Sunday 27 May 2012 Rome

This morning we bussed to Rome from the port of Civitavecchia. It was fairly scenic, as it was not as developed as the road to Firenze the other day. The tour guide said it normally takes about 1.75 hours, but today she hoped it would be closer to 1.25 because traffic would be lighter on a Sunday. That was before we made a bathroom stop with about 12 other buses. In the end, it took about 1.5 hours.

The first part of the day was mostly spent on the bus, driving past many famous landmarks in the historic old city. It would take all day to park and walk, so this is the quick and dirty way to cover a lot of ground.

Around noon, we jumped out for 45 minutes of free time at one of the squares. From there the two of us took the short walk to the Parthenon, which I recall was an important place for some reason, although I don’t remember why. Maybe someone can refresh my memory when we get home. Of course, there’s one in every crowd – in this case there were four. While thirty of us stood around waiting, four people showed up ten minutes late with big grins on their faces.

We went for lunch at a local restaurant. We seemed to be driving around aimlessly, making U-turns and passing the same places more than once. Eventually it became clear that our driver was lost, but close enough that we were able to get out and walk while he found his way to the bus parking. Lunch consisted of a huge salad, lasagna, tiramisu, and pitchers of wine.

After lunch, we were off to the Vatican where we were met by another guide and each given wireless receivers and headsets so we could listen to her commentary. It was a good thing, because there was a huge lineup to get into St. Peter’s Basilica and her commentary about architecture and history helped pass the time. Apparently there had been a Papal mass in the morning, which backs the tourists up into the rest of the day. The line moved pretty fast and we were in within a little over half an hour.

St. Peter’s is humongous. The guide said it is the biggest church in the world. Inside, it seems to go on forever with multiple altars and side churches. Unfortunately, we had to whiz through in just several minutes, so it was hard to really appreciate the scale and grandeur.

From there, it was back to the port, arriving at 5:30 after a 9.5 hour day. We went for dinner at 6 and watched the departure of another cruise ship we had noticed earlier.

We then took in the early show in the Showroom. The entertainer was a piano man specializing in Billy Joel, Elton John, and Neil Sedaka styles. He was very good. Then it was back to our room for blogging and bedtime.

Weather: the forecast called for mostly sunny with a high of 25 C and I believe that is how it turned out.