Rome

Tuesday December 14, 2010 Day 167

I slept really well last night; Roger, not so much. I think he was worried about waking up on time for our excursion, even though we had left a wake-up call. He said that once, when he reached over to check the time on the phone, I asked him what time it was, but I was already snoring again before he could tell me!

Our excursion today was to Rome, and we reached our assembly point on the ship with plenty of time to spare. We exited the ship and boarded a bus which took us into Rome, an hour or so away from the port of Civitavecchia. On the way in, we saw the Italian countryside, including a solar farm of several acres. We also saw the first of many umbrella pines, which are quiet lovely.

Note the umbrella pines in front of the colosseum

Our tour called for us to go to the Colosseum in the morning and St. Peter’s Basilica in the afternoon, but our tour guide reversed the visiting points because of some protests which were scheduled. Indeed, as we moved through Rome, we saw a group of demonstrators holding up traffic bound in the other direction. Before we exited the bus, our guide distributed small radio receivers with headphones and she conducted the tour into her microphone, which was broadcast into our receivers. It took us a good 20 minutes of standing in line for security to enter Vatican City. From there we went into St. Peter’s Basilica, which was truly huge. It was so big, however, that it was hard to get a perspective on its true size. Our tour guide pointed out that some lettering around the lower portion of the dome was five feet high and this helped a bit.

St. Peter's Square in Vatican City
with St. Peter's Basilica in the background

Inside the basilica, looking up at the dome

Nativity figures await the completion of the St. Peter's creche

Swiss guards provide security for the Vatican

After the obligatory visit to the gift shop, we reboarded our bus and headed to a restaurant for lunch, where we had some lasagna, red or white wine, a salad, some pork and potatoes, and finished with tiramisu and coffee. The food was nothing to blog about - mediocre at beset. We sat with a French couple - the first we have seen or heard on the cruise. Our cruise mates seem to be mostly U.S. and Canadian citizens, although there are a fair number of Orientals. The French couple, Madeline and Jean-Claude, actually reside in Tahiti, where they retired from teaching. We conversed in a mixture of French and English throughout the meal and afterward as well.

The bus took us to the Colosseum next, where we disembarked and spent about twenty minutes viewing the outside of the Colosseum and other Roman ruins surrounding it. Some of our group was disappointed that we could not enter the Colosseum, but there was no time on our tour. If we had wanted to tour the interior of the Colosseum, there was a tour for that, but it was not available on our particular tour. The ride back to the ship was quiet. We had a lovely view of the sunset and many of our fellow passengers slept. We did not get to throw our coins in the Trevi fountain to secure our return to Rome. I am not too worried, however, because a return to Rome is on our agenda (if it can be said that we have such a thing as an agenda) some time before we leave France in June.

The departure of our ship was slightly delayed because of the late return of one of the excursion buses. Apparently it got caught up in some of the demonstrations. As we discussed our day with other passengers, one couple talked about how they took the train in and found themselves trapped inside the station for a time, unable to go where they wanted to go because of the demonstrations. Fortunately the found another way out of the station.

I feel that we only lightly brushed the top of Rome, but then I suppose one always does with only a few hours to see an entire historic city. Roger said he expected much worse traffic than we encountered. The city was clean, and we had lovely (cool) weather. He was surprised that everything was bunched up around the Colosseum. He also remarked that it must be hard to excavate in Rome for a foundation for a new building or a subway because one is apt to strike ancient ruins and be delayed indefinitely!

Among the passengers on our excursion was a woman who accompanied her blind mother and a Down Syndrome man. What a challenge! She had another companion as well, however - a woman apparently hired for the trip to assist in caring for the other two. We learned later that the blind woman did not receive her luggage before she boarded the ship in Barcelona. What a pain!

When we returned to our room, we found a note regarding an itinerary change. Because the Greek unions continue to take part in general strikes, the political unrest makes Athens less than stable, so our next port of call would be Crete in place of Athens. Along with the note was an explanation of five different excursions offered on Crete and instructions on how to order up the excursion of our choice.

We postponed dinner for the early show in the theater, which was a Beatles Celebration - four guys dressed as the Beatles singing all their old songs - well, 15 or so of them. Not bad for four guys who have never seen the guys they are imitating - much of the audience was singing along; after all, most of them experienced the Beatles in their youth. Afterward, while waiting for dinner, we watched the sea go by the side of the ship. I noted that we seemed to be moving faster than we did the first day at sea, and Roger remarked that the ship had farther to go to her next stop and that she had picked up her skirts and was running along.

Panic time for Roger! When I got my new netbook computer in November, Roger remarked that the charger for his computer fit mine. So when we packed for the cruise, we just threw in my charger. Unfortunately, the computer for my charger does not fit his computer. Roger had preloaded his computer with plenty of reading material. He is now exploring his options, including using my computer to read and checking out books from the ship’s library.