Rome was Wonderful

So, Lesley, Carol and I dilly-dallied around until late morning on Wednesday, before leaving the ship to take the train to Rome. We got on the high-speed train and reached Rome in about 45 minutes. We took a cab to the fabulous Hotel Raphael. The rooms were fabulous -- we were upgraded to suites.

Then we took off to explore Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We walked to all of the places and then back to the room where I took a nice bath in the big bathtub, We then went across town to meet Judy at the Trattoria Monti. This was a very nice place. We were seven for dinner and the waiter recommended the special appetizers and then we ordered mostly just a pasta dish each. Very delicioso!

On Thursday, we took a cab to the Colisseum were we hooked up with two American girls who were selling tours. We were so charmed by their California accents (one was from Bakersfield), that we signed up. The guide was such a character, she must have been Italian, but she had some sort of strange accent. She had the men acting out the gladiator fights. That was fun.

Then we hiked up the Palantine Hill and down through the Forum. Then went to the Castel d'Angelo to see the wonderful bridge. Back to the hotel to get our bags and then to the Termini. We had to stand in line for about 20 minutes, so missed the high speed trains. The train took more like an hour to get back to Civitavecchia and we barely made the last bus to the ship! Exciting.

More later.

Edited to add the photo which is a view from the roof of our hotel in Rome!