The international airport in Male, Maldives is much smaller than most of the ones we’ve been to so far. Located on an island a short distance away from the main island, the airport appeared to have 3 airplanes on the tarmac at the time we landed. Outside of the small terminal were a collection of fast food restaurants and a harbor from which passengers can board a speedboat or ferry to the island of their choosing.

We waited about an hour for our speedboat to arrive and then took the 90 minute ride to the Chaaya Reef Ellaidhoo resort where we are staying. Valerie picked this resort because they allegedly have a very nice house reef that we can snorkel around.

Our flight from Doha to Male is very early in the morning, so we are staying the night in Doha today. After flying into Qatar, we visited the incredible business class lounge at Hamad International Airport. This is the best lounge I have ever visited, by far. It is huge, with two restaurants, tons of seating, a quiet room, storage lockers, showers, and basically anything that anyone could think to put in an airport lounge. We contemplated spending the night in the lounge, but Valerie cannot sleep in anything but a bed, so we booked an 8-hour room at the Airport Hotel (which surprisingly has a pool).

Before going to sleep, we took a free city tour of Doha offered by the Qatar Tourism Authority and Qatar Airways. About 3 hours long, the tour showed off the ongoing development projects of Doha. It also provided insight into the culture of Qatar and its economic development.

On our first day in Dubai, we saw new Dubai. On our second day, we saw old Dubai. On our third, we wanted to see tourist Dubai, so we took a taxi to the Dubai Marina / Jumeirah Beach Resort. The beach actually looked pretty nice and the Persian Gulf waters were very warm. Sadly, we didn’t bring along our swimwear.

We ate a quick lunch at a local Pakistani restaurant and then took a taxi to the Atlantis hotel on Jumeirah Palm (a set of islands shaped like a palm tree when viewed from space). The public area of Atlantis was fairly small and crowded. The water park didn’t look as good as the ones back home. To get a better view of the palm islands, we took the monorail back to the trunk of the tree. Annoyingly, the monorail doesn’t connect to the metro (and the new Dubai tram isn’t opening for another two months), so we had to get a taxi to the Metro station.

On a whim, we decided to walk around Deira, the area where our hotel is located. Valerie found a self-guided food tour online. Sadly, many of the places were closed, but we were able to buy some really delicious falafels and desserts.

We are really good at accidentally visiting places at times during which everything is closed. The religious holiday Eid al-Adha is this weekend, which was unfortunate for us for several reasons. First, our room at the Crowne Plaza offers a free cocktail hour, but the government of Dubai prohibited all alcohol service during the first day of Eid. Second, when we decided to walk through the “old” town of Bur Dubai, many shops were closed. We wandered through the nearby souks for a while, deftly avoiding a myriad of touts, until the Dubai Museum opened. For only 3 AED, the museum is quite a bargain and gives a good overview of the history of Dubai (which isn’t very long; the modern city-state has only existed for a few hundred years and during many of those years there was very little writing).

After the museum, we found a restaurant that was surprisingly open even though everything else in its historical souk was closed. After a fine lunch of middle eastern cuisine, we walked along Dubai Creek before walking to the Metro to take us back to the hotel.

Without Rick Steves’s guidance, we were at a loss for what to do in Dubai. We consulted TripAdvisor for some ideas. Our first stop was Dubai Mall, one of the largest malls in the Middle East (and the world). We wandered around for quite a while, marveling at the aquarium and admiring the many fountains and statues. We ate a nice lunch at Potbelly’s and then wandered to an adjacent mall and then to look at the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. (We were too cheap to pay for the elevator ride to the top.) Around 6pm, we wandered back to Dubai Mall to watch the Bellagio-style fountain show.

A shuttle picked us up at the B&B around 8:30am to take us to the airport. First we flew to Doha in Qatar and then to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Our flight arrived around 11pm and then it took about 1.5 hours to work our way through the extremely slow immigration line at Dubai airport. (Dubai airport seriously needs to improve the queueing system for the passport control area.)

We took a taxi to our hotel, but we mistakenly took an executive taxi instead of a normal taxi, which cost us an additional $10 for the ride. For other travelers to Dubai, take special care to read the giant sign at the front of the taxi queue before boarding a taxi; it can save you money.

Valerie and I had seen the major sights in the center of Rome during our last visit, so this time we just strolled from our B&B to Trastevere, stopping at interesting churches along the way. The first church we visited was actually built on top of another church, which itself was built on top of another church. Outside this church, we got swindled by a guy accepting “donations for the church.” (We only ever get swindled in Italy. I wonder why…)

After walking past the coliseum, we tried to visit a church with a statue of Moses by Michelangelo, but it was unfortunately closed, so we continued our stroll. Once we reached Trastevere, we stopped for lunch at a place recommended by TripAdvisor.

Our last church of the day was the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. It was surprisingly grand for a church that I hadn’t heard of before this visit. It is the oldest church in Rome, which is impressive for a city with so many historic churches.

Finally, we headed back to the B&B, picking up some pizza for dinner.

In the morning, Karen and Lorraine drove us to town for a quick lunch before dropping us off at the train station. We boarded a train back to Rome and then walked to our B&B near Manzoni station. I wasn’t feeling very well at this point, so I took a nap. We eventually ate dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

We woke up early this morning to be among the first people disembarking the ship. Costa doesn’t offer express walk off (where travelers with only carry-on luggage can disembark as soon as immigration clears the ship), so after collecting our passports, we had to wait in the terminal area for all the luggage to be unloaded. Valerie was concerned that we would miss our train, so she got a port employee to escort us to customs early.

After several hours in the train, we arrived at beautiful Castiglione del Lago. Our friends Karen, Cathy, and Patti whom we met during a previous cruise invited us to visit them at their villa. Karen, John, and Lorraine kindly met us at the train station, where we enjoyed a sorbetto, before driving us to the villa about 3 miles away. The villa was large and spacious (quite different from our usual small hotel room) with great views of the Tuscan hills and lake.

Before dinner, we met the other guests in the villa and played several games of semi-competitive bocce ball while drinking 3-euro bottles of wine from the vineyard next door. For dinner, the owner of the villa organized for a pair of local women to come over and cook everyone an enormous Italian feast. The pasta was the best that we’ve had in Italy (or really anywhere). Karen opened a super-sized bottle of excellent wine from the winery of the Bulgari family (yes, those Bulgaris).

It was very kind of our friends to invite us to the villa. We had a great time and I’m glad that the timing worked out so we were all in Italy at the same time.