Tuesday, March 3
Because we had originally planned to go to Venice on the 3rd and 4th, we had purchased tickets for a Vatican/Ancient Rome tour for after the cruise. Once we cancelled Venice it left those days open. The tour director from Cruisebuilders told us that we still had tickets to the Vatican/Ancient Rome through them. We could come with them on Tues, so that’s what we did.
First stop was Vatican City. The Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. We took lots of pictures everywhere except the Sistine Chapel. Cameras were not allowed in there. I had to restrain Rhonda a couple of times from trying to sneak…
What I learned that day was how absolutely brilliant Michelangelo was. There are beautiful sculptures that he did as a young man. The ceiling in the Sistine Chapel was done when he was in his late 30’s, early 40’s and then he came back in his 60’s and painted the Last Judgement on the wall of Sistine. He was an architect and designed important buildings in Florence. He died a few weeks before his 89th birthday. A long and fruitful life for the 16th century.
After our visit to the Vatican, we had a short time to get lunch on our own. I learned that often tour guides may suggest dining locations not solely on their quality.. Our first lunch in Italy was blah. They did have gelato, so our first of many tastes of the Italian dessert was there.
We climbed back in the buses to be transported over to start a walking tour of Ancient Rome. Where our guide through the Vatican had been boring and had a voice that seemed to drone on and push at that button in your brain that is labeled “annoying”, our new walking guide was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and enjoyable. We walked. We went inside the Colosseum. We walked… through the Forum and then through more streets of the centuries old city. We had a bit of free time at Trevi Fountain, so after throwing a coin over our left shoulders for good luck, more gelato. Public restrooms are not easy to find, so the best solution is to go into a small shop and buy something. We ate lots of gelato in our quest to relieve our bladders in the coming days.
We walked to the Pantheon. A massive building completed in 125AD. There is a huge open circle in the middle of the dome. The opening was the only light inside. The floor is sloped to allow rain water to flow to the middle, where there are drains that divert the water to a river. Incredible engineering for 2000 years ago.
After the Roman Empire fell, many of the structures were dismantled by the popes of the following centuries to use the materials for new structures. The Pantheon originally had bronze all across the inside of the dome, which was then removed centuries later to be used elsewhere. It was also turned into a Catholic church.
Night had set in and it was time for the tour group to return to the buses to transfer to a new hotel. The 10 of us.. Rask, Nucci, Mueller, Haggard and Cotten were returning to the same hotel, so we bid goodbye to the others and decided to find a good restaurant to have dinner before finding our way back… a 30 minute drive. We asked our tour guide as he was preparing to head his own way and he offered to take us to a good spot for dinner. A block away from Navona Plaza, he introduced us to Navona Notte, a quaint restaurant. He decided to stay too and his girlfriend met him there. We enjoyed our first real Italian meal of pizza, pasta and bread. I had prawns, which was a single, fully intact prawn, eyeballs and all. The food was delicious and after walking around 15,000 steps, it felt good to rest our feet.
Brad had managed to learn that our hotel had a shuttle that left every other hour from Rome, so after dinner we headed to the bus stop. It was a 20 min walk from the restaurant, but was free. Once again, David, our tour guide walked us to the bus stop and even waited until the bus arrived. He really was a great guy, and made that evening enjoyable and worry free. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep on the bus. I woke up as we pulled up to the hotel, grabbed my backpack and zombied my way to our room.
Wed, Mar 4
After allowing ourselves to sleep in a bit, we hopped on the bus to go explore more of Rome. The Muellers said they would catch up to us later. They did, that night, when we came back to the hotel. We walked a lot again and were able to spend a little more time in areas that we had passed through the previous day. We walked to the Spanish Steps, which were on Rhondas list of things to see. They were completely underwhelming.
We spent some time in shops around Trevi Fountain. We ate more gelato and looked for a place to have lunch. Amy is very good at finding great places to eat, so we let her pick the spot. Via Luigi Petroselli had a tiny little store front on a busy pedestrian pathway. As I looked inside, I wondered how they would seat us all together. After a 15 min wait, they ushered between the bar and one row of tables to the back. Down a steep circular stairway we found a small but adequate dining area. 4 tables had been moved together, so we all squeezed into place. After we had finished and everyone had taken turns at the sole toilette, we made our way upstairs and back out onto the street. From my perspective, Amy had come through and picked a perfect spot. It was one of the best meals of the whole trip.
As with almost anywhere you will go in the world, there is poverty. For 2 weeks, in every location we went we experienced it. Most often, especially in high tourist areas, people were selling things on the street. By far, the thing we saw most was the selfie stick. Every single location had droves of men selling selfie sticks. The vast majority of them were very dark skinned Africans. Obvious transplants trying to make a life. Next to the Eiffel Tower or on a beach in Barcelona, it was always the same scene. Some were very pushy and obnoxious, but most of them moved on to another potential customer as soon as they realized we weren’t interested.
It’s important to always be aware of your surroundings when you are in an unfamiliar place. I am a people person watcher to begin with, so my eyes were always scanning our surroundings looking for potential problems. Pick pockets are a known issue in lots of tourist areas of Europe. We experienced a couple of possible incidents, but being in a group with multiple sets of eyes proved to be a valuable asset as we enjoyed the views of our surroundings during our trip.
When we had dinner on Tues night at Navona Notte, David had pointed out that the Navona Piazza (plaza) was actually built on top of a Roman stadium. He showed us a spot where there was an underground tour of the stadium. After our Amy inspired lunch, we decided to go see the Stadio di Domiziano. The open area in the plaza sits directly above what used to be field and the buildings surrounding sit on top of the structure. The stadium could seat 35,000 and was used mostly for athletics, probably running because of the size. Circo Maximus, which is completely gone except for footings, was used for chariot races and large events. It could seat 250,000. Amazing feats of architecture and building! On the underground tour were a few of the arches and seating areas that had been excavated in the past. Absolutely intriguing to see how the past had been built on top of the ancient..
After more gelato and walking, we headed towards the bus stop, with a detour to see the Mouth of Truth, a sculpture with an open mouth. The legend is that once your hand was inside, if you told a lie, your hand would be severed. We arrived 5 minutes too late to test the veracity.. Once it was determined that our appendages were going to stay intact, we headed to the bus stop for our ride back to the hotel.
With sore feet and aching backs, we met up with Clint and Melinda in hotel restaurant and shared the days experiences. Tomorrow would be new adventure as we were transferring to the Costa Smerelda, our home for the coming week…