Moving On

Departing Rome/Cruise:
We finished our stay in Rome with a wonderful dinner at a small Italian restaurant near St. Giovanni Lanterna Church and the famous steps that Jesus walked on. Our mission in going out for dinner included obtaining enough toilet paper for the apartment to last us until we left on Monday morning. None of the local stores were open on Sunday that sold toilet paper (you can purchase wine, but no TP on Sundays – go figure!). We spent a leisurely Monday morning at a neighborhood café enjoying the pastries and coffee, and finishing up at the local Internet Café. It was great – we could take care of all of our messaging and calls to the US (10 cents/min) to check on family. We also Skyped the kids a few times. It was easier to reach Stacy in Scotland, with just a one hour time difference. We did speak to Kelly, but it was more challenging with a nine hour difference. Congratulations to Ryan and the US PGA Cup team on their victory over Great Britain and Ireland. I’m sure that it was a tremendous experience for both of you.
On our first full day on the ship, we took a tour that included the Island of Capri, Sorrento, and Pompei ruins. We took a hydrofoil boat over to Capri (short cat naps for all of us). Capri is a lovely small island, with shear rock cliffs lining it. We then took another boat ride over to Sorrento. This is another beautiful town, where they took us to a restaurant high on the cliffs. A two stop excursion would have been enough for one day, but we had one more stop to see the Pompei ruins below Mt. Vesuvius. It was very fascinating to see what they have excavated, and the stories that accompanied these buildings, including the “happy room”. The road surfaces where challenging to walk on, as they were very uneven. You had to stare at your feet at all times when walking, which caused you to miss out on some of the commentary about things we were passing. Needless to say, we were whipped after the end of this tour. We were one of the last couple to buses to return to the ship, and arrived past our dinner seating time of 6:00 PM. We went anyway. It was going to be a short night for most of us. Ken had not had much time to explore the ship, so he spent a couple of hours checking out where everything was (it sure helps me when it comes time to go somewhere!) He can’t sit still – does that surprise some of you?
Today, we are at sea, steaming towards Dubrovnik, Croatia. We are all relishing the down time, as we didn’t have much time in Rome to kick back. I went and had a pedicure this AM, while Ken went and worked on getting us signed up the for the internet. We also purchased a new camera, since the battery is ready to die soon on our normal camera (rewind to the lost bag story – battery charger was one of the casualties). This ship is really beautiful, but they have a number of things to work on. I’m sure this is the same for all new ships. For the most part, we don’t have major things wrong like some (sewage smell down on deck 3????). Glad we are on Deck 9, with a balcony. This is the first time we have splurged for a balcony – I don’t think I can go back to an inside room again.
Hope this finds you all well. We get bits of information from the US on CNN International. For those of you that are FOX lovers, you would be out of luck. This is a great alternative to the bickering that goes on between the partisan networks. No “fair and balanced” here!
Ciao – Peggy and Ken