At sea: Corfu to Naples


Today is an “at sea” day, and we’re going to several lectures and events.

We started the day (after breakfast) with an overview of the Roman Empire by the resident historian Dr. Lorrie Wenzel.



Again, her ability to focus on a few critical events and individuals to illustrate the complex history - and to do it in an engaging and entertaining manner is really impressive.

Later in the morning I headed back to the theater for a cooking demonstration, which John had absolutely no interest in.




After lunch it was time for another history lesson  - this one about Pompeii, accessible from our next port of call, Naples.  Our very entertaining presenter was James Foster, a British educator and storyteller.


Later we took part in a “walking tour” of the enlarged reproductions of sections of the Bayeaux Tapestry that are found in all the stairwells on Viking cruise ships.  Dr. Lorrie Wenzel took us through each panel of the “comic strip” story of William the Conqueror’s victory over King Harold.

John asked why this depiction of the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066 would be featured on all Viking ships.  The answer was one of those head-slap “oh, duh” moments - the victorious Normans (Norman=Norseman) were descendants of Vikings. 





After passing through the Strait of Messina (between Sicily and the “toe of the boot” of Italy, the site of the Scylla and the Charybdis in the Odyssey), we had dinner and great conversation with the historian and her husband, Lorrie and Mark Wenzel.

Sunset over Sicily:










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