Arrivederci Roma! with photos

 Sunday. November 12, 2023

Well here we are on board the ship!  How did we get here?  The morning started with me over-sleeping by an hour! Luckily I still have plenty of time anyway, although I set a record for washing my face and brushing my teeth so I would be out of Ginger and Nick’s way when they woke up! Our lovely hostess brings us the breakfast we requested last night and it’s even more than we requested.  Look at the picture of the mound of goodness!

Our taxi (Uber?) arrives promptly at 9:30 and he even carries my big bag downstairs for me.  We pile into his big Mercedes SUV and we’re off to the port, about half an hour away.  He’s an intelligent and loquacious, good looking Italian and he and Nick chat all the way, with occasional comments from the back seat, about everything from football (both American and European) to ancient Roman civilization to the Hell’s Angels, of which he is a member!!

We have signed up for early boarding and there is almost no one in the terminal!  Boarding is a breeze and we make our way to the dining room where the buffet is opening up.  It’s kind of early for lunch, since we had such a generous continental breakfast, so we chat and people watch until Nick breaks the ice and brings back a plate of goodies.  Ginger and I agree that it’s time and we go off, too.

There isn’t any reason to vacate our table by the water and so we remain in place.  Nick gets us set up on a shipboard system that allows us to communicate with each other anywhere on the ship, even though only two of us can be on line at a time.  (That “only two” thing will take some practice and coordination, but we’ll work it out.  Adding a third person would have been about five hundred dollars!!) 

The announcement finally comes that we can go to our stateroom, so we head down the stairs (so virtuous!) and two of our three suitcases are awaiting us. Nick and I unpack and there’s still plenty of room for Ginger’s things.  We decide to go exploring about the time that Ginger’s bag shows up, so she unpacks while I type this in Text Edit, now that I know that will work.

Now we can go exploring! …

This is Shanghai which we'll sample another day!

Well it’s almost eleven in the evening, so here’s a brief summary of the rest of the day!  We explored virtually all of the ship that isn’t staterooms and found a place to get a drink and watch the sea pass by.  We have a drinks package!  I didn’t realize that and it’s a pleasant surprise!  I have a bushwhacker and Ginger and Nick have a Mango Meltdown. 

It’s getting chilly so we go down to get another layer and continue exploring and looking for a dinner option.  We settle on the Savor, which is one of the two satellite dining rooms from the main one. There’s a half hour wait so we check out the shops and also the entertainment options for this evening.

That's the Batman ferry!!

We went on the spa tour;  they have everything.  Nick has bought the unlimited package
and uses it nearly everyday for his back.

I thought they'd show outdoor movies.  Instead they just run a slide show and block 
half the view of the water!

Start the cruise right!

This changes colors all the time.

Our buzzer goes off and we are shown to a table for four and meet our waiter, who just flew into Rome yesterday! We decide that they must have a new crew for this voyage beginning their Caribbean season. We peruse the menu and I choose cream of cauliflower soup and chicken piccata. I’m sure my tummy would like a salad, but there’s just no room for that!  I can’t even finish the chicken, even though it is good. I pass on the desserts;  but Nick and Ginger order two things to share and three spoons and it would have been impolite to turn that down, right? Warm chocolate lava cake and salted-caramel chocolate tart - who could resist at least a taste?!  Oh, and there was a glass of Lindeman’s shiraz along the way, too!

Shannon, JR, and Tim

When I asked if I could take her picture, she took down
her astounding hair!

We were going to go straight to the cabin, ‘cause we’re beat;  but then we thought maybe we could stop and check out Howl at the Moon for a minute.  We stayed a bit more than two hours!  The trio was just that good.  Although it’s billed as dueling pianos, there are actually three people, all of whom play both piano and drums and one also plays guitar!  And they’re all good!  Interestingly, the one female in the group is the best drummer in addition to playing a mean piano and having a great voice!

We have to leave the ship in the morning by 8:30, so getting to bed is a pretty good idea!  I still haven’t figured out quite how to deal with the photos (there really hasn’t been a free moment to play) so this will have to go up naked!  Sorry!

(Sure am grateful to be able to post at all!!)

Roma on Steroids (some photos, more when I get home)

 Saturday, November 11, 2023

Up bright and early because we've got to be out of here by 6:45 at the latest!!  We have to walk half way around the Vatican (its own separate country) to meet our tour guide by 7:15.  The entire trip is uphill, or so it seems!  But we arrive nice and early, so that's a good thing.  Our guide is Michela with The Tour Guy and she's a delight!  Promptly at eight o'clock our little group of twelve gains entrance to the Vatican Museum.  That's really a misnomer because there are actually twenty-five museums!! It will be a three hour, two mile tour and you'd better keep up.  I love the fact that she has a wireless mic that transmits to our earbuds!  I can always hear her!  And see her little red flag!

The wall enclosing Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.

Continuing uphill!

Everything is decorated to the max!

The first radio station in Italy; Marconi, of course was working for the Vatican!

You can't take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, but we had
a cheat sheet!  Good thing!

There are entire rooms devoted to animal sculptures and muses and maps and ancient gods and it's all pretty amazing.  Of course, the piéce de resistance is the Sistine Chapel.  Althought there are a lot of people, we are still able to see everything, even though our group is supposed to stay in it's assigned spot.  Luckily Michela has prepared us for what we are seeing.

The Vatican is so much more than just the museum, of course.  There are offices, and housing for the cardinals and others, and many other buildings.  And the pope lives there.  Pope Francis doesn't live in the huge building assigned to the sitting pope.  He said that it was far too grand and that he would be lonely!  He has a small flat in a bilding with other church officials. The center piece of the Vatican is St. Paul's Basilica. (It's not a cathedral because they have to have a cardinal.) Recently they uneared human remains that appear to actually be St. Paul!  So that really is probably his tomb! Our guide leads us to the entrance and from there we are on our own to be awed and amazed.  There is a mass in progress but they are unfazed by our presence and there are priests in several of the confessionals with little signs that say which language(s) they speak.

There was construction going on, so we couldn't get very close to the Piéta.

Just a note - the cloud won't download a lot of my shots, so, basically, the computers of
the world are selecting my photos.  I'm sure I'll be able to add more after I get a new computer!

After leaving the smallest country in the world, we have to get to the Coliseum for our 1:15 tour. To do that we need a taxi which is a little harder than it sounds, but we finally find an empty one and he delivers us fairly close to our meeting place.  He also rips us off; but that's another story! We have time for a quick bite, which turns out to be pizza that is nothing like last night's.  But we haven't eaten all day and anything will do at this point!  Nick has lasagne which is better.

, 1947 - December 2, 202

We're appropriately early so we're all set with our little orange stickers which Sylvie herds us all up.  We are twenty in number and are directed to act as though we are all one animal, which is to say, stick together!  For the most part we do a pretty good job.  She's got one of those lovely mics, too, but her receivers hang on the outside of your ear instead of using earbuds.  That's a plus for me since I don't have to remove a hearing aid!  

We enter the gigantic structure though the archway used by the gladiators! During the tour we will see the ground floor level, look down into the area below the stage where the animals were kept, and climb up higher to see the view from the second level seats.  The levels were divided by social class with the senators and other dignitaries being closest to the action and the lowest of the lowly being up in the nosebleed seats.  We also learn that the shows at the Coliseum ran all day.  First there were the hunters who were paid to kill large, wild animals, then came the executions in the middle of the day.  After that came the main event, the gladiator matches.  Much like modern sporting events, the combatants had to stay within their designated areas, since there were as many as twelve fights going on at the same time.  The floor was covered with sand to absorb the blood, and there were man who came out to clean up the messes and bring new sand, kind of like a Zamboni between periods! Each fighter might work only three or four times a year because they were very valuable.  It costs a lot to train and feed these guys! 

You can look down into the lower levels, under the floor.  This is where the animals were kept.

Who knew?  They could flood the arena and stage water battles!

All the walls and floor were covered in either marble or travertine; but, of course, almost all of that has been "recycled" during the period when the building was unused and falling apart. Even the iron bars which secured the blocks of marble to keep them atop one another have been stolen in many cases.  You can see the irregular holes where scavengers excavated to get to them.

After the Coliseum we visit the Palestine Hill which had many large houses on it for the well-to-do.  But then the emperor decided that he wanted the whole thing for himself.  You can see remnants of many of his buildings.  He could host a dinner party for a thousand people! And there were outbuildings and churches, all for his pleasure.

Our last stop is the famous Roman Forum.  You might have the impression (gained, no doubt, from Shakespeare) the the Forum was a single building,  But no!  There were several basilicas and merchants and everything you would expect in the heart of town! We tramp up and down hill until I think we've visited all seven of Rome's hills! The attraction closes at 4:30 and we use every minute of the time!

It's a long way home and we catch a cab. After all, we've walked six miles today and we've earned it! This guy is honest!  After a little bit of time to catch our breath, we head for a restaurant that our B&B folks have recommended;  but they only take reservations and we're out of luck, there.  Google to the rescue: "restaurants near me"!  Several have excellent ratings and we stop into the first one we come to, Perdincibacco Bistro. Boy did we luck out!! Veal escalopes in blue cheese sauce and pears!! When I give back my plate there isn't a speck of sauce or anything on it!  I tell him I never got my dinner! Ginger has it, too, while Nick has a mortadella appetizer and a special pizza with a crust that is more like bread.  He says it's very good, too.  And he selects two desserts for us to share.  One is real Italian tiramasu and it's nothing like ours at home.  It's fabulous! The other is some kind of cake with white chocolate and a creamy custard of some sort.  Both are quite fine.

Heading home we know right where we are, and it's not far at all.  We even know some of the landmarks! Once home I open my computer to find that either my screen or graphics card is in the process of biting the dust. Ginger offers to share hers with me, and after much aggravation I manage to get my Blogger to appear so I could type this post.  I haven't played with photos yet, to know how that's going to work!  I guess that will be the first thing I deal with on the ship tomorrow.  For tonight, I'm just grateful to have today's text posted!!  Sorry about the photos, guys!  But tomorrow is another day!!