What a quick day! After breakfast we met with the disembarkment passport officials at 8:45. Our passports got a fast stamp and we gathered our bags, saying a sad goodby to our cabin hosts. We took a taxi to the Malaga Airport... about a 20 minute ride. Our plane took off at 12:30 pm on time and landed a whole half an hour early at 2:30pm. From the airport we took a bus into Rome to the main terminal and wondered around that area looking at the shops and people. What a melting pot! Twenty-nine rows of railway cars and who knows how many buses so you can imagine the crowds of people. Coming from the airport, we were amazed at all the ancient ruins scattered throughout the city! It was something to see, the old walls of Rome's Golden Age still in tact, although somewhat in ruins. Because this was the week after Easter, lots of student groups...hundreds of them... were present...spending their Easter vacation touring Rome.
Larry and I grabbed a quick dinner and then caught another bus to our hotel, about a mile from the terminal around 7:30pm....lugging those little suitcases on wheels over the brick, stone, and cobblestone walkways keeps you in shape. We found our little Bed and Breakfast and decided to just relax the rest of the evening. Our room was surprizingly good size with a little sitting room and a small kitchen...we were expecting something very small. From past experience, travel days are a bit tiring so the bed looked wonderful. Tomorrow was going to be a looking around Rome day all day so we decided to get our beauty rest...we knew that we were gonna need to look good in all those pictures that we were going to be snapping.
Friday, April 5, 2013 Touring Rome
With a good night's sleep under our belt, Larry and I had breakfast at the corner bar, in Italy a bar is synonymous with an eating place....part of the bed and breakfast deal. Croissants and cappichino and tea. It was yummy.
The place had some good looking sandwiches as well so we decided to purchase a couple for lunch. Then off to the bus we went to drop our bags off at another B&B Hotel that was close to the train station. Then we spent an hour looking for the On and Off Roma Bus to take a tour of the city...It began to rain just about the time that we found it, I believe Rome has about five open air bus touring companies and ours was the last one to be found.
We rode around the city seeing the sights...Lots of old ruins in every direction, lots of traffic that seemed to be moving constantly with no accidents, lots of scooters and motorcycles, lots of people, and lots of great European style buildings with the little balcony windows.
The trees were just starting to bud out and where there was grass, it had turned that spring green color. The day was nippy when it drizzled and warm when the sun shone. On the open air bus tour, we lucked out because we were able to stay dry under the covering that was on top and our front row seat had a big glass that blocked the rain and cool breezes of the ride. We passed the Vatican, the Pantheon, Angelo's Castle, and lots of fountains and museums.
One of the many, many fountains
It was interesting to see the gas stations right on the side of the streets...two pumps only for all these cars. The line for gas must be very long when everyone gets off in the evening .
We got off at the Colosseum, our number destination in Rome to visit. It is here that gladiators met in mortal combat and condemned prisioners fought off wild beasts in front of bloodthirsty crowds. This is Italy's top tourist attraction, pulling in 16,000-19,000 people on an average day. It was built from 69-79 AD and inaugurated in 80 AD. It held a capacity of 50,000 people. 80 entrances allowed spectators to enter in a matter of minutes.
We couldn't believe the long lines of visitors waiting to go into it today. I had prepurchased our tickets on line before leaving home so we were told to just go to the front of the linewith our tickets. That was wonderful! The Colosseum is a massive structure.
It is hard to imagine how it was built with the heavy blocks of stone and temendous tall columns. Walking among the old, old walls of the Colosseum was awesome.
Roman water fountain....we were told that the water was OK to drink...didn't take any chances.
After our tour we found a little cafe around the corner from our B & B to feast upon some Italian cuisine. Then off we went about 8:00 pm to the subway to find the Trevi Fountain. Two stops on the subway and four blocks beyond that led to an area of many shops and sidewalk restaurants...and finally to the Trevi Fountain with about five hundred other folks enjoying its beauty. It was fasinating to watch the people throw their coins over their shoulders and kiss and wish for another visit to Rome.
The policewoman stood firm with her whistle in not allowing visitors to get too close to the exquisite statues behind the fountains.
It was a wonderful evening. We shopped on the way home and stopped for some gelanto....chocolate. We caught the metro back without getting lost. Getting into the old timey elevator to our room, I noticed the first floor in Rome is called zero. Although our B & B room is on the third floor, number 303, we are actually on the fourth floor.
What a day! Exciting, educational, and very romantic....Our visit to Rome has been everything that was expected and more.
Saturday, April 6, 2013 Rome to Civitavecchia
Up bright and early this morning to catch the train to Civitavecchia.... We had the B & B Breakfast....cereal, pastries, toast, cappachino, tea, and the European lunch meat and cheese (not one of our favorites). Off we went to the train station... close by. Here we found our train had been delayed. While waiting we enjoyed talking with another couple who were from Norway. After exchanging experiences with cruise lines, we both were glad to get onto the train that ended up leaving on time.
About an hour later we were in Civitavecchia, a clean little seaside resort. We got off the train and pulled our baggage to a little sidewalk cafe for some tea.
We were lucky to have wifi here so we updated our blog.
After taking a few pictures, we walked furthur and found the shuttle bus that took us right to the ship, the Norweigan Jade(14 floors). It was huge, much bigger than the Holland America Noordam (10 floors). Anyway, we went directly onto the ship with no wait time at all. Fantastico...the Italian is rubbing off on me! Our room on the fifth floor midship was very spacious and near the elevators and stairway. We dropped our bags there and began to explore before the life jacket safety meeting began.
Rome was awesome, but we were looking forward to having a couple of relaxing days cruising.
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