Advertisement
P1160805
Anguillara Italy on Lake Bracciano Today we have arrived in Rome – the Eternal City. This is the home of the ancient Roman Empire and the city has virtually uncountable historic structures (the Colosseum, St Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Roman Forum, numerous famous and historic churches, etc). It’s an incredible place to tour, but trying to do so during a single afternoon just could not allow anyone enough time to see it properly. Also the bus trip between the port of Civitavecchia and Rome is several hours each direction. We were fortunate to spend several amazing days exploring Rome back in 2010, so today we went somewhere else. WHAT? Yes, we took a fairly restful alternative tour today after yesterday’s strenuous excursion in Florence and before tomorrow’s long excursion (rated as Moderate) in Naples. But I’m getting ahead of the story.
The ship arrived in the port of Civitavecchia about an hour late this morning but that didn’t bother us because we were still sleeping in our cabin. The ship did a good job of getting people off and headed for their destinations quickly, so we hope Joyce and Jerry had a successful
P1160827
David & Janet at Wine Tasting departure and a safe trip back to Minnesota. As for us, we went up to the Horizon Court for breakfast about 8:00. We were surprised by how many of the passengers acted like they’d never been there before – maybe they always ate in the dining room or had room service breakfasts instead. Anyway, we got a good meal and went back to our cabin for a little while.
We were to report at 9:55 to the theater, but they were making announcements about the schedule for departing passengers was running ahead by 30 minutes, so we thought they might send off the excursions early too. We got seated next to a nice couple and started sharing stories. Before long it was indeed our turn to go ashore and we boarded our bus just before 10:00. Our guide was named Romana, which seemed appropriate from being so near Rome. We left the port and she explained that this is essentially a transportation city (goods and people) but with little other kinds of business. Civitavecchia means “old town” and comes from the fact that back in Roman days the town had been pillaged and burned to the ground, but the residents had hidden in the hills – returning to rebuild the town but calling it “old town”. At least that’s what she said.
We headed off to Lake Bracciano in the Etruscan countryside, about 20 miles northwest of Rome. It is Italy's 8
th largest lake, and is a major source of drinking water for the “Eternal City”. Even back in Roman times, it was a water reservoir for the city, being supplied through a series of aqueducts. The lake was formed by a volcanic crater eons ago, and there are still places where there are sulfur and hot water mud pools. Apparently health spas are quite popular in this region.
We went to a small town of Anguillara, which also is another popular wedding spot. This medieval town is on a peninsula sticking out into the lake. We arrived about 11:10, after driving through the Italian countryside and going through a variety of small towns along narrow 2-lane country lanes. We stopped outside a small café in the middle of this small town and were given 30 minutes to use the restroom in the café or to drink a coffee or go out and take pictures. Since it was drizzling, that made the views less that spectacular and also a bit uncomfortable to walk about town. Janet had a coffee and David tried a few pictures, but mostly we mingled and waited for the bus to return.
We drove further through the country and down out of the Etruscan hills. We reached the Casale Winery about 12:40. By then it had stopped raining but was still overcast. We went inside and were given samples of a variety of wines. We both tried the 3 white wines, Janet tried the 1 rose wine, and David tried 2 red wines. There were some which we preferred and some that were not as tasty according to our palette. It was disappointing that all they did was pour the bottles and not really explain anything about the wines – but we tasted them all anyway. We also had a selection of Italian sliced breads with olive oil, a couple of types of sliced ham, and some delicious cheese (Janet didn’t think she could possibly like Sheep Cheese, but it was very good). They also had some fresh olives. Altogether we were there about an hour.
We weren’t too far from the port and the bus returned to the ship about 2:15. By 2:30 we were back in our cabin by being able to avoid the process for dealing with newly arriving passengers. Janet felt like she had eaten enough and skipped lunch, but David went up to have a bowl of chili in the Horizon Bistro. Janet did have a cup of her Salted Carmel Strata coffee. Then we went down to the excursion desk and exchanged a couple of our tour tickets which we had pre-booked – getting something a little less challenging in a few places during the remainder of our cruise. We still have a full day scheduled for tomorrow, but we will ease off a little on the strenuous tours for the rest of the cruise.
We avoided participating in the Life Jacket Drill during the afternoon – we just stayed in our cabin. We will depend on our memory to preserve us if/when the need ever arises. In the meantime, we got to belatedly send out yesterday’s BLOG. Last week we had to go down to the Passenger Services Desk to get new stickers which identified our cruise card as valid for the beverage package in the continuation of the cruise. This time we got an envelope with new stickers for us to apply ourselves – that saved us an extra errand and a wait in line. Good job Princess!
We went to the Club-6 Lounge about 5:30 for appetizers and cocktails. Then we went down to the Allegra Dining Room. There was nobody else at our table, so once again we were eating along. About 7:00 (an hour late) two couples of Indians arrived and sat at the table next to us – they don’t seem to speak much English, so they aren’t great candidates as dinner partners. Maybe tomorrow we will get new table partners, but we will be challenged to find any tablemates as nice as Joyce and Jerry. This evening Janet had a warm spinach dip with pita chips and David had Pina Colada cold soup. We each had a Caesar Salad and then each had the grilled Pork Chops, which were huge. For dessert Janet had honeydew sorbet and David had flourless chocolate cake. We had wine with dinner and liqueurs afterwards. Jesus brought us a large bottle of water to take back to our room.
We went back to our cabin and watched a movie this evening – “Night in the Museum – Secret of the Tomb”. We have a full day’s excursion scheduled for tomorrow, so it seems like a good night’s sleep would be a good idea. That’s about all for today.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.558s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0443s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb