THE MEDITERRANEAN

I’ve been keeping a journal of the last week’s travels, but haven’t had a chance to post a blog until now.  The cruise ship’s internet connection is much too slow to upload photos; I’ll post highlights when we’re back in the US.

ITALY

Writing this initial report on our first evening aboard the cruise ship; Rebecca is sound asleep, and we have to get up very early tomorrow for a long day tour of Naples, Pompeii, and Capri.

Two days before leaving Colorado for Rome, nearly a foot of snow whomped the Denver area, bad enough that we were concerned about getting out to the airport, but we got the driveway clear and the plow came through, enough for us to go on Sunday afternoon to the Moestas’ for Rebecca’s birthday party (grilled salmon and lots of steamed vegetables with cheese).

At 5:15 Monday morning, we left for the Denver airport, flew to Washington DC for a 3-hour layover, and then boarded a larger plane for the 8-hour flight to Rome.  Rebecca and I watched UP on the TV (very enjoyable), then napped for a few hours.  We arrived at 7 AM in Rome, were waved through immigration and customs (virtually no security at all), gathered our bags, then arranged for a van to take the four of us and our luggage to downtown Rome and our hotel.  Because the airport is so far from the city center, the trip took over an hour and cost 90 Euros.  This was Rebecca’s birthday, and I gave her a card as we got off the plane.

The traffic was completely snarled because of an international Food and Agriculture summit, and diplomatic convoys trundled by every few minutes, causing all the other cars to grind to a halt.  I’ve never seen traffic so bad — and never spotted so many daredevil mopeds or tiny Smart Cars.  We checked into the hotel, and fortunately our rooms were ready early.  We took a brief nap, then went out hunting for an early lunch so we could go sightseeing, but virtually every place was closed (Italians don’t even think about lunch until well after noon, apparently).  We did find a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria where the proprietors spoke no English at all, but we pointed at some interesting combinations (mushrooms and onions, zucchini and oil, sliced hot dogs and shredded potatoes); it was very good.

Rebecca and I set up for a bus tour of several sights early in the afternoon, while Mom and Dad rested in the hotel room.  The “bus tour” turned out to be taking a bus *to* the Colisseum and then three hours walking around it and the Forum.  We were already drooping from jet lag, and Rebecca’s foot was really bothering her (she has her major surgery again within a week of when we come home).  Though there were several elderly and handicapped people on the tour, the guide wasn’t terribly considerate, rushing us along at a swift pace, making everyone climb more than a hundred steps.  At the end, the bus was supposed to drop us back at the hotel, instead the driver let us off five blocks away and told us to walk.  With her damaged foot, Rebecca could barely move and was leaning heavily on me; the bus driver just waved and said “You can do it — not far.”  By then, about 7 PM, we were quite hungry and wanted a nice dinner for Rebecca’s birthday.  When we asked the hotel front desk manager to recommend a good restaurant, he just blinked at us.  “No restaurant will be open for dinner — not for at least an hour and a half.”  We were already asleep on our feet from jet lag, and certainly didn’t want to wait that long to eat.  The manager took sympathy on us; even though the hotel didn’t have its own restaurant, he arranged for some ham-and-cheese sandwiches from the back, so we four ate a dinner at a table in the lobby, then went upstairs to catch up on sleep — 10-11 hours worth.

Next morning I had arranged for a van to take us to Civitavecchia, the port city where our cruise ship was docked.  The hotel manager said, “Are you sure you want to do that?  It’ll be expensive.  It’s almost sixty kilometers.”  With four of us and luggage, it cost 160 Euros just for the fare (we heard rates quoted as high as 400 for the same trip).  We arrived at the ship terminal, checked in, and spent the day exploring the ship, relaxing a little.  Tomorrow the first of our excursions start.