We walked off the ship and headed toward "town" through lots of vendors offering tours. Stopped to speak to a young man with a speedboat, book the tour with him and had THE BEST MORNING! We got a brochure from him so we could recommend -- Golden Wave Taxi Speed Boat. His name was Strovko (sp?), he spoke some English, was fun and polite and good with his beautiful boat. He took us through the sunshine and beautiful calm waters to Perast, where we wandered for about 20 minutes, including a little church, just a little village with great views. Then he took us to the Church on the Rock where we toured with a docent for about 30 minutes -- this was terrific, she was knowledgeable and sincere, the church and little island were very interesting! Then while riding back to the port, Strovko took photos of us, let us drive a bit, pointed out interesting things on the shores -- just perfect! Also, sailing into and out of Kotor on the Musica was beautiful, lunching on the pool deck, taking photos -- a very special port.

We took the MSC shuttle bus to "town center" but then we had to walk and walk and walk and walk to get to the square/park/shopping. It was very old and interesting, beautiful views, we had wine in one of the million outdoor cafes (a highlight of every stop in Greece and Italy, right?) then walked and walked and walked back to the bus stop. The ride in the bus was very slow, no narration, just through older neighborhoods.

Santorini was "all that"!! Sailing in was intriguing! Then we walked off and right to the cable car entrance, easy-peasy. But once at the top, it was not clear what to do, how to get the public bus to Oia, some people figured it out, but we ended up taking a taxi, which was a bonus -- our driver took us out of the way to some beautiful overlooks we might have missed otherwise. Then in Oia it was easy to find something spectacular to see! We had lunch in a cafe overlooking the sea, took tons of photos, shopped for some unusual items (and some touristy ones). Finally, we went back to the square and caught the public bus back to the ship, walked quite a bit (up and down on the cobblestones) and shopped on the way. Easy cable car ride, easy tender ride back to the ship. Santorini was a highlight in an itinerary of great places!

You'll read that Brindisi is "not much." But on a nice day it's great -- we walked along the boardwalk, enjoying the sea and some gelato, then we were going to just walk back to the ship, but ducked into an alley and walked up to several squares with shopping areas and cafes, unexpected. Then, almost back to the ship we saw the main shopping street and strolled there for a bit. Turned out to be a lovely afternoon.