Roma Days 1-4, Cruise Day 1

Day One – The Day of Exhaustion

Our flight from San Francisco to Chicago was fine. In Chicago, they were asking over and over again for “volunteers” with flexible schedules. They were up against a weight limit, and, if they didn’t get “volunteers,” they were going to start creating “volunteers.” I was pretty sure they were getting ready to line us up by weight and start kicking people off, but they loaded everyone and took off pretty much on time. We arrived in Rome, with our luggage, on time. If there was any customs, I wasn’t aware of it. We just took our bags and followed the signs to the trains. We bought tickets using hand signals and what little I could speak, got on the train, and were on our way. A nice woman sitting next to us spoke beautiful English and told us where we should change and so on. We complimented her on her English and she immediately said, “I’m not Italian. I’m from Serbia.” We came to realize over the next day that few Italians speak any English – those who do speak little. Dave and I got off our train, left through the back of the station, and with our map in hand, headed for our apartment. Did you know that Rome is built on seven hills? I personally think there are more, and as we dragged our luggage behind us, we went up and over one of the hills, finally finding our way to the apartment. It’s very nice. It’s on a quiet street, is pleasant, and nicely decorated, but close to restaurants and bus lines and, best of all, several gelaterias! We did discover that there is a much easier way to get here from the train station – about one third as far and all downhill. Ah, well. I just look at it as being in vacation training for all the walking we face.

After getting our keys and a quick tour, we moved in and out of consciousness throughout the day. We did take a walk to St. Peter’s square, which is only about a half mile away. The lines were terribly long for both St. Peter’s and the Vatican museum, so we went to a gelateria – a very good idea – and then went home. We had a little dinner at a local restaurant that evening and the woman working there told us that we could get to the heart of Rome on either bus 916 or bus 46. It seemed like useful information. It was too late to do anything else that night, so we finally packed it in about eight o’clock and slept right on through until one in the morning. Then we tossed, turned, wandered, and finally took sleeping pills.

Day Two – The Day of Adventure and Sore Feet

Our tour guide, Sonni Lanio, a former exchange student of ours from 22 years ago, arrived in the late morning from Hamburg. She has spent quite a lot of time in Rome, and her family was kind enough to loan her to us for a couple of days to show us around. I had a glass of water and Sonni told me I should never drink the tap water anywhere in Europe. She said many people won’t even brush their teeth with tap water. I had been drinking it for a day already with no problems, so I wasn’t too worried. We went for a walk to St. Peter’s square, but again the lines were too long. I did notice, though, that the homeless man who lives in the pedestrian tunnel under the road, had several bottles of mineral water, and I wondered if drinking the tap water was such a good idea after all. I mean, if he was drinking bottled water… Anyway, the lines were again huge at St. Peter’s and the Vatican, so we just walked around for awhile. We came by a department store unlike any I’ve ever seen. All the display windows had mannequins in nun’s garb or there were rich vestments of velvet and satin embroidered in gold and silver on display. I guess if you’re a nun or priest, this is the place for you. I didn’t see anything I wanted. We took a bus downtown, and on the bus we met a nice woman and a man (they didn’t seem to be together, just sitting in the same row across from us) who both spoke very good English. When we commented on their fine English, the woman exclaimed, “Oh, but I’m not Italian. I’m from Israel.” She turned to the man and he smiled and said, “India.” People seem to feel the need to explain their fine English as having to do with NOT being Italian. We walked around and saw some ruins of four Roman temples right in the middle of the city. It’s quite astonishing that there are ancient ruins dotting this large, bustling city. We went to the Pantheon – an ancient Roman temple that became a Christian church several hundred years ago. It has an amazing dome – as high as it is wide – with a hole in the center to let in light. It’s rather incongruous to see a huge crucifix hanging in this ancient temple that was clearly made for another purpose.

We walked and walked, seeing lots of wonderful things, beautiful squares, wonderful fountains, and learning some important things. First, there are pedestrian crossings everywhere, but that doesn’t mean much if you are a pedestrian. At the crossings that have no lights, you are simply taking your life in your hands if you try to cross. Driver’s have no respect for walkers. Period. At the crossings where there is a light, you should have better luck. The cars, busses, trucks, and scooters (there are millions of Vespa-type scooters everywhere) do stop when the light tells them to; however, they all tip their heads toward the stoplight like sunflowers tracking the sun and watch only that. They never look at the pedestrians in the crosswalk. As soon as that light changes, they all floor it. I am not kidding. It’s like someone dropping the starting flag at the Indy 500. I’m convinced that if a pregnant woman pushing triplets in a stroller flanked by nuns didn’t get across before the light changed, the whole group would become a large, messy speed bump in a hurry. Another interesting thing about Rome is how small it is. I don’t think I saw any building over eight or ten stories high. The entire city is about four square miles. The streets are laid out like a dropped plate of spaghetti. They go every which way and twist and turn. Some seem impossibly narrow, yet there are cars parked everywhere and in no seeming order. There aren’t any rules about parking. If you can find room, just park. If it’s facing in on a corner, fine. If it’s partly on the sidewalk, that’s okay. Double-park blocking someone else in? No problem. I’ve seen few full size cars. Almost all cars are what we would call sub-compact, but still the narrow streets are so narrow that there is hardly room for cars to pass between the parked cars, but they always seem to be going through at a good clip. People flip their side-view mirrors in when they park, because there is so little room in the streets. I’ve seen some cars with no side-view mirrors and I know why. There seems to be no city planning. For example, in our little block of about eight row houses, there is a photo studio, a motorcycle repair shop, an auto repair garage, a restaurant, and four or five apartments scattered among them. This is quite typical. In some ways, Rome is not a very modern city. There are few modern-looking buildings. There are some apartment buildings that were clearly built in the sixties or maybe seventies, but almost nothing looks truly modern except for one museum built of glass and steel around a large ancient Roman marble piece as the centerpiece, and a few modern pieces of sculpture can be seen from the outside. Internet access is a nightmare. That’s why all this is going up after we leave Rome. There are a few little internet points. The ones we’ve found have three or four computers you can rent for one to three Euros an hour, but nowhere could we find wireless access to use our own computer.

Back to our adventure. After we walked around downtown, we decided to head back to the apartment for a little rest before going out to dinner. It had started to rain, but it was a light, gentle rain. We found a bus stop that listed both the 916 and the 46, so we waited. Many busses came by, but not ours and we were getting a little uncomfortable. At last, a 46 came. We hopped on and, as we got close to our area, the bus took a strange turn. We thought it would come back to our area, but it just went on and on. We finally asked (Sonni’s Italian is very good) and discovered that there are two 46 busses. One is plain 46 (the one we were on) and the other is “46/” (the one we should have taken). You’d think they would have just used two different numbers! It’s not like there aren’t enough numbers to go around. Unfortunately, plain 46 goes nowhere near our place. We got off. By now it was dark and still raining lightly. We started walking in the direction we thought was right, stopping for directions once to find we were on the right track. It was about two miles and over one of those hills Rome is built on. We headed to a nice restaurant near our apartment for dinner, but found out they only serve breakfast and lunch. It was Monday night, and nothing was open in our neighborhood. Sonni found an interesting-looking restaurant in her guide book, so we got a cab and went there. It was a great choice. It was called Gallobrillo. That means “tipsy rooster.” The waitress pulled a chair up to our table and explained everything on the menu, practicing her English and getting help finding words from patrons at other tables and from Sonni. The food was terrific, the wine was good, and we had a wonderful time. We got a cab home and all fell into bed. Dave and I slept until five, then started our tossing and turning routine.

Day Three – The Day of Great Sight-seeing

The next day we got a good early start and went downtown for sight seeing. We ended up getting tickets on one of those hop-on-hop-off bus rides around the city and really saw all of Rome. It’s so amazing to see the Colosseum right in the center of a big city. Lines again were huge everywhere. We thought we would be here before tourist season, but it turns out the big months are May, June, July, September, and October. In August, everyone leaves Rome because it is too hot. We saw the Forum, Palatine Hill, and all the sites. Late afternoon we headed to St. Peter’s square. Sonni had never been inside St. Peter’s, so we all wanted to see it. We got there at 5:15 and there were no lines. We went right in. Now I have often felt that if you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen ‘em all, but let me tell you, St. Peter’s is worth the trip. It is the mothership – it is the Queen Mary – it is the King Kong of churches. Not only is it huge, but it is truly magnificent in every way. First of all, as soon as you walk in, you turn to the right and are facing Michelangelo’s Pieta. Wow! The real thing. It is breathtaking and will nearly bring tears to your eyes it is so beautiful. The entire place is filled with amazing statuary – huge and beautiful. All the carvings on the ceiling and high walls is covered with gold leaf. There is probably more gold here than Fort Knox. It is the Pope’s church, after all. We found out from one of the guards that Il Papa was going to be speaking the next morning, so right away we had plans. We walked to our neighborhood, which is quite close – perhaps a half-mile – and had a nice meal in a local restaurant. Exhausted, we fell into bed and slept late.

Day Four – The Day of the Pope and More Sore Feet

We headed right over to St. Peter’s square. There were probably ten thousand people already there waiting to hear the Pope. Sonni, who is not particularly religious, was pretty excited. She told us that when this German Pope was elected, the German newspaper ran a headline that translated to say “We are Pope!” During our time together, whenever we saw a picture of the Pope or mention of him, she would say, “I am Pope!” The German people are quite excited about this. At just ten-thirty, Il Papa came riding into the square in the Pope-mobile (an open, white Mercedes jeep-looking thing) and took a nice turn around the square, so all of us got a pretty close look. He came within about fifteen feet of where we stood. We didn’t expect to see him except as a white dot in the distance, so that was kind of exciting. He spoke in English first – how very polite of him. We parted ways with Sonni here. She headed for the train and back to Hamburg; Dave and I headed to the Vatican Museum. Because it was mid-week and because people were still listening to the Pope, there were no lines.

The Vatican Museum is huge and full of beautiful artwork. We were most interested in seeing the Sistine Chapel, so we just walked through much of the museum without stopping at many things. One of the big surprises was that when we came close to the chapel, there were several rooms of rather modern artwork, some as late as the 1970s. I was especially struck by a painting of a crucifix with a man wearing a suit and tie. Strange. There was a long corridor leading into the Chapel area that had an arched ceiling that was carved and painted magnificently. At first, I thought maybe we were in the chapel, but then realized it wasn’t Michelangelo’s work. We finally got into the Sistine Chapel, and it was worth the trip. The paintings look fresh and the colors are very bright. It is a small room and every inch is painted and carved. It was amazing to be there and see his work in person. It was a long journey through the museum and chapel, but really worth doing.

That evening we rested and repacked.

Day Five – By Land and By Sea

In the morning we dragged our luggage to the train station (on a much better path than the one we took to our apartment!) and then on to Civitavecchia to board the Legend of the Seas. We were able to get a direct train from San Pietro Roma station to Civitavecchia. Once out of Rome, it was rather flat, slightly rolling land reminiscent of the Midwest. There were lots of farms and small villages along the way. In the villages, there are few houses, but lots of apartment houses, three or four stories high. All the balconies seem covered with flowers. I guess if you can’t have a garden in Italy, you do the next best thing.

Civitavecchia is a cute little port town, but the ships are a long way from the train station. We dragged our luggage along and needed to stop for a cold beer half-way to the port. We are now on the ship. It’s like most cruise ships – Las Vegas-like in its atmosphere – bad comedians, good singers and dancers, lots of glitz, and great food. I had the best perch I’ve ever eaten in my life. Our dinner partners – two couples from Connecticut – seem nice. Our wait staff is almost too helpful, but that’s typical, too. The welcome show in the theatre was okay, but pretty Las Vegas loungey. Now we need sleep, because tomorrow is Portofino – the reason for this trip – promised to me by my good husband over forty years ago and now is pay-off time. Finally!