May 8th – Trekking Taormina

Another beautiful day in Taormina, so we decided on yet another uphill trek, up to the ruined Norman castle that occupies a lofty position overlooking the town, at a height of 400 meters above sea level. This climb wasn't any more steep than our one in Sorrento, but the path was in a much better condition, so it wasn't too strenuous a climb. But, we were rewarded for our efforts with some great views of Taormina and its Ancient Greek Theatre on one side, and then on the other, the enormous snow-capped Mount Etna smoking threateningly in the distance.

Having decided that this hadn't been a good enough workout, we chose to walk all the way down to the coast (rather than stopping in Taormina and getting the shuttle bus back). Surely all this walking will stop us putting on too much weight?

May 7th – Exploring Sicily From Palermo

Instead of braving the mean streets of Palermo, we took a tour into the countryside to see the fabulously preserved Greek temple at Segesta.

Back in Ancient Greek times, Sicily was an incredibly important outpost of Greek culture, and it's still home to some amazing ancient Greek temples and theatres. Segesta is probably my favourite ancient site on the island, because its magnificent Doric temple is so complete, and it's also in such a beautiful location – in the middle of green rolling countryside of long grasses and wild flowers.

After our tour round the temple, we progressed up the winding roads above the port of Trapani, to Erice, an atmospheric little hill town that looks like it's preserved in the Middle Ages. Modernity has scarcely touched this place, which has been used as a film set for countless medieval films.

According to our guide, the town is virtually deserted in winter time – he said that only 14 people live here in the harsh winter months – but it springs back into life at this time of year, as the tourist trade begins to hit town, and the cobblestone streets are lined with touristy shops and restaurants.

We soaked up the medieval atmosphere of the narrow streets and savoured the spectacular views across the coast below it, before having a deliciously simple but tasty meal in an unpretentious local restaurant.

A wonderfully relaxing day, and a massive contrast to a day spent in chaotic Palermo.

May 6th – Walking Over Lemons in Sorrento

Today in Sorrento, we experienced four seasons in one day, as the weather couldn't make its mind up at all – we had torrential rain, bright sunshine, and strong winds, alternating about every 30 minutes.

We decided that we would do a trek up the hill from Sorrento to Sant'Agatha Sui Due Golfi, a little village about 5 miles from Sorrento, and more relevantly, about 400 feet above the town. It was a steep trek up the pathway from Sorrento, but as we climbed through the fragrant lemon and olive groves, the views just got better and better, as we could see across the Gulf of Naples, over to the bulk of Vesuvius in the distance.

Unfortunately, just as we were congratulating ourselves on choosing the perfect day's activity, some nasty black clouds blew in and the heavens opened. This transformed a steep, but manageable path, into a slippery luge run, so our ascent slowed down considerably, as we crabbed sideways up the loose shingle paths.

However, after much puffing and panting, we finally made it up to Sant'Agata – a picturesque little town, which enjoys spectacular views across both the Gulf of Naples and the twinkling Gulf of Salerno on the other side of the peninsula (hence the name, "sui due Golfi"). After a well deserved drink in a café, we then had to contemplate our descent down the slippery hill. As this was likely to be even more treacherous than the way up, we chose the lazy route, and got the bus down. As it turned out, the bus journey felt even more hair-raising than the walk, because the roads down are incredibly winding and it seemed to travel twice the distance that we walked up, as we were thrown around the back of the bus all the way down to Sorrento.

With more rain about to hit, we took the tender back to the ship.

May 5th – Con Air To Rome

After a month in the UK, we're excited to be off cruising again – this time, off to Rome (Civitavecchia), for a 16 day cruise around the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean.

At Heathrow, after a crack of dawn start, I could scarcely believe my bleary eyes as I looked out across the runway at our Al Italia plane to see three men in handcuffs being led on board by a group of burly policemen. When we got onboard, there they were sitting shiftily, still handcuffed, occupying the back three rows of the plane, with 2 escorts sitting either side of them.

As thoughts of hijacking and convict-inspired mayhem raced through our over-imaginative minds, we kept a close eye on our criminal friends whose knees were jogging up and down nervously, as they anticipated whatever fate was to befall them in Italy. In fact, disappointingly there were no incidents to report, but it was quite a surprise that once we'd arrived in Rome, and caught the transfer bus from the plane to the terminal, they were also put on the same bus as the passengers, and were standing right next to us, as we crammed onto the bus!

Anyway, having survived this brush with Con Air, we got the transfer to Civitavecchia, and settled back into the life of luxury that is cruising.

Make a Note in Your Diary

I am now enjoying a short break in the UK catching up with friends and family.

I will be setting off on my travels again on the 5th May when I fly to Rome to start a cruise around the Adriatic taking in Italy, Greece and Croatia.

Please join me then.....

Jon

April 9th - Singapore

So, today we leave the ship after 2 months of boiling weather, freezing weather, and now boiling weather again. We've seen some fantastic places, eaten way too much great food, walked the Great Wall, seen the Terracotta Warriors (just lucky Tracy), been part of the revolution in Bangkok (by mistake), and seen monkeys dressed up like prostitutes - who could ask for more from a trip?

We had about 5 hours in Singapore before our transfer to the airport, so we decided to go to Little India, and sample the British national dish - curry. Little India is one of the more atmospheric parts of Singapore to explore - with its smells and sights, you could almost imagine that you were back in the Sub-Continent, if only it weren't so spotlessly clean.

We went first to the colourful Hindu Sri Veeramakaliamman temple, where lots of people were praying devoutly and getting blessed. As we watched, one of the priests beckoned us over, and annointed us with some white powder on our foreheads, telling us we would be '"double lucky" today.

Tracy then fell in love with India, and decided we were going to move there, and went all ethnic with her retail therapy, buying bangles and toe rings. Then we came to the main event - a curry lunch. We went to a restaurant full with locals, and I had an enormous vegetarian biriyani, with popodoms, chapatis and 4 different dishes, while Tracy had a veggie dhosa, with lots of dips to smother it in. It was way too much food, but somehow we managed it - fantastic value too, at about £5 for the 2 of us.

Having eaten all this food, we weren't up to any more sightseeing, which was just as well because we had to go to the airport 6 hours before our flight leaves. So, we have just spent the last 5 hours in a lounge, using their wifi and drinking Tiger beer.

Feeling a little dehydrated as we wait to board the plane......

April 7th – Ko Samui

Ko Samui is an island paradise of white golden beaches and laid back resorts, but, not having the skin for a day of lying on the beach, I opted for the "eco safari", where we would get to ride an elephant in the jungle, and see some monkeys.

The elephant ride was good, although it was a lot more bumpy and uncomfortable than I remember from my last elephant ride (am I getting old?), and then we ended up at the place where they do the animal shows.

Unfortunately, the Thais seem to think that Westerners like seeing wild animals perform demeaning tricks, rather than just giving them a showcase for their incredible skills and intelligence. The elephant show wasn't too bad, although the deafening europop backing track and hideous ringmaster bellowing out indecipherable inanities made you feel pretty uneasy about the spectacle of dancing baby elephants. Even so, they seemed well looked after, and the elephants were incredibly cute.

But, then we went to the monkey show. My heart sank when I saw the monkeys dressed up in ridiculous spangly dresses, and I could scarcely believe it when I saw that the female one had been made up with face powder and lipstick, to look like a simian geisha – who in their right mind would think it was a good idea to make a monkey look like a badly dressed prostitute? The show was fairly degrading and the monkeys looked pretty unwilling to take part – it was all quite depressing. Tracy has refused to demean the monkeys further, by showing you pictures of them looking stupid and miserable.

Anyway, we moved on, everyone pretty taken aback by this "entertainment", and we went to have lunch in a restaurant in a beautiful spot overlooking the sea, the hot weather cooled by lovely sea breezes.

I did a bit of exploring in Na Thon, the town where we were anchored off (a fairly scruffy-looking, but laid back place), and I spent my last baht on a couple of cheap T-shirts.

Tonight, we had the White Party – an outdoor sensory overload of thumping music, laser lights and toned men in skimpy white trunks. We took in the action of the frantic dancing from the deck above, and by 3am, with the party still raging, we turned in. Apparently, it was still going at 6am – not expecting too many to turn up for my lecture tomorrow.