Salerno, Italy: This is a beautiful seaside town on the west coast of Italy. Both the terrain and weather remind me of coastal California. It's December and just a tad cool for shirtsleeves, a light jacket is what is wanted.
You can easily see why northern Europeans come here to warm up. The coastal promenade is lined with palm trees, which tells you clearly there is little to no snow here. An occasional frost, to be sure, but no hard winter.
The first leg of the cruise ends tomorrow in the port of Rome, Civitavecchia. The old port Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber silted up so they moved up the coast to Civitavecchia. As the other DrC observed, Greece and Italy are ancient lands, 'civilized' for thousands of years.
