Rome

Rome, the “Eternal City”.

                             Eternal probably because no one can remember when it wasn’t there! This place makes the phrase “older than dirt” seem like it was just yesterday!

                             Our timing for arriving in Rome was not good.

                             Not that we had any control over it…. this is when the ship docked in the nearby port of Civitavecchia, so we really didn’t have much of a choice. The issue was that day was Easter Monday, a holiday here in Italy.

                             And everyone was either ‘vacationing and visiting’ or ‘off work and visiting’. Either way, it made for a crowd! We were scheduled for the Hop On/Hop Off Bus that loops around the city. Usually a great way to get a handle on the city layout and the possible sights to see.

                             Usually.

                             Not that day!

                             The buses were full and the waits a bit long so that ease of hop on/off was not as good as it could have been. But we were there with Sandra and Darla who had pretty much the same goal as us…. just see what we could see and not worry about the rest!

                             Our first stop was the Coliseum, which we were able to walk to even before we boarded the HO/HO bus. Of course tickets were sold out/unavailable unless you went to a “guide”….. Ha! We didn’t have time for that anyway! We circumnavigated the place, it was a gorgeous day, and then we headed for the HO/HO bus stop and worked our way around. It was interesting to just be in this city.

                             It didn’t take us long to figure out that a cruise like this one is not the way to experience the world. It is a way to see some places, but there is never enough time to really experience anything of substance. Having come to grips with that months ago, we did not let the fact that all we did was basically walk around some, disappoint us.

                   Besides, it was a beautiful day, and we were with good friends! Back over on the HOHO bus we made a stop at what we thought was the way up to the Palazzo Venezia, a palace built by a former Venetian Cardinal who later became Pope Paul II. We climbed a significant flight of marble stairs only to find that there was no way to get to the adjacent monument, which (reportedly) has a great view over all of Rome. What we did get to was St. Mark’s church, which is what those steps actually led to.

The view from up there was nice and we decided that it was just fine enough so as to not warrant the retracing of our big steps and then climbing some other big steps in an effort to acquire another (maybe better) view.

Instead we headed for the Vatican.

Back on HOHO for a stop or two, and then a short hike to the Vatican. The route brought us over the Tiber River with a nice view of St. Peter’s from the middle of a bridge. See the photo!

But first things first, we were hungry! And, as they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do….”

So, we had pizzas!

And some wine! (and a Coke)

All finished we ambled up the main drag right into St. Peter’s Square only to find that the line to get through security to get into St. Peter’s was longer than it was wise to stand on, trying to work out a timetable for getting back to our Tour Bus on time. Knowing that this trip to Italy was (hopefully) not the last one for any of us, we threw that St. Peter’s visit into the “Future Bag” and headed back out. (Besides, all the Vatican Museums were closed on Easter Monday!)

          The issue with the HOHO busses was that as the day wore on, and folks needed to get back to wherever they needed to, the lines to get on said busses potentially got exponentially longer and just because a bus pulled up to our stop didn’t mean that someone got off to make room for us! And having a ship almost an hour and a half away, plus holding up all of your bus-mates, made getting back on time or earlier, molto importante!

So took the HOHO all the way round the city until we arrived at the stop where we waited for our tour bus. This was right beside the former site of Circus Maximus. Circus Maximus is just what it was back then, a very large, long, arena that had chariot races and the like all the time. It held about 125,000 screaming pre-NASCAR fans of its day. Gelato seemed to be the right thing to do about now, so Sandra and I went over to the Mobile-Gelato-Next-To-Circus–Maximus-Guy, which apparently gave him a license to charge maximus prices!

          After yesterday’s issues with Peppe, I’ve learned my lesson! There were no prices posted so when we got up to the window, I asked how much it was.

“Five Euro’s Signore,” was the answer.

“No!” was my reply.

                   Five Euros was closer to seven US than anything, and I had witnessed the size of the servings given there. It was not worth it. It’s not the five Euros, it was the fact that I could say “No” to something that was hugely overpriced.

I was very proud of my “really wanted to have gelato” self.

                   Back on the bus, and an hour and a half later, we were back on the ship getting ready for dinner! We are making a note to the Princess scheduling department to check out future Easter dates and advise them to try their best to stay away from Rome at those times!