Our next traveling mode to Greece was on a cruise ship, the Celebrity Galaxy, which was a whole different atmosphere, and it was our hotel room for the remainder of the trip. I've been on very short cruises before, but this was for 11 days, and when we unpacked our suitcases, we could put them under the bed. We were home. Much easier.

Further along in Italy, the cruise ship docked to allow passengers to take a tour of the Amalfi coast and visit the town of Amalfi at the end.

I had briefly heard from my son Preston and his wife Jo that they had enjoyed that tour very much, but I didn't ask them much about it so I could enjoy it as a surprise. Talk about a surprise! We got a hint when our tour guide on the bus introduced the driver and said how proficient he was and how glad we'd be about that by the end of the tour.

Most of the tour was on a narrow road right next to a rocky cliff which headed down to the ocean for 300 feet or more, with only a short wall between the road and the cliff. Where I sat on the bus, on the right window side, I was looking straight down or on outcroppings the whole drive of many hours.

It reminded me of Pret driving us down Big Sur in California many years ago, though I don't remember even a small wall on that one. Of course, Big Sur has been in the news for weeks now because of the fires raging through it. It was such a beautiful area, as was the Amalfi coast, which wasn't all rock, but abounding with trees, shrubs, and flowers. Houses were actually built to my right on the little outcroppings over the sea. We did congratulate our driver for getting us through the tour safely. Thank you, too, Pret.

Of the three stops with tours in Greece - Mykonos, Rhodes, and Santorini - my leg was sore for the first one, so I stayed at an outdoor cafe on the pier looking at the beautiful white houses with blue roofs or domes and front doors, and also the antics of the town mascot, a pelican. But not like any pelican I've ever seen before! Three times as big, pure white feathers, with a long narrow beak. Tourists crowded around him when he landed near the pier. Some patted him despite warnings that he might bite.

The second day, in Rhodes, I stayed on the ship to give my leg another day of rest, though I walked quite a bit on the ship. I had to, if I wanted to eat, hear talks, or see shows.

The third was Santorini, where I had not signed up for a walking tour as it was too steep for me, anyway. There are three ways to get to the top of Santorini, where all the houses and buildings were at the top of an ancient volcano, with not much flat land at the bottom. You could walk up hundreds of steps, ride the tram, or ride a donkey. Most chose to take the tram, but there was always an hour to an hour and a half wait in line, up and down. Two of the young women in our family rode the donkeys down. One enjoyed it more than the other.

Because all the houses were painted white, Santorini looked like a mountain covered with snow as the ship pulled in to shore and later left.

All along the coast from then on, there were many market places, with workers eager to sell us everything they had. As we passed each one, if we stopped for a minute to see what was available, the seller was immediately next to us, telling us about everything, encouraging us to buy only from him, who had the best pieces of jewelry, bookmarks, etc. Many shoppers, who might have bought something, were turned off completely by them and decided to forget the whole thing. Including me. The only one who got a laugh out of us, although we still kept going, was a man who came out and smilingly said, "Can I help you ladies spend your money?" We appreciated his honesty.

BETTY STEVENSON of Attleboro is a community columnist. Her next installment, Back to Rome, will appear July 28.