Mambo Italiano

Last Wednesday was our first sea day. We slept in and had a late breakfast. Jennifer and I went to the pool to catch some sun and to read. I eventually moved down to the 3rd deck promenade when the sun became too hot and shade became necessary. I finished my book in time for lunch. It was a fantastically relaxing morning.

After lunch I headed up to the 5th deck to post the blog entry about Kusadasi and Santorini. I was having problems with the internet and two of the pictures didn’t make it online (they are there now though so you should go back and read it again). When I was up in the bar (ironically the best place to find wifi) you could really start to feel the boat moving. It wasn’t rocking, exactly, but it was defiantly not as smooth as it was on previous days.

Since the day was a sea day, I felt it would be an appropriate time to talk about life at sea. On our first day the cruise director said that you could eat for 15 hours straight on the Ms. Rotterdam… and I believe her. There is always food somewhere and always someone to serve you a drink (if you want to pay for it of course).

The ship is just the right size. It is big enough so that you don’t feel crowded but small enough so that you don’t lose your way when trying to find something. Our cabin is on deck 2 or the “main” deck (although I have yet to figure out why it is called the main deck). We are in an inside cabin (all four of us in one) but it is surprisingly not as crowded as I thought it would be.

Supposedly Holland America has larger cabins than other cruise lines; something that I think must be true. Our room is configured so that I am sleeping on a couch that turns into a single bed. The steward comes in every night while we are at dinner and does the conversion. Jennifer is sleeping on an “upper berth” that hangs from the ceiling over the queen sized bed that Grace and Dennis are in. There are curtains that can be drawn between the bed area and the area where the couch is as well as between the small hallway with closets and the rest of the room. This helps with privacy when we are all getting ready. It’s sort of like living in a dorm room. The only time the cabin really feels crowded is in the morning when we wake up and all want to start getting ready. We are getting better about scheduling around each other.

For breakfast and lunch we have been sticking to the Lido deck buffet (which is on the 8th deck). For dinner, however, we have a fixed dining time of 5:45 in the main dinning room. Our table consists of the four of us plus two other couples. Pat and Hank are from Cleveland, Ohio. As a native Ohioan I have enjoyed chatting about the homeland. They are a very cute couple. It is the second marriage for both (I would guess they are in their upper 70’s, early 80’s). Both knew each other for many years as Pat’s husband worked with Hank in the Canton school systems. When Pat’s husband died she lost touch with Hank. Some years later Hank’s wife passed away and they randomly reconnected while volunteering for Meals on Wheels. About three years ago they got married. When they told the story, J and I both said “awww” at the same time. You can’t help it, they are just too cute. Both are former educators (Hank use to be superintendent of the Canton school system) and both are still actively involved in the community.

The second couple has an even more amazing story. Roger and Joan were the best of friends while growing up in California. After high school they parted ways. Joan became an art teacher and eventually married a man who taught, of all places, Drake University in Iowa. Eventually they both married and eventually they both became widows. When Roger heard that Joan’s husband had passed away he called her up to reconnect. They have been married now for several years (over 5 I think) and live in Washington State.

On most evenings, Dennis and Grace head to the show in the big lounge after dinner. J and I haven’t attended a show yet as nothing has interested us. Some nights we go off and do our own thing (mostly reading or writing, I think) and some nights we hang out somewhere on the ship. We rented Roman Holiday from the ships library on Wednesday night and watched it in preparation for our stop in Rome.

Before watching the movie that night we hung out in the Crows Nest (a bar on the 9th deck in the front of the ship that has wrap around windows) and watched as we maneuvered our way through the straight of Messina. Italy was on one side and Sicily was on the other. We had to pick up a local pilot (his boat pulled right up beside us and he jumped on) to guide us through the straight. We were pretty close to land so it was kind of neat to watch from the birds eye view.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Today we docked in Naples, Italy around 8:00 AM. Naples has been in the news a lot lately because of a garbage problem that is ravaging the city. Luckily, we did not plan to stay in Napoli and did not have to deal with the piles of garbage or the smell, which is supposedly pretty bad in the city center.

We planned to meet up with our Canadian friends, Mark and Leslie, just before 8:00 AM this morning. Once the ship was cleared the six of us debarked and found our driver Neil (pronounced Nelo) waiting at the end of the dock. He had a nice six passenger van for our private tour of the Amalfi coast (including a stop at Pompeii). He spoke very good English and knew all kinds of interesting information about Naples and the coast. In short, he was a fantastic driver/tour guide.

After consulting with Neil we decided to do the coast first and end at Pompeii (which was on the way back to Naples). He said we would stop in Postiano and in the town of Amalfi before having lunch and then heading to Pompeii.

The Amalfi coast was spectacular. We started by heading toward Sorrento around the bay of Sorrento. We wound our way up they mountain (or I should say, Neil wound the way up the mountain) and stopped here and there to take pictures of the scenery. He stopped in Sorrento and bought us all lemon pudding/cake type things (I can’t recall exactly what he called them) for a morning breakfast treat. Everywhere you look in Sorrento there are lemon trees. They are planted on the hillsides, almost one on top of the other. They also have walnuts, tomatoes and many other kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables including grapes (for vino of course) and olives (for oil of course).

It is difficult to describe our day on the Amalfi coast. I wish I had a way to draw the rout we took (maybe when we get home) so you could better understand how we wound our way around the narrow, twisty roads. I think the “sss” curve must have been invented here. There were many places where there was a single stoplight that controlled the two-way traffic letting one way go around the curve an then another go around the curve. Jennifer, Leslie and I (all sitting in the middle portion of the van) were very happy to make it trough the trip without losing our breakfast/snack/lunch etc.

Our first real stop on the coast was the town of Postiano. Neil dropped us off near the town center (vehicles can only go in so far) and told us where to find him an hour later. Jennifer and Leslie really wanted an Italian cappuccino so we went to a cliffside café and tried the local fair. I decided to have one too just to say I did and I actually really liked it. To be honest, we were still getting used to the tight twisty roads and didn’t see as much of Postiano as we probably should have… it just felt so good to sip cappuccino in the sunshine and to be on solid ground.

We stopped next at the town of Amalfi. Here we all split up and wandered the narrow cobblestone streets. They have a beautiful cathedral in Amalfi that sits on a hill overlooking a busy shopping area. Speaking of shopping, I may have picked up a few things here and there.

When we returned to the van (about an hour later) Neil suggested we head to lunch. We told him we wanted pizza and he, of course, new just the place. Around and around we went, up the mountain, to this little restaurant where we were treated to tantalizing antipasto, scrumptious pizza and tasty wine… all followed of course by the pasta course. The restaurant was tiny and family owned. We sat in an outdoor café like area that hung over the cliffside. The meal was magnifico.

After lunch we went back down the mountain to Pompeii. It was a twisty ride and I was really, really glad when we reached the bottom of the mountain. We were worried about the traffic getting back to Naples and decided to stay at Pompeii for only one hour (we didn’t want to miss the boat). Jennifer and Grace had already been so they opted to hang out in the shade and wait for Mark, Leslie, Dennis and I. The four of us went in and wandered around. It was interesting but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Acropolis in Athens, probably because we didn’t have enough time to really see anything and didn’t really know what the things that we saw were. It was still worth it to go though; I’m not sure when I’ll be in Naples again.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Today was the day I’d been waiting for since we first planned this trip. Rome. I’ve wanted to go to Rome ever since Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck introduced me to it. My agenda for the day was quite simple, stop at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and any other random piazzas and fountains in between. I decided to skip the Vatican Museums (and therefore the Sistine Chapel) because I knew I would want to spend more time than I had, same for the Coliseum and Roman Forum.

The port of Civitavecchia, Italy is about a two hour drive from Rome (just over an hour by train). After extensive research we decided to take the train as the cost was only 9 Euros (round trip) and the train station was very close to the port. It was a great decision. We got off the boat as soon as were able (7:00 AM) and headed to the train station. We were traveling into the city with Mark and Leslie even though we were splitting up once we got to Rome. Jennifer and Grace had decided to focus their day on the Coliseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Dennis was heading off to St. Peters Square with me.

Dennis and I actually exited the train before the rest of the group. There is a stop right down the street from the Vatican which made it easy to start the day with the Basilica. My research told me to go to the Vatican first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon. Once again, it did not fail me. We waited only 10 minutes to get into St. Peter’s Basilica and most of that was necessary only because we had to walk through metal detectors before going in. (The line when we left was four times that long.)

The Basilica was, as you might imagine, gorgeous. We both had the opportunity to pray in one of the little side chapels which was kind of neat. I was surprised that they allowed you to take pictures inside. I was happy though, because it allowed me to capture this image…

After St. Peters we headed into Central Rome (on foot because I wanted to see the city). I was trying to find a certain piazza that my guidebook said was a great place to start when, oops, we ran into the Spanish Steps! It was kind of cool actually, just randomly running into a famous place like that. We also randomly ran into Mark and Leslie, who had already been to the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain, such a small world!

The rest of our day is quite a blur. We saw everything I wanted to see plus the Pantheon (which really impressed me) and managed some gelato and a slice of pizza for lunch. Following tradition, I threw a coin into Trevi Fountain to ensure that some day I will return to Roma.

Dennis was very patient as I navigated us through the city, stopping at random shops here and there. I may have done some shopping in Rome too…

By Saturday afternoon I had pretty much worn Dennis out. We met Grace and Jennifer at the Spanish Steps around 4:15 PM and took the Metro to the main train station. There was a 5:15 train back to Civitavecchia that arrived around 6:30 PM. It was almost 7:00 PM by the time we got back to the ship. We went right from the Gangway to the theatre where we attended the Catholic Mass in anticipation of Sunday. Dennis and I joked that if we didn’t make it to mass at least we had prayed at St. Peter’s.

I loved Rome. The minute I left I couldn’t wait to go back. There is a different feel in the air of Rome, it is romantic, more relaxed, just like you would expect it to be. I imagine that the best way to see Rome is to let it just come to you. This will be my plan on my next visit.