We don’t notice our arrival in Civitavecchia (pronounced Chivitavekia apparently). Today is our first pre-booked excursion – basically a coach trip to Rome and then 5 hours to explore. We’re up early so I eat some fruit I nabbed from the restaurant the night before, Lisa skips breakfast. We’re in the Royal Theatre at 8am and are told we’re in group 16. We get a sticker each.
We follow Maria and she guides us to the coach. The coach is much better than yesterday’s – air con, comfier seats, and no reclining twot. I complete yesterday’s blog and upload.
It takes about 1hr15 to get to the drop off. We add our names to a list and Maria tells us that she’ll walk us to the meeting point which is a shop with a WC that we can use, by special arrangement. The walk to the meeting point takes about 10mins and we see some of the Vatican en route which looks snazzy. Some priests are hanging around in a gang, laughing. This is their turf. We’re in the priest hood now.
At the meeting point we are set free and a guy is seeking open top bus tickets for €22pp. “It’s just over there” he says, pointing down the road. The map shows it covering all the main bits so we buy tickets, had to be cash of course. We explore a bit of Vatican City before heading for the bus.
We walk in the direction he pointed, and I download the app. The app never worked for the whole day btw. I study the map and find the nearest stop – other side of the river. Just over there my arse.
Somewhere an argument is happening – a woman is screeching at what is probably her husband sitting down. I film a bit and the man sees this and starts waving and smiling. I reply with a smile and a thumbs up. I hope this is not a vision of us in the future…
We find the bus stop, and a bus is there. We manage to catch it. It’s hot up on top deck. It goes to the next stop and it’s announced that this is the stop for the Spanish Steps, which Lisa has heard of so we get off. I ask a guide for directions and we’re off.
We walk down the steps. A man approaches Lisa with a rose🌹. She refuses it and we walk away saying we have hayfever. The amount of times you get harassed by street sellers is ridiculous. Maybe it’s our big orange stickers. Lisa takes to responding in French for fun. At one point I’m offered a bottle of water and say no, and a guy that sees this offers me a bottle of water seconds later.
The heat is intense today, 35degs. We stop for a diet coke. We pay, the waitress and how was everything and we say not much can go wrong with diet coke really. She smiles and says well there’s the right amount of ice, the lemon, etc. Not a bad comeback.
We head off to the Trevi Fountain which is about 10mins walk away. The heat is eating away at Lisa’s resolve. The fountain is indeed as beautiful as Holly Johnson suggested in Love Train. It is also packed and photo men clamber for attention from tourists. We take a coin each and throw backwards whilst making a wish. We don’t even know if that’s a thing, but I see someone else do it so if it wasn’t, it is now. I secretly wish that Lisa has a meltdown at some point to make today’s blog more interesting (not really). She wishes for a lottery win. We take selfies and move on, looking for a nearby bus stop.
We look for a place en route to bus stop for something to eat. Lisa starts her meltdown. “It’s gotta be somewhere in the shade”, “the ground has to be level”, “not that one the road smells” etc. I spot a place that looks cosy and authentic. My only question is “Aircon?”, The answer is yes and we’re in. Beer, lasagne for Lisa, fettuccine with chicken for me, plus grilled vegetables (basically grilled aubergine and tomatoes on a large plate). The food is very good, Lisa even tries my pasta/veg.
We leave and head for bus stop. Lisa is getting narky. Too hot and feet hurting. We wait for bus, which takes a while and the sun is even more intense. Bus finally arrives, and no space downstairs so we go up to open top deck. That sun is oppressive. At the next stop the bus stands for ages. A man is shouting up to people without hats to see if they want one. A lady relents and he frisbees up a straw hat. She scrunches a €5 note and drops it to him.
The bus eventually moves on, at the next stop some people leave and we swap seats, to gain millimetres of shade. We go past the Colliseum. Then the Pantheon. My phone switches off due to overheating.
We get back to the stop we got on and look for somewhere to have ice cream. Lisa is at peak meltdown at this point. The street sellers are getting it both barrels. One gives me a flyer for a bar and she gives him an earful then me too. We find a bar (after she rejects 3 or 4). At first she says there’s no flavours she likes, then she sees something like cookies and cream and we enquire about it. It sounds like it’s good and we stay. The ice cream is like a switch: beast mode off. I take a picture and tell her all of this is going on the blog.
We have an hour left and we head back to the Vatican and look for gifts. There’s a lot of Pope merch. I spot Pope Benedict and JP2 merch in the bargain section. They’re old news, it’s all about Pope Francesco now. He’s a rock star in these parts.
We bump into Maria, she asks where we’ve visited and she seems unimpressed. She even disses our food choices. Whatever. There’s still spare time so we go to St Peter’s Square and take more pictures. We find a fountain and fill our bottle with what must be holy water. Then back to Maria, once all back we head off for a mercifully short walk to the coach.
Once back, we decide to not go to Main Dining Hall again, but go to Wind Jammer for casual buffet dining. They do this thing where the welcome people say “washy washy handy handies” & “looking forward to yummy yummies” in a really annoying way. Everytime too, like we’re kids.
We have steak, chips and veg. I have a chicken breast and Lisa has bread rolls too.It’s ok. Then lots of desserts.
We go to see a comedian after that. He’s an old school comic and tells a Barry Cryer gag at the end in his memory. He gives the impression they were friends. He stopped halfway through his act to show a guy that was trying to leave how to open the door.
After this we go outside, take a selfie. A Beatles cover band are on in the Music Hall, which we’ve not been in. We step in, they’re good. There’s no seats so we step out. Discover there’s an upper floor to music hall on our deck with a pool table. We’re still finding stuff out. It’s 10pm and we head for bed.
Postscript: I’ve done this post in a rush in Pompeii so may add more pics later
Added pics
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