Hi Everyone, another great day on vacation; here is the rundown.

The ship arrives in port in Civitavecchia before 6:00am. We know this because we have ordered some room service coffee and danish the night before (if you haven't been on a cruise, room service is included and they give you these forms that you can fill out at night and hang on your door k*** for morning breakfast) for delivery at 6:30 but, the phone rings at 6:02 to let us know it's on the way. We look out the window and it looks like it's going to be another beautiful day here; the weather has been absolutely amazing (although a little hot - 85 plus - for my taste.)

As the song goes we "wake up, get outa bed, drag a comb across my head...." and head for breakfast. I order eggs over easy and corned beef hash. I'm half expecting the Hormel stuff (which I really don't mind) but am pleasantly surprised by fresh corned beef hash (with big chunks of corned beef.)

We head off the boat at a few minutes after 8:00am. As I mentioned yesterday, I have arranged for a private car and driver to take us around Rome. Again, for those of you who haven't been on a cruise before, one of the biggest decisions you need to make is what excursions to take at each port. Over the years we have learned that these are often overpriced (my parents once paid $50 a person for a bird sanctuary excursion which included lunch and, once they were on it, they realized it was a $7.50 cab ride from the boat, tickets cost $5 per person and the lunch was a $5 voucher for the snack stand) and you are on a large bus at the whim of the tour guide and everyone else (i.e. - if one person is late, you all wait.) As such, we often try to just do stuff on our own. Usually that makes a lot of sense especially since we often cruise with other families. We end up having complete control over what we do and saving money. Since we are alone on this cruise we are resigned that to do it the way we want is going to cost us more. The only tour we would have gone on would have cost over $250 per person. We decided to hire the car at a cost of about $600 (I said it was pricey) because we wanted to see so much of Rome and could not bear being on a bus.

The driver is waiting for us with a nice sign with my name and walks us to a brand new Mercedes Mini Van. It's a model not available in the US and would have sat 6 people (back to the cost; we wish we knew even another couple on the Ship. Those of you that really know me know that I would have just told them to join us and not been concerned about splitting the cost. If we actually had 6 people to split it with it would have been a bargain compared to the ship tour.) The driver speaks passable english and is originally from Poland (having moved to Italy 20 years before.) Just so you know, I resist making a single polish joke all day (even the standard light bulb one.)

He has obviously thought out our day and informs us that we are going to go the Vatican City first to hopefully avoid some lines. The trip into the City takes about 1 1/2 hours and he drops us off across from the entrance to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. He advises us that it will probably take 2 hours to go through the museum and we tell him that we are sure 1 1/2 will be fine (Beth and I aren't dilly-dalliers in museums; we get in, see what we want and get out. We can't figure out how people stare at a painting for 20 minutes pondering the artists intentions. He painted it, we all think it's pretty and it's good enough for us.)

The Vatican Museum is amazing and huge. This is even without us really even seeing the whole thing or having access to a large part of it. The Vatican has a collection of ancient painting, artifacts and books that literally fills numerous buildings. The book section alone gets requests for review from scholars all over the world for them to study there.

We decide to take what is identified at the short route to the Sistine Chapel. It involves passing down a hallway that is literally a few football fields long and contains about 15 different small sections. Each section is devoted to a different pope and contains paintings, statues (busts), furniture (mostly ornate cabinets), tapestries and ornate ceiling paintings (including 3D ceilings which include painting, sculptures, etc.) It is truly incredible.

The Sistine Chapel itself is not that large but, knowing that it is basically the Popes home church is pretty cool. I sneak some pictures of the ceiling (painted by Michaelangelo) and will post them when I get home. (the internet on the Ship is ok but, costs me $25 per hour so, I'm not uploading any more pictures now.)

The driver is waiting for us at exactly 11:30am and drives us around the corner to St. Peters Square. He drops us off for a short visit in the square. It is truly immense. We now understand how 500,000 people can be here to see the Pope. We take some pictures of St. Peters Basilica (the line was way to long for us to wait) and the window of the Pope's residence that he stands at when he is home. He is usually home on Wednesdays and could have potentially appeared at the window at noon but, he is at his vacation residence about 1/2 hour away today. I now understand why he hasn't returned my calls all week (I was beginning to think it was a religion thing.)

The driver then takes us to the Colosseum, The Forum and Circus Maximus. The line for the Colosseum is very long so he tells us he knows a spot across the street where we can park and see directly into it. There are other private drivers here and it's obviously a great "secret." It gives us a great view of the entire place and we get some amazing pictures. He does the same for the Forum and we can see over the entire site. The shear size of both makes us wonder what it really must have been like in it's "hey day." Thousands of people hanging out, eating, drinking, partying and then heading over to the Colosseum to watch a jew fight a lion - I knew there had to be a down side to this society!

Right as we are looking at the Colosseum we hit the one snag of the day that really upset both Beth and I. For some reason I haven't had cell phone service all day. I have no idea what happened but, I must have looked at my phone 4 or 5 times since 8am and, nothing. All of the sudden while looking at the Colosseum my phone "bings" and lets me know that I have a voice mail. I listen too it and find out that at 8:30am Pankaj had left me a voice mail telling me that he and Monica are prepared to take either a 8:57 or 11:30 train to Rome to spend the day with us again. It is now about 11:45. I carry this stupid phone with me everywhere and the one time that I need it to work it doesnt' causing us to lose out on another day with Monica and Pankaj. We are having a great day (and it will continue - as noted below) but, know that it would have been that much better if they would have been with us. I'm pretty annoyed for about 1/2 hour but, try to get over it so I don't ruin our day.

We then decide it's time for lunch. He takes us to a small restaurant behind the President's residence (Bertulsconi - yea, I know I spelled it wrong - is actually giving an important speech about the Italian economy today to the Senate) and we have another really good meal. Fried Mozzarella (I'm never having a stinkin' mozzarella stick again) and Proscuitto w/ Melon and fresh figs to start. Beth has Gnochi and I have Linguine w/ Clam Sauce. We skip dessert because we know that some Gelato is in our future.

We then head to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. At each location the driver knows exactly how to get us as close as possible, drops us off and tells us when he will be back to pick us up. We have exactly the right amount of time at each spot and manage to stay out of the heat as much as possible. The Pantheon is a really cool greek church. It has an opening in the center of the building for the sun to shine right in. The Trevi Fountain is a madhouse. It is a major attraction and people just like siting there and hanging out. You can hear every language possible and every imaginable face. It would be a testament to the world being a melting pot if everyone was so FREEKIN' RUDE. People are pushing, shoving and taking a picture of someone in front of the fountain is virtually impossible. We manage to make our way down to the fountain and together we each throw a coin in. Legend has it that if you throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain that you will return to Rome. We certainly hope this is true although, I'm not sure I need to see the fountain itself again. Lastly we stop at the spanish steps. Beth looks at me and asks if we are walking up them. I tell her to start and that I'm going to look for the elevator. She decides that if there is no elevator she isn't walking up either.

Before we head back to the Ship the driver takes us to a famous Gelato shop across from the Vatican City. At 1.50 euros a cone it's the best (only) bargain of the trip and tastes amazing. Why this guy doesn't have a shop in Times Square (as well as 20 more across NYC) I'll never know. This stuff makes Carvel taste like dog food.

We make it back to the Ship by about 4:15 (it's much quicker getting back - especially with Beth and I napping in the back) and jump in the pool.

We have dinner tonight at the Hibacchi place. It's really very good and we meet a nice family from Toronto. After hitting the casino for an hour (me making another deposit and Beth making another withdrawal) we see the Legends in Concert show tonight and Shakira, Whitney and Elton do a passable job of entertaining us.

Tomorrow is Naples and Pompeii. We have decided to do a short (3 hour) Pompeii tour, although it starts at 8:00am (we could have done it at 1pm but, I didn't want to do it in the heat of the day) and then we figure we will either walk around Naples a little ourself or maybe hire a local cab to give us a short tour of Sorrento/Positano. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We had a great day in Roma and know that it is a place that we want to spend some more time in. We are sure that a proper visit would take at least a few days and we look forward to making the Trevi Fountain wish come true.

So far, so good; Veni, Vidi, Vici!

Mark