My Dream has Become a Reality!

Hi Friends!

After a 17-day hiatus while I enjoyed a cruise vacation to Italy, Monaco, France, Malta and Greece, I am back to work and "back to reality".

I have thousands of pictures to sort through before I can put together a photo album or two of the wonderful memories for what has been the best cruise I have ever experience.

But, I can't wait much longer to share with you one of the most memorable highlights of our cruise. It was the day I FINALLY got to see MADONNA! Yes, that's right MADONNA!! Like in Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Penn Ritchie!!!

It happened on Monday, August 17th (the day after Madonna turned 51) in the beautiful port of Portofino. As we were touring this lovely port, we saw a reporter and cameraman walking along the port and overheard them say (in Italian) her name, Madonna. Then our tour guide mentioned that a rumor had been circulating throughout town that Madonna had reserved an entire floor at the Hotel Splendido, but had not yet been seen.

Well, we did our tour through Portofino and the later Santa Margherita, which I must say were the two most picturesque Italy ports we visited.

Upon our return to Portofino, on a water taxi, we noticed a large crowd right along the shoreline of Portofino, and I immediately concluded that Madonna was there. I walked as fast as I could to the crowded area, and started to snap away with my hand and camera over the crowd to see if I could capture any pictures of my Idol!

Here's what I captured:

Madonna (wearing black straw hat) amongst the crowd.

Lourdes walking through the crowd.

I noticed a boat was waiting for Madonna and her entourage, so I did the logical thing and moved closure to shoreline to see if I could finally get a glimpse of Madonna...and I did. She was with her family Lourdes, David, Mercy, Rocco (who I did not see) and her man of the hour, Jesus Luz.

Here are the pictures to prove it:

Madonna carrying David on her lap, with Jesus Luz beside her.

A "family portrait" of Madonna with Jesus Luz and her two youngest children, both adopted from Malawi, Mercy and David.

So, in addition to having a great cruising experience, I also had the distinctive pleasure of finally meeting the one and only Madonna!

Ciao for now!
CharlieCruiser