Europe Travel Diary – Part IV – Rome and Citavecchia

Previously: Part III – Florence and San Marino

We returned to Rome from Florence on September 2 for two more nights and one more day of sightseeing. The next morning we set out on our own little tour of “Ancient Rome.” The first stop was the Colosseum. I’d walked down to the Colosseum on my first night in Rome but this morning we actually went inside. The Colosseum is, well, colossus. Mom had bought a very cool book with pictures of current Roman ruins and acetate overlay pages showing how they would have look in ancient times. This gave great perspective to what we were seeing and really enhanced our day.

After the Colosseum we walked through the Roman Forum. Today was one of the hottest days we’d experienced on our trip thus far so we didn’t spend too much time exploring. After lunch we visited the Pantheon. We had our afternoon gelato sitting outside the Pantheon and then took the bus back to the air-conditioned comfort of our hotel.

On both nights in Rome we ate at the restaurant we’d discovered on our last time through. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant but I know that we liked it so much that Mom and Dorothy wrote a review and sent it in to Rick Steves so maybe it will be next year’s guidebook. I had the pesto pasta and it was delicious!

The next morning Allison left us and flew back to Vancouver. We dropped her off at the airport and then Mom, Murray, Dorothy and I continued on to Citavecchia to start our Mediterranean cruise. Sadly when we were checking in for the cruise we were informed that we would not be going to Turkey. Apparently there had been some bombings in Turkey and the cruise line decided to cancel our stops there. This was very disappointing since seeing Istanbul was one of the main reasons we’d selected this particular itinerary. Stops in Dubrovnik, Croatia and Messina, Italy had been added instead.

Our staterooms weren’t ready when we boarded our ship (The Galaxy) so we headed up to lunch. Lunch was a bit of a thrill because it was a buffet and there were so many choices! We’d been eating at a la carte restaurants constantly and even though the majority of our meals were quite good I hadn’t been eating as much vegetables as I normally would and I’d really been missing them! I had an entire plate of roasted vegetables for lunch!

We spent the afternoon exploring the ship. Our rooms were on the 5th floor and the buffet restaurant was on the 11th floor. Mom and I resolved never to take the elevator while on board. We had the early seating for dinner. This suited us quite well and had been assigned a table for 4 so we wouldn’t have to make awkward conversation with strangers for the next 11 nights! Dinner each night was a five-course affair (appetizer, salad, soup, main, dessert). I was still craving vegetables to I asked for a vegetarian menu and had spinach and mushroom cakes with risotto and red beans. I was in food heaven. Really, the food on the cruise was quite good.

We set sail bound for Mykonos, Greece in the early evening.

Next: Part V – Greek Islands