Escorting Tours!

So this cruise, three different cast members have family cruising.. So, since all my friends are busy, I decided to sign up to escort a bunch of the passenger tours for free.. See what happens!! (When we "escort" we simply go along the tour.. it's the ship's way of providing staff with the opportunity to accompany these tours when there's an empty seat on the bus! ha. In return, we just fill out a short survey evaluating the tour so they can improve them for future guests).

I've been incredibly lucky and had a great time! Here's what I've done so far:

In Livorno, Italy I escorted a tour to the beautiful region of Cinque Terre. So we boarded the bus and drove for about an hour and a half to the small coastal town of Manarola. From there, we walked along La Via dell'Amore (a cliffside path along the Italian Riviera) to the next town Riomaggiore. After a few minutes to walk around, we boarded a small boat ferry to head to the next town.. Now.. these towns are literally cut off from the rest of the world.. the train system that goes there is only about 20 years old.. before that it was only the ferries.. but the cliffs are so steep, there aren't even docks!! the boat just pulls up against a rock and you hop on and off. HA! So we hop on the ferry and travel to Vernazza. Here we had about a half hour to wander around before boarding the ferry again and traveling to the last (and largest) of the 5 villages: Monterosso al Mare. Here we had two hours of free time where I found an amazing family-owned restaurant for lunch. An extremely generous couple on the tour even paid for my lunch! It was such a cool day. Now, there was really nothing to "do" in any of these towns, per se.. but the scenery was beautiful. I'd love the opportunity to go back and stay there for a few days and really see all the towns. it was beautiful. here's a few pictures:

The next day I went along for a tour into Rome. Now, by this time I have seen PLENTY of Rome.. ha! This tour, however, went inside the Colosseum - something I hadn't done yet - and spent more time in St. Peter's Basilica - where I really wanted to spend more time.. It's just so beautiful! So that was a fun day. It also included a delicious lunch!!

Yesterday, I was able to take a really cool tour to Mount Etna in Sicily - one of Europe's largest active volcanos! It was my first volcano - it was so weird. ha! They pretty much just took us to the volcano and gave us free time to wander around the craters. It was so cool! Overall, a nice day that would've been hard to get to without being on a tour.

Today I'm in Mykonos, Greece. A group of us got off this morning and rented some ATV's (4-wheelers) to get to the other side of the island for Paradise Beach! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Such a great day.. I just sat in a lounge chair.. had some good Greek beer and Gyros.. also - Megan (in my cast).. her dad brought some goggles so I was able to do my first semi-snorkeling! I say semi because we didn't have a breathing thing.. so i just had to dive up and down all the time.. There was a huge rock under the water that had tons of plant life on it and, therefore, tons of fish! It was so beautiful!! The rock dove down about 15 feet on the far side of it, so you could see right down to the bottom of the water there too. It was beautiful!! I had such a great time chasing the fish under water.. And - to be honest - they did some chasing of me too. ha! it was really fun..

Now i'm in an internet cafe with some good fast internet that I'm using to call family and upload some pictures.. Not to mention to update all of you!!

Hope things are good back in the States!! I can't wait to come home in just over 3 months. Woo-hoo!!