Days 4-7

Naples - not as bad as I thought it would be. Danger of death seemed fairly low.
Pompei - much bigger than I remembered, very interesting.
Florence - fantastic place, brilliant ice cream.

OK, now some general thoughts.

Stuff that is good:
- Food on the ship. It's tasty, interesting, varied and available 24 hours a day. Obviously the menus change throughout the day and at 2am the choice is limited, but it's always there.
- Casino. Very quiet, and we keep winning.
- Visiting different places without any effort.
- The gym. Again, very quiet, good equipment. Helps battle the food.
- The cinema. It's like a proper one, with big red seats and room for about 300 people.

Stuff that is not so good:
-Feeling like a total tourist on the guided trips. I much prefer wandering round alone rather than being shepherded round in a big group with a radio headset on listening to dull facts.
- The swaying of the ship on occasions. Last night was particularly bad, and Elaine is still feeling rubbish this morning. I didn't feel particularly great either. I think that having to motor at top speed because we'd broken down for a bit just outside Corsica probably didn't help.
- The huge fat whale people who inhabit the sun deck. Please, put all that flesh away. Especially the breasts. I don't want to see those.
- The whistle-stop nature of some of the ports. Five hours in Corsica? Is there any real point?

Week two beckons...