September 2007
Day 7 - Tuesday, September 25, 2007
No sleeping late today, either, as we had to catch our tour bus to Rome for today's "Rome Panoramic" tour. A couple of words about our touring style on this trip.
SWMBO assigned me the task of picking the tours as several were offered at each port-of-call. They came at several price points and I (always) opted for the least expensive that seemed to cover what we wanted to see. I confess I didn't do much studying re details as I chose them (back on Day 2), but everything has worked out fine - so far.
The tours for Rome all required an hour-and-a-half bus ride each way to Rome. The cruise line port is in Civitacecchia (as, like Florence, Rome is not a port). Today I had chosen a five-hour tour not realizing that it would give us only two hours in Rome. The tour was essentiallly a "drive-by" tour except for an (expansive) thirty minutes (yes, thirty minutes) in Vatican City. Yes, we saw some buildings but there was no time for anything real. And, much had to be shot through a cloudy plastic bus window. My bad.
Here's today's tour guide Titziana:
.. who worked very hard imparting a LOT of information as we often whizzed by spectacular points of interest.
We loaded up the bus and headed for Rome. About thirty minutes from the ship, we stopped at a gas station for a bio break; apparently many of the participants ignored the "we're-going-on-a long-bus-ride-and-won't-be-stopping- for-3½-hours-so-"go"-before-we-go" admonition.
Here are the photos for today:
        
What's with these people? They're all in line to see the Sistine Chapel;
only about a three-hour wait..  
Remember how I didn't get to see Michelangelo's David yesterday? Well, Gael didn't get to see the Trevi Fountain today (her #1 missed wish for Rome). Here's how we might have looked had we been able to stop there:
Gotta love Paint Shop Pro!
At St. Peter's Square we asked someone to take our "for the boys" photo. Here's what can happen when the person you ask is photo-equipment-incapable:
Thank goodness you can review digital photos!
Oh, and while checking email today we got this photo from the grandboys:
That's right, boys, you'll be broke in no time...
We arrived back at the ship at about 2:00p and spent a leisurely afternoon and evening. Informal wear for dinner tonight and a great show in the theater. A dozen young singers and dancers performed a couple of dozen '50s rock 'n roll hits with terrific energy. Really great!
We can sleep in tomorrow; our tour of Ajaccio (Corsica) is at 12:30p.
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