Rome, Italy

The weather forecast was for thunderstorms all day.  We started out with threatening skies, but no rain.  The ship docked in Civitavecchia, Italy, a small coastal town about 1.5 hrs from Rome.  The first thing to learn is how to pronounce this mouthful of a tongue twister.  Try this:  chee vee tuh VECK ee uh.  I warned you it's a mouthful!

Any time the attraction is that far from the ship, it's a good idea to take a ship excursion.  I don't like to risk not making it back in time should anything happen along the way.  We signed up for the Imperial Rome tour which hits the highlights of the city.  Our day started very early by boarding a big bus.  The drive was along the coastline for a ways, with the Med on one side and lovely rolling hills on the other.

Every European town has ruins of some sort that they have preserved.  This little town has a fort, a pyramid (that was cloaked with plastic for renovations), and of course the cathedral.  Here's the fort.

Of course, the ruins in these small towns pale by comparison to those in the major cities.  I'm a small town girl at heart, and even though I live in a suburb of Denver, these big cities do overwhelm me.  So I'll just come right out and say this right up front, Rome was not my favorite place.  Some cities can be huge and yet not seem like it.  Not so with Rome.  It's huge and extremely overcrowded.  For starters, they don't have a good public transportation system.  Every time they try to build a subway, they uncover more ruins that ceases construction.  Consequently, everyone drives or rides scooters on their narrow streets.  The traffic is crazy.  Add in millions of tourists and it's chaos.

Our tour guide was a beautiful young lady named Sandra with perfect English.  We drove past the Colosseum on our way to our first stop, the Trevi Fountain.  The statues are amazing.

Notice that green thing hanging around my neck, with a blue cord?  Bruce's is in his pocket.  That is the receiver to Sandra's transmitter.  With our ear buds in, we were able to hear her talk as long as we didn't stray too far from her.  Most of our European tours provided these.  It's a great invention.

Of course we had to do the traditional tossing of coins into the Trevi Fountain.  We heard several versions of this, but basically the number of coins you toss determines your destiny:  one for returning to Rome, two for falling in love, three for getting married.  That's the most popular version, but we also heard it was one for falling in love, two for getting married, and three for getting divorced.  We didn't want to take any chances so we only threw one coin each, although I'm not sure I really want to return to Rome.  You're supposed to hold the coin in your right hand and toss it over your left shoulder, like this...

The next stop was at the Roman Forum.  It's an outdoor display of ancient statue bits and pieces, along with some examples of the architectural details and a few buildings that have been restored.

The exit was via an iter - old Roman road that was used by the chariots.  Once upon a time these stones were perfectly meshed and level.  Today, they are eroded with huge gaps and are challenging to walk on.

We made our way back to the Colosseum for the tour.  It's quite amazing, and sad, at the same time.  In its day, it was covered with white marble - the entire thing, inside and out!  When the building was abandoned, the marble was pilfered for other uses.  You have to use your imagination to appreciate the glory that it once was, or else it just looks like a pile of rubble.  Notice the structure is a series of 3 nested walls.

The inside is no less impressive than the outside...  Only one section of seats has been restored, just behind and to the left of the stage.  Those sloped areas are where the seats were.

 This lower section was covered by a stage, which has been partially recreated to demonstrate but still allow visibility into the area below which was used to house the gladiators and the animals that fought here.

And here's a really terrible picture of Sandra, our guide.  Just as I snapped, she must've licked her lips.  What I wanted you to see was the scarf on the stick that she carried around.  That's so we could find her in the crowds of people.  Believe it or not, there were thousands of people here, but they were mostly behind the camera.

By this time it was about 1:30 and we were all starving.  We walked back to the bus, and went to a hotel where we had a fantastic lunch (included in the tour).  They started with a baked pasta dish, then served sliced roast beef and vegetables.  We had a nice gelato for dessert.  Wine and bread were also served.

We had enjoyed partly cloudy skies so far, but while we were eating the clouds opened up.  It poured for about an hour.  It just lightly drizzled the rest of the afternoon.  For once, our timing was perfect.

Our final destination was to the Vatican.  We aren't Catholic, but were still excited to see this famous city within the city.  Excited, that is, until Sandra reminded us that it was Wednesday, as in, the day the Pope gives a talk at noon which attracts thousands of people into St. Peter's Square.  Oh boy, another crowded tourist attraction.  This really deflated our enthusiasm. 

Luckily, when we arrived it looked like a lot of the people who came for the speech had left already.  The Square was full of empty chairs.

That's St. Peter's Basilica straight ahead.  And the chimney where the smoke comes out when a new Pope is chosen is on top of the tiny building just to the right of the Basilica.  It just looks like a little grey knob.  Our tour was only for the Basilica.  I would have loved to see the Sistine Chapel, but getting into that is pretty tough with daily tourist restrictions. We walked across the Square to the Basilica entrance, passing the statue of St. Peter on the way.

When we got to the entrance, it was crazy.  Large tours get to skip the main queue of people, although lots of people tried to cut in with us.  There was a guy at the gate whose job is to count the people in a tour.  The guide tells him how many are in the group, and what unique thing identifies the members of the group - in our case it was our green receivers.  Once inside it was unbelievable...

...and I don't mean the Basilica (although it was amazing, of course), I mean I couldn't believe how many people there were inside there.  I've always heard the expression "wall to wall people", but this was living proof.  It was so crowded that you literally had to move with the flow or be trampled.  There was no such thing as "personal space" in there.  We were shoulder to shoulder and front to back with people. 

Sandra led us through, but the only way to follow her was by following her scarf on the stick.  I kept trying to stop and take a picture, and then I would look up and see that scarf off in the distance with no way to push through and catch up again.  I kept getting farther and farther behind until I finally lost all sight of her and our group.  Then I saw the scarf and followed it - only to realize after several minutes that it was pink and not orange.  All the guides had some sort of scarf on a stick and in the dim lighting it was hard to tell them apart.  For a while I could still hear her talking, and then I lost her voice as well.  Panic started to set in.  I suddenly saw myself being left behind at the Vatican and missing the ship.  I decided to stop looking for the group and just make my way to the exit.  Whew!  I found them at last.  What a relief!!

I was more than ready to head back to the ship after that experience!  That memory will always stick in my mind when I think of Rome.  Too many people for me!  The ship was waiting for us, along with the Norwegian Epic and some Carnival ship.  What a welcome sight... ship sweet ship.

 Stay tuned...