailboats just outside the breakwater. The wind was blowing up a pretty good chop on the water so the people on those sailboats had to be getting a rather exciting ride.
In the early afternoon Susan came over to me and said she had seen some kind of fish apparently chasing after schools of smaller fish in the harbor. It would be unusual for this to occur inside a rather small and enclosed harbor area, so I went to take a look. It was soon obvious that it was not a fish doing the hunting, but a mammal, specifically a Dolphin or, actually, several Dolphins. We watched them for a while and I tried to get some videos and photos of the Dolphins, but that is a difficult task because you have to guess where and when they are likely to surface again. I did get several photos and videos and, when I looked at them closely later, I realized that some of the sightings were actually of a mother Dolphin and her rather small baby.
I am reasonably sure that is a mother Dolphin with her baby just in front of her.
In a couple of the photos, you could clearly see a large, adult dolphin with another, much smaller, Dolphin just ahead of or alongside the adult. We watched them for a while until they left the harbor.
This evening, we had reservations at the Cuadro 44 Spanish themed restaurant. The service was good, but the menu seemed a bit “extreme” for us. It was definitely a Spanish influence, but the dishes were not what we would expect at such a restaurant. (We grew up going to Spanish restaurants in the Tampa area because many Cubans had come to Tampa to make cigars.) It would be fine to have a couple of the rather exotic menu items, but there was none of what we considered to be traditional Spanish foods, such as paella, chicken and yellow rice, garbanzo bean soup, etc.
After dinner, we headed to the Compass Rose for our normal cognac and listening to music. By this time the band (Apaloosa) members were getting used to us and, when John (the band leader) came in a little early, he sat with us for a while and we found out a bit more about the group. I made a quick trip to our cabin and brought back a couple of bottles of our “Flaming Gator” pepper sauce for them. I got several comments over the rest of the cruise that they really liked the sauce.
Monday, Nov 11: Catania, Italy (Sicily)
Catania is on the eastern coast of Sicily.
Our visit to Catania did not go well. Most people visiting Catania will visit the reconstructed old roman town of Taormina, rather high up on a hillside just a little north of Catania. We had visited Taormina and several other local spots on our Windstar cruise in 2021, so we didn’t feel like going there again. Instead, we had chosen a tour that would take us up close to the top of the Mt Etna volcano for a close-up look. But, in the morning, when we looked out our sliding glass door to our balcony, it was raining outside. And it kept raining. And the forecast was for rain about all day. It was so bad that, according to our captain, the local authorities had requested that the yacht cancel all excursions. The yacht did organize some additional on-ship activities, such as a couple of movies, a karaoke contest, a tour of the galley/kitchen, extra trivia contest, that kind of thing.
About 2:00 in the afternoon, we looked outside and it appeared that the rain had stopped, so Susan and I decided to get out and take a walk while we could. By the time we had gotten ready and got off the yacht, the rain had started again.
You can’t see the individual rain drops falling, but they were there!
We got out onto the dock, the rain started coming down harder, we looked around for about one minute, and decided that we should get back on the yacht. Somewhat later, the Apaloosa band was providing some before-dinner music in Compass Rose and I got just a short video where you can get an idea of the rain at the beginning.
This was supposed to be the night for the big on-deck Bar-B-Que which is a major event, but the open deck was obviously not a good place to be in that weather. Instead, the crew set up serving lines, sort of like a long buffet, but more interesting, through the galley/kitchen with seating in the AmphorA restaurant.
The beginning of the serving line going through the galley
It was the best they could do under the circumstances, but it was definitely not as good as the normal on-deck BBQ. Instead of the normal after-dinner line dancing on the deck, that was moved to the Compass Rose. After the line dancing, everyone was invited to go to the lounge for a demonstration of traditional local music by a “Folkloric” music group. You can get an idea of the traditional music in this short “music video”. After the folkloric show was over, we retreated back to the Compass Rose for (finally!) our nightly cognac and a little more music by the duo.
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Catania, Italy (again)
As planned, we had stayed in Catania overnight but today we were only scheduled to be in Catania until noon before pulling out and heading toward Naples. No off-ship activities had been planned so everyone had to entertain themselves. Susan and I looked outside and decided that, while there was a little rain still around, it was light enough that we could get out and at least take a little walk around town, so we put on our water-resistant jackets and rain hats and headed out.
I’m not sure what the flowers were for, but the color was welcome on a dreary morning.
There were no guides or anyone else to direct us in the right direction, so we followed the painted paths along the road, avoiding the numerous puddles. We walked off the dock area and into the main part of the town. There were several small parks or squares with what would have been inviting benches and such on a nicer day.
One of the first squares we came across
We really had no destination in mind, just wandering down whatever looked like an interesting street. Some of the streets were very pedestrian friendly with wide sidewalks and few, if any, cars.
A very pedestrian friendly street
And some streets had rather narrow sidewalks where you had to be very aware of the traffic.
And some streets were a bit more challenging to pedestrians.
After walking around for a while, we stumbled upon a somewhat ornate square with a fountain in the middle. This turned out to be a major landmark, the Pizza Vincenzo Bellini. The primary building of interest was the town’s opera house, Theater Massimo Bellini, named for a somewhat famous opera writer.
The Theater Massimo Bellini in the Piazza Vincenzo Bellini
It turned out that we had approached the opera house from the side, rather than down the main street which leads to the piazza, Via Teatro Massimo.
Looking from the Piazza along Via Teatro Massimo
I didn’t realize until writing this section that this was actually the same street that we had passed by, and I had taken a photo of, somewhat earlier in our walk. This is the same street as in the third photo above, but looking in the opposite direction. If you go back to the “Pedestrian friendly street” photo, the building at the far end of the street is the Theater Massimo Bellini opera house.
We wandered the streets a little more, then headed back to the yacht. We did come across a somewhat disturbing sight as we approached the harbor, a couple of small boats almost comply sunken in the water. Not what you want to see when boarding a ship.
Not sure I want to know the story of these boats.
We pulled away from the dock shortly after noon and headed toward the only remaining significant activity for the day, transiting the Messina Strait. At its narrowest point, the strait is only two miles wide, but that is plenty of room for most ships. Transiting the strait does require sort of an “S-turn”, which adds a little interest. Quite a few of the passengers came out on deck to watch as we went through. Susan and I had been through this strait on our 2021 cruise, so it was nothing new, but it was still interesting.
Heading north, coming up on the Massina Strait, before starting the S-Turn
If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a tower at about the 1:00 O’clock position. That tower is actually on the Sicily side of the strait, on the left: we will have to go somewhat to the right of that tower. This might be a bit clearer if you watch the timelapse video of transiting the Messina Strait. In the video, notice that a couple of people got into the bow hot-tub as we were going through the strait. As we were approaching the strait, a couple of dolphins showed up to escort us for a while.
This evening was dinner in the AmphorA restaurant with two pleasant couples from the northeast US. The “special entertainment” for the evening was the regular “Crew Show” in which the members of the crew demonstrate their talents (or lack thereof, in some cases). A couple of the acts were really good with surprisingly talented people and there were also some of the “standard” acts that we have seen quite a few times. After the Crew Show, we headed to the Compass Rose for music and a little cognac.
Wednesday, Nov 13: Naples, Italy (The first time)
We have come through the Messina Strait and are headed to the city of Naples and the Mt. Vesuvius volcano.
There was still a light rain and mist as we sailed into the Bay of Naples and Naples Harbor. Despite the relative gloom and poor visibility, we could still easily make out the shape of Mt Vesuvius in the distance, bringing to mind the ancient cities pf Pompeii and Heracleum which were both destroyed by the eruption about 2000 years ago. I especially thought about this considering that we would be spending considerable time on the slopes of the mountain today.
Mt Vesuvius, as seen when entering the bay of Naples
Today we would be visiting a winery at Cantina del Vesuivius, on the southern slope of the mountain. But first, we would have to meet up with our guide. This was an independent excursion, not one made through WindStar, so meeting up with our guide could be an issue. As I mentioned, there was a light rain falling… sometimes not so light, so we were wearing our water resistant jackets and rain hats. The directions said to meet our guide in the open area just past the exit point from the port. We got there probably 15 minutes early and started looking for someone with our name on a sign… nothing. There were lots (LOTS!) of somewhat aggressive vendors selling tours and raincoats and umbrellas, but no one with our name on a sign. We wandered around for about 20 minutes, getting a bit wet and frustrated. Finally, Susan wandered up to the little gate shack at the port exit and spotted our guide staying dry under the overhang of the shack. I guess we had passed through the exit before he got there and he never ventured away from his dry spot to look for us.
The guide (actually our taxi driver) led us to his car and drove us about 30 minutes to the winery, providing some interesting information along the way. At the winery, he escorted us inside and introduced us to the manager/host who would show us around.
What better way to start than with some “bubbly”?
The host poured us each a glass of a sparkling rosé and gave us a short tour of the winery. I believe that they would normally also give a tour of the vineyard and corresponding information, but the weather was not cooperating. After the tour, we stopped in the lounge area to meet one of the most important characters at the winery, Vino the cat.
Meet Vino, the winery cat.
Vino was laying (sleeping) on a sofa close to a very nice, warm fire. When we disturbed him enough to give him a quick pet, he opened one eye, looked around, and went back to sleep. After paying our respects to Vino, we were led to a table in the restaurant area where we have a very good view of the surrounding vineyards. Shortly, a server showed up with a plate of cheeses, some bruschetta, and a glass of white wine. Soon some bread with olive oil and a unique balsamic vinegar were added. Somewhere along the line, glasses of rosé and red wines were added to the table. By now, the table looked about as pictured below.
A very nice light lunch, but it did not stay light.
Before we could finish what we had, plates of pasta with a simple, but delicious, tomato sauce appeared. As a final touch, plates with a couple of meatballs were served next and, of course, the wine glasses were not allowed to be empty. All in all, a very tasty and enjoyable lunch. And the wines were very good also! The wines were good enough that we ordered a case of wine, olive oil, and their very thick balsamic vinegar. Unusual for Italian wineries, shipping to the US is “free” for orders over $200. It turns out that they maintain a warehouse of their products in the US and ship from there, so shipping expense is reasonable.
Our view of the vineyards while enjoying lunch
After our little “light lunch” was complete and we had ordered our wine, out guide/driver showed up to take us back to the yacht. On the way he said that he would be glad to take us to the yacht, or he would drop us off close to the center of the city of Naples so that we could look around if we wanted to. We had not had much exercise, so we chose the city drop-off. We let us off at a street corner and pointed out the important directions, especially getting back to the yacht, and said “Ciao”.
We found our way around, first along some rather small and old streets: the kind you wonder if you should really be there.
A narrow, colorful, but questionable street
Of course, at the end of a narrow street, there is one of the most popular shopping areas in Naples, along a wide busy street with many people and lots of expensive stores.
You could find about any kind of luxury goods store along this street.
Although interesting to look at, we really didn’t need anything from any of the expensive stores so, after wandering a while, we headed back toward the harbor and our yacht. There were a couple of small parks or plazas and then one rather large one, the Piazza Municipio. In the middle of this piazza was a rather ornate fountain, the Fountain of Neptune, complete with the God of the Seas with his Trident at the top.
The Fountain of Neptune
From this Piazza it was a short walk back to the yacht where we relaxed for a while and used the open deck in front of the Yacht Club lounge to take a look around. Directly in front of the yacht was a major fortress, the Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino). (I don’t know why it is written like that, with part of the name in parenthesis, but it appears to be the custom.)
Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino) directly in front of the Star Legend
About 4:00 the lines were cast off and we started to pull away from the dock. There were a couple of other large ships in adjacent docks so there was a lot of waving back and forth as we passed alongside the other, much larger, ship. You can see us pulling alongside the other ship in this short video clip.
Some of the other cruise ships as we pulled out past them.
As we left the harbor, we had another good view of Vesuvius over the bow of our yacht. Don’t worry Naples, we will be back soon!
Leaving Naples for the first time time on this trip
Tonight was another dinner in AmphorA, seated with Chuck and Vicki (from Sonoma) again, followed by music and cognac in Compass Rose.
Thursday, Nov. 14: Civitavecchia, Italy
Civitavecchia is primarily known for being the port city for Rome and the area. We were there because this was a “back-to-back” cruise for us but other people would be getting off or on here. I believe that about 60 people got off and 40 new passengers got on. There is not a lot of history or things of interest in Civitacecchia itself, and most people visiting there take a tour of some kind into Rome, about 90 minutes away by bus. We had visited Rome about 3 years previously and all of the excursions we saw basically rode 90 minutes into Rome, toured places we had seen before, then rode the 90 minutes back. That did not sound like much fun to us, so we chose about the only other excursion offered: a ride to the Tuscany area to visit a winery and distillery along with appropriate tastings and lunch. It ended up being a good choice.
About 60 – 70 miles northwest of Rome
We had a leisurely breakfast and then about 20 of us, all on the B-2-B version of the cruise, loaded onto a bus for the drive to Tuscany. It was a pleasant and scenic drive through mostly rural farmland with a few towns along the way.
Road Trip!
We’re not in Kansas (or Georgia) any more
As we were approaching our first destination, the winery, I got the impression that neither the tour guide nor the bus driver knew exactly where they were going. We later found out that, indeed, this was the first time that this tour had been run and neither of them had been to the winery before. This would happen again later.
Where we are going: La Parrina farm, winery, restaurant, and general store
We finally found the winery and the bus parking area and a hostess at the winery greeted us, leading the way to what turned out to be a combined farm, winery, country store, and restaurant. The first thing on the tour was the farm, although it appeared to be what we would call a “hobby farm”, not really a very productive undertaking. Their main “farm animals” were donkeys: not for any productive work but because one of the owners just likes donkeys.
Someone here likes donkeys!
There were quite a few donkeys, probably at least 15 or 20 and they were all very well fed. Susan and I are used to seeing the wild donkeys in Bonaire, but these looked much different. I don’t know enough about donkeys to call these animals “fat”, but let’s just say there were very well “filled out”. There were also some sheep in one pasture, and several small fields where various fruit trees and vegetables were being grown. This was certainly not on a significant commercial scale, so I suspect the crops were mainly for the owners and workers and some for the country store we would see in a little while.
Our hostess and some Merlot vines
The vineyards of wine grapes appeared to be a much more serious effort, with several good-sized areas surrounding the farm. Our hostess described a little of the history of the winery and the varieties of grapes grown here. While the farm may be a hobby, they are serious about their wines. Contrary to the appearance of the green grass and weeds in the photo above, this had been a very dry and hot year so the yield of the vines would have been small, but the quality should be very good. It just started raining (a lot) a couple of weeks prior to our visit, after the grapes had been picked.
Of course, any time you have farm animals, you have feed for them, and that attracts rodents like mice and rats. What is the best way to control rodents on an organic farm? Cats, of course!
One of several cats
There were a number of cats around and, while they were not mean or really unfriendly, they did not seek attention either. I got the impression that they were on duty: they were working, patrolling for rodents, and could not take time out from their job.
Flowers on display outside the “General Store”
Back to the farmhouse/winery, there were several displays with flowers, flowering plants, and very nice looking vegetables displayed for sale. Some plants were familiar but others were kinds that I’ve never seen before. Next on the agenda was a tour of the winery and, as I mentioned, they are serious about their wine.
Stainless Steel fermentation tanks: not a small operatioon
The stainless steel fermentation tanks were lined up but mostly empty as this year’s harvest had mostly finished fermentation by now. There were also quite a few concrete tanks in another room.
Decent size, but not huge, barrel room
We visited one barrel room but I suspect this one is really for “show” and there must be other rooms or caves used for aging. The barrel room did display a nice variety of barrel sizes and types, as you can see in the photo above. Each barrel was marked with the grape variety, the vintage, and other identification such as the plot in the vineyard it came from.
Some of the older vintages (like, 1975) on display
One reason I say that this barrel room is for “show” are displays such as the bottles of old vintage (1975 and thereabouts) wines above, and the attractive display of currently produced wines (below).
A sampling of La Pederria wines
Next was a visit to their “general store” where many products were on display for sale, all of which had been raised and made on the farm or winery. First there was a room for cheeses and meats (mostly sausages and cured meats), then a room with mostly jellies, preserves, fruit sauces, and some of the vegetables we had seen earlier. Then we came to the wines that had been produced at La Pederria winery, and there were quite a few. One offering that got my attention and tempted me greatly was the “bulk wine”. There were taps in the wall, similar to beer taps, with a sign that basically said: “Bulk wine, 2 Euro per liter”. That’s right, 2 Euros for a liter of wine. Of course, you would also probably have to purchase a container for the wine, and they were available: 3 Euros for a 5 liter plastic container. You had your choice of red or white wine. So, for the total cost of 13 Euros (3 for the container, 10 for the wine), you could walk out with 5 liters of wine. One of the people in our tour did just that. We were offered tastes of the wine directly from the tap and it was not bad at all: it would not win any prizes, but I have tasted much worse wine.
Some of their wines for sale in the “General Store”
While we were in the general store area and afterwards, I did see several people not from our tour, purchasing items, so it is apparently treated much like a general store by the local people,
After any purchases were complete, we headed to the restaurant for what turned out to be a very good lunch. This lunch followed the same pattern as we had at the Naples winery the day before: Antipasto (cheese, bruschetta, bread with oil and balsamic vinegar), Primo Piatto (pasta, with sauce and organic vegetables), and Secondo Piatto (Tuscan stewed beef). It was all good and nicely presented, but I think I liked the one the previous day better. Of course, there were different wines for each course and our hostess provided information about each.
One of the tables at the wine tasting/lunch
The wine and food was good and, by now, everyone was relaxed so the meal took a little longer than planned; remember, this is the first time this itinerary had been used for a tour. We were a little behind schedule piling back into the bus to head to our next destination, the distillery. On the way to the distillery the sun was shining with puffy clouds in the sky so when we passed what, to me, looked like a typical Tuscan town, I couldn’t help but think of the name of the book: “Under the Tuscan Sun”. I can certainly understand how people could fall in love with this area.
Typical Tuscan village under the Tuscan Sun
Our arrival at the NUMA distillery also reminded us that this was a “first time” tour. After driving past the entrance to the NUMA distillery once, someone (probably the bus driver) determined that our bus was too big to negotiate the small road and driveway into the distillery grounds. So, we pulled off the main road, onto a side road with a small parking area and a van sized bus from the distillery met us there and transferred everyone, 8 or 10 people at a time. When I saw how close the distillery was to where the bus parked, I realized we could have walked the distance quicker than the shuttle operation. But, there were no sidewalks along the road, so perhaps that as deemed not a good idea.
After everyone arrived at the distillery and had made the normal restroom visits, a hostess led us to the distilling room with tall gleaming copper and bronze evaporation and condensation towers. It was a bit surprising to me that this relatively small room was the heart of a fairly significant producer of distilled products.
Some of the distillation towers at NUMA
Next, we visited their “inventory room” where a reasonable amount of each of their products was kept. I doubt that this was their full inventory, but rather probably what they like to keep on hand to show visitors and to sell on-site. The variety of products from such a small facility was more impressive than the quantity of the product.
Some of their products on the shelves
After inspecting their production and storage facilities, it was time to sample some of their products. Tables had been set up with each place setting having a sample of, in order of tasting, Amaro, limoncello, Grappa, and Brandy. After the relatively mild taste of the wines at the winery, the much stronger (taste and alcohol content) of these drinks came as a bit of a shock to most people. Having had Grappa, Brandy, and Limoncello (although less striong), previously, I knew what to expect, but some people were clearly surprised. I’m not a fan of “straight” Grappa, but when softened with a little flavoring such as anise (licorice flavor) it can be very nice: this one was not softened at all and was a bit harsh. The limoncello was stronger than most I’ve tasted before but was very drinkable. The Amaro reminded me of brandy, but less sweet, so a bit harsh to my taste. The brandy was ok, but I’ve gotten used to its first cousin, cognac, which I prefer.
Tables ready for our tasting
NUMA is apparently a respected and high-quality producer of these and other distilled products (including Vermouth, and Gin) but after the winery visit and in the Tuscany setting, these liquors just did not come across well. Oh, and I have not been able to find out just where the NUMA name came from. I suspect it is a combination of the initials of several people.
We shuttled back to the bus and tried to get going quickly because we were running almost an hour behind schedule and our expected arrival time back at the yacht would be very close to the planned departure time. Of course, this was a WindStar organized excursion, so there is no way the yacht was going to go off and leave 20 of us behind. Back on the yacht we rested up from a strenuous day of tasting and got ready for the normal evening activities: dinner in AmphorA, music and cognac (and perhaps a little dancing) in Compass Rose.
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Chapter 3 - the cruise continues