I remember when I arrived in the United States for the first time, with excitement in my heart … and a small ache in my back from being crammed into an airline seat for the long flight between Milan and Miami. I was on my way to Fort Lauderdale to start my new life working for Princess Cruises.

Fast forward more than 10 years and finally I was able to make the reverse trip in considerably better style – by ship. I set off across the Atlantic aboard Emerald Princess, my first ocean crossing.

Transatlantic sailings have been legendary since, well, at least the time of the Vikings. Still today there’s something momentous about crossing the incredible expanse of the Atlantic Ocean by ship. Regardless of which direction you go, this journey from one vast continent to another, between the New World and the Old, is filled with great lore, history and adventure.

I dreamed about travel adventures for most of my early life. I was born in the small village of Dervio, which sits on Lake Como, in north central Italy, close to the Swiss border. Read More

A trip to Hawaii is always a sort of homecoming for me. Although I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 20 years now, Hawaii was the place of my birth (and yes, I have the birth certificate to prove it!). If you’ve ever flown into Honolulu and looked up to the hillside to see an ugly pink building reminiscent of a resort trapped in a bad time warp, that’s the site of my birth: Tripler Army Medical Center.

Living in Hawaii for the first seven years of my life was (particularly in hindsight) a gift from the heavens. My father was in the US Navy and worked on diesel submarines, thus we lived in Navy housing with Pearl Harbor as our backyard. Although my youth has long since drifted away, I still have glorious memories of my formative years, most of which I recall spent at the beach or climbing the banyan tree in our front yard. I guess it was the thing to do, but my sister and I didn’t exactly have Nintendo or Facebook to keep us otherwise occupied. Just running around in the tropical heat, watching our dog chase after the family of mongoose that had built a labyrinth of tunnels in our yard, was good enough for us.

Anyway, back to my homecoming trip. My wife, Kristi, and I love to travel and the thrill of scuba diving has taken us to exotic locales such as Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Palau, Yap and the Galapagos Islands…just to name a few.  Then, one of both of us decided it would be a great idea to have a kid.   Read More

My son first “visited” New York back in 1998, when I attended the naming ceremony of Grand Princess, which was then debuting as the biggest cruise ship in the world.  As part of the festivities, the ship sailed past the Statue of Liberty for a spectacular fireworks display.  Since I was pregnant at the time, my son was with me for the emotional moment as “America the Beautiful” resounded throughout the ship.  (Naturally, today I have no problem remembering the age of Grand Princess!) At that moment, I thought about my unborn son and dreamed about the day I would take him to see the “Big Apple.”

Ten years later we decided he, and the rest of our family, should really experience what New York has to offer.  So we set off, a family of born and bred Californians, including my husband Jon, son Greg, and daughter Val, headed for a place that often seemed as foreign a location as any country we have visited.

Even from that first drive into Manhattan from the airport, it’s clear that New York is an intense concentration of people and energy.  But with so many things to see and do here, it was obvious that we needed a plan. Read More

ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on April 25 every year to honor members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. This week our blog expert, Osvaldo Tinacci, shares his story about visiting the historic site.

The military played a big part in my early life.  I suppose I even owe my existence to war, as my Italian father met my Scottish mother when he was a POW in England during World War II.  As a student, I attended military school and once I graduated I served in the Italian Army.  But I moved away from that world once my career transitioned to cruise ships, and my days became about taking care of my passengers.  Little did I know that one of the most moving experiences I would have in my job would be organizing a memorial service to remember veterans from a land far away from my own.

In 2009 I was proud to be part of the team to take Dawn Princess on her first world cruise from Sydney.  In looking at the itinerary we knew we would be passing by a site of great importance to people from Australia and New Zealand – ANZAC Cove on the coast of Turkey.   Read More