Yay! We had a day to
sleep in but an accidental alarm went off at 6am! The travel clock must have been set for a
wake-up for our last cruise! The
Commodore took it as a sign to get up on deck and take a walk…good boy! I rolled over and promptly went back to sleep
but got up an hour later and walked a couple of miles myself. They have a great track on the 18th
floor that is “spongy” and 7 times around makes a mile! The views are outstanding and we watched the
sun come up this morning.
Had a leisurely breakfast and then just enjoyed being on the
ship with very few people. We met Betty
and Don for lunch and then headed off the ship to meet our tour for Lake
Bracciano and some wine tasting.
Our guide, Jackie, was great and is British married to an
Italian. Her sense of humor was fun and
it was a nice break from having to listen so hard to guides with heavy
accents. We made our way to the Lake
which was quite lovely and found out it supplies all the Vatican’s water! There is a castle in a town on the lake which
is where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married. Apparently, Cruise paid everyone with a home
with windows that faced the castle 2000 Euros to keep their windows closed
during the wedding. Big shot. The average income for the residents is about
20,000 Euros a year so it was quite a windfall for them. He also came back a year later wanting to buy
the castle to turn it into a Scientology Center and was refused! Ha! Comprende that!!
The wine tasting was another “adventure”! Now I understand why we were allowed to drink
as much as we wanted…….it was not very tasty!
They did have some nice appetizers laid out and were quite warm and
welcoming but ……no sale for us! We
polished off the tasting with a shot of Grappa that was similar to what I
imagine jet fuel tastes like!
We arrived back at the ship about an hour before sailing and
met up with Michele and Tom who had spent the day whirling around Rome with
most of the passengers from the five other ships in port! They said it was very crowded but they got to
see everything they wanted to see and had a marvelous time! They especially loved the Sistine Chapel and
were surprised at how much smaller it was “in person”!
Dinner was fun with our new best friend waiter, Luis! He is a real character and reminds me of a
great waiter we had a few years ago named Horatio! Wickedly funny guys.
Had a chance to get a quick few minutes with a couple we met
on our first Princess Cruise in 2002! We’ve
set a date for later in the cruise to get fully caught up! We are Facebook friends so we won’t have to
reinvent the wheel!
Tomorrow is Naples!
We have a car and driver taking us down and back on the Amalfi Coast
Road. Michele and Tom will be doing a
similar trip but they will also visit Pompeii.
Another early and long day!
Time to crash…..
XOXOXO
M
This is going to be one of those need a vacation from your vacation times! A great waiter makes all the difference in the world. Still waiting to have another Horatio ourselves!
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