Arrivederci Roma

The seaport for Roma is called Civitivecchia (spell checker hates that one!), and is actually about 90 minutes away by bus. Meg managed to get us on the crew bus for $20 each, so we had to sit on chicken crates in an open truck (actually, it was an air-conditioned Mercedes with leather seats…) It was amazing to see this nearly-3000 year old city with a tour guide. Drove by the Coliseum, walked through the old city, visited the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain, then to the Vatican for about 2 hours. The Pope was in, but we did not slobber on his ring. We had an excellent pizza lunch just a block or so away, then got in the huge lineup to enter St Peters Basilica. This is one enormous and beautiful church – the biggest Christian church in the world. Made of marble, with priceless paintings, statues, gold leaf, etc. Absolutely awesome. Then we re-boarded the bus and made our way through the 5 million people who live in Rome and got back “home” in time for another badly-needed meal…

We sailed next to the Island of Corsica and woke up at the cute little city of Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon. We did not take a tour here – we just wanted to walk around at our leisure. Naturally a beer at a sidewalk café was in order, and we did sample some treats for our last stop on French soil.

Friday was a sea day en route to our last med stop at Malaga, Spain. We passed close to the island of Mallorca and enjoyed another day of near perfect weather. So far the weather has blessed us. The first night was a bit bumpy and windy, and the next morning we had salt crystals all over the balcony furniture. One other night started out bumpy but calmed down quickly. It has been cool enough in the mornings (around 12-15 degrees) that most people dress warmly, but we normally ended up in shirtsleeve by mid-afternoon as the temperature neared or passed 20.

As I am writing this, we are docking at Malaga. This is our last port before arriving in New York, so we will get out for some self-guided sightseeing and shopping. Tune in later for our next update and descriptions of the eating, drinking, entertainment and activities on this fine ship. Meanwhile, you can see a lot of it for yourself by browsing to www.ncl.com and clicking on the “Ships” button. Select Norwegian Gem from the drop-down menu and you can see pictures of the various areas of the ship – even a web cam which gives a view forward from the ship. Naturally, the view will be kind of boring for the next week, but the option is there.