Rome, Italy

Today we were in Roma! We went on an excursion offered by the boat called “Rome, The Eternal City”. This guided tour took us all over Rome to all the “must see” sights. We visited the Roman Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museum, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Needless to say, our day was chalked full of Roman history!

It is important at this point for me to tell you about our 2 tour guides for the day, in order for you to fully understand what our day was like in Rome. First, we had Gabriella, who was a delightful younger lady. Next, we picked up our guide who would take us through the history of the places we visited throughout the day, Gloria. Gloria was a tad frustrating, very hard to keep up with, older Italian woman, but more about her later.

First, we visited the Colosseum. As we are not Catholic and didn’t personally identify with any of the Vatican attractions, this was probably our favorite stop of the day. Gloria did a great job of explaining the use and set up of the Colosseum. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, basically the Colosseum was the first stadium. In fact, its not set up much differently than the stadiums we see today, in regards to layout, only of course. Here, the Romans would pit gladiator against gladiator, gladiator against exotic animals, or exotic animal against exotic animal. The Romans would ship animals in from all over the world, such as lions, tigers, and elephants to make the show even more spectacular. The fights were always to the death. However, the emperor was ultimately the one that determined when one lived and when one died. In the Colosseum, if a gladiator’s opponent, he would look to the emperor to know if he was to finish the man off or not. A thumbs up from the emperor meant “go ahead and kill”, a thumbs down meant “spare his life”. Interesting, right?! We had fun walking around and hearing all about the Colosseum, but by far the best part of the day was when dad informed us all that he would have “really gotten into that” (meaning the Colosseum events) and that he would have been a season ticket holder! We are all still laughing about that one, because if you know him you know its true…he loves his season tickets!

After the Colosseum, we headed to a nice hotel for a lunch provided with the tour. Lunch was very typical Italian. We started with bread. Then the first course came out: pasta! It was delicious! I don’t think there was a noodle left on any of our plates among the four of us. Next, they brought out the main course: veal served with carrots and potatoes. Just as delicious as the first course! Finally, they brought out cake and coffee. The only unfortunate thing about our lunch was that we were not given the typical Italian “siesta” after. Yes, in Italy stores and all businesses close from around 1:30-3:30 for lunch (at home) and a siesta or nap. Wouldn’t you like to have that in your daily life?! We were more than pleased with our lunch today, but very full and sleepy afterwards. We couldn’t sleep, though, because we had a big afternoon ahead of us: Vatican City!

Vatican City consisted, for the most part, of us chasing (yes CHASING) our tour guide, Gloria, around the sights. She ran at a super human pace through all the famous paintings, monuments, and buildings. We spent what felt like forever in the Vatican museum following Gloria around. Most tour guides choose one or two things per room to discuss, but not Gloria! She chose to talk about EVERYTHING in EVERY room! Unfortunately half the time we couldn’t even see what she was talking about, and by the time we got there she was talking about something totally different. The tour was hard to follow, but the museum was rather interesting. We got irritated by Gloria’s chatter in our ears, so we simply took out our headphones! Ha ha, Gloria! Next, we visited the famous Sistine Chapel, which was famously painted by Michael Angelo. The most frustrating part about the Sistine Chapel was watching our fellow tourists snap pictures in the Chapel, where the deliberately asked us NOT to take photos. The policia would clap and holler “NO PHOTOS”, but still people would click away. One man actually got kicked out for taking pictures, believe it or not! Aside from the annoying crowds of tourists, the Sistine Chapel was actually very beautiful. Like all things we’ve encountered on this trip, its amazing to actually see everything in person.

St. Peter’s Basilica was our last stop for the day. The church was absolutely breathtaking. Every “painting” in the church is actually not paintings, but mosaics; places tiny tiles made them all together! However, you would never know this, because the works look like they were hand painted on the walls and ceilings. Dad enjoyed St. Peter’s Basilica the most, I believe. He was very taken with the art all around the church.

Tonight, we had a dinner reservation at one of the ship’s specialty restaurants, Murano. This was, by far, the best dinner we’ve had yet. The French cuisine restaurant was very elegant and had excellent food and service. I tried scallops and sea bass for the first time, scallops in a puff pastry for my appetizer and sea bass for my main entrée. Oh and don’t forget dessert! I had a crepe filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a balsamic strawberry sauce. So yummy!!

I thought I’d end this blog with a funny story from the trip that I haven’t shared with you guys yet…Emily and I have been mistaken for twins about 5 times in the last 2 weeks (even before we left for our trip). The first was at Potbelly (one of our favorite sandwich shops) by the sandwich maker who said to Em, “Ya’ll are twins, right?!”. Next, by the lady working at the Subway in the airport assumed we were twins and said to Em, “You’re nice to foot the bill for your twin!” (Dad gave her the money to pay for our lunch). Then, the lady in the President’s club in the Houston Airport asked my dad, “And these are your twin daughters?” It happened again when we checked into the cruise on Monday, as well as tonight at dinner by a photographer. We’re not sure if I look young for my age or if Em looks old for her age. We’ve never been mistaken for twins…well except for the first time Emily met Eric (before we were dating). It was at a tailgate, I had just walked away and I believe Kyrie introduced my family to Eric. He said hey to Emily thinking it was me. Too funny, right? …He better not get us mixed up anymore, though! :) haha

That’s all I have for ya’ll tonight! I’m gonna try to post pictures, but I can’t guarantee the internet will cooperate! Cross your fingers, boys and girls! :) Naples, Italy tomorrow!