Our Time in the Mediteranean

Here's what I liked best ...

• Spaghetti with clams at Ristorante da Donato, around the corner from our hotel in Rome.
• Seeing Trevi Fountain again, the Spanish Steps, and a bit of the Borghese Gardens.
• The rooftop bar of the Albergo del Senato, where we stayed, on the same square as the Pantheon.
• Being able to walk everywhere from there—the Coliseum, the Forum, St. Peter's.
• Ordering iced tea and being asked if I want peach tea, because, yes, in fact, I do.
• Dark chocolate gelato from Giolitti.
• Death by Chocolate at Tre Scalini on the Piazza Navona.
• Coming into Genoa by ship and seeing the city from the water.
• Lying flat on our backs on the ship's helipad late at night, seeing the true brightness of the stars, and understanding how the Milky Way got its name.
• Gnocchi with pesto at Ristorante il Pozzo in Monterosso on the Cinque Terre (part of the coastal region known as Liguria, where pesto was invented).
• Anchoring offshore in Villafranche and taking the little ferry into town.
• The turquoise water in nearby Nice.
• Listening to two Spaniards, probably brothers, play Pachelbel's Canon, with feeling, on violin and bass, in Barcelona.
• Wandering around Palma de Mallorca and buying stamps for post cards we wrote and failed to mail.
• Sa Tuerredda beach on Sardinia after the rain stopped and the sun came out.
• The fact that we could be in Rome one day and Sunnyvale the next.