May 23, 2012
Sometimes new ports present unexpected delights. Other times you wonder what we are doing here. Ultimately, how you choose to engage the new destination results in whether you enjoy yourself or not. Such was the case in Ravenna, Italy. Rosie, Paola, and I decided to go out in Ravenna and explore a port that was new to our ship and definitely new to each of us. We went with no particular expectations and couldn’t check out the city from the dock as we would need to take a crew shuttle to get to the center of the town. As we walked down the gangway, though, we saw a beach right next to our ship. If this had been the Caribbean we would have been excited, as beach days are our favorite pastime during the winter months. But today we walked past the beach and got on the shuttle to head into Ravenna.
The ride took us about a half an hour and when we got there we were deposited at a bus stop directly in front of an architecturally intriguing church. We immediately explored the church grounds and then turned walked back out to the street to see what else there was to see. And honestly, there was nothing obvious that caught our attention. Fortunately, Ravenna had city maps placed around the town with the key sites marked. Not wanting to rip the signboard off of the building, Pao decided that the answer was to take a picture on her phone so the map would travel with us. Unfortunately, when you do that the point of reference on which the map is built is no longer in place. Still the street references helped us from getting completely lost. Our wandering did not present us with much more than several other churches. Nothing against churches but they are literally on every corner in some cities in Europe. Sadly, they are mostly empty. We finally made our way to a small café on a back alley in Ravenna and enjoyed the quaint eatery. With little more attracting our attention we headed back to the bus stop perfectly timed to grab the shuttle back to the ship. The best part of the day was what happened next. We all fell asleep during the brief ride waking up with a start when the bus stopped at the ship. Sometimes the greatest joys are the simplest.
May 23rd was Rosie and my 25th anniversary. It was still a work day, of course, as those never end. Additionally, the previous day my vacation replacement had signed on and I needed to focus on helping her prepare to take the reins. So, the focus of the night would be on dinner at Murano, the fine French dining restaurant on board. This restaurant defines attentive service with a ‘team concept’ that means that every course arrives exactly at the same time for each diner at your table. Rosie and I were greeted warmly by the Maitre D’, not only because we were known on the ship but the grapevine had spread the word that it was our anniversary. The Murano experience that night was all that it could be with each course delicious and each course building in flavor profiles on the one before. When it came time for dessert we knew we wanted to try the soufflés. After the order was taken, though, we were in for a surprise. The restaurant presented us with a complementary anniversary cake. However, this cake could easily have fed twenty to thirty people, which I think was the plan. We each had a small piece, as our soufflés were still on the way, and then asked the waiter to have the cake delivered to the Crew Mess so that the crew members could enjoy what we couldn’t eat. Once the soufflés came we looked at each other with the ‘what were we thinking’ expression, but dove in anyway. We left the restaurant stuffed and feeling very well cared for by our crew mates. It was a wonderful way to commemorate our 25th.
Thank you, Tim, for helping make this visit and anniversary celebration possible.
And the adventure continues . . .
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