Day 20/5: Civitavecchia/Roma

I am entering this report from last Friday today (Sunday, May 1). This is the first time I have successfully connected to the internet since last Thursday, April 28. I will therefore paste in the notes I took for the past few days.

What a day! It is 1930 hours and we exhausted! We arrived back at the ship from our Rome shore excursion about 1830, having departed the ship at 0830 this morning. T says we walked 6.8 miles today. I believe it. My dogs are barking!

We took the OE version of their tour of Rome. This meant a smaller assembly and it turned out there were just six of us (this was well worth the additional cost). We were put on a minivan, as compared to the mega bus the other tours were using.

Our Bus is the Small One in the Center

We visited St. Peter’s Basilica and then went into the Colosseum and then drove past various temples and the Circus Maximus. At both the Basilica and the Colosseum, we were able to bypass some enormous lines to gain entry, thanks to our escort Carmelo (Sicilian) and guide Judy (Irish married to an Italian). For lunch we ate at a sidewalk café and chose to have a beef capriccio and a “four season” pizza (artichoke, black olive, pepperoni, prosciutto, cheeses, onion, etc.) and four glasses of blanco vino (split between us). Upon leaving lunch, we wondered through Rome on foot. We walked down the Via del Corso from the Trevi Fountain up to the Spanish Steps and on to the Piazza del Popolo. On the way, we stopped at the San Carlo al Corso church and the Anglican Church, which was charming but I cannot remember the name.

Changing of the Swiss Guard at St. Peters

St. Peter's Cathedral Square

Pope's Residence overlooking St. Peter Square

St. Peter's Cathedral Square

St. Peter's Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral

Add caption

Circus

Colosseum

Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps Used in Roman Holiday

Anglican Church

Sidewalk Cafe for Lunch 

A small but ornate Catholic Church near the People's Plaza

We started back for the ship around 1645 and arrived about 1800. It is only about 50 km, but getting out of Rome was the time consuming step. I thought the driving in Mexico was “interesting”! The driving in Rome is unbelievable! It was obvious that they did not take the notion driving lanes very seriously, but they did not even seem to understand the concept of staying on a particular side of the road. With the scooters weaving in and out of traffic, it was amazing we did not witness any accidents. It actually looked like fun, something you might find at an amusement park.

Upon arriving at the ship, we quickly changed and headed for the bar, then back to the room. If we eat, it will be via room service. Today was a long day, tomorrow is another long day. We anchor at Sorrento, Italy at 0800. We are to leave for our tour to Pompeii and Herculaneum at 0800. This is scheduled to be an 8.5 hour excursion.

Before we left this morning, I dropped of a comment card we received last night. I commented on many issues we were very happy with and several we were not happy with. Shortly after we got back to our room this evening, we got a call asking for details on the comments we gave regarding the attitude of the crew at the Waves grill. I found this interesting since this was almost a side note to some of our more grievous comments. Maybe we will be getting more calls later.