Naxos At 7:30 we were awaked by the rumble of the anchor chain as the ship moored off the coast of Sicily. We watched from our balcony as the tenders were lowered into the water and the ship’s “dock” was set up. When that was over, we dressed and headed up to the breakfast buffet. […]
Italy 2004 – Day 12
Pompeii We woke up at 7:00 for our second day in Sorrento. We had talked to a few people the night before who had been on the Pompeii tour and had a good time. I checked at the tour desk to see if there was room on that tour for this day. There was, and […]
Italy 2004 – Day 11
Sorrento Our room-service breakfast was scheduled to be delivered between 7:00 and 7:30. I got up at 7:00, and breakfast came 15 minutes later. While Chris snuggled beneath her comforter, the waiter set up breakfast on our balcony: table cloth, carafe of coffee, salt and pepper shakers, sweetener, and cream. Then came the real breakfast: […]
Italy 2004 – Day 10
Rome, Civitavecchia, Cruise My research the day before had told me the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel would open at 8:45 this day. It also said reservations were not necessary. We got up at 7:00, ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed toward the Vatican. We took the Metro from Piazza della Republica to Ottaviano […]
Italy 2004 – Day 9
Rome I got up at 5:30 and asked Chris if she wanted to come with me to the Forum. She didn’t. I walked down via Cavour to the Forum, about three quarters of a mile. All of the gates to the forum were closed and locked, so I set up the tripod and took pictures […]
Italy 2004 – Day 8
Florence to Rome We got up when the alarm chimed and packed up our suitcases. I was surprised at how long it took to move items from our closet and drawers into our three suitcases and two carry-on bags. When we were done, we ate a big breakfast downstairs, checked out of the hotel and […]
Italy 2004 – Day 7
Florence I got up at 5:40 to get some more crowd-free photos. My first stop was the Mercato Nuovo – the leather-goods market – where we had seen a brass fountain in the form of a life-sized boar. Tourists pet the boar’s snout, place a coin it its mouth, then let the coin fall into […]
Italy 2004 – Day 6
Florence We were going to try to climb the dome again. We wanted to be there around 8:30, so I had set the alarm for 7:15. It was tough to get up, but we made it. We put on reasonably nice clothes (since we were going to a church), ate breakfast, and headed towards the […]
Italy 2004 – Day 5
Florence We got up at 7:30 so we could eat breakfast and arrive at the entrance to the Duomo dome by 8:30. Our guidebook said that’s when it opened, and it was the best time to get there to avoid long lines. When we got there, the door was closed, and there was a sign […]
Italy 2004 – Day 4
Florence We both woke up around 4:00am, and it took us a while to get back to sleep, but we did. At 5:30, my alarm went off and we pulled ourselves from bed, put on our clothes, grabbed the cameras and tripod, and set out for some dawn photography. We took pre-dawn pictures of the […]