Day 11 at sea on the Norwegian Encore was fun.  Probably our best day on this cruise,  Dinner was at their fanciest restaurant, Le Bistro,  Veuve Clichot Champaign entrance. Red and Rosé French wines. Le Bistro is one of the six special places where you need to pay extra,  However, we are provided three free ones during the first phase of the cruise to Miami, then two more from Miami to Southampton.  There are order restrictions.  One item from the appetizer/soup/salad page and one entré on the other,  None of the main dishes appealed to me so I was given permission to have a first course of appetizer/salad and the second of soup/salad.  The waiter tried to be as generous as possible to extract a good tip.  Thus, the first course for me was escargot and endive salad, which were outstanding.  Ate too much bread to soak up the butter. My second course was a combination of French Onion Soup and Steak Tartar.  I was so filled already th...

  The cruise port closest to Rome is Civitavecchia, 44 miles away, and a bus ride of an hour and a half away. Rome: Is the capital of Italy, largest populated comune in the country with 2.9 million residents and fourth-most populated city in the European Union.  Interestingly enough, Rome became the capital of the Italian Republic only in 1946 after World War II, but 1871 has also been mentioned.  Turin and Florence were capitals before Rome. Founded in 753 BC, and some say this is the birthplace of Western Civilization. The Pope has lived here since the first century AD. I've been here several times, Here is a summary of my stay in 2010: My Best Lunch Ever , just off the Spanish Steps, in the Eden Hotel. La Terrazza dell'Eden. I had a  Roman Holiday . Went to all the traditional tourist attractions:  Trevi Fountain. So after lunch walked down the Spanish Steps.  Why so-called?  The Spanish Ambassador to the Vatican lives near here. Walked around St. P...