Day 7. Crotone, Italy

Today, we looked forward to a more relaxed, slower pace than we have had for the past few. The day started late with a sleep in, and by the time we got up, we had already docked at Crotone, Italy. As it was a beautiful morning, we decided to have breakfast outside in the sunshine. Cory’s eyes went straight to the pancakes. YUM!!

Each day, we have an Australian news publication left in our mailbox. A nice touch, and a good way to hear about all the latest news from home! :)







This was the first time that the Seabourn Pride has visited this port and Seabourn is the only cruise line to come here.  One reason for this is that the port is relatively shallow and only smaller ships can dock here. 


The town of Crotone was waiting for us! The city provided a lot of information on things to do, where to go, and what the local attractions are. They clearly love having a cruise ship in town, as it brings in tourists, shoppers, and an injection into the local community. We took a walk into town and into the old city. It was market day, and we checked the stalls out. One of the things that stood out was a waft of seafood. There was fresh fish, prawns, and black mussels everywhere. One of the things that drew my attention was a type of large and heavily salted white fish, which must be a speciality of the area as there were many stalls selling it.

dancing on the castle

We wandered up to the old castle and ruins perched overlooking the port. This castle was built around 500 AD by the Greeks and has been through many wars between neighboring territories and other countries. We were able to enjoy the views from the top of the castle across the Calabrian coastline. Clearly many lovers come here to enjoy the view and other things.

durex wrappers everywhere! Young love is alive!

While we meandered through the old town, we passed people hanging out their washing in the street, people arguing in their houses, and kids playing football (soccer) in the piazzas. The Calabrians are loud and sounded quite rough. They thought it was quite amusing to have a boat load of tourists in their town. One thing that struck us was how many young people there were. Teenagers seemed to outnumber all other age groups. We wondered whether this had to do with the high unemployment rates, which are around 22% in Italy at the moment. Another thing that we noticed was that when people are talking to each other, it seems like they are fighting. They are very animated and hands fly around everywhere. We agreed that it would be a mistake to get too close to those hands when a story is being told! LOL


Tonight, we had a special invitation to join the executive housekeeper Linda Duvenhage at her table for dinner. We met Linda on the first day of the cruise and got chatting to her while she was working her butt off getting everything ready out of Rome. She was delightful and it was really nice to sit with her for dinner. There were little name cards on the table and Linda flanked Cory and I on each side of her. She was fabulous and loves Pam Ann and all airline camp fun! We had a lot of laughs and the other guests were fun too. One lady did try to talk about the US elections and was in the middle of telling everyone that they must have been rigged for Obama to win when I reminded her that cruise etiquette dictates that politics and religion are not topics for the cruise dinner table. The conversation quickly changed. LOL

We loved our Italian adventures and now looking forward to the greek ones!!!