2013 Mums World Cruise: Friday 28 June 2013

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In Rome I am doing Trevi fountain, Spanish steps and Pantheon. A fair bit of walking.

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We arrived in Civitavecchia this morning to lovely walking weather, which we also had in Napoli yesterday. It is mostly sunny with some clouds and 23 degrees. Not like Petra in the high 30's. Apart from Sea Princess there were another 4 cruise ships in the harbour.

We had an extra hour this morning, the bus left at 8.00. It took 1hr 20 min to reach Rome from the port. We started at the top of the Spanish Steps, much easier to walk down. We walked slowly so all could follow, we had a large group of 50 people. Yesterday the group was 27. There were photo opportunities along the way a we had to walk the whole way. Next stop was the Trevi fountain. It was packed with people so we photographed a lot of peoples heads too. The fountain is amazing, every night workers collect around 3000 euros and dollars which are donated to charity, so it goes to a good cause. There were also many beautiful buildings on the way.

Our next stop is the Pantheon. This was built over 1800 years ago in a cylindrical shape, amazing how they could do it. without computers, cranes and all that we use today. Another walk took us to Piazza Navona. It was full of cafees and street vendors. We found these all over Italy. Many were black people selling bags, scarves, pictures, reproductions of paintings and movie stars. I saw 3 people buying the 'Joker'

I am sure the population of Rome must have doubled. There were people everywhere. We had lunch in a small cafe in a narrow side street. Beautiful again. Lasagna Primavera, no meat but beans and small cubes of carrot, tomato and mozzarella, Veal roast with steamed vegetables and guess what? Gelato again, cassata this time.

After Lunch we met up with our bus and were taken to the Vatican, and you guessed, another walk. Foot traffic only in the Vatican. There was a long que to get in, but it moved reasonably fast, only took us half an hour. The inside is beautiful, no argument. We had time to look and take photos and met our guide for our walk to the bus and heading home. We all call it home" now, not just "the ship". A quick dinner and back to the cabin for a lie down. Tomorrow is another "walking tour". Many of the tourist city centres are for foot traffic mostly, some taxis and of course the carabinieri, the police.