Last night, we dined once again on the Campo de’ Fiori at a different restaurant. You would have to be here for a month to sample each of the eateries around this square. This is definitely a happening place, most of the day and most of the night. As we explored further, we discovered there is also a lot of good affordable shopping in the area.
Yesterday there was a lot of helicopter activity over the city related to a number of things. The Italians, it turns out, are as good as the French at protesting. As they were setting up for a big bike race around the Coliseum today and disrupting traffic, there was a protest about traffic problems, which further screwed up transportation. Interesting! Apparently there were 3 major disruptions in traffic this week, which is not so good in an already congested city.
Sunday morning we packed up, vacated our room and then went out to the Campo for an American breakfast – really just eggs and toast. Then we strolled around our neighbourhood for a final time, soaking up the local ambience and decided that the
Romans are not pedestrian friendly. Lots of places to walk, but most of the roads are without sidewalks and at any time, one could get seriously creamed by a crazy Roman motorist.
Our private Mercedes picked us up at 12:45 and drove us the hour and a bit to the port. Once there we were able to immediately board and have lunch. You know, ever since our doctor branded us as “foodies”, I’ve been thinking that maybe we ARE a little different when it comes to culinary tastes - more about that later.
When we booked, we opted for a picture window verses the more expensive balcony, due to our travel agent’s advice – given a different port almost every morning. I’m pretty happy about that advice and we’re very pleased about the size and storage capabilities of our stateroom. The ship seems to have all of the amenities of a bigger ship without all the extra bodies. We did the orientation and the muster drill – re: sinking – and then went for dinner.
Our sommelier already sees me as a worthy adversary. We ate in the Grand Dining Room tonight and found the menu as impressive as any starred restaurant we’ve visited. We had a very impressive multi-course meal with excellent Californian wines – American cruise ship wouldn’t you know. The courses were outstanding: appetizers of goat cheese without golden delicious apples tart tatin and a melon and grapefruit flower; salads with blue cheese and walnuts and olives and capers and arugula; mains of veal medallions with crab and asparagus and Thai fish and seafood with basmati rice; and dessert of vanilla crème brulee and milk chocolate tart with fresh fruit sorbet. We didn’t finish either the white or red wines, but they will show up at dinner tomorrow – BONUS! The service was a little American prompt, but the food was fabulous.
Following dinner we went to the first entertainment, which was brief, but introduced us to the variety of wonderful entertainers they have on board. We took a break from this and tried to Skype Canada. Due to lack of broadband on board (satellite), the call didn’t go very well, but we did have a picture.
Back in our stateroom, we felt no indication that we were on the water – very good. I finished this version of the blog and tomorrow we dock in Monaco at 9:00 in the morning.
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