Rome, IT - Day 3

Tuesday - A city bus ride through Rome traffic, followed by a never ending queue. Bridget purchased a timed-entry ticket for the basilica but the line was still over an hour.

Multiple ticket checks and a metal detector before entering. Pushy tour guides cutting in front of others seems to be the Italian way.

Swiss guards are a real thing not just something I’ve read about in school.

The over-the-top grandeur of these places is somewhat upsetting to me given the conditions most of the commoners lived in. This is our tour of St Peter’s Basilica.

The first marble statue of many. I remember having a plastic replica of this that I won in some sort of school contest. I think I was in 3rd grade. 

After a while, all the pictures start to look alike. I’m not really a historic church or cathedral person.

I did find this bit of technology interesting. Instead of votive candles that you light, after making a donation, you use Apple Pay and switch on a led candle.

After lunch, we went into the Vatican museum. Room after room with these painted domes. And lots of typical museum stuff but housed in these ornate domed rooms. 

We finally ended in the Sistine Chapel but no photos allowed in that room.

We finally headed back to the hotel exhausted. Enough that we took a taxi instead of a standing room only public transit bus. I think that I have reached my fill of cathedrals and museums. All of these locations have so many people. 

Rome, IT - Day 2

Monday - This morning, we walked to one of the most iconic locations in Rome, the Coloseum. Like everything around here, it’s all pay to visit. If they figured out a way to charge for seeing the outside, they would. 

Adjacent to the Coloseum is the Temple of Venus and Rome. Yet another €20 to visit. You can spend a lot to see, imho, more of the same. 

I’m more than happy to visit and just enjoy the views. 

In the afternoon, we took a two hour golf cart tour of some of the more popular locations around the city. On this trip, I’m feeling tired more often. Before, 20k step days didn’t phase me. Most of the days in Italy have been 12k steps and I would be wiped out. 

Our first stop was the most photographed fountain in Rome, the Trevi Fountain. The tour would drop us off on one side then meet us after we wade through the crowds at the attraction. During peak season, you need reservations to see the fountain. 

The next stop was the Spanish Steps. I guess it was popularized by movies such as Roman Holiday back in the 50s. Now, it’s a popular selfie location. The tour dropped us off at the top and picked us off near the bottom so we didn’t need to climb the 135 steps. 

The next stop was Piazza Navona which had the fountain of Neptune depicting four continents Europe, Asia, Americas, and Africa.

There was another obelisk there that has a history. The original Roman obelisk was blank, no carvings. A later person hired an artist who made a replacement with Egyptian hieroglyphics carved on all four sides. The artist had no knowledge of hieroglyphics and just picked ones that he thought looked good. It took 300 years before they declared it all gibberish. 

The last stop was an overlook of Trajan’s Market. It is a group of ruins at the opposite end of the Roman Forum from the Coloseum. 

I would recommend the golf cart tours. They actually fit in the small alleys and ridiculously crowded streets. The driver and guide were fantastic. 

Dinner was spaghetti cacio e pepe. A simple dish of pasta, Pecorino Romano, and black pepper. With pasta cooking water to finish the sauce. Simple but delicious. All of the food we’ve had has been fabulous. I didn’t mention the hot, pressed sandwich with mozzarella and prosciutto. 

Rome, IT - Day 1

Sunday - Departure day from the ship. We had an early breakfast at the buffet. Made-to-order omelet was good as were a few other items. Some items were were barely mediocre. We were off by 7:45 and took off on foot to the train station about 3.2 km away. 

All of the ticket machines at the station were down because of a computer issue. The customer service agent told us to get on the train and purchase the ticket from the agent on board. 

We arrived in Rome about 9:45am, and started walking to our hotel, a Best Western kind of near the train station. We stopped for coffee (and more importantly, a bathroom) at a sidewalk cafe about ¼ mile from the hotel as we assumed that the room wouldn’t be ready for several more hours. We checked in and, surprise, the room was ready. 

Mid-afternoon, we went in search of a grocery store. Not the ones in the tourist areas labeled as “supermarket” but one of the ones off the beaten path where you can find bananas or bread, and other normal grocery items. 

We just wandered out of the hotel and looked at menus of the many small restaurants we passed. We picked one almost at random as the menus seemed pretty similar. As a side dish, I had Roma artichokes, considered a must-try if you are in Rome. 

The other dish was spaghetti all’amatriciana. The sauce was not the typical marinara that it resembles. And there was a lot of Pecorino Romano melted in. Delicious dinner. All this delicious food we’ve been having in Italy made the cruise fare seemed average. 

Naples, IT - Sorrento & Pompei

Saturday - We tried to get an early start this morning to try and beat the morning traffic. But tour bus delays got in the way. Our first stop was Sorrento, about an hour south of Naples.

It was hectic at the cruise terminal trying to find our bus tour. I don’t know what the old, castle-like building is, but it looked cool.

Sorrento is well known for lemons and everything there had lemons as an ingredient or decoration. We spent about an hour there then headed for Pompeii.

Mt Vesuvius is just north of Pompeii and when it erupted, the ash and lava covered the city. I have a lot of pictures to look through.