Wow, I’m really tired as I write this. Today was a great day, but long. We started with breakfast upstairs in the Windjammer. There is definitely more variety there, but it’s very challenging avoiding all the sharp elbows. This might be a good time to mention how traveling internationally always reminds me of the total depravity of man. Take away a little “southern etiquette” and you’re usually left with total rudeness and every man for himself. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the buffet, cuing up in line or trying to get off the bus, train or airplane, it’s best to go on the offensive or you’ll be bruised, battered and angry in no time. Hmmm, now that I think about it, it kind of reminds me of eating at Ryan’s on Senior Night.
We had another early morning departure, this time to Rome. Our tour guide’s name was Roberta. She did a great job, but much like Daniel, she definitely had the gift of gab. It must be an Italian thing! The trip to Rome should’ve been around an hour-and-a-half, but for some reason Roberta decided we needed to stop at a rest area 30 minutes into our trip so everyone could take a potty break. Something tells me that Roberta had to go - bad. That delayed us another 20 minutes. Traffic was very heavy as we entered the city, but we still made it to the Vatican area in just under two hours.
I was really looking forward to seeing the inside of St. Peter’s church, especially since it is the largest church in the world, be since we only had three hours in the Vatican area we decided to take some pictures of the exterior and then move on the Piazza Navona, a huge plaza with three gorgeous water fountains and lots of local artists displaying their work. After a brief visit at the Piazza we moved on to the Pantheon. It’s mind-boggling how old these buildings are and all the history that has been recorded in these places. We snapped a few pics of the inside and outside of the Pantheon and then headed back to Piazza Navona to enjoy more local Italian cuisine, this time splitting a calzone. After lunch as we were walking through the Piazza, someone yelled “Roll Tide!” I just can’t get away from the bammers - haha. As it turned out, the guy went to Grissom High School with my brother-in-law, John Sowell. His name was Chris Rainey and turned out to be a nice guy. He now lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
We met back up with our guide at the planned meeting point at around 1:15 p.m. and then she led us on a guided tour of the Vatican area before taking us on a brief bus tour of the city on the way to the Coliseum (Colosseo). We spent a few minutes with her as she walked around the exterior of the Coliseum and then we bolted off on our own and ended up at a small café back near the bus area where we boarded with the rest of the folks at 4:00 p.m. for our two-hour journey back to the ship.
I forgot to mention that we met two fun African-American couples on the bus who were from Atlanta. Turns out they were both celebrating their 25th wedding anniversaries as well. Small world. Also, we ran into Tiffany and Fango, our two new Chinese friends, at the Coliseum and snapped a few pictures of each other.
After we arrived back at the ship, we struggled with whether or not we should go to dinner. We were both so tired and not very hungry, but we are so glad we did. Tiffany and Fango showed up and told us about their adventures in Rome (besides seeing us at the Coliseum).
Oh yeah, dinner was pretty good. We just didn’t have much of an appetite and decided to head back to the room to catch up on some much-needed sleep. On the way, we ran into the couple from San Jose who we met on the beach in Nice a couple of days earlier. Their names are Joe and Dana. We swapped stories about our day and had a very nice conversation. They seem like a great couple.
We are really looking forward to our private tour of the Amalfi coast tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be beautiful again with a high of 76 degF and mostly sunny skies. We have been so blessed with perfect weather of this trip. Praise the Lord!
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