Trip Planning

I am slowly going around the Mediterranean to visit many countries along the coast. So far I have been to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco. With this trip I will visit Tunisia, Algeria and Spain. I did spend two weeks in northern Italy years ago in 1984!

Many of the places I have visited are indicated on this map of the world. I am amazed at how many countries and places I have been lucky enough to visit! As you can see, there are two places I haven't visited and the map has two bare spots on it, India and the land north of it and Austrailia!

Virginia called me to talk about our trips to Ireland, Jamaica, Indonesia and Singapore and we decided we both wanted to go on a southern Mediterannean Viking Cruise and see the various countries and islands such as Italy, Sicily, Tunisia, Sardinia, Algeria, and Spain. Plus I get to celebrate my 78th birthday in Tunisia of all places!

            Ireland

             Jamaica

            Indonesia

             Singapore

                Tunisia

    My Personal Travel Agent - Setting up trips to Portugal and many other destinations. A top Travel Consultant.

      Departure Lounge Travel Agency Viviane Tondeur MBA, CTC, DS 818-268-6552 vtondeur@departurelounge.com      

   Viking Star and Services

Expand your horizons on comfortable, state-of-the-art ships, intimate and thoughtfully created by experienced nautical architects and designers to enrich your interaction with your destination in every way. Each sister ship carries only 930 guests and is engineered at a scale that allows direct access into most ports. The fleet features understated elegance and modern Scandinavian design.

The Viking Star is a 930-passenger ship that carries some of the spirit of river cruising onto the high seas. As is the case with the line's river cruises, Viking Star is destination focused with port-intensive itineraries. Calls are longer than average, with frequent overnights. Cruisers receive a choice of included tours in every port; for-fee options are also available. Port talks are in-depth, focusing on sights and history as opposed to shopping opportunities.      Read More........

    A History of Italy and a Map of the Itinerary

The history of Italy begins with the arrival of the first hominins 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. Italy shows evidence of habitation by anatomically modern humans beginning about 43,000 years ago. It is reached by the Neolithic as early as 6000–5500 BC Cardium Pottery and Impressed ware.

The Italian Bronze Age begins around 1500 BC, likely corresponding to the arrival of Indo-European speakers whose descendants would become the Italic peoples of the Iron Age; alongside the early Italic cultures, however, the Etruscan civilization in central Italy, Celts in northern Italy and Greek colonies in the south flourished during 8th to 5th centuries BC.

Among the Italic peoples, the Latins, originally situated in the Latium region, and their Latin language would come to dominate the peninsula with the Roman conquest of Italy in the 3rd century BC. The Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire dominated Italy for many centuries, and furthermore established the culture and civilization of Western Europe in general, including the adoption and subsequent spread of Christianity as state religion at the end of the 4th century.      Read More........

    Depart San Francisco, CA (SFO) - Arrive in Rome Italy (FCO)

Chuck's Apartment and View.

    Day 1 and 2 - Italy     Rome

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    Day 3 - History and Map of Sicily

Sicily is Italy's largest island and the largest island in theMediterranean Sea. It's also a geographical and political region of Italy, famed for its beautiful beaches, cuisine, and fascinating history.

Because of its strategic location, Sicily was invaded over the centuries by many armies, and was once the site of Roman, Greek and Phoenician colonies. For history-buffs and interested tourists, remnants of those cultures remain to this day.

As the Roman Empire fell apart, a Germanic tribe known as the Vandals overpowered Sicily in 440 AD under the ruling of King Geiseric. They were a short lived kingdom, as the Byzantine Empire pushed their way in by the late 400's.

The Byzantine's used Sicily as a base to conquer the rest of Italy, and ultimately the capital of the empire was moved to Syracuse, Sicily in 663.

Defeated by the Arabs in 965, land reforms were initiated, and an increase in productivity on the island encouraged growth. Under the ruling Arabs, native Christians were given freedom of religion, however, they had to pay a tax, and were greatly limited in their occupations, dress and participation in public affairs.      Read More........

    Sicily (Trapani), Italy     Trapani


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    Day 5 - History and Map of Sardinia

Sardinia is a very ancient land mass, perhaps the oldest of all Italy, going back to the Cambrian period, 570 million years ago. With the periodic fluctuation of the sea level, caused by the coming and going of the periods of glaciation, the island of Sardinia had at times a land link to the rest of Italy.

During these periods, beginning two million years ago, many animals crossed the land bridge from Tuscany, through Elba and Corsica, then across the Bonifacio Straits into Sardinia. Of course in the interglaciation periods, Sardinia became an island once more. These animals, being cut off from any possibility of refreshing their genetic patrimony, slowly evolved into species quite different to their original ancestors.

Curiously, the tendency was to decrease in size, perhaps for lack of space and food and we therefore find that the elephants in Sardinia (the climate was tropical at the time) had shrunk in size to that of a dog!

In the recent Pleistocene and in the more recent Olocene, between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, the first man ventured across the same land bridge and was similarly trapped on the island. Today, genetically, the Sardinians are very different from all mainland populations and are in fact a breed all of their own.      Read More........

    Sardinia (Cagliari), Italy     Cagliari


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Return to the World Travels of Charles Walter Buntjer

  Charles Walter Buntjer




San Francisco California
Created on: 2017.07.01  




Updated on: 2017.10.29