Rome (BC=Before Cruise)

So both Lawyer X and I have been to Rome a number of times. So we weren't in a hurry to do the forced march through Rome to see the Coliseum, the forum, the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, etc. We kind of wanted to take it easy.

The flight over was okay. LX was constantly whining about flying in economy. He's 6'5" and he always flies business class for work. But the business class seats were outrageously expensive. And as a premier executive, I could get us economy plus. And when he finally sat down in the seat he did grudgingly admit that it wasn't as awful as he thought it was going to be. Anyways, we arrived in Rome on time but then had to wait forever for my luggage (marked priority). As we would say over and over during the trip: TIB. That's Italy Baby. LX had arranged for driver for us into the city to our hotel which was really nice. Our friends whose flight was delayed ended up taking the express train and were not happy about it. LX had gotten us a room at the Sofitel in Rome and it was very, very, very nice.

After a quick disco nap, we headed out for a quick lunch down near the Spanish Steps and then LX had gotten us tickets to the Museo Borghese in the Borghese Gardens. It was blistering hot as we hiked through the gardens so spending some time in a pseudo airconditioned museum. Lots of statues and great frescos. It was very cool. Afterwards, we wandered back to the Spanish Steps and hit the Via Condatti, the premier shopping street in Rome. Home to Prada, Gucci, Hermes, etc. All high end stores. Very high end if you consider how sucky the dollar is these days as compared to the Euro.

That night we had a nice quiet dinner not far from the hotel. We mad a quick dash to see the Trevi Fountain and to get some gelatto and then we headed back to the hotel to crash. We were heading to Civitavecchia in the morning to catch the ship.