We actually started our journey from home (in rural Ontario) at 3 am, headed down to Syracuse, NY airport (the fares were less than 1/2 the cost than flying out of Toronto or Ottawa and only added 2 hours of driving to our trip).

From Syracuse we flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we spent 1 and a half days – shopping, sleeping and a little swimming in the hotel pool.

The hotel wasn’t the most beautiful or the most elaborate – but the staff was friendly, the rooms were clean, and the service (including the continental breakfast) were awesome for the price we paid! Comfort Inn, San Juan – I promised to write them a great review on Priceline, but by the time we arrived back at home (1 month later) the option to review the hotel was gone from my user account. I would have given them a 4.5 out of 5.

From San Juan we hopped on a Celebrity Cruise ship and the next 14 days deserve a blow-by-blow description so I’ll save that for later. Our ports of call were (i) St. John’s Antigua, (ii) Ibiza, Spain, (iii) Casablanca, (iv) Morocco, (v) Barcelona, Spain, (vi) Villefrance, France, (vii) Rome and I forget where else right now – but I’ll work it out as I upload photos and stories.

When the cruise ended we took off from Civitivechia Italy to Rome – then by train to Lucca (a small Tuscan town).

Five days later we began our long flight home to Syracuse.

And we’ve been dying to get back to Italy ever since!