From Pompeii To Santorini. September 2026

 

FROM POMPEII
TO SANTORINI

A Mediterranean Adventure from Rome to Athens

Oceania Nautica • “Dazzling Mediterranean” • September 11–24, 2026

Travel has a marvelous habit of turning inconveniences into stories, provided one survives them long enough to have dinner.

 

The Route at a Glance

After months of planning, packing, repacking, worrying about dinner shoes, and studying what seemed like every possible way a trip might go wrong, we set off for Europe. The cruise itself was Oceania Nautica’s ten-day “Dazzling Mediterranean” voyage from Rome to Athens, with stops at Sorrento, Messina, Valletta, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu, Katakolon for Ancient Olympia, and Santorini. There was one day at sea between Malta and Croatia, and just enough time at every port to remind us that the Mediterranean is a place where several thousand years of history can be encountered before lunch.

Date	Port	Our Day
Sep 13	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy	Embark Oceania Nautica
Sep 14	Sorrento/Capri, Italy	Ancient Pompeii (SRT-002)
Sep 15	Messina, Sicily, Italy	Taormina & Vivera with Etna DOC Wines (MNA-012)
Sep 16	Valletta, Malta	Maltese Food & Wine (VLT-GL2)
Sep 17	At Sea	A civilized day of eating, reading and watching the Mediterranean
Sep 18	Dubrovnik, Croatia	Dubrovnik & the Croatian Riviera (DBV-002)
Sep 19	Kotor, Montenegro	Cable Car and Old Town Experience (KOY-021)
Sep 20	Corfu, Greece	Mon Repos, Kanoni and Corfu Town (CFU-008)
Sep 21	Katakolon, Greece	Ancient Olympia (KAK-001)
Sep 22	Santorini, Greece	Santorini Panorama (JTR-001)
Sep 23	Athens (Piraeus), Greece	Disembark and fly to Frankfurt

 

SEPTEMBER 11–12, 2026

The Adventure Begins: LAX to Frankfurt

After many months of preparation, the day finally arrived. We had spent an impressive amount of time deciding what clothes belonged in a Mediterranean suitcase and, more importantly, determining what shoes could be worn to dinner without violating the mysterious cruise-ship boundary between “casual” and “not quite that casual.” By three o’clock Friday afternoon, however, the decisions were over. Whatever we had forgotten would simply have to remain forgotten.

Monica, our trusted driver, was scheduled for 3:00. At 2:54 she texted that she was already outside. I went to the front door with the excitement of a child checking whether Santa had arrived and there she was in the red car. We loaded two checked bags and our backpacks and headed north toward LAX.

The first miracle of the trip occurred immediately: on a Friday afternoon we reached LAX in under an hour. I would have allowed two and a half hours and considered myself an optimist. Instead, Los Angeles traffic briefly behaved like a civilized European railway. It was an encouraging sign, although travel has a way of giving you one easy victory early so that you lower your guard.

Lufthansa check-in took a few minutes to locate because the counters were not where I remembered them in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Once found, everything moved quickly: bags checked, security cleared, and suddenly we had time to spare before boarding. P.F. Chang’s became our pre-departure dining room, after which we walked the terminal and waited for the announcement that turns months of planning into an actual trip: boarding had begun.

We had Premium Economy seats on Lufthansa for the long flight to Frankfurt. I have reached the age—and perhaps the size and level of impatience—where ordinary economy has become more of a philosophical challenge than a seating category. We had bid for Business Class but our bid was not accepted. Premium Economy, however, was comfortable enough, the flight departed on time, and Europe began moving toward us at several hundred miles an hour.

Sleeping was what it usually is on an overnight flight: a collection of short negotiations with a headrest. Nevertheless, we landed in Frankfurt ahead of schedule and in good spirits.

Frankfurt and the New Border Routine

On the way toward baggage claim we spotted an Entry/Exit System registration area filled with machines—and, wonderfully, almost no people. We had read enough about Europe’s newer biometric border procedures to imagine long lines and complicated questions. Instead, our registration was quick and uneventful. Downstairs at passport control we answered the usual questions, were admitted into Germany, collected our bags, and began looking for the Hilton Frankfurt Airport.

Travel note — Frankfurt Airport Hilton The hotel is connected directly to the airport complex, which makes it especially useful for an overnight connection. For us it meant that, within roughly ten minutes of collecting our bags, we could be checking in rather than waiting for another transfer.

 

Everything had gone according to plan. This is an alarming sensation for an experienced traveler because it creates unreasonable expectations.

SEPTEMBER 13, 2026

Frankfurt to Rome — and Aboard Nautica

Jet lag had us awake at about three in the morning, which at that point hardly mattered. Our flight to Rome was scheduled for 7:15, and this short leg had been upgraded to Business Class after an earlier bid was accepted. That gave us access to the Lufthansa lounge, which opened at 5:00 a.m.—an excellent place to wait when your body believes breakfast could reasonably occur at any hour of the night.

Checking Out the Ship

Security was almost deserted and far friendlier than on a previous trip when a misunderstanding at the scanner had produced one very unhappy German security officer and one very confused American who did not speak enough German to improve the situation. This time there was no drama. We had breakfast in the lounge, enjoyed the quiet, and then boarded for Rome.

About an hour and a half later we were in Italy. Our first small confusion came at the airport, where we waited at one exit while the Oceania representatives were waiting at another. Neither party had technically disappeared; we had simply achieved the classic travel condition of being close to one another but operationally on different continents. Eventually we found them and began the roughly hour-long transfer to Civitavecchia.

We arrived earlier than our assigned embarkation time, waited a short while, went through an unusually enthusiastic security screening, and then stepped aboard Oceania Nautica. Our stateroom was not yet ready, so we did what any sensible new cruise passengers do: found lunch, sat on deck, looked at the harbor, and tried to learn where everything was.

By late afternoon our room was ready, the bags were appearing, and at around five o’clock Nautica sailed from Civitavecchia. Ahead lay Sorrento, Pompeii, Sicily, Malta, the Adriatic, Greece—and the very satisfying realization that for the next ten days our hotel would travel with us.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2026

Sorrento and Pompeii: Returning After Nearly Sixty Years

Shore excursion: Ancient Pompeii (SRT-002)

Pompeii in 1967

We anchored off Sorrento in the morning and reported for our excursion at 8:30. Because Sorrento is an anchor port, the first stage was by tender. About fifty of us rode ashore, where a smaller vehicle carried us up from the waterfront through roads too narrow for a full-sized tour coach. Italian traffic immediately supplied the day’s first entertainment. At one point our vehicle and an oncoming car reached an impasse so complete that reversing became the only diplomatic solution. Ten minutes later the Mediterranean peace process succeeded and we continued uphill to the larger bus.

The drive to Pompeii took about an hour. For me, however, this was not simply another archaeological site. I had last visited Pompeii in 1967. Nearly six decades later I was returning to a place that, paradoxically, is famous because time stopped there.

Pompeii was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Ash, pumice and volcanic debris destroyed the city but also preserved an extraordinary record of Roman urban life: houses, shops, streets, frescoes, mosaics, public baths, temples and the haunting casts associated with victims of the eruption. Systematic excavation began in the eighteenth century and has continued, with modern conservation and new discoveries changing what visitors can see from one generation to the next.

The Same Pompeii Location in 2026

That was exactly what struck me. The Pompeii of 2026 was not the Pompeii I remembered from 1967. There were newly excavated areas, restored buildings and a much more developed visitor experience. What had remained in my memory as a quiet ancient city now carried the energy of many guides, buses and travelers from all over the world. The stones were ancient; the crowds were very modern.

It was hot—probably around 85 degrees—and the heat felt more serious after the long flights and little sleep of the previous two days. Water was essential. Pompeii is not a gentle stroll: the original Roman paving stones are uneven, curbs are high, and the distances are deceptive. Still, the chance to walk those streets again after almost sixty years made the effort worthwhile.

Some places remind us how young we are. Pompeii performs the opposite trick: it reminds us how much of a lifetime can pass while a stone street patiently waits for our return.

We retraced the route back to Sorrento: coach, smaller vehicle, tender, ship. That evening we had a wonderful dinner in the Grand Dining Room. As Nautica sailed toward Sicily, I watched Sorrento slip away and thought about the strange privilege of revisiting a place first seen as a boy and seeing it again with entirely different eyes.

Travel note — Pompeii Good walking shoes matter more here than fashionable ones. The ancient paving, high stepping stones and exposed sun make Pompeii one of the more physically demanding stops on this itinerary. Carry water and allow extra attention for footing.

 

SEPTEMBER 15, 2026

Sicily: Taormina, an Ancient Theatre and the Wines of Etna

Shore excursion: Food & Wine Trails: Taormina & Vivera with Etna DOC Wines (MNA-012)

We woke alongside Messina, Sicily. Our original plan had been an excursion higher on Mount Etna, and we had packed clothing for cooler mountain temperatures. That tour was cancelled for lack of participation, so we shifted to what turned out to be an excellent alternative: Taormina, its ancient theatre, and a food-and-wine visit to Vivera winery in the Etna region.

Tourist Watching the World Go By

Taormina sits dramatically above the Ionian Sea. We drove south along the coast, then climbed toward town. Its main pedestrian route, Corso Umberto, threads between shops, cafés, churches and old buildings before side streets and stairways climb toward the ancient theatre. The theatre began as a Greek structure in the Hellenistic period and was later enlarged and adapted under Roman rule. It remains one of Sicily’s great theatrical sites, not only because of the ruins themselves but because the landscape participates in the architecture: sea, coastline and Mount Etna beyond the stone.

We walked through town and climbed into the theatre, where the view rewarded every step. From the upper seating areas the world seemed arranged specifically for photographers. Afterward we had time on our own, moved slowly back through Taormina, looked into shops and enjoyed the atmosphere before meeting the group again.

The Greek Theater

Then came the second half of the day: the foothills of Mount Etna. The road wound through tunnels, villages and increasingly volcanic countryside until we reached Vivera, a family winery associated with Etna DOC wines. The Etna wine region is shaped by altitude, lava-derived soils and an active volcano that has been making and remaking the landscape for centuries. The wines are often built around local grapes such as Nerello Mascalese and Carricante, varieties that seem entirely comfortable growing somewhere most people would hesitate to build a picnic table.

Tasting Wines Poured by the Master

Our winemaker took wine seriously—very seriously. We discussed color, clarity, aroma and flavor and were encouraged to identify what we detected in each glass. Correct answers were apparently available, although like many matters involving wine, the route to them was somewhat philosophical. By this point hunger had become the most powerful note on my palate. Our guide finally persuaded the winery to bring bread while the tasting continued.

When the food arrived it was worth the wait. The pasta was excellent, followed by beautifully cooked chicken wrapped in bacon. Wine and food finally entered into the proper partnership, which is to say neither had to explain itself at length.

Then came one of my favorite comic moments of the entire trip. I went to the restroom. While I was there, a fine mist began falling inside. I assumed the winery had installed one of those cooling systems used in Palm Springs and thought this was a particularly thoughtful touch. When I stepped outside, I discovered that Sicily had not become technologically advanced in restroom climate control. It was pouring rain, and the roof leaked.

There are few experiences more educational than mistaking a leaking roof for luxury.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2026

Malta: The Day We Ate Our Way Across an Island

Shore excursion: Maltese Food & Wine (VLT-GL2)

Tasting Sheep-Milk Cheese

At breakfast the next morning Malta appeared in the early light. From the sea it looked like a great honey-colored rock rising from the Mediterranean, but the approach into Valletta’s Grand Harbour quickly revealed something far more intricate: fortified walls, bastions, church domes, old waterfront buildings and a harbor that has been strategically important for centuries.

Malta sits in the middle of sea routes linking Europe and North Africa. Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, the Knights of St. John, the French and the British all left marks on the islands. Valletta itself was founded by the Knights after the Great Siege of 1565, and the fortified city seems to announce from the water that Malta has never been a place easily ignored.

Our Maltese Food & Wine excursion became one of my favorite days of the trip because it did not feel like a procession past monuments. Instead, we met people who made things, tasted the results and saw the island through food.

The first stop was a sheep farm and artisanal cheese producer. The cheesemaker had spent about forty years as a chef before turning his attention to small-batch cheeses supplied to high-end restaurants on the island. We visited the sheep, learned how they were cared for, and then tasted a progression of cheeses ranging from mild and fresh to something I can only describe as blue cheese on steroids. They were excellent. We also had local olive oil and bread, and by then I would happily have stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.

Preparing to Bake the Bread

Traditional Maltese sheep’s-milk cheese is known as ġbejna (plural ġbejniet). It can be served fresh and soft, dried, peppered or preserved, which explains how several cheeses made from the same basic ingredient can taste dramatically different. The Oceania excursion description had promised artisanal cheeses, local baked goods and island products; the reality was much better than any brochure paragraph could make it sound.

Eating at Charlie's Place

Next came a village bakery where bread was still being made by hand in an old oven whose exact age seemed to have disappeared into family history. The current owners knew it had always been there; the previous owners apparently said much the same. It might have been centuries old. Even more charmingly, the baker was the daughter of the cheesemaker we had just visited.

There was a melancholy side to the visit. The family expected the bakery would eventually close because the economics no longer made sense. Seven-day-a-week work and thin margins were difficult to sustain. It was a reminder that “traditional village life,” so picturesque to visitors, is still real work performed by real families—and traditions survive only if the next generation can afford to keep them alive.

Outside, from the back of a car, members of the tour handed out small savory pies. Jeanne and I chose the pea-filled version, hot and very good, along with a local soft drink. Malta has a special talent for converting an ordinary snack into something you remember months later.

Our final stop was a hillside garden retreat we came to think of simply as Charlie’s place. A path wound beneath trees to tables tucked into a green oasis. Charlie and his family proceeded to feed us with the determination of people who regard an empty plate as a personal insult. Olives, oil, bread, local dishes, wine and beer kept arriving. Charlie was talkative, funny and welcoming, and the whole afternoon felt less like an organized shore excursion than being adopted by a Maltese family for lunch.

Watching the Ships in Malta

By the time we returned to Nautica, Malta had become the surprise of the trip. We had arrived expecting fortifications and history. We left remembering sheep, cheese, bread, pea pastries, wine and Charlie.

A country can explain itself with a museum, but it usually introduces itself more convincingly with bread and cheese.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2026

At Sea: The Mediterranean at Walking Speed

After several consecutive days of early departures, bus rides, stairs and archaeological sites, a day at sea felt almost extravagant. We ate, explored the ship, sat outside, read, watched the water and became increasingly skilled at locating the places where food appeared between meals.

One of the pleasures of this part of the Mediterranean and Adriatic is that land is often nearby. Italy, Albania and the Balkan coast came and went on the horizon. A cruise ship is slow enough that geography becomes visible. Instead of airports connected by blank hours in a metal tube, one begins to understand how these coastlines relate to one another.

By now Nautica had also begun to feel familiar. We knew the dining rooms, the café, the observation spaces and our favorite routes through the ship. It is amazing how quickly humans can become accustomed to the severe hardship of having someone cook every meal while the hotel sails toward Croatia.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

Dubrovnik: The Pearl of the Adriatic

Shore excursion: Dubrovnik & the Croatian Riviera (DBV-002)

Dubrovnik appeared the next morning, its walls rising above the Adriatic exactly as a fortified city ought to rise if it intends to be remembered. The historic core has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979, and the defensive walls, towers, gates and stone streets preserve the character of the maritime Republic of Ragusa, which for centuries balanced commerce and diplomacy between larger powers.

The Main Street in Dubrovnik

Our excursion, Dubrovnik & the Croatian Riviera, combined the region’s coastal scenery with time in the Old Town. The city walls are massive, and inside them the main street—the Stradun—provides an elegant spine through the city while steep lanes and stairways climb toward the walls on either side. Sponza Palace, Orlando’s Column, churches, fountains and palaces all sit within a relatively compact area, although crowds can make a compact city feel much larger.

And there were crowds. A lot of crowds. Dubrovnik’s beauty is no secret, and its fame increased again after parts of Game of Thrones were filmed in and around the city. We moved through the Old Town with our guide and later wandered some of the smaller lanes ourselves. Those side streets were my favorite part. They felt like a network designed in an era when straight lines were less important than defense, shade and getting from one stone building to another.

The Clear Waters of Croatia

The pavement deserves respect. Centuries of footsteps have polished some of Dubrovnik’s limestone to a beautiful shine, which becomes something rather more adventurous when wet. We had been warned that rain could turn the stone treacherous. Fortunately, the serious downpour waited until after we were back aboard. Watching it pour from the safety of the ship felt like exceptionally good timing.

Late in the afternoon we sailed, then seemed to idle our way south toward Montenegro. Kotor was not far away, but ports and anchorages have schedules of their own. The Mediterranean had become our overnight highway.

Travel note — Dubrovnik Crowds and polished stone are the two practical issues to remember. Comfortable shoes with good traction are valuable, and early or late visits are often more pleasant than the middle of the day when multiple ships and tour groups overlap.

 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2026

Kotor: Up the Mountain and Into the Maze

Shore excursion: Cable Car and Old Town Experience (KOY-021)

Kotor greeted us from deep inside the Bay of Kotor, surrounded by steep mountains that make the approach one of the most dramatic on the Adriatic. We were anchored offshore and reached the dock by tender. The old town of Kotor, together with the surrounding natural and cultural landscape, forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its medieval urban fabric and extraordinary setting.

Looking Down on Kotor

The day began with the cable car. The modern system runs from the Dub station near Kotor toward Kuk in the mountains above the bay. In only minutes we rose from the coastal landscape into a completely different perspective. At the top were restaurants, overlooks and the irresistible need to take too many photographs. Jeanne and I sat with coffee and looked down across the bay. From above, cruise ships, towns and roads all became tiny details in a landscape dominated by mountain and water.

The City of Kotor

After descending we continued inland and visited old water mills in the woods, still functioning and surrounded by the kind of green landscape that seems impossible when you have just come from a limestone bay. We were given local sweets, another example of a pattern we were coming to appreciate: nearly every excursion involved somebody feeding us something local, and not once did I object.

Later our guide took us into Kotor’s Old Town. Rain arrived for part of the walk, so we took shelter beneath an awning and ordered a sandwich and water. We also tried the local cream-filled layered pastry that seemed to appear in every bakery window. Rain is much less offensive when accompanied by pastry.

Kotor’s streets are intentionally irregular in the way many medieval towns are irregular: small squares, narrow passages and turns that make orientation difficult. Whether every bend was truly designed to confuse invaders is difficult to prove, but the effect on tourists is unquestionably successful. We wandered, got our bearings, lost them again, and eventually made our way back toward the waterfront and the tender to Nautica.

The best old towns are maps written by people who never imagined a tourist would one day demand that every street make sense.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2026

Corfu: A Palace, a View and Lunch in the Old Town

Shore excursion: Mon Repos, Kanoni and Corfu Town (CFU-008)

The next morning we arrived at Corfu, the greenest-feeling island of the trip. Corfu spent centuries under Venetian rule, followed by French and British periods before joining modern Greece in 1864. That layered history is visible everywhere: fortresses, arcades, formal squares, British-era buildings and Greek churches share the same streets.

The Mon Repos Palace

Our first major stop was Mon Repos Palace. The villa was built in 1828 for Sir Frederick Adam, the British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and later became associated with the Greek royal family. Its most famous royal connection is that Prince Philip—later Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II—was born there in 1921. Today the building and its grounds are public and form part of the archaeological landscape of ancient Palaiopolis.

From there we went to Kanoni, one of Corfu’s classic viewpoints. Below are the little Vlacherna Monastery and, beyond it, Mouse Island. The airport runway is also close enough to make aircraft part of the scenery. Unfortunately so were buses—many buses. The viewpoint was packed, the road narrow, and simply getting between the bus and the overlook required the sort of alertness usually associated with crossing a racetrack.

We continued to Corfu Town, where our guide gave us an introduction and then released us for free time. Corfu’s Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, shaped heavily by its long Venetian period. We decided that history is best considered over lunch. I had pizza and beer, Jeanne had wine, and for about forty-five minutes we did nothing more ambitious than watch people go by.

After a little shopping we chose to return with the tour bus rather than stay behind and rely on a later ship shuttle. There is freedom in independent wandering, but there is also a special serenity in knowing the vehicle you are sitting in is definitely going back to the ship. Once aboard, we celebrated our sound decision with ice cream.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2026

Ancient Olympia: Where the Games Began

Shore excursion: Ancient Olympia (KAK-001)

At Katakolon we collected our tour tickets and boarded bus number 25 for Ancient Olympia. Our guide turned out to have a Ph.D. in Greek archaeology, which is rather like discovering that the person showing you around a garage helped design the automobile. She was one of the best guides of the trip.

The drive inland was only about half an hour. I had imagined Olympia as a dry, open archaeological plain. Instead we entered a green, wooded landscape near the Alfeios and Kladeos river valleys, with ancient ruins scattered beneath trees at the foot of Mount Kronos.

Olympia was not a city in the ordinary sense. It was a sanctuary of Zeus and a gathering place where religious festival and athletic competition became inseparable. The traditional date for the first recorded Olympic Games is 776 B.C. The festival continued for centuries, drawing competitors and spectators from across the Greek world.

The Field at Olympia

We walked past the remains of temples, treasuries, training areas and civic buildings. The Temple of Zeus once contained the colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus by Phidias, counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Nearby, the Temple of Hera survives in a more recognizable form, and the stadium lies beyond a stone passage through which athletes once entered the competition ground.

At the stadium, modern visitors were doing what modern visitors inevitably do: running down the ancient track while friends filmed them. I would have loved to see Olympia in its great days, with tens of thousands of visitors, athletes, merchants, priests and animals filling the sanctuary. Our guide described the enormous sacrificial feasts associated with the festival. Ancient Greek religious practice included the hecatomb—literally a sacrifice of one hundred cattle—which gives some idea of the scale of a major gathering.

The athletes competed nude, something the modern Olympic movement has wisely decided not to restore. Ancient Olympia was already providing enough historical authenticity without requiring us to picture the tour buses arriving for that particular revival.

Afterward Jeanne found jewelry in the shop while we sampled olive oil, olives and local liqueur. We then drove into the modern village of Olympia and sat down with cold lattes. Back at Katakolon we browsed the waterfront shops before returning to the ship for a late lunch. Mine included an excellent Caesar salad with anchovies and a glass of Prosecco—proof that civilization has continued to improve in at least a few respects since 776 B.C.

We watched the four o’clock departure and later attended a lecture by the ship’s resident professor on the art of Athens. We would be passing through Athens rather than touring it, so the lecture became our substitute visit.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2026

Santorini: Beautiful, Whitewashed and Very, Very Popular

Shore excursion: Santorini Panorama (JTR-001)

By ship standards we slept late—until seven. After breakfast we walked the upper deck and watched for land. By 9:30 the pale towns of Santorini were visible high on the cliffs, and at 9:45 Nautica dropped anchor in the caldera.

The Crowds of Santorini

Santorini is the visible rim of a volcanic system transformed by one of the largest eruptions of the ancient world, around the second millennium B.C. The eruption reshaped the island and helped create the great flooded caldera that gives Santorini its unmistakable geography today. Towns cling to cliff edges hundreds of feet above the sea because, on Santorini, even geology has a flair for theater.

We boarded a local transfer boat and landed on the island’s southern side, where a bus climbed a winding cliff road. Our Panorama excursion was designed to show several of the island’s high villages and viewpoints before finishing in Fira.

Our first walking stop took us into the Oia/Foinikia area on the northern side of the island, with the caldera opening below. It was beautiful—and packed. The pedestrian lanes were so crowded that reaching some viewpoints became less sightseeing than polite human navigation. Eventually we decided no photograph was worth fighting the entire population of Europe for six feet of railing.

A later stop brought another uphill walk through narrow lanes to a quieter viewpoint. The walking was demanding, but the training Jeanne and I had done on the stairs back home paid off. We had prepared for hills and steps, and Santorini supplied both in abundance.

Our final stop was Fira, the island’s main town. From there we said goodbye to the guide and joined many other passengers heading for the cable car. The descent to the old port took only about ninety seconds. Waiting and crowd management took considerably longer, but once at the water we found transport back to Nautica.

The Beauty of Santorini

We reached the ship around 4:30, having eaten nothing since breakfast. I had also restricted my drinking because I refused on principle to pay one euro to use a restroom. This was not one of my more medically sophisticated travel strategies, but stubbornness is also a form of cultural experience.

Afternoon tea was ending in Horizons, and we managed to obtain the last remnants of food before returning to the room. That evening we met the Hearst Ranch group and had dinner at Polo Grill. Then came the least romantic ritual of cruising: packing the suitcases and putting them outside the door for collection.

Jeanne’s review of Santorini was concise: too many people, too hot and too long. All true. It was also spectacular. Travel is perfectly capable of being beautiful and exhausting at the same time; indeed, Santorini seems to have built an economy around the combination.

Travel note — Santorini The practical challenge is crowd flow. Ships anchor offshore; many tours use separate tender/transfer points; Fira’s old port is linked to town by cable car, steep path and stairs. Lines can be substantial when several ships are in port. Water, sun protection and realistic expectations about walking are important.

 

SEPTEMBER 23–24, 2026

The Long Way Home: Athens, Frankfurt and Eight Stops to an Airplane

We woke early, grabbed a quick breakfast and left Nautica in the rain. The transfer from Piraeus to Athens airport was expected to take about an hour and a half; with morning traffic and wet roads it stretched beyond two. The Greece of blue skies and white buildings had apparently taken the morning off.

At Athens airport we spent quality time in the Lufthansa lounge and made sure no one could accuse us of leaving Europe hungry. Our flight was delayed, but eventually we reached Frankfurt and returned to the same airport Hilton. It was about 6:30 in the evening—roughly twelve hours after we had left the ship. We had salads and went to bed.

The Halls Outside the Frankfurt Hilton 

The next day we slept in, found Starbucks downstairs and began the final airport sequence. Frankfurt managed to turn boarding one flight into what felt like an eight-part certification program:

1.      Get bag tags from a machine and scan the passport.

2.      Use another machine to accept the checked bags; scan the passport and have a photograph taken.

3.      Complete the biometric Entry/Exit System process, including passport scan, photograph and fingerprints.

4.      Pass border control after a line of roughly an hour and a half.

5.      Go through security—with shoes left on, a small victory worth recording.

6.      Scan in at the gate and receive a small sticker after another document check.

7.      Present passport, boarding pass and sticker to a team immediately before boarding.

8.      Scan the boarding pass one final time at the aircraft boarding point.

By the time we actually sat down on the aircraft, I felt less like a passenger than a successfully processed international shipment.

The flight west was easier than the flight east. I managed to sleep twice—first a brief collapse from pure fatigue and later a more respectable stretch. We landed at Los Angeles close to schedule and got off the plane with unusual determination because, after Frankfurt, neither of us had any desire to stand in another line.

To our delight, U.S. arrival procedures were far faster than we remembered. Facial biometric processing moved us through quickly. Our bags appeared almost immediately. I was already communicating with Monica, who was circling outside. Within minutes we were standing by a pillar, her red car appeared, and the same driver who had launched the adventure collected us at the other end.

I had made one tactical error: I had not thought carefully enough about the arrival time when booking the flight. We landed into Los Angeles rush hour. The return drive took about an hour and a half, which after Europe’s ruins, medieval lanes, volcanoes, cable cars and airports seemed appropriately familiar.

We reached home around 7:30 in the evening. We were completely exhausted. Then we opened the door and there were the cats, looking very pleased to see us—or perhaps pleased that the people responsible for food had finally returned.

What Stayed With Me

After the Storm in Sicily

Looking back, the trip is not one continuous memory. It is a collection of scenes: Monica’s red car at the beginning and end; the empty EES machines in Frankfurt; the first view from Nautica’s deck; returning to Pompeii after nearly sixty years; Taormina’s theatre above the sea; the winemaker on Etna explaining what we were supposed to taste; discovering that a Sicilian “cooling mister” was actually a leaking roof; sheep cheese in Malta; Dubrovnik’s polished streets; coffee above the Bay of Kotor; pizza and people-watching in Corfu; standing on the ancient Olympic track; and finally the white towns of Santorini high above the caldera.

The Mediterranean is often sold as scenery—blue water, stone villages and perfect sunsets. Those are all there. What made this trip memorable, though, were the human parts: guides, cooks, farmers, winemakers, bakers, drivers, crowds, rainstorms, wrong exits, narrow roads, long lines and unexpected meals. History supplied the stage. People supplied the story.

There is a temptation after a long trip to say that it went by too quickly. It did. But perhaps that is the proper fate of a good journey. A bad trip gives you all the time in the world. A good one keeps moving until, suddenly, you are home with your suitcases on the floor and cats at your feet, wondering how something planned for so many months has already become a memory.

The great luxury of travel is not that we escape ordinary life, but that we return to it carrying a larger world in our heads.

Historical & Travel Notes

The personal narrative above is based on our trip log. Place names, excursion titles and historical background were checked against Oceania Cruises material and established cultural/heritage references. These notes are included for the blog-writing record and can be removed from a public version if desired.

·         Oceania Cruises — Dazzling Mediterranean, Oceania Nautica, Rome to Athens, Sep. 13–23, 2026: The official itinerary confirms the 10-day voyage and port sequence.

·         Oceania Cruises — Ancient Pompeii (SRT-002): Excursion description: Pompeii, Gulf of Naples scenery and the archaeological site.

·         Oceania Cruises — Food & Wine Trails: Taormina & Vivera with Etna DOC Wines (MNA-012): Excursion description: Taormina, Greco-Roman theatre, Vivera winery and Etna DOC food-and-wine experience.

·         Oceania Cruises — Maltese Food & Wine (VLT-GL2): Excursion description: artisanal Maltese cheeses, baked goods, village products and a farmer-style lunch.

·         Oceania Cruises — Dubrovnik & the Croatian Riviera (DBV-002): Excursion description: Dubrovnik region and Old Town historical sights.

·         Oceania Cruises — Cable Car and Old Town Experience (KOY-021): Excursion description: Kotor cable car to Kuk area and Old Town.

·         Oceania Cruises — Mon Repos, Kanoni and Corfu Town (CFU-008): Excursion description: Mon Repos, Kanoni viewpoints and Corfu Old Town.

·         Oceania Cruises — Ancient Olympia (KAK-001): Excursion description: Olympic sanctuary, stadium and Temple of Zeus.

·         Oceania Cruises — Santorini Panorama (JTR-001): Excursion description: high villages/viewpoints, Oia/Fira area and caldera scenery.

·         UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Background for Pompeii, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu and Olympia as World Heritage sites.

·         European Union — Entry/Exit System (EES): Background on biometric processing for non-EU travelers crossing Schengen external borders.

Style note: The user’s Alaska travel blog was supplied as a stylistic reference. The site itself was not reliably accessible from the research environment, so the article follows the requested qualities—first-person chronology, local history, practical travel observations, humor and occasional Wilde-like epigrams—without copying language from the blog.