Irish Family and Circumnavigation

Well, we did it. Around 450 nautical miles. Five (leisurely) fabulous weeks. We 100% circumnavigated our first island and then some. We couldn’t get enough of Sardinia. To help us finish our cruise around Sardinia, we were joined by Conor’s brother (Darragh), our sister-in-law (Cathy), and our two Irish nephews (Cormac and Luke). Cormac was […]

Sardinian Cities

We visited three of the five largest cities in Sardinia, which altogether range in size from around 42,000 people to 147,000 people. I’ve already written about Olbia (the fourth largest city), which is a more modern town and a popular base for tourists wanting to explore the popular Costa Smeralda in the northeast. The largest […]

Our Favorite Place in Italy

At this point, we’ve traveled fairly extensively through Italy. As an elderly Italian man once said to us, though, you could live ten lifetimes and still not see all that Italy has to offer. He’s probably right. Vacationers flock to Italy for good reason – the food, the natural beauty, the history, the culture, the […]

Texans in Sardinia

We were looking forward to collecting my brother (Lonny), sister-in-law (Nicole), nephew (Ben), and cousin (Jon). Ben had never been aboard Sabática before, but everyone else was a repeat customer. 🙂 Of course, we had grand plans – We’d collect them from the northeastern city of Olbia, spend time in the beautiful and popular Maddalena […]

The Strait of Bonifacio

We had one week to go before we were due to collect our next crew in Sardinia. The main obstacle in our way was the Strait of Bonifacio, a narrow body of water (11 km / 6.8 miles wide) that divides the French island of Corsica and the Italian island of Sardinia and separates the […]

Another Side of Tuscany

When someone mentions Tuscany, who doesn’t think of Florence? Well, we have now visited the road (or seas, as the case may be) less traveled and can recommend several new spots worth visiting! Our next goal was to reach Rome (technically, Fiumicino) to collect Laura’s second round of friends from Cleveland. From the island of […]

The Amazing Aeolian Islands

What a wonderful treat the Aeolian Islands were! Sometimes called the Lipari Islands for the largest of the seven islands in the volcanic archipelago, this cluster of beautiful islands sits just north of Sicily. This Sicilian archipelago happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it has been so important to the study of […]

Reconsidering Rome

We first visited Rome as a family about seven years ago. It was the typical quick tourist visit in August – hot, crowded and we only had time to hit the highlights. We would not have said it was one of our favorite places. In addition to being crazy hot and crowded, the locals seemed […]