Rome, Civitavecchia and cruising past Stromboli...

Monday, April 12, 2010 – ROME
Cloudy and temperate
We docked early and many were off the ship by 7AM for a long 12-hour day tour in the Eternal City. I have been very fortunate to have now been here three times in the last year so we took a later train for 9 euros round trip and arrived in Rome around 11:00. We walked down the Via Cavour and had a fun time watching an elderly man bounce a ball on top of his head while cars were waiting for the red light to turn green! That is being industrious…for a person of any age!

Found the post office and decided NOT to wait in their incredibly long line for 2 stamps so we found a tabacchi and bought the stamps along the street. The Colosseum was in front of us as we enjoyed our picnic. The Colosseum still remains the greatest architectural legacy from ancient Rome. Vespasian ordered the construction of the elliptical bowl in AD 72. At its peak, it could seat 50,000. The Vestal Virgins from the temple screamed for blood, as exotic animals were shipped in from the far corners of the Empire to satisfy jaded tastes (lion vs bear, two humans vs hippopotamus). Years later it was struck by an earthquake, used as a quarry and one one side part of the original four tiers remain. Work completed in 2002 reinforced the structure and cleaned off a layer of grime. We walked around and enjoyed seeing the “gladiators” in costume and took the subway back to Termini for the return train ride. This time we were on an inter-city train with special seats for first class and we really enjoyed the ride.

Walking back through Civitavecchia (chi-vi-ta-vek-ia) we met friends who told us about free WIFI at Subway and the photo shop. Racing back to the ship via port bus we now had to go through two screening areas before boarding the ship to get the computer and files but we managed to get back on the bus to the town. Finding Subway, setting everything up and then to find out that the battery was dead!!! Oh woe is us. Bummer. Phones calls and work to be done and no computer. Gene went out to sort out a solution and I waited. Then I met a friend who said he had met Gene and sent Gene back to the ship to get their computer that we could use. I went up the street to the Fuji store to have prints made from some photos and they did a great job!! I bought a mint gelato/ice cream to soothe my soul for my massive mistake, but also took it as a sign that perhaps I was trying to do too much and needed some rest.
So the computer appeared, we connected for about ½ hour and then re-boarded the bus to the ship and boarded … too late for dinner at our table but had a very nice dinner with friends in the buffet.

Marty Brill was the comedian and he was great. He wrote for Mash, Mary Tyler Moore, Mork and Mindy, Merv Griffin…all the good old ones. We enjoyed his humorous outlook on life.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” - Dale Carnegie

April 13, 2010 – AT SEA as we sailed through the Straits of Messina and the island of Stromboli
We moved our clock ahead again an hour so we are now seven hours ahead of Delaware.

Up very late, no breakfast, and ran out for the very close viewing of the island of Stromboli, an active volcano. We could very clearly see the black dried lava flow and steep face of the island. There are two very tiny villages filled with white houses at the water’s edge and a lone craggy rock with the light house w a y up there at the top of the rock. At one point, the sun was shining down so brilliantly exactly at the mouth of the volcano with fog on the side of the island….wow!

Did computer work, tried to clean up papers, talked and talked….I do enjoy walking around and meeting with friends and chatting so you can spend an entire afternoon just roaming and talking….we sailed through the Straits of Messina (between the continent of Europe/country of Italy and the island of Sicily) and the seas were so rough we could not even take on a pilot! But we were fine. We had a great narrative as we sailed through but had a cloud-covered view of Mt. Etna.

Dinner and fun and a production show called “On the Continent” and then computer work and getting ready for our first port call in Greece tomorrow.

Missed today: the movie “2012”, Learning Turkish, Fitnes Class, Swimming the Straits of Messina (in the pool), Guest Chef Marisol Simon in the Culinary Arts Exhibition Center…no time to rest.

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” - Abraham Lincoln