June 8 - This morning, Crystal Symphony is docked in La Spezia, Italy. The view from our verandah would suggest there is the possibility of rain today. This is the first day of the cruise where we have booked a ship’s excursion,” Sarzana & Tasting.”

Our excursion was scheduled for 8:45am this morning. We met the rest of our fellow excursion guests in the Starlite Club, and right on time, we headed down to Deck 4 to disembark and board the motor coach. The drive from the port of La Spezia to Sarzana only took about 30 minutes. Sarzana is a small town located in the province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy.

There were 14 guests on today’s excursion and our local guide handed each of us a wireless audio device so that we could hear his commentary. We stopped briefly at a map of Sarzana.

The visual highlight of the excursion was a walk to the Sarzana Citadel, an ancient fortress constructed in 1249. It still amazes me how they constructed buildings that could last for centuries.

After a walk around the citadel, we wandered into the town of Sarzana. Many guests went inside the Sarzana Cathedral where mass was being conducted on our Sunday visit.

After the visit to the cathedral, we were all treated to a morning “tasting” at a local patisserie. We were under the impression that this excursion included an olive oil tasting, which is why we booked the excursion. Apparently, we were not alone as we overheard other guests asking the Crystal rep (who was on the excursion with us) about the olive oil tasting. When Rickee asked about it, the Crystal shore excursion rep told her that sometimes there are changes to an excursion and that we should have checked with ShoreEx before the excursion. In our view, if there was a change, we should have been notified and given an opportunity to cancel and schedule a different excursion. What do you think?

That said we did enjoy a nice morning cup of coffee along with pastries in the local patisserie.

Each guest was offered a choice of espresso, cappuccino or coffee. Since Rickee does not drink coffee, she requested hot chocolate. Another guest sitting across from us made the same request of the guide for hot chocolate instead of coffee. The owner of the establishment refused the request initially. However, our local guide must have persuaded her to change her mind, or, perhaps he paid an extra fee for hot chocolate, but Rickee and the other guests did end up with their hot chocolate.

Traditional Italian hot chocolate is not what we Americans think of as hot chocolate. This hot chocolate is more like a melted dark chocolate candy bar that you eat with a spoon! By comparison to “American” hot chocolate, it is quite bitter. Nevertheless, I LOVED it. I wish we could get this at home.

We returned to Crystal Symphony by 1:00pm, in time for a quick lunch. This afternoon, we had the pleasure of interviewing Vicki Van Tassel, the ship’s Cruise Director. We sailed with Vicki a few years back on another cruise line and we were anxious to hear about her history as a Cruise Director. Watch our YouTube channel for our interview with Ms. Van Tassel coming soon!

For dinner this evening, we decided to stay in our suite, relax and order room service. On Crystal, there is a 24-hour room service menu and, during normal dinnertime hours, you can also order from the Waterside Restaurant menu.

It only took about 30 minutes for our butler, Milind, to deliver the meal to our suite. As you can see, the table was set with linen tablecloth, napkins and silverware. Crystal takes room service to another level. Our butler also told us to call him when we were finished and order dessert if we wished.

Rickee and I both ordered the French Onion Soup from the Waterside menu. The soup arrived hot and delicious.

Rickee ordered a ham sandwich from the 24-hour room service menu. She had a choice of bread for her sandwich and fries or potato chips.

I went all out and ordered the T-Bone steak from the Waterside menu. I was surprised that it arrived hot and cooked perfectly to order.

T-Bone steak with baked potato and broccoli

After our dinner, we called our butler and, within minutes, all of our dishes were cleared and the table restored to its previous state. Now it is time for bed.

Tomorrow, Crystal Symphony will dock in Livorno, Italy, where she will overnight.

Day Five - La Spezia, Italy

Day Six - Livorno, Italy

Day Four - Day at Sea