Day 5: Rome

So our next port was Rome, and we abandoned the group tours in favour of our own private car and driver.  We were taking Declan with us, and wanted to have the flexibility to go where we wanted and cut the day short in the unlikely, yet distinctly possible event that he might become incorrigible. Besides, I have always wanted to disembark from something and be greeted by a limo driver holding my name on the sign for a change.  Today was my day!

Our driver, Angelo, was awesome.  We were able to pack so much into the day, and he had all the hookups to skip the queues to get into the various attractions.  We could go at our own pace, and spend as much or as little time at each stop, and we were also able to go to the more authentic local restaurants for meals instead of the more touristy places that you go to in the tour groups.  So this was a much preferable method of travel for us. 

Our first stop was the Colosseum.  Hilariously when I asked Declan if I could take his picture in front of it, he reflexively put his hands up as though he were pushing up the Leaning Tower of Pisa still.  That photo session may have scarred him indefinitely.


Happily there was a new novelty photo opportunity at the Colisseum:  For a mere five Euros, a local ne'er-do-well dressed as a gladiator will terrorize your child.  A bargain at twice the price.

What's that you say?  Why are we doing this?

I'm not sure why the gladiator was pushing the stroller, but it makes me love this picture a little bit.

 Our visit to the Colisseum was somewhat hampered by their having run out of audio guides.  So we walked around without really knowing what anything was.  Here's a picture of Declan and Shane posing above the catacombs, where the trackerjackers are stored in between bouts, awaiting for the release from trap doors whenever Emporer Sebastiani scratched his nose. 

Next stop, Circus Maximus, which  Declan was very excited about considering that it's a racetrack.  Here, Shane is patiently trying to explain to a skeptical Declan that the empty field was really in fact a very interesting historical site.

Colour him unimpressed.

At the Trevi Fountain.  These pictures hide how crowded it was there- about 25 people per square foot.

Tossing a coin and wishing to return to Rome one day.  Also wishing that we had a smaller coin than a 2 Euro to throw.

Getting into the tourist spirit.

For lunch Angelo took us to a lovely rustic Italian place, where we had all of our respective Italian favourites:  Caprese salad, carpaccio and ravioli, with pizza formaggio for Declan.  We breezed through the Spanish Steps, and the plaza where Caesar was assassinated.   Then Angelo took us to the Vatican for the next part of our tour.

Day 5 part II- the Vatican

Now in the afternoon of our day in Rome, we went to an entirely different country, the Vatican.  The Vatican is the 7th country Declan has visited.  I'm not really convinced that the whole independent country thing isn't just a way to try and boost sales of souvenir stamps, because apart from the post office with an extraordinarily long lineup, there was no sign of independent statehood.  Maybe the Pope doesn't like paying Italian taxes.  The Vatican is the smallest and richest country in the world, but I'd rather live in Monaco myself.  Not much of a nightlife in the Vatican City.

Now we had arranged for a private tour guide to take us through the Vatican museum and St. Peter's, which turned out to be a stroke of genius, because she allowed us to cut to the front of a 6.5 hour lineup to enter.  Her name was something like Brenda, but I can't remember what, just that I kept accidentally calling her Brenda and she kept correcting me.  Let's call her Brenda.  She also had incredible prowess when it came to muscling through the crowds in the Vatican museum.   She was Moses and the Vatican throngs were her Red Sea.  She got us and Declan's stroller through seemingly impenetrable crowds, and for that I am grateful, but otherwise she drove. me. nuts.

Brenda had the lowest self-esteem of any tour guide I've ever met.  She was a graduate of McGill University (maybe that was her problem *snerk*) with a Master's Degree in Fine Arts.  After every bit of exposition, she would apologize "I'm boring you, I'm so sorry".  We kept saying over and over again, "no really, we are interested in learning, that's why we hired you" but, as Oprah would say, she just couldn't receive it.  "I'm talking too much, I'm going to put you to sleep".  "I bet you think I'm really boring, don't you?"  She. drove. me. nuts, I tell you.

Anyway, the Vatican Museum is in fact very interesting. There was a lot of Michelangelo sculptures scattered about, Raphael decorated a few of the rooms, Botticelli, Caravaggio, all the heavy Renaissance hitters.

This is Laocoon- or the top of him anyway.  It is one of the most important statues in the Vatican's collection, and was the very first acquisition of its collection back in 1500 something.  Obviously not quite important enough for me to bother looking through the viewfinder to make sure I was photographing the actual statue and not the wall behind it.  So I guess if you would like to see the very interesting bottom of this statue, you had better get yourself over to the Vatican. Or, you know, google it. 

This statue I got a whole picture of - now I just can't remember what it was.

My favourite part of the Vatican Museum was the Hall of Maps.  What can I say, I like maps.

After the museum, we headed into the Sistine Chapel.  It was truly impressive.   There is no photography allowed in the Sistine Chapel. 

Nothing to see here!

Thought about trying to line up the finger, but Pisa taught me that could take awhile. 

Brenda was very excited that this window was open- it is not supposed to be open- it allowed us to take an illicit picture of the Pope's back yard- his personal grounds.  It wasn't like Pope Benedict was out there playing Bocce in his underwear or anything, but Brenda insisted that this is something that not many people get to lay eyes on this, so I'm sharing it with you.  One thing that was palpable in everyone we met in the Vatican, is that Pope Benedict is generally regarded as just an "okay" Pope, a B-lister at best. 
He's no Pope John Paul, that's for sure.

 The next stop in the Vatican was St. Peter's Basilica.  It is the largest Christian church in the world.  It is so big, you can't even really tell how big it is.  Brenda would point out a dove in a stained glass window and it would have a wingspan of 33 feet, but from our vanguard on the floor it would look regular dove-size. 

This was Pope John 23.  He is regarded as a Tier One Pope.  When they exhumed him (not sure why) it turned out that he was miraculously preserved.   So now he is displayed in a glass case, where as the other dead Popes are kept under wraps.  John 23 is buried in a Santa Hat, but you can't see it very well in this picture. 

Declan doing his impression of Michelangelo's Pieta and Shane telling me with his eyes "I can't believe you are making me do this.'

Strollers weren't allowed in St. Peter's, so Declan was not strapped down for the first time in our trip to the Vatican.  He went a little nuts, running crazy in circles on the floor.  They had a big basin of holy water out so I sprinkled a little on him, just in case, and he ran even faster in circles and thrashed about until a small crowd gathered, watching him with great amusement.  I took a video of it, and the footage seems to have disappeared, but I think the tourists at St. Peter's that day enjoyed seeing the exorcism free of charge.

Shane ready to fight for his place in line. 

 Here, Shane is outside the Holy Door to St. Peter's Basilica.  This door is opened every 25 years, and whoever passes through it, receives a papal indulgence.  That's a guaranteed entrance into heaven irrespective of what heinous sins you might have committed before or after passing through that door.  Brenda said that the lineup to go through the door gets very unruly because the stakes are so high, and fisticuffs often break out.  Brenda said that you could stab your way to the front of the line and still get the indulgence as you passed through the door, but keep in mind, Brenda's no theologian, so take that into consideration when formulating your 2025 Holy Door strategy.

One more stop in the Vatican, and it was a highlight for me- the official gift shop staffed by nuns.  This place was hopping, jampacked with tourists trying to get official papal merch.  I had to wait in line a long time and the nun that helped me seemed quite harried. I really felt for her.  I myself would have been quite cheesed off if I renounced all wordly possessions to devote myself to a religious life as a Bride of Christ only to get assigned to work retail.  Nonetheless, this is where I got my only souvenir of this holiday.  My parents had given me 100 Euros for my birthday to get myself a nice souvenir, and in the 5 countries we visited this is the only thing that caught my fancy: 

It's a bottle opener emblazoned with the image of Pope John Paul II, or as I call it, my "Popener".  You'll notice Benedict XVI hasn't made it on to any official Vatican barware yet. 

Our driver then took us back to the ship, and we boarded in time for kids' club/pub trivia/keychain acquisition, and another round of Bingo, and then Dinner with Wendy.

Enthralled watching Wendy play video games.

First cheesecake.  Plamen let the kids draw right on the linen tablecloths.

Day 6: Pompeii, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and Capri

Declan amidst the ruins of Pompeii, with what's left of Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

Our next day was in the port of Naples.   Shane has been to Naples before, and didn't see much worth visiting again, so we opted to head out of town and visit some of the surrounding areas with our own car and driver again.  This time our driver was Gian Luca; he wasn't quite as awesome as Angelo, our Rome driver, but at the end of the day he gave us a bottle of Limoncello, so he wasn't all bad. First off, he took us to Pompeii, where we met up with our private tour guide, Rebecca. She was fantastic, very informed and passionate about Pompeii. There's nothing I like more than a first-rate docent. She really brought everything to life.  Besides, not only was she an excellent tour guide, Roberta also made a first-rate sherpa, shlepping our son all over Pompeii, whose cobbled streets were ill-suited for stroller travel. Shane and Roberta portaged that stroller around like a couple of French-Canadian voyageurs.

For Shane and I, Pompeii was our favourite part of our whole trip, in large part due to Roberta. For Declan, of course it remains Dinner with Wendy.  The city of Pompeii was buried under 30 feet of volcanic ash with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. This disaster effectively froze the city at a moment in time, and allows us to garner amazingly detailed insights into what life was like during the Roman Empire.  The remains have  been remarkedly well preserved, and ongoing restoration efforts are uncovering more and more of the city all the time.

Clamouring to get in to see the naughty bits.

Culturally Pompeii was remarkedly debauched.  The city is littered with houses of ill-repute, and there's always a big crowd waiting to get in to see the stunningly ribald frescoes that adorn the wall, painstakingly restored in stunning detail.  I would post pictures but my blog would lose it's PG rating.

Shane looking for ancient pizza remnants.

  Some of the exhibits are incredibly heartbreaking. The archaeologists have been able to cast any organic forms buried in the ash to show what people were doing when they were buried in ash, always trying to cover their mouths and noses. 

Another exhibit showcased a petrified dog. I had been scarred in elementary school by the short story of "The Dog of Pompeii" wherein a blind boy who relies on his dog to steal bread for him daily, somehow manages to escape the eruption of Vesuvius, but the dog, who runs back to steal more bread for his owner, gets snuffed in the ash.  My middle-school self got a little teary-eyed to see this real life version, now encased in glass.

   We bid a fond farewell to Roberta, and Gian Luca drove us along the Amalfi Coast for awhile.  One drawback to travelling in Europe in August is that that is when all the Europeans are taking holiday as well, so everything is very, very crowded.  The views were spectacular but we got caught in some pretty terrible traffic as a result, and Declan and I ended up falling asleep in the limo.  Shane tells us that the views continued to be spectacular.  Gian Luca took us to yet another fabulous Italian restaurant in Sorrento, a very beautiful seaside village, where we later caught the ferry over to the Isle of Capri.

Sorrento

The mainland from the Capri ferry

I had really been looking forward to going to Capri, as I had long been a fan of their salad and their pants, the latter of which are a blessing to the short-legged such as myself.  It turned out to be a bit of a bust, as the traffic on the way to Sorrento was so bad we only ended up with an hour to spend there.  Then on the ferry ride over Declan fell asleep, so we were really hampered by comatose kid in stroller, as well as the lack of time.  So basically Shane and I sought out a beautiful patio right by the sea and enjoyed a cold beverage and some gelato while Declan snoozed away.

This is the only picture I took on Capri, and I'm not even sure why I took it.  I think by this time I was suffering from quaint seaside village overload, and forgot to snap pics to recollect how beautiful everything is there.
Then we elbowed our way through a bunch of queue-jumping Italians to catch a ferry straight back to Naples.

Shane trying desperately to beat my Fruit Ninja score on the ferry ride back.
 I call this picture "Fruit Ninja Fail".

Day 6: Part 2, Pirate Night!

We reboarded the Disney Magic, and checked Declan into Kids' Club for our mutual period of respite, wherein Shane and I played and lost at Bingo, won a keychain at pub trivia, and then picked Declan up in time for dinner.

Tonight was Pirate Night, wherein everyone pretends to be pirates. 

Some pirates are happier than others.

 Pirate Night marks the first time I have willingly and with intent armed my son, buying him a 5 dollar sword to assist in swashbuckling.

 And swashbuckle he did.

 They set off a bunch of fireworks off of midships.  It was really spectacular, being way out in the Mediterranean, and having these fireworks go off so close to us.  It was almost magical. 

 

There was pirate dancing and character appearances and all sorts of buccaneer nonsense on deck. 

It was really a lot of fun, then back to our stateroom.  Or should I say, ARRRRRRRRR stateroom.

Avast me hearties- prepare to be boarded!  Here you can see the configuration of our close quarters. Our room steward has made up the coach into a bed for Declan to sleep on which you can see in the background, and there's the curtain seperating our bed from the "living room".

Would not de-pirate himself for bedtime.

Bathtowel origamist is really reaching now.