Good morning from La Spezia, Italy! The banana pancakes were really good today! We’ve been continuing to explore different venues around the ship. One of our favorite spots on all Princess ships is the International Café. In the mornings, they serve breakfast fare, then switch to lunch and snack items at 11 a.m. On every other ship we’ve sailed, the IC is located on Deck 5, but on the Sun, it’s up on Deck 9. The coffee baristas are here all day and stay open until midnight—on some ships, they even keep it going 24 hours a day! On all the older ships, the laundry room machines required tokens that you purchase from a dispenser. They’re now converting the machines to a token-less system—just scan your Medallion, and the charge goes directly to your onboard account. We’ve been to La Spezia before, along with the popular sightseeing spots accessible from here—Florence, Pisa, Portofino, and Cinque Terre. Each of those destinations involves about 90 minutes of travel each way, so this time we decided to stay local and get some exercise instead. We walked into town and back, a three-mile roundtrip. Once we returned, I tried out the taco station on Deck 17 (the pool deck), where the servers make tacos to order—it was quite good! Debbie opted for the salad station, where the servers do the same. She was very happy with her salad and even stole a few of my tortilla chips!
When we got back to our stateroom, our steward had left me a birthday surprise!
We’re now relaxing in the Sanctuary Club, which is nearly empty—perfect.
Dinner tonight at The Catch was absolutely delicious! We both started with the smoked salmon — a salmon filet served in a smoke-filled cloche. In our humble opinion, it’s the best appetizer on the menu!
Debbie had the Branzino for her main course and loved it. I went with the Dover Sole, filleted tableside — it was amazing! We both enjoyed the Parmesan fries as our side. For dessert, Debbie had one “Chantilly Lace” profiterole filled with Chantilly cream, while I had three filled with vanilla gelato. A regular order includes five profiteroles — four cream-filled and one gelato-filled — so here’s a little pro tip for anyone ordering this dish in the future! Our wine tonight went great with our fish dishes!
