Where Is the Ice?
Dennis first authored this account of our wonderful journey, but you know I have to include my perspective; so Dennis and I have joined forces to present the total picture for you. My comments (Penni) are in purple.
Let me start this by saying; “I have never had a desire to travel to Europe.” I guess I am a big ole coward, I have anxiety about going to a country where English is not the primary language (yes, he is, but he loves me enough to try many adventures through the years with me, and that means the world to me). I have probably been influenced by some movie I saw in my youth. My wife on the other hand has always wanted to travel to the Greek Islands. We had plans for travel for this year, we were going to cruise to Alaska again, one of my favorite destinations.
One day over a year ago she asked me; “do you really want to go to Alaska next year?” For some reason I had a weak moment and said: “I don’t care, whatever you want to do.” The next thing I know we have a cruise booked for the Greek Islands. Then the planning started, my wife is a detailed planner, and she knows how to shop for the best deals in travel. Some background here: at the declaration of “I don’t care”, after questioning him to ensure I heard correctly, I just started playing around with cruises to Greece to look at itineraries and prices. Imagining that I would take a look and just laugh at the impossibility, I was shocked to find Royal Caribbean had a wonderful cruise of the Greek Islands, leaving from Rome, Italy (oooh, Italy – that might be nice too) and… I couldn’t believe what I was seeing – a Two for One (2 for 1) special. Wow, I checked it three times – it was significantly less than anything offered in 2018 for Alaska (this was August 2017). The Cruise date was August 12, 2018 . I took a deep breath, ask Dennis if he was sure and booked the cruise. Now – I had to find airfare to Italy that I could afford.
She began her research, and when it was all completed we were scheduled for a two-week vacation, 1 day in Boston, 5 days in Rome, a 7-day cruise on Royal Caribbean, 1 day back in Rome. The reason for the schedule worked out his way was air travel deals. We could fly from Boston to Istanbul, to Rome cheaper than we could fly directly from Atlanta, we had frequent flyer miles to secure the tickets to Boston.
We were flying through Turkey, I was not happy, American and Turkish relations were not good at the present time. Our President was placing sanctions on the Turkish Government. This caused me some concern. My wife loves me and she offered me a way out if I really did not want to make this trip. I love my wife and I was willing to face my fears and go on this trip because it was important to her. My friend, Amanda, had made this trip to Italy with her family last year and highly recommended Turkish Airlines. She answered so many of my questions, calmed my fears and talked me out of changing airlines multiple times. She was right by the way, as you read on, we had some hiccups, but this airline was fabulous for service on the flight.
The day finally came – my friend Bill Smith drove us to the Atlanta Airport and we boarded our Delta flight to Boston. Thank the Lord we purchased TSA pre-check last year as security is much better when you have this benefit. We flew to Boston, picked-up our luggage and ordered an Uber car to our Hotel for the day. In a different era you could store baggage at the airport, but those days are gone. We drove to the Hotel, stored our luggage in a room and went to Legal Seafood for lunch. Dennis and I both had a lobster roll with hot butter for lunch – it was sooo good.
After lunch we ordered another Uber for a ride to a spot on the Freedom Trail, the driver dropped us off close to where we wanted to be and we began our trek on the trail. Once we got our bearings we began our tour at the Granary Cemetery. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin’s parents and Mother Goose are buried here.(yes, you read that right)
The Freedom Trail is marked by a double row of red bricks in the sidewalk. We followed the trail viewing the sights along the way. We visited Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall then journeyed on to the Old North Church. It was a lot of walking, but a nice breezy day in Boston. After this we walked down to the water front and took a water taxi back to our Hotel – Loved this, it was so relaxing and picturesque as we sailed across the bay. We stopped by the little café at the entrance of the Marriott to get a Coke Zero and a Sprite, and sat a few minutes, catching out breath. Then up to our room, we had time for a quick nap, and re-charge our phones, and change shoes. As I began repacking my backpack, I noticed my wallet was missing – and for about 15 minutes, I was in an all out panic. I had it at the café because I paid for our drinks, maybe I left it there. I ran downstairs to check, nope, then back up. We needed to get to the airport, but I couldn’t leave without my ID and our money. Prayed (yes, I did) and not immediately, but soon, I picked up my backpack from the chair, and the wallet (same color as the chair and the backpack) laid there in plain sight. Thank you, Jesus!. Now,… we picked up our bags and headed to the airport via Uber. After clearing security, I realized I had left my cell phone in the x-ray machine. Luckily we stopped for dinner at a restaurant close to security. I returned and picked-up my phone and we ate dinner then headed for our gate. Ok, so we are even – we both caused panic moments. We are done with that – enough, let’s enjoy this vacation.
They changed our gate, but we only had to move a couple of gates down to board the plane. We boarded the plane, settled in and I went to sleep, I woke up about an hour later and we were still on the ground, for whatever reason the flight was delayed. The flight was almost Two hours taking off Boston.
When we arrived in Istanbul, about Nine hours later, and realized we had missed our connection to Rome because the layover originally was only supposed to last an hour. They parked the plane in a parking spot and we unload on the tarmac. There are busses waiting to carry us to the airport building.
We kept waiting for some information about our connecting flight, but none came. No one to ask, just following the signs for “transit” to ensure we stayed within the safety zone (with no VISA or security needed for a layover). We got off the bus and went into the terminal, still looking for information. This place was wall to wall people. We found the restroom, but no information. Penni finally walked up to a gate and asked someone, they told her we should go upstairs and find the information desk. Language was never a problem on this trip as English was spoken fairly well by all. We were a little concerned that we would accidentally leave the secured area and have to go back through security. We found the desk finally, and stood in line and finally got to a representative. He was great, he gave us new boarding passes, a voucher for a meal for each of us. Our choices were Burger King, Popeye’s Chicken and a couple of other places. We never did find them, so we set out to find the gate.
We began at one end of the airport and when we finally found our gate it was at the opposite end of the airport. We ate at a little snack bar, the only food in the area of our gate. We were the only people in this section of the airport for a while. Eventually people began to show up. Dennis had a couple slices of cheese pizza and I had a turkey wrap.
The boarding process began about 30 minutes late, and once again we had to board a bus and head out to the tarmac to board the plane. We arrived in Rome about 2:00 am. We had let the hotel know that we would be arriving late (Seven and a half hours to be exact) because they were sending a private driver to the airport to pick us up. We went through customs, picked up our bags and went to the assigned area. Our driver, very courteous and helpful with our bags, but spoke very little English picked us up and trans ported us to the Hotel Barocco in the historic section of downtown Rome.
Hotel Barocco is a very nice hotel located on a small side street off the Piazza Barberini, with a Gelato Shop in front of it (how lucky was that? YUM)!. This is a very nice and quaint old hotel. The staff were wonderful, we check in and they gave us an old fashioned key, but with a fancy 1lb weight attached to it, we did not carry the key around with us, we left it at the front desk each time we left.
Day 1 Rome, part two:
We finally go to bed and had a good night’s sleep. We slept late, but got up in time for breakfast in the Hotel. Breakfast was served on the second floor in a small section of rooms with 4 or five tables in each room. There was a good selection of breakfast food, fruits, juices, nuts, yogurt etc. for breakfast. They brought me my breakfast drink, a Coke Zero in what looked like an old fashioned 6 oz bottle. The Yogurt was delicious, I had it every morning.
We requested an Uber to the Colosseum, they dropped us off near the Colosseum and we began to explore for a while. Our tour was not until 1:00 pm. We found a restaurant, Caffe Martinni, which some friends had recommended and ordered Pizza for lunch. I had Pepperoni, but it was not like American Pepperoni. Penni had basil and garlic pizza. We enjoyed the food, but the view was better. The served chilled bottle water along with the meal, no ice. All of the restaurants are really small (floor space) so the tables were very close together. The waiters and waitresses were all superb – so friendly.
We now had to find the meeting point for our tour, at the green kiosk. We found it and there were a lot of people waiting for tours, we were early as usual, so we found the coolest spot possible to wait on the steps. It was hot, miserably hot. Our tour company The Roman Guy, finally arrived and we let checked in with them. When all the group had arrived (about 15) our tour guide gave us headsets and our tour began.
We had to follow the guide through the jungle of people to the entrance of the colosseum, we had to wait to go through the group gate and had to pass through security before we could get in. Finally, we are inside and the sights are amazing, the tour guide is sharing the history of this place with us, the things that took place here were barbaric.
The wooden floor is gone and you can see all the walls of the rooms that were under the floor, the wooden floor would be covered with sand for the battles. The sand would soak up the blood that was spilled, there were trap doors in the floor where wild animals would be set loose for the Gladiators to battle. Surprise, there is a lion, tiger or bear behind you that you must guard against while you battle your opponent.
Each of the arches in the wall were numbered, of course with Roman Numerals, like a modern stadium, they even had a retractable cover over the Colosseum, it was made of canvas. This facility took only 9 years to build, that seems like an amazing feat, considering the technology of the day. Much of it has been destroyed by an earthquake. Rules do not allow for rebuilding, only stabilization is allowed. There were originally 3 walls, in some sections only one wall is left. There are markings in the pavement that show where the original wall was located. While inside we had to climb two very large and long flights of stairs, then descend them later. Dennis’ knees were yelling at him and my thighs were burning, still we kept up and even though it was unmercifully hot, the experience of seeing the Colosseum live was so exciting.
We exit the colosseum on the opposite side, near the Roman Forum and Constantine’s Arc. This was a magnificent piece of art. It looks similar to the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, there are several arches this style in Rome. We move past the Arc and head up hill on a stone path, with much larger stones than typical cobble stones. The Roman Forum is mostly ruins, there are some shells of building, but mostly there were ruins in the Forum. I could not help but wonder what it looked like in its prime. I also wondered how they did all this construction without the aid of modern tools. When you see a massive column 20’ or 30’ tall maybe 2’ to 3’ in diameter with a huge section of stone setting across multiple columns you can help but wonder how did they get that way up there without cranes and modern tools. Our guide from the Roman Guy pointed out the building that housed the Vestal Virgins, who had the same power to remove the death penalty as Caesar. As I listened to the History of this ancient area and once seat of Roman government, I realized this was the very path that the Apostle Paul, Peter, and maybe Luke may have walked often. This was my first WOW moment ,and I stood there in awe for a moment. Difficult to describe the emotions at that point.
The heat is almost unbearable, we are tired from walking up all those stairs and up the hill to the Forum, Penni is so hot she is having chill bumps, she is about one degree from heat exhaustion, my bad knee is just about through for the day. (By the way, that had never happened to me before, so when we got back to the hotel, I googled the symptoms, and found it was a real issue known as Heat Stress). The guide proclaims the tour is over and the exit is on your right, so we head out. No surprise, the exit is up hill. We have been careful to stay hydrated while we were in this heat. When we get to the top we stop and rest and then we look for a spot where we can order an Uber.
Back to the Hotel for an afternoon rest. After we cool down for a while we head out for an evening meal. Osteria de Fortunato was the restaurant of choice in the Campo di Forio area, we both ordered pasta dishes, I had linguine with Ragu and Penni had a Carbonara pasta dish. Penni spotted the lady who was making and hand rolling the fresh pasta in the other room of the restaurant, and snapped a quick picture. I was looking forward to Italian pasta, it was terrible, I did not like it at all. The Ragu was bland, and the pasta was not good. Penni enjoyed her meal a little more than I did, but we both left disappointed. They served bottle water, chilled, not cold, and no ice. I had a Coke Zero in bottle that resembled an old fashioned 6 oz, the one’s I remember from my youth.
We left the restaurant looking for a good place to catch an Uber, we found a beautiful Piazza around the corner from the restaurant where there were people eating outside, milling around and having an entertaining night. There was another beautiful fountain in the center. We requested our Uber, and headed to find the Giolloti Gelato shop (the oldest Gelato shop and best quality in Rome); there was a huge line for Gelato. We both had Gelato: strawberry for me and vanilla and pistachio for Penni. (the best vanilla ice cream or gelato ever). We are full and satisfied and now it is time for our trek to Trevi Fountain. Many of the streets are more like alleyways and they are crowed with people and cars. We entered Trevi Fountain in Apple Maps and began to follow directions.
When we arrived at Trevi Fountain there was a huge crowd already gathered. Penni made her way down to the fountain to toss a coin in, I was supposed to be recording it, oops, I messed up, let’s do a do over, got it right this time. (By the way, the legend is really true that if you toss a coin in over your shoulder you will return to Rome – after our Seven night cruise to Greece, we returned to Rome. Ok so maybe that was planned, but I did toss two coins into the fountain, so who knows). Now it is time to walk back to the hotel. We used Apple Maps to help us find our way around the city on foot, it did a good job of guiding us. We returned to the hotel and picked up our key and headed to our room.
Day 2 Rome, The Vatican
We had an appointment today, before breakfast. We had a tour of the Vatican arranged with the Roman Guy, (both our Roman Guys were girls,) at 7:30 am. The Roman Guys offered transportation from our hotel, so our driver arrived promptly at 7:00 a.m. Once we arrive at the Vatican, we gathered on steps across from the entrance and waited for our guide and group, once the guide arrive she handed out the head sets, counted the group and we headed across the street to get in line for the tour. Security is a must, and tickets must be purchased for each guest, the tour guide purchased the tickets for the group.
We toured the different sections of the museum, we saw painting, statues, and tapestries. The floors, the walls and the ceiling were all decorated with beautiful art work. We went into the Sistine Chapel, no photos allowed, no speaking allowed either. From there we went to St. Peter Basilica, where Peter’s tomb is located. This was a beautiful church, while by American standards it did not seem very practical for worship, but it was beautiful. We could not go in the basement to see the tomb because they were doing maintenance. While in the Sistine Chapel, armed guards surrounded the inside of the small room, and as the crowd noise would rise above a faint whisper, one would loudly scold, “ SILENCE PLEASE “! They were very serious about the dress code and the respect by silence.
We left the Vatican and headed down the street for breakfast at. The La Locando Di Pietro, this is another café recommended by some friends. Funny thing, a friend of mine told me most restaurants in Rome did not have public restrooms, but we never had a problem with this. We left the restaurant and walked through narrow passageways on cobblestone streets toward the Pantheon, the oldest church in Rome. One more beautiful church, this building is round and the only light is daylight that comes through an opening in the ceiling (Oculus). In all these churches a dress code is enforced, no bare shoulders, and no bare knees and silence is highly suggested (and monitored).
We walked back to the Hotel for a room change, we are moving to a Jr. Suite (our much anticipated upgrade). This is a much bigger room, it comes with a balcony, a hot tub, (not a Jacuzzi – but more of a small pool with hot and cold water), and a nice, spacious sauna. We fill the tub and take a relaxing dip. Now it is time to get ready and go to dinner at La Gatta Buuia, a former prison. We had reservations for 7:00 pm, when we arrived they told us they did not open until 7:30 pm, so we toured a nearby church and waited to 7:30 pm. The church was named after St. Cecilia, a Christian roman martyred for her faith in 230 A.D.
For dinner, Penni and I ordered the filet (steak), and they were delicious. The walls were decorated with prison memorabilia, there were locks, chains, keys and other hardware. This was an interesting place and the food was amazing. This restaurant is at the edge of the Trastevere community of Rome.
We requested an Uber back to the hotel and ventured out onto our balcony to listen to some live music coming from the Piazza, which was also beautiful at night. With a six hour time difference, it was about 11:00 p.m. our time and 5:00 p.m. when we checked in with our family.
Day 3 Rome:
Up early and down stairs for breakfast, another good breakfast. We headed to the door to wait for Francesco from Thybris. We had booked a private tour for the day. We began with Mamertinum Prison. This is the prison where St. Paul and St. Peter were held prisoner in Rome. We visited the museum portion, and then went down into a cell, tradition says St. Paul was held in this cell. Again, such a special moment, and feeling, to be in the same space where he and Peter had been in prison (to look at the clay and earth on the cell walls and floor, it was indescribable).
The second stop on Penni’s bucket list was the keyhole, she had told me about this but I did not realize it was a literal keyhole in a door. To get there we had to take a back way, the police had the road blocked, but Francesco knew a way to get us there. You walk over to his green door and look through the keyhole and you can see the dome of St. Peter Basilica, we tried to get a good photograph, but we both failed, we should have taken more time.
The next stop was St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, the church built over the site of Paul’s tomb. This is a beautiful church, but you must go through security before you can enter. There was a mass in progress while we were there, while we could not understand what they were saying, we enjoyed some beautiful music. People were milling around in the church as the service was going on, but I had a problem with us doing that so we sat on a bench and waited for the Mass to end. I have been kidding Penni about wanting to interrupt the Mass so she could see the tomb.
When the mass ended we made our way up to the altar where the tomb is located under glass. We toured the rest of the church and walked back out front to meet Francesco and from here we headed to Tres Fountain, tradition hold that this is the location of Paul’s beheading. There are three churches on this location, they are rather small and they are also very beautiful.
We now head to St. Peter in Chains, this is another church and it houses Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses. As the name suggests this church also houses the chains that were used to bind Peter the Apostle. Whether these are truly the chains of St. Peter I must wonder how they know this, but that is what is advertised. The historical story is that in the fifth century, Juvenal, the bishop of Jerusalem, gave the chains that possibly held St. Peter while he was imprisoned in Jerusalem to Eudoxia’s mother who sent them to her daughter in Rome. Eudoxia then gave the chains as a present to pope Leo I, who placed them in this church, together with the chains that had held St. Peter while he was in the Mamertine prison in Rome. According to a medieval legend the two chains then miraculously joined together. The chains are now prominently displayed in a beautiful golden reliquary.
The final stop of the day is the famous Spanish Steps. After Penni struck her best pose on the steps (from the movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. However, they don’t allow eating on the steps any longer). We went around the corner to Alla Rampa for lunch. I had grilled chicken and it was great. The food was really good here so we decided we would come back here for dinner. We requested ice and they brought a small bowl of ice to the table. I really prefer my drinks at meals be ice cold, but they don’t serve ice cold in Rome.
We walked back to the hotel from here. We passed by a luggage shop and we decided to buy a new carry-on bag, we were using one of Penni’s mom’s and it was one its last leg or wheel. We found one we liked and headed back to the hotel where we relaxed for the afternoon. We thought about walking back to the Alla Rampa, but we decided to use Uber. The Uber app could not locate Alla Rampa, so we entered Spanish Steps as our destination. The only problem was the Uber driver dropped us at the top of the steps and we had to walked down all 135 steps to get to dinner.
Another great meal at Alla Rampa, I had steak, Penni had shrimp. We finished dinner and headed back out to find the Uber meeting point and head back to the hotel. We highly recommend Alla Rampa! This is our last night in Rome, so we go out on the balcony or patio and listen to music and enjoy the sites. Francesco will be here first thing in the morning and we will head to Civitavecchia to meet our ship.
Day 4, Jewel of the Seas:
Francesco arrived early that morning and we loaded our luggage into his van, the majority of our vehicles this week have been Mercedes vans or cars. Francesco has a Mercedes van. We begin our journey to Civitavecchia, the cruise port. In approximately an hour we arrive at the Jewel of the Sea. A porter meets us at the van, we are the only van in the parking lot, this is very strange. He takes our luggage and we head inside, where we are given a number and told to head upstairs. At this point, Francesco is beginning to feel like a friend, and not just our driver.
We get in the priority boarding line and within ten minutes we have our cruise cards, this is all you need on the ship, you can lock your wallet and your purse away until you are ready to go ashore. We are on the ship and waiting for the buffet to open for lunch. This is the smoothest boarding we have ever done. The Jewel of the Seas is one of Royal Caribbean’s smaller ships, but has some very unique features and is beautiful.
The buffet was typical of most cruise lines, there was a nice variety of food, plus pizza and burgers. This is not my favorite dining, but it will do. We finish eating and now it’s 1 o’clock and we can go to our room. We find our cabin and I notice down the hall is our luggage, we bring the luggage in and Penni begins to unpack and arrange the room, I am not allowed to help. Now we wait for the Muster Drill.
We spend some time resting and enjoying the view from our balcony, there were many large ferry’s in port. We have a 6:30 pm dinner with an assigned table. We dress business casual for dinner and head to the dining room, our ship has a two level dining room and we are on deck 4 the lower level.
They always seat you on the first night and after we were seated we met our servers. Georgios was our head waiter (from Thessalonica, Greece) and Ricardo (Philippines) was his assistant. Ricardo had a better grasp of English and he interacted with us more than Georgios. Both were excellent servers. I requested a whole lemon per my Doctor’s orders as it helps prevent kidney stones, and each night they would have my lemon ready for me when we sat down.
I found the Royal Caribbean menu a little predictable, they had the standard Caesar Salad, shrimp cocktail each night, the other starters changed each night. The seafood selections were scarce, there were a good many beef options each night, chicken and pork were also available. Nothing special here, and they did not offer lobster except for an upcharge option. The had three items for an up charge of about $30.00. We were not interested in doing that. Deserts were decent, Penni tried several including Crème Brulee and Soufflé. I had a fruit plate most nights.
Penni was quite disappointed that they did not offer milkshakes, but she did have several fruit smoothies which were very good. I had one virgin Pina Colada and several diet cokes. I noticed in the theatre drink service was limited, I remember it being better on other cruise lines we have sailed with.
There were no comedy shows, we do enjoy the clean comedy shows on Carnival, the production shows were about the same as other ships we have been on. Some good talent, but nothing exceptional. After the evening show it was time to call it a night. This ship has the best “Adults” area of any ship we have sailed, with a full sized pools, a drink station, light food bar, and plenty of covered seating for those like Dennis who can’t take much direct sun. We loved it.
Monday – Sea Day:
We got up and head to the buffet, again I am no fan of buffets, I ordered a couple of fried eggs over medium and received two eggs medium well. Royal uses a page to let you know when your eggs are done. Some bacon, some sausage and finish off with some fruit and that ends breakfast.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the ship and getting to know our way around, this is a rather small and easy to navigate ship. There are only two banks of elevators and one of them was very close to our room. We liked the elevators in the Centrum, because they were on the side of the ship and you could see the ocean from the elevators.
We enjoyed some trivia games, we did terrible on most of them, they were not in our wheel house (I did almost win the Disney Song Trivia, so surprise) . We toured the ship, and went back to the buffet for lunch, the food is still uneventful. I think the best buffet we ever had was on our first cruise. We were both satisfied and we continued with our day, more games and then it was time to dress up a bit for formal night. I admit I have been programed by Carnival, formal night equals lobster, not on Royal, I think I had Prime Rib. I am very predictable, Caesar Salad, Shrimp Cocktail, main course, and then a fruit plate. Penni mixed it up more than I did, she liked the French Onion Soup.
We looked around at the photo backdrops and did not find any to our liking so we did not have any pictures made. We did have a cute photo made at the port area in Athens and purchased that one. The only show that made an impression on us was the one with the guy and girl who used the hanging ribbons for an acrobatic act, but then we have seen a lot of cruise shows.
Tuesday – Greece, Santorini:
Penni had to get up early and go to the Lido deck to get tickets for the tender boats so we could get ashore. She came back and we went to breakfast, more of the same. When we arrived in Port we had to wait for our ticket number to be called, once it was called we were able to go down stairs and board a tender and make our way to shore.
Once ashore we had three choices to get to Fira, we could ride the donkeys up the mountain, we could take the 587 steps to the top or we could ride the cable car for 6 Euros each, we chose the cable car. There are 2 sets of cars, 6 cars each, with a maximum of 6 people. As one group goes up another group comes down. We purchased our tickets, headed to the cars, we had to wait in a short line and then we were in the car, a couple of minutes later we were unloading in Fira. I am terrified of heights and had been dreading and having nail biting nervous bouts for a year, and almost said “No Go” to the port of Santorini several times. But I couldn’t miss this! This port is the picture that everyone sees and falls in love with then you say “Greece” I made it and am so glad I did – totally worth it.. We were early, so we found a café overlooking the bay and we each had a cold drink, Penni did not realize it but she ordered a cold coffee, she did like it and it gave a bunch of needed energy. For those of you who know me well, know I never drink Coffee, but this Greek Coffee tasted totally different, very smooth (strong, but not bitter at all). I really enjoyed it.
Our tour guide, Panos met us at the exit of the cable cars. He had a sign with Penni’s name on it. He said we would walk to his car, we walked through narrow streets, passed many shops, a hotel and other businesses, we finally got to the street where automobiles were allowed, then we walked, and we walked, and we walked, finally be arrived at his van.
We drove to Oia, Panos let us out of the van and he left to park, there were what seemed like hundreds of busses there, a slight exaggeration. In about ten minutes he was back and we began our trek into town, no roads in town, only sidewalks, sidewalks, with steps, and steps and more steps. They were about 5 or 6’ wide and covered with people. We walked and walked up steps, down steps and back up steps, finally we reach what we came for the churches with the blue domes, they were spectacular. We fought the crowds and the steps and visited some other areas of the city.
Finally, it was time to leave, Panos goes to get the van and he come back to pick us up in about 15 minutes. We head back to Fira, we stop at another church with a blue dome and we take some photos and head out. We drive for a while and then we start up a mountain, we go up and up and up, and Penni is beginning to get nervous, she has a fear of high places. We finally get to the monastery and we go into the compound. I take some photos of the valley below and Penni stays close to the car. They had the best figs – wish I had bought some now to bring back with me.
We decide to head back to the ship for lunch, Panos drops us off a couple of minutes from the cable car, but the line to go down is much longer than the line to come up. After 30 or 40 minutes in line we buy our tickets and head back down to the ship, for lunch.
After lunch we went to the front of the ship and went out on the Helipad and took photos of the sunset, it was beautiful. We went back to the room and dressed for dinner and then we enjoyed some games until bed time.
Wednesday -Greece, Mykonos:
We had already walked about 45 miles this week and we were tired. We made an executive decision to stay on the ship today, we did breakfast in the buffet, we wandered around the ship and then we did lunch also in the buffet. Dinner was in the dining room. It was a nice relaxing day.
Thursday Greece, Athens, Corinth:
This was a special day for me, even though it had a stressful start We had booked the Corinth Canal and Ancient City Tour through RCCL, the only non-independent tour we were doing in Greece. We had heard the climb to the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens was very difficult and required much standing (large crowds), so because we were interested in the Biblical history in this city (Paul’s letters to the Corinthians), we opted to sign up for this tour – a long time ago, like sometime in 2017 when we booked it. On Wednesday (the day before the tour) RCCL called and said it was cancelled (not enough interest), so during Wednesday’s after dinner show, I searched my suppliers for a private tour in Corinth that we could possibly afford. I found a wonderful company, Athens Best Tours and quickly booked a tour for Thursday morning. This turned out to be part of a nice little surprise that God had in store for me. No way would I have seen the particular sights we saw if part of a large RCCL formal excursion. At the ancient grounds and ruins in Corinth I actually stood on the very platform where the Apostle Paul preached to the Corinthians. 3rd WOW moment. Talk about standing on Holy Ground!
We had begun our day with breakfast in the Buffet and headed off the ship to the meeting place to meet our private driver. We found Yanni with a sign with Penni’s name on it, to our surprise he was driving a yellow cab. As we talked we found that he was not a driver normally, he worked in the office as head of all the drivers, but he was driving us. He told us his company had many vehicles, limos, vans and busses, they only had one cab and we got it.
We took a different path than most, we did not go to the Athens Acropolis, we decided to go to Corinth because of the Biblical history. After about an hour drive we were in Corinth, the first stop was the Corinth canal. Next we visited ancient Corinth and the temple of Apollo, we saw the podium where the Apostle Paul would have stood and preached. It took us over an hour to tour the museum and old Corinth.
We met Yanni on the other side and headed up to the Corinth Acropolis way above the city, this was a fortified area that was used for defense of the city in ancient times. The views from here were breath taking.
Now, for my most special moment – and surprise. From there Yanni drove us to a church that was built on the property where Aquila and Pricilla’s house was located during the time of the Apostles. Priscilla is my most favorite biblical woman figure – and it was so special to stand in their front yard. From there we went to the port, the beginning of the canal. He told us this is where the Apostle Paul would have come ashore in Corinth. No it is time to head back to the ship and have lunch. I felt like I had visited with life long friends.
We went to the show in the theatre tonight, there was a guy doing strange things. Twirling multi colored lighted rings, and then standing on his head on top of wine bottle and such. It is really hard to describe, but it was interesting.
Friday Greece, Katakolon (Olympia):
The day begins with breakfast and then we disembark, this day we are at the dock, but our tour, a private small group tour can’t come onto the dock and it is about a half mile walk to the parking area. We walked and met our driver, and the rest of the group, we boarded the bus and headed to ancient Olympia, the site of the original Olympic games (in B.C.).
We toured the museum first then the site of the games. This was a large area with many buildings, temples etc. Most of the buildings were supported by these huge columns. The Columns were the main thing left on site. There were ruins everywhere, but then we reached the entrance to the stadium. Imagine all the athletes who entered this field to compete all those years ago. The original starting blocks are still in place, they are stone.
Penni did her best runner’s pose on the blocks, I just stood on them. A strange side note, you can sit on any of the ruins, but you cannot stand on them, and you are not allowed to pose in front of the area where the flame was lit.
A long walk back to the bus and then on to lunch in an authentic Greek Restaurant. The meal was buffet, with many Greek selections. The food was good, but the entertainment was better. The Greek dancers were there and they put on quite a show, they drafted diners to join them and Penni was up there dancing with them. I refused to dance, the old stick in the mud that I am. It was fun, and while I’m not great at Greek dancing, hey when in Greece – right? Oh, that’s Rome – lol.
Time for some shopping in town, how about some Gelato, and then we will head back to the ship. Penni picked up some gifts for the grandkids also.
Back on the ship. Tonight is a formal night so we have to get ready for dinner. If memory serves me correctly this was the night of the marriage game, it was very humorous. The couple married 50 years won. I think I enjoyed this version better than the one on Carnival or Princess. This cruise had almost as many Italian passengers as American Passengers, so most of the announcements and other public events were in English, Italian and Spanish.
Final Sea Day, Greece back to Rome.
Breakfast in the buffet, wandering around the ship, sitting on our balcony and enjoying the view. We did not do much that was interesting today. We did play a fun game of mini golf up on deck 13 – yep, this ship has a deck 13 (most skip that number) We have to get packed and set our bags out so they can be carried ashore. We did enjoy the views of the volcano as we passed by. This has been a good cruise, and we are impressed by Royal’s service.
Last Day in Rome,
We once again have breakfast in the buffet, but this is our last, as today we must leave the ship. The debarkation is smooth just like the boarding. We pick up our bags and now we have to wait, Francesco is not going to pick us up until 9:30 am local time, we are off the ship and ready to go at 8:30 am, so we just wait because Francesco is an hour away in Rome.
He arrives finally, he is on time, we were just very early. Dennis asked Francesco if he missed us and he said, “Yeah, a little bit” – I thought that was a cute reply. We ride to Rome to the airport Hilton, check in and store our bags. We board the hotel bus to downtown, Penni wants to see the Mouth of Truth, and the bus stop is just down the street from it. The line to the Mouth of Truth is hundreds of people deep, so we decide to forget this and get an Uber and go to lunch. After lunch we bought tickets for the Green Bus and took the bus tour of the city, this is not a good was to see Rome, it may be popular but it is not good.
You don’t get close up views of the sights, thank the Lord we had already seen all that was on our bucket list. The heat was getting to me and I was not feeling well so we got off the Green Bus at Circus Maximus and walked to our bus stop and the Hotel bus had just arrived. We boarded and headed back to the Hotel where we had dinner and then turned in for the night. This is where the Chariot Races took place, and also where the great fire of Rome (during Nero’s reign) broke out. The Apostle Peter was also crucified upside down here.
Going Home:
Up at 4:00 am, everything packed and ready to check in, a long walk to the airport and we find the Turkish Airlines desk, we check-in and check our luggage. We make our way to the gate, once again it is the last gate in the airport. We are very early for a 7:30 am flight. I loved this perk of being able to walk straight from our room through the hotel lobby, to an adjoining corridor into the airport. At this early hour of the morning, it was effortless.
Finally, about 30 minutes late, we board the plane for Istanbul for an uneventful flight. We arrive at the airport at around lunchtime and this time we pull up to a real gate and unload into the terminal. First time we have had to go thorough security when we got off a plane and were not leaving the secure part of the airport, but this time we did. We decided to get some lunch and find the Popeye’s Chicken and Burger King we did not find earlier. We get food and continue to check the boards for a gate. Finally, we get a gate assignment and it’s the last gate, the same one we had on the way to Rome, this means riding the bus again.
We have not left the secure are of the airport, but when we arrived at the gate they have security set up and we all have to go through security again, third security on this flight. We present our passports, take off shoes, belts etc. and let them search our bags. We find a seat and wait, a restroom trip would be good, but we would have to go through security again, so we just hold it till we get on the plane.
Time to board, the bus pulls up out front and we begin to load, when the bus is full they take us to the plane. We have to climb the steps to board and our seats are in the middle of the plane just past the restrooms. When we get to the seat a little boy is in Penni seat, I mean a toddler. His seat is in the back of the plane separated from his mom and sister, the little sister is sitting in her mom’s lap. The flight attendant explains the situation and ask Penni to give up her seat, she agreed, our seats were not together we were seated in the center section both of us had aisle seats with two seats between us.
I was seated next to a woman who I thought was with the woman and children, it turns out that she was alone and the flight attendant came back after the plane was loaded and asked her to swap seats with Penni, she agreed. These bulkhead seat are the best for a 10 ½ hour flight. My back never hurt and I was able to stretch my legs at will. It was nice to have my wife beside me and the restroom right in front of us.
The flight attendants gave us our courtesy pouch with eye covers, socks, slippers tooth paste and a tooth brush. They gave us head phone for the TV screens. They brought by hot towels. After we were in the air for an hour or so they began to serve dinner or lunch. I am not sure what it was but we ate most of it. We would get another meal before the flight landed.
Penni and I watched movies and slept some to pass the time. The flight was mostly uneventful, except for one event. A mother brought her toddler to the restroom and the child was having a major meltdown. Instead of going back to her seat, she sat the toddler on the floor in front of the passenger who was across the aisle from me. This child screamed and screamed, finally the guy asked the woman to take the child back to her seat and vacate his space, the husband came and the two exchanged words, it could have very easily escalated into a major problem, but they separated and the problem was over. The poor child screamed for hours, I am not sure what her problems was, but it is for sure she was unhappy, or hurting one. Thank the Lord for headphones and a TV to watch.
10 ½ hours later we land in Boston, we had downloaded the Mobile Pass App so customs, was a breeze, instead of the line with hundreds of people we went through the line with about six people. We collected our luggage, I have never seen so much luggage on a baggage belt, they had a guy restacking the belt the whole time. If you travel Internationally, I highly recommend setting up Mobile Pass.
We made our way to the App Ride area, requested an Uber and headed to Cambridge to our hotel (in the heart of MIT land). We noticed a Legal Seafood right behind our hotel. We checked in, put our luggage in our room and headed for dinner, this has been a long day, we were up before 4 am Rome time, and now it was about 8 pm Boston time, so we had been up about 16 hours when we went to dinner. We were able to go out the back door of the hotel and walk ½ block to the restaurant. Dinner was very good, but we were very tired, but I had a drink with ice in it, I was happy. Crab Cakes for dinner
We got up at 7:00pm and got an Uber back to the Airport, we checked in with Delta and headed for the gate. We find a seat and get settled, I head back to Duncan Doughnuts for something to eat, an Egg McMuffin clone. I go back to the gate and Penni goes to get something to eat, funny thing she winds up at Duncan Doughnuts also.
They are requesting all passengers in Zone 2 and above check their bags, we were in Zone 1, but we decided to see if we could check ours so we did not have to deal with them, it worked. They told us the new bag we bought in Rome was too large for a carry on so this was a good deal, we did not have to pay for this checked luggage.
We finally get to Atlanta and gather our bags, my friend Bill Smith was waiting in the cell phone lot to pick us up in my Ram. Teresa joined us at Long Horn Steakhouse and we had lunch together. Vacation is officially over.
Closing Thoughts
- A Private Driver is worth it (for long trips with luggage): Thybris (with Francesco) gets our vote
- A 1/2 or Full Day Custom Private Tour is worth the splurge (again, with Thybris)
- Best Gelato in Rome: Giollato near Trevi Fountain
- Best Restaurant: Alla Rampa
- Runner Up : La Gattia Bui
- Best Pizza: Nanarella in Trasvetere
- Best Tour of Santorini: Omega Travel – Santorini’s Best Tours
- Best Tour in Athens-Corinth – Athens Best Tours
- I give Turkish Airlines 4 Stars for Service. It would be 5 if you didn’t have to stop over on every single flight in Instanbul. It wasn’t bad, but a non-stop would be better.
Thanks for following along and for your interest as we traveled to Italy and Greece. It was fun sharing with you.