Sunday, July 21 2013
We woke
up this morning and bought some wine from the Hostel, Just in case we are
allowed to bring it on the ship – worth a shot!
After heading back to Termini train station and storing our bags, we
navigated our way to the Colosseum. It
was not very busy when we arrived around 8am, which was excellent. We walked around the Forum, visited Capitol
Hill, and Palatine Hill for a good three hours taking lots of pictures before
heading over to the Colosseum for our underground tour.
The
Colosseum was amazing! And because we
bought our tickets ahead there were no lines or anything, which was great. We started our tour by heading out onto the
newer arena area that has been rebuilt over the basement, pen area. Animals and humans were kept below ground and
then could pop up whenever needed in the arena.
The arena was all sand in order to help absorb blood! Scary thought. After the arena level, we got to down to the
more recently excavated basement level, which was really interesting. The stone here was so well-preserved that it
was still completely white and the floor still had the fishbone tile pattern. There were a lot of winches (I think it was
over a dozen) that were turned by countless slaves to open and close the trap
doors and move the elevators with the humans and animals up to the stage. The manpower that was used for the building
and productions is just amazing. We then
were able to go up to the third level that is also reserved for tour groups
only. The view was spectacular! We could see the entire Forum and had such
amazing views of the Colosseum as well.
*the bricks that are missing from the one back wall of the Colosseum
were actually taken down during Rome’s conversion to Catholicism when the
bricks were used in the construction of churches*
We
raced from the Colosseum back to Termini, grabbed our bags and sped-walked down
the platform towards our train.
Thankfully I booked the train on-line last Sunday so that all we needed
to do was actually find a seat – which ended up being more challenging than it
should have been with the big suitcase!
A good thing we only had 1 between both of us! We made it with a few minutes to spare and
bought a granitta (the frozen, slushy drinks that are everywhere) …and I
promptly spilled mine everywhere inside the train. It was lovely.
The
train ride was an hour toward the coast with beautiful scenery that I
interrupted every now and then with naps!
Thankfully Shawn kept watch and we asked a local to let us know when we
were at our stop. As well there was
another couple that was on the train with us that ended up being on the same
cruise as us! We all descended the train
together and were going to share a cab to the port when I noticed a few women
who were on our Colosseum tour with us!
They were headed back to the port to rejoin a different cruise and said
the walk was not far – so we hauled our luggage and followed her! It was great.
We were
one of the last people to check-in, I think – but it was great because there
was no line at all! It was interesting
here because they took our passports for inspection at the upcoming ports,
which was very disconcerting – but I guess they are used to doing that, so I
should trust them!
Our
room is awesome! I have never cruised
with Royal Caribbean before –but the rooms are definitely bigger than both
Princess and Norwegian! We have a
“boring” interior room, but there is a little sitting area with a couch and
coffee table between the bed and bathroom!
I am super impressed. Shawn is
going to be so spoiled now, however!
The
ship is huge! There are 3 dining rooms
in addition to at least 4 speciality dining rooms. There is a climbing wall, an ice-skating
rink, mini-golf course and basketball courts.
There are 3 separate pool areas as well as the numerous sun-decks. The main floor reminds me of HUB at the U of
A where the rooms overlook a promenade deck where there are shops, bars and
restaurants. It is pretty cool to see,
but I am happy my room isn’t there!
Again, I keep telling Shawn he shouldn’t get his expectations to get up
too high!
We are
eating dinner at the late sitting, which makes it a little harder to attend all
of the evening activities, but it is nice for relaxing and getting ready for
dinner. We are sitting with a nice
couple from the UK, so that is really interesting. AND I tried escargot!! It was excellent – much to my surprise! I know M. Schigand will be very impressed
with me! J
The
first show was an intro to the different acts.
There are 66 different countries represented among the guests on the
Ship so everything is done in at least Italian and English but also often in
Spanish and German as well. There was a
fantastic acrobatic couple from Australia that also did a number this evening
for the last part of the show which was better than Cirque!
Need sleep tonight!
-AJ
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