Day 45 Rome

We arrived in Civitavecchia around 7 a.m., we had chosen to do Rome on our own. However as it is a 1.5 hour drive to Rome we did relent and catch the Princess Bus, just to ensure we would get back on time to catch the ship!  Once onboard, the guide did promote a Hop on Hop Off Bus ticket which would allow us to see all the main sights. What she did not tell us was that most of our bus and probably 4 others bought the ticket.....on arrival at St. Peters the queue for this next bus was horrendous. It was a 40 minutes wait in boiling hot condition. In hindsight we could have walked to everything, so any future WC, just walk! It gave us time to look around a bit of The Vatican square, very beautiful. The queue to go inside was long, very long. An amazing place. We got on the bus, sat upstairs in the open roof part. Firstly, Rome is busy, cars, motorbikes zooming everywhere. We jumped off and headed toward The Trevi Fountain, a place I had always wanted to see. Its so spectacular, lots of people but we managed to get to the water and throw our coins in....1 means you will come back for a visit, 2 means a new love and 3 means a divorce. I threw 1....and I only gave George 1 to throw!! We then just walked around the streets, trying to read our map but its hard to concentrate when all you see are the most amazing buildings. Finally we could see The Colosseum in the distance. We knew we couldn't see everything in 1 day so we chose 2 main ones....Trevi and Colosseum. The queue wasn't too long and it was worth the wait. I did not expect it to be as high... we could almost picture the animals and gladiators in the pit. We spent a while just taking it all in.

Arrived back at the ship around 5.30 absolutely exhausted, the heat is draining. A fantastic day in Rome and tomorrow we will be in Livorno. We have full days coming up from now till Southampton, we have heard of many people overdoing it and falling ill.

Day 45 Rome Continued

 

Day 44 sea day

Another formal night last night and a return of the kilt. George said he would wear the kilt once per sector, he is convinced the jacket has shrunk in the wardrobe due to humidity..........I don't think so, its called eating too much.

Day 43 Dubrovnik Croatia

We caught the Shuttle which dropped us off at the entrance to the Old Walled City, a city within a city. A huge wall surrounds this beautiful place. The main street is lined with shops, cafes etc. Narrow alley ways full of pubs, restaurants and souvenir shops. The walk around the Old Dubrovnik is about one and a half mile and many people walked around it, it was very hot so we decided not to. We sat by the harbour front, and enjoyed just watching people and the boats sail by, all with a beer. I am now converted beer drinker! The ice cream looked yummy but it was nothing compared to the one we had in Venice. We left the Old City and walked around some of the new part, the view down to the water is spectacular. It was very busy as this is peak tourist season, we will have the same all over Europe. It is a police run state, we had to carry our passport and the bus was checked leaving and entering the port. We only spent a few hours out and then came back to the ship for a swim and lunch.

 

Day 43 Continued