Saturday in Rome

Meet Marlene and Lyle Snow my sister and brother in law. They arrived at the hotel shortly after we completed the last blog. We welcomed them with a bottle of Lambrusco on the balcony which you saw yesterday. After an early dinner in the hotel dining room we retired around 8PM for 12 hours of sleep. The next morning after a buffet breakfast we were ready for a day of adventure in Rome. As you see by the photo the forecast was for rain but the umbrellas were never opened.

After taking the hotel shuttle downtown we headed for the underground and bought a day ticket. Marlene got caught in the closing door but we managed to transfer lines and came up to ground level at the Colesso stop.

We were approached by an English speaker who suggested a guide for 12 Euros. We agreed and had a wonderful one hour tour of the Colliseum which was built in 64 AD and seated 70,000 people who could empty the place in 20 minutes as there were 80 entrances and stairs that served the three levels.

Ater touring the Colliseum we were treated to a contiuation of the tour by another guide who took us up Palatine Hill where Romulus founded Rome and saw the ruins of Demeteran's once acre palace.

The guide shared a lot of stories that were humorous. Over Palantine Hill was the forum and on the way to the forum we looked for a toilet.

We then took a rest and looked at the ruins of the Forum which originally had 16 arches and many buildings. Now there are only three victory arches left including then Constintine Arch.

Our next adventure was to get on the Green Line double decker bus that gave us a 90 minute surface road tour of Rome stopping 11 times allowing people to disembark and explore the sites.

Our favorites were the Trevi fountain and the Spainish Steps ..

It is now Sunday morning and I think I gave you a pretty quick tour of Roman Highlights. The port where we board our Cruise is about 75 minutes from the hotel. We have contracted the same driver and car that brought from the airport to take us to the ship. He is coming in less than an hour at 12:30 PM. We plan to board and enjoy an embarkation buffet. So our next post will come after we have boarded the Noorsdam, the Holland American Cruise ship..

Bon Journ o

Dick