relaxing day at Sea

Yesterday we had a relaxing day at Sea. We all got up around 9:00 am, ate some breakfast and went to the pool. The sun was shining, the wind warm as the ship cruised from Naples, Italy to Dubrovnik Croatia. On the lido deck they had a hairy man contest which was hysterical. 3 woman of very different ages were the judges and as the men danced and strutted their stuff showing off their large volumes of chest/back hair the women had to feel the hair. We were laughing so hard. The pictures i just posted show all these people jammed into the pool area. In the end, a very deserving middle aged man won the contest. He looked like an ape so it was a good thing he won!

I had a massage and Kristin got a facial. Sarah was originally scheduled for a facial but she had met some people her age the night before and she met up with them again yesterday She spent the entire day hanging out with new friends, swimming, hot tubbing, eating and sun bathing. We didn't see her until dinner time!

Last night's dinner was the first formal night and we all dressed up. Lobster, duck and new york steaks were on the menu and it was quite good. We had high hopes to stay up for the broadway dance show last night but we were all exhausted and went to bed at 11:30 pm.

We gambled a bit before dinner and lost. Black jack was not our game last night. Mike and I played bingo in the afternoon and were so close to winning the $100 jackpots....but just when we were one ball away..someone would shout out BINGO dashing our dreams of winning. After gambling and before dinner we went to the captains cocktail party where we had appetizers and free drinks. Mike and Jake found that they like whiskey sours, Kristin thought the dacquiri's were fairly tasty and I enjoyed the champagne. Chocolate molten lava cake again for dessert.

It was definitely a good day of relaxation, people watching, good food and drink!

We hit Croatia today but I'm so tired I'll write about it in the morning.

Cruising

We made it on the cruise ship at 12:30 pm on Friday the 27th. Embarkation was easy and we immediately headed to the cabins, dropped off stuff, met the cabin steward and then headed to lunch on the lido deck and went exploring. We got the drink of the day, yummy rum punch with a pineapple wedge and an umbrella! Sarah enjoyed her mango dacquiri (her first alcoholic drink). Everyone went swimming and I did two loads of laundry (we had a stinky batch of clothes from 5 days of sightseeing in Rome). I enjoyed the time to myself in the cabin, I unpacked and got settled in. Our cabins are quite large and each have balconies. We had the cabin steward open the partition on the balcony and we have adjoining doors inside which make the space feel even larger. When the laundry was done, everyone was involved with folding it (didn't take long with 6 people!). Then we had the muster drill (where we figure don our life preservers and head to our muster station for an emergency evacuation drill). We watched the ship sail away from Rome and then got dressed for dinner. We got really lucky with our dining room table spot. We are at table 529 and Zuzzanah from Slovakia is our head waitress. Our table is located in the upper dining room in the back by the windows. In the middle of the action and with a good view of everyone! We enjoyed a fabulous meal! Jake and Sarah watched gladiator on the big screen theater on the pool deck, Jim went gambling in the casino. Kristin, Mike and I went to bed.
This morning we got up at 6:30. I watched us pull into port in Naples, then we had a good breakfast and got off the ship to meet Francesco at 8 am. He took us on a wonderful tour for the day. We first went to Pompeii, where he arranged a private guide for us (Vini) for 2 hours. Pompeii was really amazing. The city is virtually intact because it was buried under mountains of ash during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. I took a lot of pictures (as usual!). We are so glad we went to Pompeii first because it was really hot out. After Pompeii Francesco took us over a small mountain range to Ravello where we had a splendid lunch, with beer and proseco and then topped it off with lemoncello...which is basically lemons fermented in sugar and water to make a very potent after dinner drink. After Ravello we drove through the towns of Atrani and Amalfi. The rounds were high on a cliff on the edge of the sea, it was beautiful and scary all at the same time. Italian drivers are an interesting bunch...so glad we did not rent a car in this area! Francesco was a pro and his air conditioned mercedes mini van was roomy and provided us a wonderful view of the surroundings. We made our way to Positano for about an hour. We walked down to the beach, did some shopping, had lemon granitas (it was ridiculously hot) which were so refreshing. We were back at the ship by 4:45 pm.
The kids are all swimming and I'm chilling in the room typing this blog and loading pictures. It has been a fabulous two days so far. Tonight we will be eating in the dining room again and then going to the first big show on the cruise ship. We have a sea day tomorrow so we'll be taking it easy and probably sunbathing and maybe even play a game of scrabble (I brought the travel game I have). I have a massage at 10:30. Sarah has a facial at 2:45. I am looking forward to tomorrow!
This is it for now. I'm going to relax on the balcony with a glass of wine, then take a shower and get ready for dinner.

Great day in Orvieto

Today was another great day. We went to Orvieto via train. It was a nice ride up and took about an hour. Once we got off the train we had to take a funicular (tram) to the top and then a mini-shuttle bus to the Duomo. What a quaint, quite, charming small city. This is how I think of Italy. Little shops, tiny streets, beautiful buildings, lots of spots to sit and take in the beautiful view while sipping wine/beer. And the Duomo (church)...oh my goodness, so grand, so beautiful, truly breathtaking. We met some friends from Pullman outside the Duomo at 3 pm. (Craig and Kay Morris and their daughters Elizabeth and Anna - they are vacationing in Europe for a month). Sarah is best friends with Elizabeth so it was quite fun for all of us. Kay and I went inside the Duomo, saw some beautiful fresco's by Signorelli. It was interesting to note that Michaelangelo admired the athletic build of males in the fresco's and he did some sketching and used the similar style in Signorelli's fresco's at the Sistene chapel. It was just a wonderful relaxing day. Jake got some wonderful new leather shoes (young man Italian style...very chic) and a new leather wallet. Mike purchased a leather messenger bag. They purchased the wallet and the messenger bag at a small leather shop and met the 'maker' of the leather goods and saw him in action. How exciting to purchase such a neat item of excellent quality and meet the maker. I purchased several wonderful pieces of ceramics that the town is known for. They have been shipped back home so I don't have to worry about lugging them through the airport. (Several are gifts so I won't divulge the details). Sarah purchased a beautiful scarf and some clothes, Kristin purchased a very attractive dress and a handmade silk purse. Before heading back to Rome we walked around the perimeter of Orvieto and talk about stunning views....the city is built high on a hill with castle type walls to keep out intruders, you can see for miles and miles. It was hot again, but such a wonderful day we couldn't complain. Once we got back to Rome we went to dinner around the corner from our apartment. Had good seafood, proseco, yummy chocolate dessert...now we are ready to hit the sack. It's been a long day and we are heading to the cruise ship at 10:30 am tomorrow.
Ciao!

bidets and computers

I have decided that I really like the bidet, but not for it's intended purpose. It functions extremely well as a great place to shave legs. The shower is tiny and not much room to manuever but the bidet is a perfect height and since the temperature is changeable it works quite well. :)

Sadly, I can't upload pictures just yet. I have not been able to use my laptop because of connectivity issues with the cat5 cable. Why, I don't know. But, on the cruise ship we will have wireless internet so it should all work out fine. So, if you can hang on a bit longer, I should have some pictures posted tomorrow evening.

Off to Orvieto!

bidet

We all know what a bidet is for but we have discovered a new use...a foot bath! Turn it hot, pop your foot in, and it's instantly clean!

Pope, Sunburn, Coloseum and smiles

Today starts out bright and early, the alarm went off at 7:30. I hit the snooze button 3 times and finally got up at 7:45. I was tired, but thankfully am sleeping better. Only woke up at 4 am for about 25 minutes and then fell back asleep. I am absolutely exhausted right now so I am sure I will sleep well tonight.

We hurried out the door at 9:15 for the Vatican. We had tickets to the papal audience and along with 50,000 other people we saw the POPE! The place was jam packed with people but we saw the Pope drive by in a little golf cart thing with his red hat on (I am sure there is an official name for it, but not being Catholic I dont know). He then went up to a center and spoke for about 15 minutes in Italian (I have no idea what he said). Then an offical representative for each country spoke announcing the special visitors in the audience that country. The Pope then spoke for about 4 minutes after each representative. He said the same thing in 5 different languages. Italian, French, English, Spanish and Russian. At the end he did a blessing in Italian. The blessing was sung and although it was printed on the back of our tickets it was hard to follow along because none of us know Italian. This blessing was where the Pope blessed us, anything we brought, our families and those near and dear to us. Mike had something special for his sister, his grandmothers cross and something from his mother. Jake had a special box from Bri's mom and a rosary of Bri's. It was very moving. But honestly, it was long. It was hotter than heck and we were in the direct sun. Although we had tickets for seats, we did not sit in seats because we got there with no time to spare. We arrived at the Vatican at 10 am and it took us 30 minutes to go through security (which was a joke because people beeped and they just waved you through). The Pope came out promptly at 10:30 am despite thousands of people still outside. It finished a little after 11:30 am. We all sunscreened up beforehand, but as the day went on and we reapplied sunscreen, it still didn't matter.

Temperatures were crazy hot today, over 100 and we were parched, sunburnt and tired by this evening.

After the Papal Audience we took the underground to the Coloseum and got a nice bite to eat of pizza, paninis and beer. Then we met Nicki from Through Eternity Tours for a Coloseum, Palantine Hill and Roman Forum Tour including the newly opened Augustus Ceasar private house. It started at 1:30 and ended at 7 pm. We had a stop for gelato and water midway. This was phenomenal. We got the history of Rome, Emperors, you name it we learned about it. But it was done in such a wonderful way that the time flew by and Nicki was full of antecdotes and facts. The only way the day could have been better was if it was 20 degrees cooler. We probably walked 10 miles today went through an 8 oz tube of sunscreen, 6 bandaids and 3 gallons of liquids. Yet we only peed twice all day! We must have refilled our waterbottles a dozen times in the fountains throughout the area. Fresh, cold water...that was FREE!

After our tour ended we took a bus toward the Pantheon and ate dinner at Macharroni...it was delicous..I had a glass of proseco with my fresh buffalo mozzarella and was in heaven.
I will be able to post pictures tomorrow because we found a small internet cafe by the apartment that will let me bring in my laptop. So, barring any difficulties I should have some wonderful pictures for you all to see. One in particular that I think you will all enjoy is from the Coloseum, there was a gentlemen dressed us in gladiator attire. He had all of us pose in fun ways...We had a great time.
Tomorrow we are off to Orvieto by train!
Ciao!

blisters, trams, trains and beer

The scavi tour under St. Peters Basilica was truly an experience of a lifetime. It was the 3rd century pagan burial ground and when Constantine took over he took all the roofs off and took the rubble and filled it in. He then built the first basilica over the burial ground. We saw were St. Peters grave was, where his bones were found and walked on the same ground Romans did almost 1800 years ago. In 1939 this area was discovered and it was excavated secretly during the war. The history and details are fascinating. Anyway, after 90 minutes of secret doorways, chambers, strange smells and we came to where St. Peters bones lay. It gave me goose bumps, truly a moving experience, a pilgrimage if you will.

After the tour, we made our wandered down Via Nazionale. Of all things, Jim forgot a bathing suit! Can you believe it? We are going on cruise and he didnt bring a suit! Before Jim found one, Jake and Mike had a great time finding some James Bond style suits (like the blue one Daniel Craig wore in Casino Royal). They eached purchased one! I got some fun pictures of them modeling them when they tried them on. They will look so fashionable and European on our cruise.

We were very hot and thirsty by then so we stopped for a pizza and beer. Jim, Mike and I ordered a large beer... and large is an understatement. We each got these HUGE, and I mean HUGE pitchers of beer. We then walked to the Sacred Area (where Julius Caesar was murdered).

We were told that the travestere area was a fun place on the other side of the Tiber river with small streets, fun restaurants and lively. Finding the tram to get there was a hoot. We walked in circles and all over, but finally found it. Then we wandered around the St. Maria area of Travesterre and used a map to find a small restaurant that Rick Steves (tour guide extraordinare) recommended. It was like a treasure hunt on these tiny streets. Kristin and Mike were the map navigators. These streets were only about 10 feet wide, scooters and motor cycles are very popular here.

After a great dinner of home made pasta, veal and potatoes, a meat roll (dont recall what it was called) and wine we headed back to the apartment. Another bus, another train and a taxi we made it back.

Here is a brief list of things we have found to be true:
1. There are a lot of beautiful people in Italy
2. Italians smell (could be the horrible heat but sharing a bus or train with thousands of people makes a potent experience)
3. Even though tennis shoes are touristy, they are an absolute necessity when walking great distances. I have blisters on the balls of my feet...ouch!
4. The wine and beer is good and welcome in this heat!
5. Italians are very nice and helpful to wayward, lost Americans
6. The city is filled with OLD things...and so much history..

We are having a blast, very tired already, but enjoying the culture, the history, the people of Rome!

Today we are off to the papal audience, then have a tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palantine Hill.

Ciao!