We are now further north and the weather is rather cool. No more sunbathing. Even the walks around the deck are just for the brave and daring souls, all bundled up.
Today’s tour lasted nine hours. Our ship was docked at Chivitavecchia, so it was about a two hour bus ride through beautiful Italian countryside to Rome. The Catacombs of Domitilla, which we visited were on the far side, another half hour’s drive. They are among the most extensive in that area containing an underground Basilica and about 17 kilometers of galleries and corridors spread over four different levels, with almost 150,000 burials. All the bones have been removed from there, because tourists were taking some of them home as aouvenirs.
In addition to admiring the frescos and the wealth of Christian symbols in this ancient cemetery, I was also impressed by the magnificent engineering skills and the mastery of the workers who planned and carved out this huge labyrinth of underground passages, working only with the aid of oil lamps.
A lot of people speak about how claustrophobic these catacombs are. I didn’t find this the case, thank goodness.
Our next stop was a surprise for me, because it wasn’t mentioned in the trip description. We visited Castel Gandolfo, which is the summer residence of the Pope. It is located in the quaint little walled town of Gandolfo. It looks like a very peaceful place and the view onto the nearby lake is spectacular. The gardens of the Castle are magnificent, according to the pictures I saw, but no tourists are allowed in – only the pope, his guests and the gardeners.
Our final stop was at a farm-winery-restaurant. The host was very friendly and we were greeted with Antipasto and wine. Then we were treated to a demonstration of how to make pasta gnocchi. We were invited to participate in the making of it, but no one volunteered. Thank goodness, because this was going to be a part of our meal and I didn’t fancy the thought of eating something that several tourists had put their hands into.
Our meal was a plentiful garden salad, lasagne, gnocchi with a lovely tomato sauce, bread and wine followed by a very tasty tiramisu – probably the best I have ever tasted—and another type of pastry with a strong coffee. Most enjoyable.
Then of course, we were faced with the long drive back. Just as we arrived at the dock entrance, a bunch of policemen, ( five to be precise – in two cars) stopped our bus and started giving our driver the once over. He had to produce all his papers as well as the log disk of the number of hours he has driven without a rest. As it turned out, on April first, he had driven 8 hours without stopping. For this he was fined, and after a lot of hemming and hawing and filling out forms, we were allowed to continue on our way. This delayed our return by almost a half an hour. Pedestrians are not allowed to walk around in the dock area, so even though we could see our ship, we had to sit there and wait. We had skipped the bathroom break a half hour before because we were all anxious to get back fast, and now many of the passengers were wishing we hadn’t. Such is life ! ! ! We arrived back shortly before six.
All in all, it was a very good tour. Not too much was crammed in one day, but what we saw was very interesting and I for one slept quite a bit on the bus. Upon our return, I was raring to take a shower and go dancing , and that is exactly what I did. I didn’t stay to the bitter end though. I left to go to bed when the band took its last break at 10:30. The dance hosts looked rather tired and we ladies took pity on them. If there is no one there, they can leave.
Our next two stops are in Cartagena and Cadiz, Spain and the last stop is in Madeira, Portugal on April 19th. After that we have six days on the Atlantic Ocean and then this wonderful voyage is over. I’m not planning on taking any tours in Spain and Portugal, because I’ve been there before. I’ll get off the ship with some of the others and wander around, get a taste of the atmosphere and practise my Spanish.
I should arrive home in the late afternoon of April 27th. See you soon.
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