I recently came back from a long, well-needed vacation from Rome to London. I stayed in Rome for two days, then hopped on a Princess Cruise ship from Civitavecchia, then sailed to Livorno, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Normandy, and Southampton for 10 more days. To make it confusing, I did a tour bus up to Florence from Livorno, a day in Nice from Monte Carlo, and finally a day in Paris from Normandy.
Along the way, I looked for tea but mostly found food. I ended up buying all flavoured teas this entire trip. All the shops I went to either didn’t have any unflavored tea or the pricing was absurd for it, and I’m in a famous tea shop for flavoured teas so I should be buying what they are good at.
Rome, Italy
Two days in Rome isn’t enough. I would go back to Rome, get an Airbnb with a kitchen, stay a week or more, and eat my way through the town. There were loads of tiny romantic restaurants, hip pizza joints, butcher shops, cafes, and open-air markets with gorgeous produce.
Of course, there are many amazing sights of Rome.
I ate Roman Pizza and Gelato multiple times a day. I love the thick, crazy toppings, pay per weight pizza.
I found two tea shops in Rome. Annoyingly, my inside photos came out real crap thanks to the lighting. Both shops in Rome had very heavily flavoured teas, with the smell of the flavourings quite piercingly strong. Te e Teiere (Tea and Teapots) I liked the most. They seemed to have more interesting flavoured teas. They had oolongs, black, and puer and if I didn’t bring some much from home I could have stocked up on some decent things but their pricing was expensive. Their flavoured tea was priced affordably.
BiblioTeq had the tiny shop charm. It had enough room for a couple of people to browse at ceiling-high stacks of tea tins and mugs.
After a couple of days in Rome, I headed to Civitavecchia and jumped on my cruise ship, the Sapphire Princess.
Florence, Italy
My cruise ship technically docked in Livorno, but I took a bus out to Florence to check out the city. More Italy, more gelato and Roman Pizza.
Florence is a gorgeous city filled with gold, leather, and Davids. Even the owls on the famous gold shopping bridge are blinged out.
I did not find tea here, just neverending leather goods and architecture.
Tea Owl snagged a photo with a copy of David (I had no time to stand in lines all day to see the real one).
On my way back to the ship I snagged a magical photo over Florence with another copy of David.
Monte Carlo, Monaco & Nice, France
I didn’t see much of Monte Carlo as I again took a bus out of town to spend a day in Nice. My husband is a huge fan of French food, so we had to take this chance to hit France. Nice has impressive buildings, all the colours are just magical, and amazing seaside.
Nice had two tea shops I could get to easily and are also Oolong Owl affiliates. Palais Des Thes and Kusmi Tea. To shoot everyone in the foot, both got mad at me taking photos and I was only allowed to show the front of the store. There was a language barrier so I couldn’t convey, “Hey, I’m a tea writer and we make each other money. Let me take photos.” So here are photos of the front of the shops. Palais Des Thes had an impressive shop set up like shopping in a museum. Kusmi Tea was bright and fun to shop in.
Barcelona, Spain
When I think back to my favourite spots, I keep changing my mind between Rome and Barcelona. Both cities are a foodie’s dream. I would say Rome is cheaper, but man, Barcelona I just wanted to park all day at a market and eat.
I left the market, took photos of churches, went back to the market and ate more.
Did not find any tea, but I also didn’t research ahead of time for it.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar has tea, especially since it is a British Overseas Territory, I had a chance to have afternoon tea for $90 but decided that was insane and threw my money at going to the top of their famous rock and getting surrounded by monkeys.
Gibraltar has lots of war history, funky British shops, many cannons, and cool views. From up the rock you can see both Spain and Morrocco. Also so many monkeys.
Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal is another city I would go back to. I love Portuguese egg tarts (though prior to this I was only exposed to the Macau style ones at Chinese bakeries) and the food in Lisbon is killer. The architecture is also impressive with the tile work.
I found a tea shop! However, I am hiding the front window photo behind this link as it’s seen as offensive. Casa Pereira Da Conceicao Cha & Cafe had flavoured tea, coffee, and snacks. They also had strongly scented flavoured teas.
Paris, France
My ship landed in Normandy, but I braved the 3-hour bus ride into Paris. The goal in Paris was to see a couple of landmarks, eat some crazy food, and visit at least one tea shop. First things first, I saw the Norte Dame Cathedral on April 15th at around 3 pm. Later that day, it was on fire. One of those utterly surreal moments I saw it right before. I was actually mad I went as it made timing visiting tea shops tight.
Of course, Tea Owl needs an Eiffel Tower selfie.
And Arc du Triomphe selfie.
I squeaked out a stop at Mariage Freres in some mall attached to the Louvre. I had 5 minutes only to shop and still had to run for the bus back to the cruise ship. This was a beautiful shop that also felt like I was in a museum.
London
Sadly timing didn’t work in London. I had thought I could roam for a few hours but ended up spending my few hours in Heathrow airport buying random crap. There was lots of tea here if you wanted classic kitschy tins of Twinnings, English Tea Shop, Whittard & Chelsea, and more.
Oolong Owl’s Haul
Our joke was Gibraltar being renamed Gibrowltar as the owl haul was good. The pair of owls on the left was from Barcelona from a tourist shop. The wooden owl and two metal ones where from Gibraowltar. Saw so many owl items!
The two ceramics on the right were from Portugal. There were long stretches of tents with artists selling handmade goods. One of these artists had amazing cups that I was incredibly tempted by but they were just too large for me to ever use.
I also scored this cute teapot teapet from Portugal. I don’t know if they were intentionally teapets, but they had made a lot of them.
In Heathrow airport, I had to seriously restrain myself going hog wild on shopping. I came home with two interesting tins of biscuits and an Owl. I named him Hootley.
Tea Haul
Velvet Peony was from Rome’s Te e Teiere. I love that name for a tea, but it isn’t a white tea, it is a fruity green tea.
At Palais Des Thes I snagged their new special Louvre blend, this one the black tea one. Kusmi Tea I sniffed around and purchased a herbal blend AquaExotica, which I thought smelled pretty good. I am also lacking herbal teas right now.
In Lisbon, they had a lot of flavoured teas, but I went with one that looked more likely to be an in-house/commissioned blend of Porto wine.
Mariage Freres was the disappointment as I had only 5 minutes to shop. I grabbed the first tea that smelled really good, which was a Sakura White tea blend.
Out of all the cities I went to, I demand I go back to Paris and London again. Mostly because I didn’t see enough and both of those would not be a cruise kind of trip. I would do Rome again and I could see myself also visiting Barcelona and Lisbon.
Stay tuned for Part 2 as I will go into detail on 10 days of Tea and Cruise life.
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