Hello from Rome, Italy
Saturday morning – July 6, 2019 (First post of this travelogue)
I am starting this post at 11:42 AM which is 3:42 AM Denver time.
This travelogue will document our travels through parts of Europe. The main activity is a cruise around the Greek Islands – a trip earned by Pat via Stampin’ Up! This is the 14 incentive trip that Pat has earned and we have enjoyed travel to some amazing locations. There are reportedly about 400 demonstrators who will be making this trip (a few more earned the trip, but “cashed out” for various reasons).
We are staying at an AirB&B in the heart of the historic district of Rome (Google Map Link)
We left Denver shortly after 11:00 AM on Tuesday (7/2) and arrived in Rome at bit after 9:00 AM Wednesday. We had a connection in Philadelphia with a bit over 1 hour between flights (too close for our standards).
The Rome airport is quite a distance from the city and transportation is quite expensive. The private car cost us 65 Euro (1 Euro = 1.12 dollars as this is being written). The port that we sail out of is even further and will cost us 130 Euro. SU does furnish a bus from one of the Rome hotels to the ship, but it leaves later than we feel comfortable with.
This AirB&B is a mixed experience. The unit is quite nice, but we have had issues with the hot water heater and we are right in the middle of the “night life” area over a bar that plays very loud music until about 1:00 in the morning. The hot water issue has been a challenge (Pat took a cold shower the first day and both my first shower and her second shower had hot water for a few minutes. The noise has not been too big of an issue. For many years I have traveled with Bose noise cancelling ear buds and that really helps. Pat sleeps pretty soundly. So, we have not suffered too much from lack of sleep.
The weather here is quite warm (mid 90* each day). We had scheduled ourselves in early prior to the sailing of the ship so that we could adjust to the time difference and to let us relax for a couple of days. Our lives have been very hectic prior to the trip and we needed some down-time. Pat has been very stressed about her dad, as he had a very bad spell just before we left (he is reportedly better now). Even when he is OK, we still see a rather rapid decline in his quality of life and we have concerns that he will pass when we are gone. Pat is reconciled to that possibility (as much as she can) and we plan to continue our trip if something does happen.
If you look at the map, you will see that we are right in the center of the historic Rome area. Our apartment is located between the Coliseum and the Vatican. We had not planned to do any major sightseeing, as we did that in our 2008 trip (starting post for 2008 Rome travelogue). Instead we have been taking strolls to various attractions in the surrounding area.
Attached is a picture of our apartment building. Our apartment is on the second floor of the building on the right side of the photo.
Our Apartment in Rome
I am also attaching a photo taken from our window that shows one of the many open air restaurant/bars in the area.
View our our apartment window
There are a ton more details to post, but I will leave that for the next one.