Our trip has been absolutely wonderful thus far. The only thing that has sucked was the plane ride from Toronto to Rome and the jetlag. We made it over successfully. I didn’t get much sleep on the plane. It was really crowded and those planes just aren’t made for people over 5’6”. We flew Air Canada over and the nice thing was that they provided free tv and movies. I watched a few movies and got maybe 3 hour of sleep. We landed in Rome Sunday afternoon and then took the hour drive to the ship. The cruise ship is amazing!!! Our room is directly over the lounge so that gets noisy some nights but not so bad. Our first night here we went to bed right after dinner at about 8:30 and we were awake at 2:30 in the morning. So instead of lay in bed we opted to go to the gym and work out. We were in there by 4 am. Monday was a long day. Our first port was Porte Venere. One of the things that the cruise ship offers us is a free excursion. Sounds tempting right go in on the excursion for free. Well there is always a catch. Our first night they immediately asked us to escort. Typically how it works is Char would escort and her guest pays for the excursion and then we’d split it so we’d get to go for half price. Well this cruise happens to be full which is unusual. It happens to be the President’s Cruise and it’s the end of summer so lots of families and children. They are short on escorts so we agreed to do it and they got us to do one the next day too. I’m not sure what we were thinking. The first trip they gave me a free ticket to go because they asked us so last minute. Our job is to make sure all the guests are there and that we don’t lose anyone. Sounds simple right, think again. We went to a city called Lucca and did a walking tour. We had about 19 in our group. It was great until one of the couples decided they didn’t want to stay with the tour. Usually not a problem but it becomes a problem when they are straggling behind wanting to shop and holding up the tour because that is what they want to do. It was extremely rude. We didn’t get to hear the whole tour because we were so concerned about keeping our group together. It was beautiful that day maybe in the mid 70’s and no humidity at all. We toured the little city. It was a national holiday in Italy that day called Assumption day so lots of the shops were closed an there were tons of people out. We stopped and had lunch at a little café. I’m not sure what we had but it was so good. It was sliced like pizza but it wasn’t pizza it was this wonderful bread and inside was some butter and proscuito and lettuce and tomato. I also had a cream puff. All I have to say is when in Lucca do as the Lucca’s do lol. It was really really good.
We were pretty wiped out after we got back so we just had dinner and went straight to bed. We did better the 2nd night in bed by 9 and up by 6. We had a tour Tuesday as well and we’ve decided that’s the last time we are doing it. The second day wasn’t so bad. The only thing about it that sucked was that Char and I each did our own group. We both went to the same place but were on different busses going into the city and we got to have lunch together and then spend the free time together. That was a long tour it started at 8 in the morning and we got back at about 6:30. We went to Pisa and Florence. I got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa it was amazing. There wasn’t much to see in Pisa. Lots of tourists out and beggars. I was surprised by the amount of beggars there were. Interesting thing about the tower of Pisa is that after it was built the discovered that they ground was a mixture of sand and dirt seeing as that area used to be a marsh and when it started to lean the builder took off he didn’t want to take responsibility for it. Everything in Pisa leans even the trees it’s interesting.
We next went to the city of Florence. That is about an hour and a half drive from the port of Livorno which is where we docked at. There we went on another walking tour of the city. We saw an amazing Cathedral. The dome that they made there is 150 feet across and when it was built they had only planned on it being 90 feet but the mad building it had miscalculated it. So for 14 years the dome was open over the alter. Florence was crowded. August is the month where everyone is on holiday. They were having some amazing sales which was a plus. I found some amazing purses and wallet in Florence. I love them! The David is located in Florence. We didn’t get to see the actual David but we saw many replicas of it. My group yesterday was a lot easier to handle then the day before. I had 26 people in my group and they were good. Char’s group was a little bit more demanding. As part of the excursion we got to have lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Florence. The name of it was Paoli. Our first course was lasagna and it was the best lasagna I’ve ever had. The cheese was so creamy and the pasta was so good. Then our second course was steak I was like what that’s crazy but it was good as well. Yesterday was a long day. I got to bed late as I was up doing laundry until about 1 am but I slept until 10:30 this morning. I believe I’m finally acclimated to where I am now.
The service is amazing on the ship. They clean our room twice a day and keep our fridge in our room stocked with water and diet coke. I should say coke light. It’s not the same as diet coke at home but it has the same effect. I’ve been eating whatever I want and my clothes all still fit so I see that as a good sign. Char ad I have a rule no taking the elevator. It won’t make up for all that we eat but it will at least help a little bit. Today we were in Porotfino. Char has to teach a class this afternoon so I went in by myself. It’s a beautiful little coastal town. I wandered up and down the pier. It wasn’t very hot today but there was 90% humidity so it seemed hotter than it was. Tomorrow we are off to St. Tropez. Should be an adventure. Ciao! Catch you next time I find time to blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment