ROME!!!

Rome, The. Eternal City

As I said we had a private tour booked for this stop. We knew that the city of Rome was an hour and a half away by bus and we knew we did not want to miss the ship. We were able to change the tour to suit us. Our driver was so good. Roberto was his name and his is a small family business. He picked us up right when he said he would and his vehicle was a lovely Mercedes Van with seating for 8 plus the driver of course. We were a group of six so that made it very comfortable. This is the group…. I took the picture and that is why I am not in it.

Because it was Saturday morning the traffic was light. The speed limit is higher here and most of the time Roberto was doing between 130 and 140.

On the drive in which took an hour instead of 90 minutes Roberto told us a lot about the area and its history. His English was very good and even with his accent he was very easy to understand.

Once we got to the city we were amazed at narrow lanes and streets and how the people drove. Ken kept saying he was so glad he was not driving

We went to so many places that the buses could never have gone. Roberto was true to his description and he took us to every place he mentioned in his description. I believe the one that impressed me the most was the Trevi Fountain. I was expecting it to be a fountain . It actually had been the façade of a mansion owned by someone who wanted to show his neighbours how rich he was.

The Colosseum was impressive by its size alone.  Roberto showed us a picture of what it would have looked like originally.

We saw the Vatican, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps and the list goes on.

For lunch we went to a smaller family restaurant. Ken and I shared an original pizza. The ones from Ocean Park are very different and I have to admit that I like them better. We also had a local beer and after lunch we headed back to the ship.

Roberto reduced the price because everything went quicker thanks to the smaller crowds. We as a group decided to give him those extra 60 Euros anyway.

The trip back to the ship went just as smoothly .

As a society we like to think we are so good and so advanced and so great. Considering the time period Rome was so much greater. It had all of our great cities beat hands down.

Their empire fell and I have no doubt that the empires of today will also fall. Mad men at the helm who do not put the people first will no doubt repeat history.

It is so great that we came here. It would be wonderful to return and spend days instead of hours.