For our Honeymoon we chose Barcelona, Spain as our destination, with the coastal resort town of Sitges just 30 minutes to the south as our home base. We rented a car and a 3 bedroom villa overlooking the Balearic Sea. Since I love to cook, it was wonderful to have a full kitchen to make meals with all of the locally grown food and specialties of the area available to us. Part of our adventure was exploring the local food shops. Sitges is a fabulous destination itself with its wonderful beaches, small pedestrian-only streets and plazas lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. It just happened to be International Bear Week in Sitges while we were there. If you are not sure what that is, I will leave it to your imagination. It was a major party day and night, lots of fun! We met up with Chris’s friends the Dave’s from Wales for an evening of tapas and bubbly on our balcony and a wonderful dinner down at the marina. We befriended the Steve’s from England and had a blast swimming at the beach, dancing and carousing at the bars at night!
We took day trips into Barcelona to experience the incredible and whimsical art and architecture of Anton Gaudi who influenced the other Catalonian modernists who followed, like Salvadore Dali, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso. Their collective works along with others showcase the rich Catalan culture that permeates the area in spite of 50 years of the Franco dictatorship. The Catalan people are vibrant and enduring, we were so lucky to be there on Festa Nacional de Catalunya or La Diada (their Independence Day). The colorful flags were flown with pride and draped on every building while folks spilled into the streets dancing and celebrating. We could not help ourselves, but join the fun!
I am an avid lover of architecture, I have been fortunate to see many places in the world, but being there with Chris as my guide through Barcelona was the first time in my life that I have been brought to tears and felt my knees buckle a little by the grandeur of place. Sagrada Familia, the cathedral designed by Gaudi, had taken my breath away. Art seems to always be the quickest path to understand meaning, visceral and resonate. Pictures could not do it justice as the play of light from the gorgeous stained glass windows frolicked through the airy canopy of its interior. It is a work in progress, but you can see Gaudi's process clearly, how nature undulates through the form and function of his structures. What a magnificent place it will be when it is complete! It is easy to become beholden by belief there. As my dear friend and art doula Esther always says, “Life questions and art answers”!
A short drive into the hills from Sitges we visited the town of Sants Sadurni d' Anoia and the winery of Cavas Freixenet for cava tasting and a tour. The rolling hills and vineyards were so lovely we went back twice! A little further afield we drove up the winding road to the Benedictine Monastery and Basilica at Montserrat where we lit prayer candles to honor our beloved grandparents. In addition to the architecture and the amazing views atop Montserrat we discovered that their art museum's collection rivals some of the best in the world. We had the place to ourselves to marvel at Caravaggio, Monet, Renoir, Le Corbusier, Picasso, Dali, and many more outstanding works of art! We also ventured south along the coast to Tarragona to see its famous intact Roman aqueduct and other ancient ruins from the time of Rome’s conquests in Hispania around 218 BC. We wandered the ramparts and streets of the old section of town with its 11th century romanesque and gothic cathedral and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at an outdoor café on the Plaça de la Font. We hated to leave Sitges, but know that it is a place that we will return to again and again.
The second half of our European Honeymoon took us to the Barcelona waterfront where we departed on a seven night cruise through the Mediterranean Sea. I had never been on a cruise before like Chris had, so I did not have any expectations other than what my internet research told me. We chose the Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas the world’s largest cruise ship on water in 2015. Truly an astonishing city on water; she holds 5,400 passengers and 2,400 crew, her enormity can only be appreciated standing at the dock looking up at her 16 passenger decks or peering down from the pool deck at the other ships in port. There was definitely ship envy from passengers of other cruise lines we met on excursions into port. The party from Sitges also followed us onto the cruise as there three separate gay tour operators with their sightseers aboard. We were not alone and met lots of wonderful people and were invited into some of the private events and tours to join the fun. Coincidently, the main Broadway show changed from Chicago to Mama Mia! Who doesn’t love ABBA! It is one of our favorites! I could go into all of the amazing things that we did aboard, but this letter would resemble a book, more than it does already.
The cruise highlights of course included our ports of call. It was a whirlwind of things to do and see. First stop was the Island of Mallorca, where we toured the City of Palma, the Castell de Bellver, a bull fighting ring, and the Cathedral de Mallorca. We then headed to Marseilles, France were we took an excursion through Provence to the medieval walled town of Avignon. We saw how the Popes of Avignon lived during the Schism of the late 1300’s when the papacy split from Rome over elections and Pope Clement VII established a papal court in France. We smelled the lavender of Provence, found the most amazing chocolate shop, and sang the song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" on the famous partial bridge over the River Rhône.
Our next three ports of call were in Italy. In La Spezia we hired a private driver who took us to Florence where we spent the day admiring the sites of its historic center. We meandered around Piazza del Duomo with its grand and the beautifully ornate marble clad Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. Chris had arranged tickets for us to see the Michelangelo’s masterpiece sculpture of David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, but the line even with tickets was a two hour wait, so we opted to see the copy where it original stood in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. I was OK with that as it represented the experience, even more so that the copy I have seen numerous times at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, or the giant one we would pass when I was a kid growing up in SoCal along the 10 Freeway at Forest Lawn heading over Covina Hills (for those who have seen it, you know what I mean). We saw so many historic places like the Loggia dei Lanzi, the Uffizi Gallery, the Bargello, and the majestic Fountain of Neptune. My favorite moments were crossing over the Ponte Vecchio and finding a wonderful wine shop, with café seating on a patio overlooking the Arno River. I had the most delicious ravioli with a very decadent, but simple butter and cracked pepper sauce and a rose flavored panna cotta for dessert, along with a few glasses of the recommended Franciacorta an Italian sparkling wine from the region of Lombardy. Chris had spent lots of time in Florence or “Firenze” in the past, but this was my first so he was an excellent tour guide. It is really the romantic place I imagined it to be from the Merchant and Ivory film “A Room with a View”, but more time is a must. Our driver then took us to Pisa for a look around its famous Leaning Tower before passing the distant hills of gleaming Carrera Marble, which made them look snowcapped, as we made our way back to the ship.
The next stop Roma! A frequent stomping ground for Chris with too much to possibly see on a day excursion, but wonderful none the less! We took the train in from Civitavecchia into Rome. Chris had the great idea to take one of those open-air hop-on/hop-off double decker buses. It was brilliant as we got to see much more than I thought we would. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had great viewing seats, we saw the Vatican, Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II and many more amazing sites. I felt a little like we were the Griswold’s driving through the city in the movie “European Vacation”. Our driver liked to take those traffic circles a bit fast! “Oh look there is the Colosseum! Oh look they it is again!” We got off to see the Trevi Fountain, which was empty of water for restoration (wah-wah), but the Pantheon was unbelievable and has clearly stood the test of time. We then of course grabbed a pizza lunch with a gelato dessert and a little shopping in before getting back on the ship!
Our last stop in Italy was Naples where we choose a packaged tour that was really quite fabulous! We boarded a luxury bus that took us past Mount Vesuvius up the winding cliff-hugging roads of the Amalfi Coast to the seaside village of Sorrento. The views were awesome and we were highly entertained on the road trip as we befriended a gaggle of ladies from Atlanta all dressed in their Sunday best who offered hilarious quips along the way. Sorrento was gorgeous with a stop to a hillside farm were we walked through the lemon groves and vineyards to lunch on a terrace with the town and sea below. We were delighted by a lesson in traditional Italian cheese making, while eating samples and enjoying the pinot grigio wine made on the farm. We then went into the farmer’s market to further sample the several varieties of liquor made there, from the classic limoncello, to orangecello, licorice, chocolate and melon – oh my! We were feeling good after that let me tell you, as we then made our way to the astonishing archaeological site of Pompeii! Our whole honeymoon adventure is not one that we will forget anytime soon!