Life's Journey

Today we docked the ship at Civitavecchia Italy in what looks like a very industrial port. Norwegian provided a free shuttle from the ship to the port exit. The organization of the shuttles was not very well planned. In fact it was chaos and rather frustrating for two people that are, for the most part, organized and structured. You make a plan and you execute - these guys know they need shuttle service for over 1000 people and we found them to have a just "wing it" approach. This was extra frustrating because we had booked a Segway tour at 9:30a so we needed to catch the first train. But whatever… eventually we got on a shuttle and got to the port exit. Now we had to find the train station. This was one of the days that we did not hire a private driver/guide. I read beforehand that Rome is very congested and many of the sites are close together and easy to walk. I knew I would be tired by the time this day came around so when I found the Segway Tour I thought this was the perfect solution! We would be able to see all the major sites in a few hours. So off we went. The train station was about 4 blocks away. We missed the first train… we had the choice of either finding a cab and trying to make it in time or skipping the segway tour and exploring on our own. A taxi would have cost us a pretty penny and we still would have been super rushed so we got our tickets and boarded the train to the city. The train ride took about an hour and it was packed, mostly with other cruisers like us.

I felt like the morning started off pretty chaotic and at this point I was kinda pissed/disappointed that we missed the segway tour - I was really looking forward to this. And I had to face the reality that this was going to be another big walking day and I was already exhausted. The days were piling up and all the walking was definitely getting to me by now but I was determined to keep going, I didn't want to miss a thing. On the train ride we looked at the map to try to formulate a Plan B. We booked a tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel for early afternoon (which would've been perfect had we made the segway tour) but now this was kind of a burden to try to plan around. We had to pick and choose which sites we wanted to see and how to get to them quickly.

We headed toward the Coliseum first because we figured that would be the busiest place. Good call on our part, it was already chaos - I can only imagine how much crazier this area became later in the day. As we were walking we turned a corner and there it was at the end of the road, the Coliseum. I was having a hard time believing that this was the real thing. I honestly never imagined in my life that I would get to see Rome and the Coliseum and here I was… It was awesome. As we got closer it got bigger and more impressive. Finally we had the entire structure in view and we just stopped and took it all in. Wow! This was an amazing site. And it was quite crowded. We saw a huge line of people waiting to get tickets to go inside. There was a moment that Roy thought we just walk around it and not enter because the line was going to take forever but we decided we couldn’t come this far and not go in. There were two lines… one for buying tickets and the other for picking up reserved tickets I'm sure you can imagine that the line to buy tickets was ridiculous long while the other line had no one in it. We did as we were told and got in the stupid long line. As we started moving someone working there told us all to merge together and kind of create a herd rather than a line. This is when frustration started setting in again. Here we were in the middle of a cultural melting pot of people - some yell at each other, some barely speak at all, some choose not to wear deodorant, some don’t believe in personal space, some are pushy, and kids are universally snotty. Now there was no sense of order as people were just mushing together into a large mass while waiting for tickets in what appeared to be at least a 2 hour line. I took an Ativan (anti-anxiety pill). Then I decided to pop into the other line to see what was happening at the front of the line. To my surprise there were two open windows that were for "reservations and audio guides" with maybe two people in line and on the side where our "mass" of a line was there was one window that was barely keeping up. Der… who decided this was a good idea? So I jumped in the 2 person line just to see what would happen. So far no one stopped me. At this point Roy had said screw it and walked into a different line where there were maybe 10 people ahead of him. I got to the window and asked for 2 passes, no problem, paid and walked away. What?!?!? I just cut in front of over 200 people I'm guessing. What a stupid system. So I went back and got Roy who had no idea what I had just done but was happy to get out of the line. LOL I gave him his ticket and we walked in high fiving each other along the way. Inside was just as impressive as the outside. I'ts amazing how much of this structure is still preserved. You can actually imagine how the seats were set up. The main stage area is gone so you can see the structures below where the men and animals were kept. It was really an awesome sight. We spent some time walking around the main floor and the second floor just taking in all the history here.

Across from the Coliseum was the Palatino and the Roman Forum. The tickets I purchased gave us access to these as well so we headed there next. The Palatino was the central aqueduct of the Roman Empire. This was the center of the entire system. It provided hot and cold water to the houses and allowed for working toilets and walls heated by steam. It was quite impressive. We walked around to the Forum where many columns and ruins of buildings remain intact. It was amazing to be able to walk through this entire area and imagine all the history that took place here.

Next we started walking in the direction of the Vatican and came across a Music Museum or hall of some kind. It was crazy beautiful… columns, statues, water features, and everything else you could imagine of a truly roman building. There were statues of chariots and horses all over - it was full of beautiful architecture. I can't believe I'm actually going to make this comparison but it kind of reminded me of caesars palace in Las Vegas - but it was real and much bigger! We were getting closer to our tour time for the vatican and Sistine chapel, we looked at the map and realized we were still pretty far away so we jumped in a cab.

We were in the cab when he turned a corner and there was the vatican - whoa! It took my breath away. I don’t even know how to describe it but to say it was much larger than I ever imagined. It was all white and gold and just overwhelming. The taxi dropped us off in the front of the vatican area. The tickets for the tour said to meet at the museum. I had no freakin idea where the museum was but I figured as with any other site like this there would be signs directing us to the museum. Nothing. Not a sign anywhere. But, there was a line. So we got in it and just hoped it was what we were looking for because we literally had 5 minutes before the tour started. Let me also add here that it was a hot day in Rome, it was crowded, and we had already been frustrated by the lack of organization everywhere we went. At this point Roy was pretty frustrated with me for not knowing where the museum was and I was pretty frustrated in general that it was so hard to find. We got through this line only to get more frustrated when they told us this wasn’t where the museum was and we needed to exit. That’s it, just exit. No further direction. Now we were both pretty fired up. A younger guy approached and asked what we were trying to find and I horribly kind of snapped at him a little - not intentionally just the whole situation had me on edge. He was super nice and helped us find our way - I thanked him profusely and off we went. We were now in a huge rush and turns out we had to walk pretty much all the way around the vatican. The museum is on the outside of the vatican - ugh! We finally found it just in time, the tour had already started. There were about 30 people in the tour and about a million people in the museum so they gave us an audio thing with a headset so we could hear the guide. The first hour was spent looking at pictures of the art that is in the Sistine Chapel and describing what every little detail meant. Snooze fest! This was not at all what I was anticipating and my frustration level was already at max capacity so I went to ask someone if this is what the tour consisted of? She explained that they do this because when you do get to the chapel there is no speaking allowed so they want to cover the facts ahead of time. This made a little more sense but an hour? Ugh. So Roy and I sat on the floor at the back and waited to move on. We went through the museum and she explained again much of the meaning within the beautiful art we were seeing on the walls. Much of it painted by famous artists like Michelangelo. This was not at all what I was expecting of this tour but on we went. We finally got to the Sistine Chapel at the last 5 minutes of a 2 hour tour. It was beautiful. I can't even begin to describe it. Every inch is covered in Michelangelo's murals. From here we were able to enter the basilica (the vatican church). Holy cow this was amazing. Sculptures, murals, art, mosaics, tiles, gold, white, candles, pews, and on and on… this was a beautiful sight to see.

After this it was time to head back to the train station for the hour long ride back to port. Thanks to Ro'ys GPS he navigated the way fairly easily. We did a good job figuring out the train schedules and platform systems so we stood on the platform and waited. We saw other couples and families from our cruise ship there as well. There were many announcements made throughout the station in Italian so who knows what they were saying. A few minutes later two trains pulled into the station one at our platform and one at the platform behind us. There were a lot of people waiting to get on the train all of the sudden and everyone crowded together. People were coming off while the rest of us were pushing to get on. Roy was behind me nudging me forward. I was stepping into the train when all of the sudden I heard Roy shout my name, I turned around and he was no longer behind me but I was stuck in a crowd of people pushing me into the train. I finally spotted him standing on the platform telling me to get off the train. I was confused and frankly quite panicked at this point because I didn’t know how I was going to get off the train. Finally, out of character, I pushed people out of my way and got off the train to where Roy was. He said I was in a cold sweat. Yup, I believe it, I was kinda freaked. Especially after he told me that they changed platforms for our train and I was about to go to Pisa on a crowded train, by myself! Phew, disaster thwarted. Once we were on the correct train I was able to laugh about it and said I didn't know what I would do if I had actually ended up on that train alone. I think I would've found a seat, gotten into the fetal position and just rocked back and forth. LOL. But no worries, all ended fine. We got on the correct train and made it back to the ship on time.

Rome was beautiful and full of amazing history. We saw sites that I never imagined I would get to see. But, it was a super frustrating day. I was on edge at all times. I don’t think I ever relaxed during this day. Every muscle was tense. When we got back to our room I crashed and took over an hour nap - I only woke because Roy nudged me for dinner. It was quite a day.

Hugs and Frustration,

Sarah