At lunch on the deck, someone spotted three dolphins leaping out of the waves.  Everyone abandoned their plates and leaned on the rails, hoping to see them but we saw only the water, so calm that the reflections of clouds slid over the blue, blue surface.  Maybe the tuna on the grill (dolphin fish?) sent out some signal to brethren still free.  The seared fish was delicious, as were the roasted vegetables and fruit.  Today we are “at sea” all day, having slipped out of the port of Palermo around midnight.

I am aboard a small ship, the Corinthian II, “working” as a guest lecturer on a sweep around the blessed Mediterranean. We sailed out of Civitavecchia, near Rome, and stopped first in Naples, a city Ed and I love.  While everyone toured Pompeii and the great museum (we’ve been many times), we simply walked for our dose of street theatre.  Naples jolts all the senses.  So many spontaneous conversations happen, so much noise, music, traffic.  Grime and glory—that’s Naples.

This Travel Dynamics trip emphasizes music art, history and food.  What a treat—a 75-person group, fabulous ports of call, and interesting events on board.  Before arriving in Sicily, for example, we heard a lecture on the spotted, complex history of the island, then I spoke on understanding the place through two of its writers, Giuseppe did Lampedusa and Leonardo Sciascia.  In Naples, our resident musicians performed Scarlatti, Donizetti, and Verdi at the Museo Diocesiano.  Tomorrow, we dock at Lerici and will visit Puccini’s home then hear a concert at the Oratorio di San Giovanni in Lucca.  In port, Ed and I often will wander off on our own.  The sense of discovery I seek in travel is best accomplished by turning off on side streets.

Meanwhile, we’re at sea.  I spoke today on one of my favorite subjects, food in these Mediterranean lands.  The company is convivial.  I’ve had the pleasure of reconnecting with a college friend who happens to be on board.  There’s no end to the great people one can meet in life and that’s a joy—always the prospect of a new friend.

The great sensation is the sea: the horizon line straight as though drawn by a lapis-colored pencil,  the shushing sound as the boat glides forward, moonlight’s silver path, and then just the feeling of enormity and a sense of connection with the old navigators who set sail toward unknown lands.  I wonder if my fellow passengers feel, as I do, a knot of sadness looking out at such stupendous beauty, knowing that hideous black oil is shooting into the gorgeous waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Now and then I glimpse a plastic bottle and rage hits me again.

I would like to post photos, especially of the color of the water!  But the internet is drastically slow so that must wait. Now off to a lecture on painters in Provence, just around the big land curve.  Nice, Marseilles, Barcelona.  Much to anticipate.

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