Day 6 – August 11th, 2006

Bright and early it’s off to Rome! We had debated A LOT about what excursion to try today. How can you see Rome in 1 day?! We settled on one that would take us to the major sights we cared about the most.

After a quick breakfast, we headed to the theater at 6:50 a.m. (yikes!) along with half the ship to depart for Rome. We loaded onto the bus for the hour and a half drive inland. Amy used most of this time to take a nap. The tour guide, Irma, gave us little radios and headsets so once we got there and met up with our guide, Sylvio, we’d be able to hear him. We thought that was kinda silly, since we’d be walking right there with him. We later learned this was a good idea.

Our bus driver Sergio took us right up to the gates of the Vatican so we wouldn’t have to walk far. He must know us. Apparently we could’ve gotten ticketed from the police for such a move. We wait in line for about a half hour and finally got inside the walls. We met up with Sylvio, and boy was it good we had those headsets! It was a complete zoo in there and we were constantly getting separated. He just kept talking about what we saw and giving directions which way to turn, hoping nobody would get lost.

We walked through the Vatican Museum, seeing portrait after portrait by Michelangelo, Rafael and others. The paintings, tapestries and mosaics were breathtaking. Finally we entered the Sistine Chapel. Among the shushing from the security guards and the constant reminders of “no flash, no flash” we admired Michelangelo’s most famed work. The chapel is incredible. We couldn’t imagine how one person (or a whole team of people for that matter) was capable of putting together such a masterpiece. Seth is now setting higher expectations for Amy when he goes out of town in the future for a weekend and she decides to “redecorate.”

After a while, we left the Sistine Chapel to continue on to St. Peter’s Basilica – short one person that got separated and left behind. Oh well, he had the emergency number. His wife looked mildly concerned, but we continued. The Basilica was a sight to see. Talk about cathedral ceilings! We then walked out onto the square and learned all about Bernini’s architecture and design of the square. It was very cool to hear how it had been built and designed to showcase so many meanings and optical illusions. After a quick stop at the gift shop (it was tempting to buy rosary beads or a huge Jesus painting, but we resisted), it was on to lunch.

We stopped at a beautiful hotel for lunch. To our surprise, our lost tour member found us there! We sat with a nice older Armenian couple and tried to make conversation through lunch. The first pasta course was excellent (Seth loved that it was essentially mac & cheese) but the main dish wasn’t so great. Seth couldn’t help but comment on the arteries running through the pieces of veal. Luckily the chocolate profiterole for dessert was yum! Amy made the most of a few extra minutes after lunch to take a quick nap in the hotel lobby. Our tour guide looked concerned that we might not make the rest of the tour.

We loaded back on the bus to head to the Roman Coliseum (after nearly leaving two ladies behind because of a miscount). The coliseum was awesome! Sylvio said that in order for a monument to be considered highly important, it has to be the first of its kind and something that catches on and others replicate. The coliseum is truly the grandfather of all stadiums. While it’s no Big House, it was just incredible to see.

While we were waiting to go into the coliseum, one older lady on the trip passed out and fell to the ground. Luckily another passenger was a doctor. He said she’d be fine with some water. She stayed behind with Irma, while the rest of us (her husband included) went into the coliseum. Then as we were leaving, Sylvio took a head count and started to walk away, leaving three women. One person noticed they were gone so he starts yelling, “where are the Asian ladies? Pretty Chinese ladies, where are you?” It was interesting, to say the least. We decided to stick real close so we wouldn’t be left behind anywhere.

We boarded the bus and headed back to the ship. As we had done all day, we used this time to take a nap. I’m fairly certain when all was said and done, we were sleeping more in Rome than we were awake. When we got back, it was definitely time for another nap! What a long day.

We decided to end the day with dinner at one of the “specialty restaurants” on board. We had planned it for tomorrow, but the regular dining room was having Greek night, and the menu didn’t look appetizing (and that says a lot since we’ve been trying new foods all week!). We went to Sabitini’s for some Italian (after all, we are in Italy!). The meal was a tasting menu. You picked your soup and entrée, and they brought you a little of everything else. There was SO MUCH FOOD! We wandered outside our comfort zone with a few things, but also had to pass on a few things. They brought out raw meats, vegetables, mushrooms, mussels, crab cakes, cheese, latkes with caviar, pizzas, pastas…gosh it was a lot of food! Seth stayed conventional and had chicken for his entrée. Amy went with prawns. She didn’t realize they were going to come with their heads, legs, claws, eyes, etc. on! After watching the grown woman at the table next to us seriously have a temper tantrum when she received hers, Amy was warned of what was to come. She made do. Seth vowed not to kiss her for the remainder of the night since she had just stuck something in her mouth which he had recalled dissected in HS bio class. Amy offered to brush her teeth and an agreement was made.

We finished the meal with some cheesecake, then decided to turn in. It’s another early morning tomorrow as we dock in Naples and head out for a climb up Mt. Vesuvius and a visit to Pompeii. We’re excited!!

Day 5 – August 10th, 2006

Seth sees on the cruise channel news this morning of a foiled terrorist attempt to blow up a bunch of planes headed to America. He decides not to alarm Amy by mentioning any of this to her. He worries about what happened, what might still happen, and what this might mean for the return flight home from Venice to Philadelphia.

Today started off by going down to the theater to gather for the morning’s shore excursion to Pisa and Viareggio. Although the theater was completely empty except for one other couple, we anticipated that the seats would fill up, so we did as we have done before and went to the first open seat after the other couple, sitting down right next to them. After about 15 minutes of awkward, idle chit chat, we come to realize that nobody else is coming for this shore excursion and we’ve sat down next to the only other two people in the theater. Luckily, through conversation we discover that this couple is also from Cleveland. And the girl’s name is Amy! Small world!

We head to the Field of Miracles where the leaning tower of Pisa is. We are warned upon getting off the bus that there are many pick-pockets and we should be very careful. Sounds like a great place to vacation… Although Seth thought the learning tower of Pisa was smaller than he expected it to be, it truly was amazing to see such an odd sight. The rows and rows of merchants selling miniature replicas of the tower reminded Seth of the Superman movie where evil-Superman straightened out the tower. Seth tried (see original picture of Seth pushing up the tower) but was unable to duplicate this feat. After purchasing tickets to go into the cathedral, we realized that the line was too long and we wouldn’t be able to use the ticket. So now we have a great ticket (not ticket stub, mind you) souvenir from Pisa. Enough history and architecture, on to some fun in the sun at the beach!

We take the tour bus over to the beautiful beach in Viareggio. The scenery is something that we’ve never seen before and can’t imagine seeing anywhere else in the world. We debate between staring at the open sea, the beautiful beach, or the picturesque mountains in the background. The mountains win. We spend the next 45 minutes in the sea while hopping over waves and admiring the marble-capped mountains. Yes, marble-capped – we are told the white on the mountains is not snow, but rather marble that gets mined and used for just about everything out here. We decide to dry off in the sun and just relax. Soothing. Very soothing – now this is a honeymoon! We then spend the remainder of the time walking up and down the beach, trying to avoid random soccer balls and jellyfish. Oh yeah, there were jellyfish all over the place. After we had dried off we decided to go back into the water only to find a HUGE jellyfish, much bigger than the Hilton Head variety that the Libman Family is well acquainted with. We decide that the water is no longer a safe place, despite the many other people comfortable to be wading in the water (some of whom are topless even – are these people crazy?!). We decide to grab a bite to eat at the local restaurant that is attached to the beach. No more experimental meals, we’ve had our fill – two slices of cheese pizza, thank you very much. Apparently cheese pizza is called Margherita pizza here. At this point Amy sees on the TV about the foiled terrorist attempt – it seems to be on every channel at every moment of the day. We decide to try to not let this worry us. It seems like everything is okay and the plot was stopped before anything could continue. We are now expecting not to be able to carry anything on with us for our return flight. 8 hours and no book, no discman (yeah, we know, we need to invest in an ipod one of these days – although we could maybe just borrow Mom or Dad L.’s…). I suppose we might have to actually talk to each other on the return flight home. We’ll probably just try to sleep through it instead. J

Dinner this evening was great. We both ordered practically the same exact meal at the restaurant. We don’t think that moment has ever happened before, unless you count chicken fingers at TGI Fridays as a meal at a restaurant. We follow-up dinner with our nightly contribution to the casino (today’s contribution provided by Debbie and Russ’s wonderful surprise present to us – sorry we couldn’t turn it into more!). We watch as the ship departs and see dozens and dozens of jellyfish around us. We then feel a lot better about our decision not to return into the water in the beach at Viareggio. The fact that we can see this jellyfish from about five stories up means that they are big enough to be scared of. Although let’s be honest – they could be dime-size and I think we would have felt the same way. After watching us disembark, we then we continue on with our other nightly rituals – the quest for a warm, working hot tub (didn’t happen) and a trip to the all-night all-you-can-eat buffet. Seth eats as many carbs as he can fit in his mouth. He is thrilled that they have some warm pizza ready for him, even though it’s been sitting under a heat lamp for the last two hours. We go to bed happy, except for the nagging feeling that we’re going to be waking up in about four hours for our shore excursion tomorrow to Rome. But it’s impossible to be upset about waking up early when you’re waking up early to go to Rome.