#108 2022 November 12-18. Nomad Diary. Dubrovnik, Croatia. Corfu, Greece. Messina, Italy. Naples, Italy (Pompeii). Civitavecchia, Italy. La Spezia, Italy (Cinque Terre). Nomad Notes on Trusted House Sitters.
Port at Dubrovnik. Old Dubrovnik is between those two mountains, take a left and keep walking by the sea until you get there!
Walking beside the sea towards old Dubrovnik. Following Darrell.
Beautiful coast of the Adriatic Sea walking toward old Dubrovnik.
Inside old Dubrovnik looking down a mainstreet filled with tourists.
Inside old Dubrovnik with so many streets to explore!
Walls of old Dubrovnik.
Exploring
Delicious fresh seafood lunch in D.
Inside old D.
Old Dubrovnik walls.
Talking to Quinn, age 2, and our son Jeremy and Andrea.
Saturday. 12. Dubrovnik, Coratia.We walked about 2 ½ miles to old Dubrovnik from our cruise ship. The path was all side walks through a modern town bordering the waterway with marinas, houses and businesses. The mountains rose high from the water. Our direction went between two mountains and also raised in elevation as we came to a plateau overlooking the sea. There were beautiful and large trees shading our walk and making the drop to the sea very lush and green. We continued walking along and above the sea coast through neighborhoods as we slowing made a descent to the activity surrounding old Dubrovnick and the gate where mostly tourists were coming and going. I was astounded by the size of this walled city, and my mind was blown when we got inside the walls and saw the length of the street ahead of us and the distances and number of streets and building inside this wall. We walked around for more than an hour, maybe two. One street and scene led to another and drew our interest on and on to keep going and exploring. We finally had to take a break for lunch. We chose a restaurant well off of any of the main streets, and it was still quite pricey for our meal of fresh seafood including shrimp, octopus and sardines. It was so unexpectedly delicious! Nothing like fishy canned memories of how we thought these items were supposed to taste! We walked back to the ship, considering but bypassing the skyride to the the top of a mountain overlooking the old city. We also bypassed walking the walls here. Maybe next time!
Me and the Old fort door at Corfu.
Following Darrell into the old fort at Corfu. You can see the lighthouse in this picture.
Walking out to the coast at the old fort at Corfu.
Sunday. 13. Corfu, Greece. Darrell and I walk the two miles from the ship into town. There are two forts here with the town in between them. The old fort (1500’s) is the farthest destination. The new fort (1800’s) is only 300 years younger! Lol. We go through the market area in the old downtown where people have shops and restaurants open for locals and for tourists. We do a little shopping and get some carved olive wood spoons and a lemon juicer. This is the place to buy all your wooden spoons, cutting boards, etc. Darrell sees a pastry that he wants to come back to after we eat lunch. We walk on to the old fort and pay about 3 Euros each to get in. The compound is huge! The views of the seacoast and the water looking over to Albania is stunning. We spent at least an hour here and making the trek up to the highest point with the lighthouse. When we were about finished a rainstorm slowed us down for a few minutes. We walked back into town to eat lunch. We ordered gyros. After lunch we walked through the shopping some more and got the sesame pastry to share. It was heavier than we expected as it was soaked in a light honey. Then we walked on to the new fort and around the boundary of it on our way back to the ship. We spent time in worship together today.
Monday. 14. Sea Day. On the ship: exercise with Darrell before 7am. Dress for the day and have breakfast at the buffet. When it is warm enough a mild enough we eat outside on the deck. After we eat, we go out on the deck and watch the sunrise. Often we meet other sunrise watchers and make new friends, or we all sit quietly in awe of the sky! At 9 am we meet with others for a Bible study. We are reading through the book of Mark and Darrell is leading the study. About 25 people come every sea day. We often go to a live presentation either a port talk where we learn about one of our upcoming ports, or a food related topic from the chefs and assistants. Other activities through the day can include having a cappuccino or hot tea, visiting with people, sitting and reading, watching the ocean from a deck chair, taking a nap, getting in a hot tub, watching a show or movie,having lunch usually at the buffet for this cruise, and having dinner with the same people in the dining room.
Our impromptu tour and picture inside at the Forte in Messina. It’s not open to the public yet.
This old clock in Messina puts on a 10-15 minute show at noon everyday.
Old tile work at the cathedral always has me seeing American quilt patterns. This one has alot more patterns than just these. Messina.
Sailing into Messina we passed by Mount Etna in the morning.
Looking our over Messina from the Forte. Darrell and our Italian speaking guide.
Tuesday. 15. Messina, Italy. Beautiful view of Mt. Etna from the ship at sunrise as we come into the port of Messina. Next to Messina is the Strait of Messina a narrow shipping lane. We decided to walk up the hill through town to an old fort and then get back to the old square where there is an old clock that has an elaborate noontime chime. Darrell is leading us with google maps up the hill. We obviously are going up some unkept steps with vines growing everywhere. We walk through some people’s housing territories. It is uncomfortable because we don’t speak Italian and we aren’t sure about the direction and our freedoms to be where we are. We get through the neighborhood in question and are once again on a regular street going up. We go into a fence and up some steps that looks like we can get through. We end up inside some sort of a hospital or housing compound with no forward exit. We backtrack back out the fence and back up the street toward our goal of the Forte . On the way, I see a bakery and smell the delicious smells of butter and cookies. We look into the window at the beautiful baked goods. Darrell uses his translator to read the cards in front of each treat. The one that intrigues us is a stuffed biscotti. We both love biscotti. I want to go in a get one to share because they are big! We go in and we point to what we want. We get a stuffed biscotti and two other small items we chose personally. It all comes to about 2-3 euros. The biscotti is heavy. We pack our bakery items into the backpack and go back out to keep walking uphill. We get up to a place where we can see the Forte and a small park with benches just below it. We go and sit on a bench facing the amazing views of the city and the water below. We have our filter water bottles and our bakery treats to enjoy. After we rest for a few minutes we walk uphill to the gate and entry to the Forte. We walk uphill following the road switching back with the ascent to the final gate for the forte. We stand inside this inner fence looking at the huge compound and fort trying to figure out what we do next. There are no signs or directions. A man calls to us from our right. There are three men up on a ledge calling to us in Italian. We figure that we aren’t allowed here, but we aren’t sure who they are. There are a couple of vehicles parked there. One of the men waves to us and starts his descent to come over to us. He only speaks a few words in English. He says he will take us into the Forte even though it is closed to the public. Ok. Amazing! He waves to his fellow workers and tells them what he’s going to do. He speaks slowly to us in Italian to try to give us some simple facts about the place. Darrell gets a translator app out and gets a couple of basics translated. We follow our new found guide a long way around the huge Fort and into middle facing wall with a door that is chained closed. He pulls keys out and unlocks the padlock to drop the chain. We follow him inside the dark castle. It has been cleaned up and has some newly reconstructed concrete stairs that we walk up to higher levels. We look out of each window and through the inner rooms and we get to the top level and walk out with a great view of the city and the Strait below. Our guide tells us that on the inside where the door is going down deeper into the floor that this is a tunnel entry that goes all the way to the docks! Wow! He takes our picture on the inside of the castle. We take a few pictures of our own and then we follow him back down the good stairs and out of the building. We walk back around the moat with him to the gate we came in. We thank him and leave our very amazing tour of the day!
Walking down the mountain was steep, around tall apartment buildings and winding streets with cars parked all along the sides of the roads. As we got closer to the downtown area where the famous clock is, the amount of people increased. We found the viewing area for the clock and sat on a close bench to wait for the noon and the clock’s show. I took pictures of the tile work built into the cathedral and enjoyed the sunny day, and the shaded bench. At noon the clock did it’s show. It was about a 12 minute show ending with a blaring rendition of Ava Maria! We then headed off toward the ship and looking for lunch. We chose a restaurant and ordered pasta dishes for lunch. We walked around a bit more and then went back onto the ship. There was a lovely sunset over town while we were still in port.
Rainy Naples in the early morning from our ship balcony.
Inside Pompeii. One of three amphitheaters.
Very wet but extremely interesting tour in Pompeii. This is a street. There are wheel ruts worn into the stone.
Our guide explaining how this was one of several fast food places here in Pompeii.
Tile entry meaning: Hail Profit
One of the water holders with a unique stone carving that showed you where in town you were.
Wednesday. 16. Arrive Naples, Italy. It’s raining quite a lot today. We have signed up to go on a Viator tour to Pompeii. We took our umbrellas and wore raincoats. We hoped it would clear up and not be so wet, but we still got very wet. Once we got to Pompeii, we were assigned a tour guide to take us on a 2 hour tour. This is the very abbreviated version for this site. The tour and the city were so interesting for the 2 hours that I hardly noticed the rains coming and clearing and coming again throughout our time there. After we were finished at Pompeii, we went for a pizza lunch, then on to a failed trip up Mt. Vesuvius. It was failed because there was so much cloud cover that there was no view. We were taken back to town and walked a few blocks through extremely heavy traffic to get back to our ship.
Talking to Owen, 1, and Eric, our oldest son.
Darrell at old gate at Civitavecchia.
Open market in Civitavecchia.
Flowers at the market.
Thursday. 17. Ship is ported at Civitavecchia. This town is considered the port town for Rome. It is about an hour by train to Rome. We decided to just walk around this little town for the morning. We followed a tourist map with a walking tour of local sights. It took us about an hour to do the whole circuit. During our walk we came into a big street market that was enjoyable to see! The weather was beautiful.
Spectacular coast line at Riomaggiore.
At the beginning of our day at Riomaggiore.
Looking back over Riomaggiore
Looking down into Riomaggiore
At the beginning of going uphill through the farmlands.
Looking up the old stairs we are beginning to climb. It looks like the top is just there ahead. Lol.
Leaving the beautiful view behind us as we go up the mountain steps!
More steps! I’ve got this! Lol.
One of my favorite pictures on this first ascent looking to my left at the sea. I wasn’t really thinking about the sea when I took this picture. I was looking at the mattress spring being used as a gate! When I was looking at my pictures, I saw the beautiful view and forgot that I took the picture of the mattress spring! So funny! Darrell pointed it out to me in our pictures review at the end of the day!
A very steep climb.
Way up and looking back! Wow! Still not at the top!!
Darrell’s picture of me.Breathing hard.
Beautiful views elate us and keep us going.
A view of our backpack. Really great that we carried water!
A shady spot. Still not to the top.
We can see the other side and a couple of coastal towns.
Looking down we see the train track. And the coastal town Manarola.
Looking down the coast at farm terraces and the next train stop at Corniglia.
Going down now. It’s still slow-going. My shadow behind Darrell.
Love this view!
We are making it!
Coming into Manarola. Finally. Lol.
View of town from above. Manarola.
Still walking through Manarola.
Such a beautiful coastline!! At the seaside in Manarola.
Darrell’s expression with the delicious food!! Fresh everything!
A view of Manarola with the wave crashing!! So amazing!
The map at Corniglia Train station.
Friday 18. Today we ported in La Spezia. It wasn’t on our itinerary, and was a surprise to everyone. The port was chosen for calmer weather than at Livorno. Since we were at Livorno earlier during this cruise, we were excited to see La Spezia. We got on the internet and discovered a park called: Cinque Terre. It consists of 5 old fishing villages along a beautiful coastline. They are connected by a coastal train that goes through tunnels along the steep mountainous coast. Up higher and behind the towns is the roadway and more small towns along that drive. The mountains are full of ancient trails and family farming of olives and other crops. We decided to walk to the La Spezia train station from the ship. This was 30 minutes through town. We bought tickets at the counter because the electronic ticket purchase wasn’t working for some reason. We boarded the train about 10 minutes early. As we waited the train filled up. We rode the 8 minutes to the first town and first stop where we got off the train. We are coming from La Spezia and have arrived to Riomaggiore. We were right at the coast. Most of the crowd went north toward the old town center. We went left and up steps to the coastal path right next to the ocean. We walked a short way and enjoyed the beautiful views and crisp morning air. The path was blocked and being worked on. This meant we could not walk this way to the second town. We are just past the high season of tourist too, so there are fewer services and more maintenance being done. We walked back toward the train station and I make my case to walk to the old town center so that we can see it. We walk through a tunnel and come out onto the main old town street. We enjoy the views and turn left and walk straight up a mountain road at about a 45-60 degree angle! Wow! Darrell finds a way to walk through the town and be up higher than the train station and then connect to a walking trail that goes over the mountain to the 2nd town Manarola. It takes us about 30 minutes to get up and over and down to the trail of old steps going straight up a mountain! As we begin, I’m thinking this will just take us another 30 minutes to get to the next town. It was at least 30 minutes straight up and we were still climbing up higher. It was a beautiful day with amazing sights! Darrell was carrying a backpack with our water bottles that we would stop and sip from and rest briefly. We had some trail choices a couple of times and we chose the trail that kept us viewing the coastline and directing us to the Manarola. It was a difficult and challenging trail. Once we were sure that we had come to the peak of this trail there was sign there. The sign stated that this was a challenging trail and that you should have a guide! Lol! Thanks for telling us this now. The way down the mountain into town was also challenging and beautiful. Steep with uneven and often very tall steps. I used my walking pole the whole way! Once we got to town, it took us about 20 minutes to wind our way through streets to the main street. We were ready for lunch, but we kept walking out to the coast. We looked at our options for lunch within a couple blocks and decided on the first one we had seen back up the steep mountain street about 2 blocks. Ahhh. We enjoyed our fresh seafood and pasta lunch! We went and got the train schedule to get to town #3, Corniglia. I wasn’t going to hike anymore like that today if I didn’t have to! I felt very accomplished and the views and beauty kept me going. We went back to town and got some ice cream then walked back to the train station to wait for the train. We rode less than 5 minutes to Corniglia. We got off the train and walked about a half mile with others toward the town that we couldn’t see yet. We got to the base of a mountain going straight up with a zigzag path making the climb. It appeared to be the only way to get to Corniglia. We stood there briefly discussing our options and whether or not we wanted to make this climb. We decided to turn back to th the station and wait for the next train. Turns out that our wait was over an hour as the train kept getting canceled or delayed. We were glad to be sitting and we had a view of the ocean. We finally got onto a train and back to La Spezia where we walked the 30 minutes back to our ship. We were exhausted and very happy.
Nomad Notes.
I had a friend of a friend ask me several questions about being a ‘Retired Nomad’. Here’s what she and I covered:
Q: So you sold everything? Do you have a storage unit? Do you use Airbnb? Can you share blogs or tell me what some good ones are? Do you mostly stay in the states?
My answer: I sent her the link to my #1 blog. Saturday November 7, 2020. “A Regular Day” and said, “The first thing I wrote answers some of your questions.”
I have not followed blogs of others. I have read stories with details that I was looking for.
One couple I read about did get a storage unit for 1-2 years then sold stuff after living without it. For us, the rent over time would cost us more than the items value.
From September 2020, the sale of our house to April 2022 (began our long cruising and time in England) we mostly lived in the states and in Airbnb’s. In England we found better deals on booking.com. We have booked our next time out of the US. We leave September 24th, 2023 by cruise to New Zealand. We return to the US by cruise April 27, 2024. We have not yet discovered or planned our trip after this one.
There are a lot of blogs written by Digital Nomads. We are Retired Nomads and not working for any income.
(Here I copied a bit from my Nomad Notes in blog #87.)
Q: Wow! Thank you so much! I’ll read all of what you have written.
What things did you end up keeping? Wondering what we would definitely want to keep.
A: My #27 blog has details about our truck crates we use for packing our truck. #22 and #23 have a bit of info about getting rid of items and getting a scanner for electronic storage.
We now have a 4-door Honda truck. It is fitted with a hard cover over fitted crates and trunks. We license our truck in Alabama and use our oldest son’s address for taxes, mail and voting.
At our son’s house we have a few items. A fireproof safe with important documents, a will, a couple of small art pieces out of frames. A couple of quilts in a big ziploc bag in a closet in their house.
For our first two years we mostly lived in airbnb’s. Airbnb’s ar inconsistent with supplies and we often used our silverware, knives, iron skillet, instapot, etc.
Q: I see that you are members of trusted house sitters. I’ve been looking at that and we are interested in trying it out. Any advice before we join? Any bad experiences? What level did you join? Thank-you. One more question: how often do you get a house sit that you are interested in?
A: Darrell and I answered this question together. Darrell manages our profile on trustedhousesitters.com.
Advice about what worked for us.
It’s about dealing with people and there’s a wide range of communication skills. Darrell says some people are ‘persnickety’. To get started we signed up at the intermediate level. He applied to over 20 ads for possible places with either a cat or a small dog. (all in the UK). We got 2 sits from this. The sits get you established with some credibility. After we had done one sit then Darrell said he didn’t have to apply to as many for our next confirmed sit…more like 50%.
Pay attention to the responsibilities because people can be picky and we didn’t always want that level of responsibility.
Read the sitter reviews of possible sits.
See if trusted house sitters is popular where you are going.
We kept our sits 1-2 weeks. We only did a back to back sit once, and decided it was too close.
Walk (don’t run) into it.
We agreed that the exchange for living in the house has been well worth our time doing it.
There were a couple of uncomfortable situations but it only lasted a week. One was a little dog who just had to sleep in bed with us. I wasn’t happy about it, but I got over it because he was clean and wouldn’t be quiet until he got his way. Otherwise he was a really well-behaved dog. The second was a very low-maintenance dog. One walk a day, etc. The house was not as clean as I like. We ended up getting our spaces cleaned and useable for ourselves. We also spent a lot of time outside.
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