Australia - 4th & Last Leg - 33 Nights

Back to our motherland and all we have managed to do so far for this 4th & last leg is to get the flight from Rome to Perth and book 3 nights @ The Peninsula Riverside Serviced Apartment, South Perth. This will be a nice soft place to land and recover from jetlag after the 16 hour direct flight from Italian summer to Perth's winter.

The rest will just have to happen as it all unfolds.

So sit back and I hope you enjoy my rambling blogs!!!... 

If not! just turn me on MUTE!

Italy - 3rd Leg - 41 Nights

For us no trip oversea would be complete without spending some time in Italy, its a no brainer, Italy just has to be included, its our happy place where Sandy & I are always drawn back too. We have meet and cooked with so many truly amazing people who have touched our heart forever.

My truffle mate Doriano and I back in 2018

 COVID has made it a long time between drinks.

Our Prato degli Angeli family now 4 generations

Here's where we will be staying in Italy

1 night @ NH Savona Darsena, Savona 

This is the sail away port for our 7 day Costa cruise on the  Fascinosa down the west coast of Italy.

Civitavecchia - Italy

Napoli - Italy

Palermo - Italy

La Goulette - Tunisia

La Valletto - Malta

Catania - Sicilia

Arriving into Taranto, Southern Italy for 29 nights

3 nights @ Hotel L' Arcangelo Boutique Hotel, Taranto

Train from Taranto to Lecce about 1 hour

3 nights @ Historical Suites VVM, Lecce

Now its time to hit the roads and have fun with Italian drivers and windy roads as we journey north up the Adriatic Coast.

3 nights @ Rodi Resort, Contrada Mulino di Mare

3 nights @ Villa Marie, Francavilla al Mare

3 nights @ Parco Ducale Country House, Urbania

3 nights @ Agriturismo 11 Sapore Della Luna, Monteprandone

2  nights @ Terme Beach Resort, Punta Marina 

3 nights @ Farmhouse Prato degli Angeli, Monterenzio

 

3 nights @ Hotel Coast ****S, Milano Marittima

3 nights @ Agriturismo Campanacci, Faenza

Then its a fast train from Bologna for our 2 hour trip southwest to Rome for our last 4 nights @ JB Luxury Relais, Rome

Next Stop Perth Australia

France - 2nd Leg - 15 Nights

Having only ever been to the beautiful city of Paris its now time to dig just that little bit deeper in France.

So this time its straight off the flight from Canada onto a very fast train heading 2 hours south, some 400km to Lyon.

 

(mr. google says that Lyon is the capital for all things food in France and bold enough to say that Lyon is the food capital of the WORLD, 

that a big statement mr G, so we will just have to check it out!)

Lyon just has to be on our list, we do love food!

 

After 3 nights in Lyon I'm think with full tummies!! we will hit the train tracks again another hour further south to Avignon in Provence to check out their wine scene! 

The Provence wine region is know for it rose, red & whites and stretches from the Mediterranean to the Alps.

Sounds like southern France will be our food and wine heaven!

here's where we will be 

3 Nights @ Grand Hotel des Terreaux, Lyon

 

2 nights @ Mas de Kyoto, Dions 

3 nights @ Hôtel Saint Alban, Nézignan-l'Évêque 

2 nights @ Grand Hotel Henri, L'Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue

 

2 nights @ Le Pre Du Moulin, Sergnan du Comtat

1 night @ Le Pré Gourmand, Eyragues

 

2 nights @ Excelsior Hotel - French Riviera - Saint-Raphaël

Its going to be a great couple of weeks!!

USA - 1st Leg - 57 Nights

14 nights USA

30 night Cruise to - The Bahamas - Jamaica - Honduras

- Belize - Mexico - Colombia - Costa Rica - Guatemala

7 night Cruise Alaska

6 nights Canada 

  

My beautiful Sandy  -  Us cruising around New Zealand NYE 2025

Great photo bomb Dan!

So we ✈️ Via Fiji to San Francisco, USA

2 nights @ Hotel Zoe, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

3 nights @ The Bergson - Calistoga, USA

 
3 nights @ Candlelight Inn Napa, USA
 
5 nights @ Beacon Grand, San Francisco, USA 

Then we ✈️ to Fort Lauderdale, USA
 
1 night @ Comfort Suites Fort Lauderdale, USA

30 nights 🚢 from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver

On Holland America Eurodam

Western Caribbean Exploria @ Panama Crossing

Half Moon Cay - Bahamas 

Falmouth - Jamaica

Mahogany Bay - Honduras

Belize - Belize  

Cozumel - Mexico

Key West - Florida - USA 

Ft. Lauderdale - Florida - USA

Cartagena - Colombia

Enter & Crossing Panama Canal

Puntarenas (Puerto Caldera) - Costa Rica

Puerto Quetzal - Guatemala

Huatulco - Mexico

Puerto Vallarta - Mexico

San Diego - California - USA

San Francisco - California- USA

Victoria - British Columbia - Canada

Arrive into Vancouver for the 1 night @ Blue Horizon Hotel

7 nights 🚢 Vancouver to Vancouver

On Holland America Konginsdam

Great Alaska Inland Passage

Scenic Cruising the Inside Passage - Alaska

Cruise Tracy Arm Inlet to Juneau - Alaska

Juneau - Alaska

Skagway - Alaska

Scenic Cruising Glacier Bay - Alaska

Ketchikan - Alaska

Scenic Cruising the Inside Passage - Alaska

Back to Vancouver - Canada where we pick up a car 

3 nights @ The Royal Kelowna Bellstars Hotel, Kelowna 

2 nights @ Blue Horizon, Vancouver 

We finishing this USA leg and then we  

✈️ overnight to Paris 

30 Days Till Take Off

 

OMG 1 month to go! the countdown is on, time is fast coming around again for Sandy and I to hit the  

✈️ 🚂 & 🚘
 
I do have to warn you that my spelling has not improved over the past few years since our last BIG trip away … but what has changed is that Sandy has got herself a super-duper new iPad and well lucky for you and me it’s got all the bells and whistles! So on this RTW 25 section of my blog at least the spelling mistakes will be eliminated ... well reduced a lot anyway! That said it won’t stop me making up words! using bad grammar, putting some of these ’ in the wrong places and a swear word or two, I will rambling on & on & on, not always using full stops or just using way too many of them ... and I will throw in heaps of these funky little guys !!! but just for a dramatic effect !!! but just go with it! and come along on another of my blog rides with us.
Just remember as you read my blog … “I write like I speak”.
Full speed ahead, lots of dribble! but mostly without breathing !!!…

Sure my beautiful Sandy will post all the sweet little niceties on 

💜 Facebook 💜 

But for all the nitty gritty … raw and down to earth stuff my Blog is where it’s at!
 
I hope you enjoy this our RTW 25 Blog 💚 💜 

 

Heading back to Sydney

 T’was a great trip 💚💜

 

Napier in New Zealand

Today the town has an impressive collection of  Art Deco buildings. Its located on the east coast of the north island of New Zealand and was wiped out in the 1930’s by the worst national disaster killing some 500 people in an earth quake and also raising up the land some 2m. With hard times ahead the town went about rebuilding and today has so many different styles of Art Deco in the same place.

How could we not enjoy our day and the town of Napier other than in true old world style, so with the help of a driver all decked out in 1930’s fashion we were chauffeured around in a cracking 1930’s Packard

The aroma of the old leather seats and the Bakelite dash board warmed by the summer sun, oh and the smell of engine fumes and the workings of the motor not being kept from seeping into the car (oh the good old days). It reminds me of being a kid in my dad’s old ute.

It’s a wonder any of us got this old!

I didn't realise that there were so many styles of Art Deco drawing influences from America, Europe and Maori and even the tale-end of  the flowery, more fluid lines of Art Nouveau.

The front doors of this house in a late 1930’s   street has 2 very elegant stained glass window's, a real glimpse into the past.

Ever down to the carpets in the towns theatre, this is what I always thought of as Art Deco with its very square line