Oceania Sirena visits Villefranche

Saturday 26 September 2026. It's early morning and the colours are muted still as we gaze out over the ship's rail at the French resort of Villefranche which sits neatly between Nice and Monaco's Monte Carlo.

It is, I think, our fifth visit to this lovely village on the Frenh Riviera. It has a wide bay but a shallow harbour and so we are anchored safely in the bay whilst the ship's tender boats take us into the harbour, weaving through the moored fishing boats and pleasure craft to drop us conveniently at the western edge of the village.

I know that plenty of passengers look upon the prospect of getting on and off these smaller boats as something of an ordeal, but the crew will tell you when to stand still and when to step on or off and hands are waiting to ensure you make it across safely. Grasp at forearms not at hands to make it as easy as possbily. Yes the boats can move up and down quite a bit relatively to the ship's gangway, which will follow the side of the ship, not hang out over open water. But follow instructions and you will soon find yourself on or off the boat.

We have for the last few visits, made our way along to the opposite end of the attractive seafront to the very last cafe before you reach the railway station. The cafe was there but shut. And from the state of the interior, it didn't look like it was about to open soon as boxes and chairs were stacked on tables and the place looked somewhat deserted.

But almost the entire seafront is lined with cafes and tables and we had no trouble at all in finding somewhere to sit, which action soon brought forth a waiter from the cafe across the road.

And then to our surprise, there came the sound of laughter and an accordion and a small group of folk dancers appeared along the seafront road.

Stopping not far in front of our table, they did a short sequence of dance moves without a single hobby horse, wave of hanky or banging of sticks and then turned off up a narrow street where a series of steps led up into the town proper.

We made our way back towards the maritime building but stopped for almost an hour on a bench on a raised platform of land that on a previous visit had housed a collection of market stalls and where my mother had wandered off heading in the opposite direction to that which we had told her. Luckily I spotted her, just about to disappear into the town and had to go running after her... I did 75% of the pencil sketch whilst we were sitting there then finished it later in Baristas.

Index to come...

Portofino, the Millionaires' Playground

Friday, 25 September 2026. One of the highly anticipated days of our cruise. We are in Portofino and, as the ship is anchored off the port, we are tendering directly into Portofino with no need for a costly tour involving a ferry from nearby Santa Margherita.

One of just a handful of spots along the north shore of the Mediterranean Sea where the millionaires and A-listers flock, Portofino is a gorgeous tiny harbour with a curving access lined with pleasing coloured hotels, shops and villas clustered around a tiny space beore the land rises steeply to the truly magnificent and expensive properties on the hillsides from which those superstars rarely emerge before at least noon.

Luckily I can be up early mornings because at best I'm a K-lister (sold CDs around the world but in laughably small numbers, played on numerous ships from the Caribbean to the Greek Islands, been on TV and radio and also known for this blog which currently gets around 5k hits daily). Not exactly an influencer but not bad for a pensioner content creator...

Here you get an idea of the curved aspect of the approach into the harbour as witnessed by the buildings to the right of the photograph. The empty bay is where the ferries from nearby Santa Marguerita dock.

Between the ferry dock and that which we have just arrived at is a large bay devoted to the modest little motor yachts of the rich whether famous or not.

I'm in two minds about fame. I've had people come up to me in airports to say how much they enjoyed my singing on various cruise ships and once got recognised in a crowd of 12,000 people waiting to be admitted to an Andre Rieue concert and I always enjoyed it in such moderation but I imagine it must be a bit galling when you are constantly interrupted by fans in restaurants or whilst out with your family.

I think I've only ever been asked for an autograph twice, so I must be doing a good job of remaining relatively anonymous...

The last time we were here, we enjoyed a wonderful gelato at a table outside a cafe but this time we found it gone. A small kiosk nearby but without any tables and chairs carried the same name and was selling cones but we were ready for a sit down and found a place on the opposite side of the harbour.

Their gelatos were a bit more like sorbet but just as welcome and a limonata went down very well.

Then a sit on a bench on the edge of the harbour and relax...

Miss Franny woke me when I started to snore and I woke with a start, staring wildly around at the empty space where surely just a minute ago all the autograph hunters had been waiting patiently...

"Dream on..." said Miss Franny tolerantly, upon which instruction I closed my eyes again only to find an elbow in my ribs...

Index to come...

We Stay Aboard Ship

Wednesday, 23 September 2026. We are in Civitavecchia, Italy today with a bit of disappointment. We were due to go for a coach ride around the sights of Rome, but only four people had opted for that option so the excursion had been cancelled. Unable to walk very far - as I found out in Taormina - walking through a large city like Rome would not have been possible for me so sadly we are onboard for the day.

Civitavecchia is not a tourist port. It serves as the gateway for Rome which can be reached by coach or train, the journey either way taking several hours, but the only bit of interest along the seafront is this statue based on the famous end of World War II photo of a returning American sailor kissing a girl in Times Square. This photograph was taken in 2013 on another cruise.

We had, then, already been kicked out of the local fortress as it was now the offices of the port customs and we were asked to leave...

Sitting in Baristas coffee bar in the morning MSC Grandiosa sails out past us. There is something grotesque to my mind of a ship so large. They cannot sail into smaller ports which are often far more interesting than the larger ones and they carry so many passengers that not only is there little chance of running again into someone you have struck up a conversation with at dinner, but the strain they put on local services like coach firms and popular destinations make it a nightmare trying to see some famous sights for the number of people standing in front of them.

There was something about this ship that took us a while to get to grips with which lifts to use. Here we have emerged at twilight onto the deck above the Pool Deck on our way to Horizons Bar to spend the night listening to Tomas and Maris singing.

You get the most beautiful sunsets at sea. As the sun sinks beneath the horizon the whole sky can turn a vivid gradient from blue to orange and red. Sadly we have just missed that moment but instead have the aftermath of darker shades.

Looking back at the Pool Deck below us. A touch cool now for anyone to be swimming. Onboard pools are usually closed by long before this time anyway. Staff have a natural aversion to finding floating corpses of last night's drunks as they open up and clean the pools each morning...

Thursday, 24 September 2026. This was taken the following night. We had just left the port of Porto Cervo, Olbia, Sardinia. It's very strange really but I have no recollection of this day at all. We must have gone there because otherwise something noteworthy would have happened. So we must have stayed on the ship doing something or other until it was time to head to Horizons in the evening to catch Tom and Maris - as my only photo of the day shows! Weird...

Index to come...

Return To Sorrento, 2026

Tuesday 22 September 2026. We are at anchor off the cliffs of Sorrento. Across the Bay of Naples is the familar sight of Vesuvius. We always remember our visit in 2014 when gazing at the same view before breakfast a fellow passenger said slowly, as if it took great thought... "You know, that looks a bit like a volcano, doesn't it?" We laugh about it every time Vesuvius, Pompeii, Naples or Sorrento ever crop up in a conversation...

Anyway, Vesuvius isn't going to feature greatly in today's plans as we are looking forward to just catching a tender boat to Sorrento, having a wander along the colourful narrow streets of shops and a drink (sadly non-alcoholic). I do miss being able to sip at an Aperol aperatif in Italy. We won't be bringing a bottle of Limoncello back with us either this year!

But we do make for the little cafe named for Belgium's Mannekin Pis that we have visited several times in the past. The waitress has a rather familiar accent... she was from Leeds!

Most Italian towns have fabulous displays of pottery and Sorrento is no different. There are lots of Chinese girls wandering about in groups dressed in long flowing layered skirts and dresses.

The non-alcoholic drink of choice this holiday is a cloudy lemonade with a splash of orange syrup. Very refreshing and, let's face it, those weather-beaten features need all the refreshing they can get...

Then we carry on along the narrow street until the shopy peter out and so we turn to head back to the cliff tops above the harbour. I don't know whether people take one look and then feel sorry for me, but I always find it very easy to fall into conversation with people on holiday.

Having found a space to sit on a bench I chat with a couple from Garstang, just a few miles from our home, who are staying a short distance along the cliffs at San Agnello where we had stayed with my mother in 2005. They were replaced by an American couple from our ship.

We fell into many such conversations with our fellow cruisers from across the pond. I was careful (and so were they) to avoid any mention of Donald but from reading between the lines I don't think we met anyone in favour of him as any talk about conditions back home was about rising prices and axed services.

Once back onboard, we caught up with Tom and Maris as they performed on the Pool Deck and went in search of some lunch. As far as eating went on the ship, we used the buffet for breakfast and lunch and then every night but one went into the Main Dining Room for our evening meal and a bit of outrageous flirting with the young lady who was greeting and directing waiters to take us to our table.

We always say (well Miss Franny does and usually in a resigned tone) "Once seen, never forgotten..." and by just the second night I was greeted by name and we were placed on a table next to a window, which agreeable treatment became a nightly feature. We tried one of the speciality dining rooms one night but be patient and it will feature sooner or later...

That afternoon we made our way to Baristas coffee bar and I found a table near enough to the window that I could so this pencil sketch of the coast and Sorrento. Apparently once again this gathered an audience but as they mostly stayed behind me I was totally unaware of them until Miss Franny told me later.

This was slightly tricky as the window only gave me a narrow view and each side had to be done as the ship swung that way at anchor. I'd usually get to a tricky point and the subject would disappear behind the side of the window...

That night we were sitting in the Horizons bar, listening to Tom and Maris when an American lady came up to me and said "Oh, we have so much in common!" I must have looked a little non-plussed as her husband bent down to my ear and said, "Don't worry - she frightens me too sometimes...!" They went to sit at a table a little way away and after a while I went over and said, "I'm intruiged, what do we have in common?"

They were from Seattle and were a lovely couple who we had a little chat with every time we came across them. If you get to read this by any chance, guys, please do feel free to get in touch!

Index to come...

A Day on Sicily

Sunday 21 September 2026. We are on a cruise from Malta to Barcelona in Spain which goes the long way round. It's a ten-day cruise and there are no sea days, every day will see us in port somewhere around the Mediterranean.

Today we have arrived at the island of Sicily, famed for its being the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It once had its own species of wolf - the Sicilian Wolf but that was driven to extinction during the 20th Century by deforestation and hunting. The last possible sighting of it was in 1970. Likewise there had been a species of miniature elephant roaming the island. Last sighting of that was around 20,000 years ago.

The island's other claim to fame, apart from the Mafia, is the rather impressive Mount Etna, seen here as we passed in a coach. It is one of the most active volcanos in Europe and is in almost constant state of eruption. Records of eruptions, some of which can last five years or more, have been found well into the BCE period of time with evidence of the earliest having occurred some half a million years BCE. It even has an old legend of being the home of King Arthur and his half-sister Morgan-le-fay...

Our first stop is Taormina, a lovely place that we visited in 2008 and whilst it hasn't changed very much, the shops have moved about as each year they have to apply anew for their premises. It's a Sunday today in any case so many of the big name shops are closed. What a shame...

Here coaches have to park on the bottom level of a multi-storey car park. The vehicle entrance is not far above sea level and the entry/exit for those on foot is on level 7 as the main streets sit more than halfway up a steep rise in ground level. Toilets are on a level somewhere in between and thankfully there's a lift to get you up to the top and back down again. The view from the top is stunning.

We bravely set off trying to keep up with the tour guide but I was struggling to walk so fast and we usually reached the group as he was coming to the end of eplaining something and then set off again. Having been before we knewwhere he was heading anyway and we caught up with them as he went off to buy tickets into the Greek/Roman amphitheater - more properly just theatre as the seating just goes around one side in a semi-circle rather than the full encirclement. The Greek theatre afforded patrons a view beyond of the sea as it was built right on the edge of the hillside, but the Romans added their trademark brickwork at the side and around the back of the stage, effectively blocking this view.

We entered this time at the stage level. The last time we had entered right at the top of the tiers of seating. I found the guide and said we would make our own way back to the coach park as we were dur to visit a hotel for lunch and the a mountain-top village. We stopped at a cafe for an ice cream and a lemonade drink that had a squirt of orange in it - absolutely lush.

Lunch at the hotel was predictably pasta - I'm not a great fan... Not even a lukewarm fan if I'm honest. Several options were on offer but they were all pasta of one sort or other. A bit like going into a chippy and all they have are fat chips, skinny chips, crinkle cut chips, a huge whole potato dropped in a pan of fat... I tried my best. "It's just flour and water," I kept telling myself and then I'd think, "Oh yuck it's just flour and water..."

After lunch the coach took us up to a village called Castelmola. The guide's pronunciation made it sound more like Castelmora. There would be many steps of steep streets and I'd had enough. The coach driver was happy enough to let us stay on the coach. We had the front row seats so had a good view and he just left the driving seat, sat back in the seats opposite us, put his feet up and went to sleep, snorting and snoring as the mood took him. I had the A4 sketchbook with me and, with time limited, opted to use a pen to sketch the scene before the coach.

I must have done something right, as several passengers when they climbed back onto the coach and walked past us said "Wow!" or something similar. Once we set off down the hillside back to our ship, docked in Catania, it started to rain heavily. We spent the night in Horizons bar listening to Tom and Maris. I'm not a late owl these days I'm afraid and if I try to be then I just go to sleep wherever I am anyway. We caught their 10:00pm slot and then had to leave them with one spot still to go.

Index to come...

A Night in Valetta and a Day Onboard

19 September 2026. Good Heavens! Nearly up-to-date! [FANFARE] Yes we are once again ignoring all bodily conditions and with a costly set of tickets and travel insurance documents we stay up past 8:00pm with gay abandon waiting for a taxi to pick us up at 03:00am in the morning. Yes, I know that the "am" signified morning but I want you to be aware of just how much effort it takes! Never have so many Police Interceptors captured so many speeding motorists with no licence or insurance on our screens in one night...

But on the dot of 03:00am (was so sleepy I couldn't quite tell if it was the upper or lower dot...) the taxi comes and we are off to Manchester Airport to wrestle with Ryanair's ticketless check-in systems. I have the App and I have the sweats, but we eventually only have to ask for help half a dozen times and we are through. It may be the future but is it really necessary??? As far as I can see it does away with half a dozen check-in staff and requires four extremely busy and stressed helpers at the machines each of which has a long queue before it.

The plane drops us off at Valletta airport in Malta where we queue to use for the first time the new European automated smuggler catchers. Finally getting the hang of putting finger prints on the pad whilst turning awkwardly to gurn into the automated camera I am allowed through with the wondering thought - do I have to pull the same face in the future every time I wish to cross borders?

We get into a taxi and are taken to our hotel for the night, the 5-star Barcelo Fortina in Malta's Sliema district. It's right on the harbour but not the right bit of harbour for us as Valletta's harbour is absolutely huge. We will need another taxi tomorrow. Also it is throwing it down with rain. The hotel was very nice, good buffet meals and that evening the bar suddenly filled with people who broke into a samba flash dance!

But this is why we are here. This is the Oceania Sirena cruise ship and we are about to get on it if we can find out where to go to check onboard. Some Americans came out of one building and saw us with our cases: "Sirena this way" came a call and they seemed to then disappear into a cliff face. We found an opening in the cliff and then found ourselves in some sort of cave with rows of seats and some crew from the ship who got us aboard in no time at all.

Miss Franny waits for the old limping crotchetty man with the walking stick as we make our way to the ship.

We got onto the ship twenty minutes early which was good going and went up to the top deck to get a view of Valletta.

Oceania is a new company to us, but is a subsidiary of NCL who we sailed with in 2024. I had been wondering whether it was the old Costa Sirena but no, it first sailed in 1999 for Renaissance Cruises who went bankrupt in 2001 and the ship was seized by creditors. It then sailed with Pacific Cruises first as Tahitian Princess then renamed to a less specific Ocean Princess in 2009. It joined Oceania in 2016 and had a $40M refurb before being renamed Sirena.

The ancient walls and buildings of Valletta. It is a strange mix of Italian and British, you can still find the odd red telephone kiosk knocking about yet the language they spreak is Italian in the main. But Malta is an island with a strong sense of pride and a George Cross from King George VI - the only one awarded to an entire population for bravery against the German forces in World War Two.

Sirena had a bar facing the bow and it was even called Horizons like the Marella ships Celebration and Spirit that we so loved and on Celebration sailed many times with our entertainer friends Tomas and Maris.

Speaking of whom - look who are onboard! I had hidden from them and then came out to say to Maris, "Hey! Give us a cuddle!"
She turned and said "Oh John..." then realised it was indeed me and not her imagination then "John! John!" and came to hug me and burst into tears. They were not far from my eyes too if I'm honest. Four and half years since being diagnosed with cancer - every meeting with them is a bonus and a joy.

So we'll finish with Maris's own photo of our surprise meeting! It was nice to see and wave to both Robert (Maris's husband) and Arlene (Tomas's wife) whilst they sang with their phones on face-to-face.

Index to come...

Cornwall 1992 Index

Memories of a week's family holiday based in Nequay, Cornwall where we are camping just north of the town in Porth. 'We' are my parents, Miss Franny and I and our own daughter, Gillian plus my brother Frank and his son, also called John. Join us as we frolic through sights and sites both familiar and less well-known.

Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to the relevant article. A link on each page will bring you back here.

Return to Holidays and Days Out in the UK Index