My mom was named after her uncle Valentine who died in World War II. Her dad thought he was being creative when he "made up" the name Valetta as a tribute to Valentine. Throughout her life, her name has been a source of comedy and angst.... Florida, Velveeta, there's no end to the odd spellings and pronunciations she gets. Hence my …

As a mom of four, I'm a light sleeper so it's an adjustment sharing a room. This morning that meant waking up at 5:30. Unable to get back to sleep, I decided to explore the ship a bit more. I found a lovely observation lounge and outdoor seating that I had all to myself, a perfect spot to reflect on the trip so far.

Today we stopped in …

The city of Valletta is perched on a hillside with steep wall drop offs down to the sea. It's easy to see why the Ottomans had such challenges besieging the city, even with a force of over 20 times the defenders. There's just nothing but sheer limestone walls for hundreds of feet straight up. The whole city in fact, is constructed in …

Le Bougainville is gorgeously designed with outdoor seating at the front and back, two dining areas, three lounges and a comfortable theater. The lounges offer three different atmospheres, including an upper deck observation lounge with panoramic windows facing forward and the Blue Eye, a multi-sensory lounge below water level with windows looking …

After a rewarding but exhausting day yesterday, we opted for a relaxing wine tour/ local cooking experience with Marco Scapagnini, a Sicilian Wine Ambassador and frequent contributor to

international food and wine publications. I have to admit that I was a tad intimidated to go to a wine tasting with such a world renown expert. I tend to have …

Today we explored Palermo on our own. It's been very hot and today was no exception. However, Palermo is a decent size city (approx 700,000) so it was a good chance to get out and stretch our legs in the shade of the city buildings. The architecture here is lovely with beautiful theaters, churches and government buildings around every …

On this day, we joined a special cooking class. First stop was the oldest market in Palermo, Capo Market, to buy our ingredients. We met Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi, a Sicilian duchess who runs cooking classes out of Palazzo Lanza Tomasi.

At the market, we visited a fish monger to see what had been brought in. Nicoletta was concerned as her plan was …

Today we traveled to Mt Etna, the highest mountain in Sicily at 11,000 ft and also an active volcano. The top of the volcano was billowing steam, but that area is only accessible for scientists. Towns circle the lower areas of the volcano with folks making their living off tourism and the rich volcanic soil used to grow olives, pistachios and …

This morning the French captain wished us a happy 4th of July. The French can appreciate Independence Day perhaps more than most and it was sweet that the entire French crew went out of their way to wish us a happy day. They even made a 4th of July American feast for lunch and teatime (though we skipped both to indulge in local specialties …