This was our day to disembark the Sea Princess and journey to Rome. To say it didn't go as planned, didn't go well, was a mess, was stressful...well, none of those phrases begin to describe how miserable it really was. After we cleared immigration onboard we were challenged immediately when we tried to actually move our luggage off the ship...the problem was that all elevators were filled with new mattresses which were being unloaded and moved to and fro through our deck. My suitcase was impounded to be moved separately and became missing shortly thereafter. Finally, we were reunited and settled ourselves outside the ship, but inside the security perimeter.
While waiting we spoke with a crew person who helps with excursion details and he advised us to move our luggage via shuttle bus to outside the port area where he said our driver would probably meet us. This was around 9:45 or so. We re-read our materials. Rather than an 11:00 target it seemed to say more likely it would be a noon pickup. At this point, I could probably get back on the ship; not so for JM...he was O.U.T. So we discussed and guessed, surmised and thought and decided to take the expert's advice. We loaded all our stuff into the shuttle and moved to the outer perimeter of the port, near a McDonalds! More waiting, watching and guessing and dragging our stuff along as we tried to figure out the best vantage point. Giving up, we figured a phone call to the company hired to meet us would be a good thing. Next problem? Find a phone and make the call. Well, that went badly too, as the phone had Italian instructions which made no sense to JM and when he was able to make a call, the number was disconnected or something similar. At this point, JM was very frustrated and I was standing with a pile of baggage in the hot sun by the side of a busy, busy road.
We moved to another spot, closer to the shuttle buses where we could go back to the Sea Princess perimeter if we needed to do that, but saw Jenene, JM's singing partner, and she commented that she saw a man with a sign saying "Beech" back at the ship. So I was sent back to the ship on the next shuttle while JM stayed with the baggage. That took awhile, but I did find him and his van held about nine other people who were crammed into it, and now about 40 minutes behind schedule. I got in and apologized profusely for holding everyone up and we jetted off to find JM and our luggage. That took awhile, too, but finally we were reunited and headed to Rome.
The drive to Rome was without incident...nice highway, and quiet as our driver spoke no English. Couldn't tell if the other passengers were English speakers, disgusted, or asleep! JM and I were in the front seat with him; we were all on physically friendly terms I guess you could say. Once in the city, he had been given instructions to just drop us someplace pretty far away from our B&B, but we asked for door to door service and he complied and we tipped him generously as a result.
Once at the B&B we rang the bell on the door of the building, but soon realized no one was there. We couldn't get in and it is an apartment building with a locked access door to the foyer. What to do? A woman came out shortly and didn't close the door all the way so in we went with all of our luggage. We drew straws and I lost and walked up about a hundred steps to the apartment/B&B on the 4th floor. I knocked and rang, but no one was answering. I found the lift and got back down to JM. We fussed a bit more and decided to move our luggage up and as we completed that task, our hostess arrived and let us in. She is charming and her name is Maria. Maria needed to make up our room, but made us comfortable with snacks and cool drinks while we planned our next moves.
We wandered about our new neighborhood which is just beautiful and very convenient to shops, the Pope, and gelato...what more do we need? But later we decided to do the Night Walk and to get bus tickets to the starting point. The bus station is a very short walk from us and we, of course, ran into more problems; the machine wouldn't take our euro note after repeated tries and many not nice words from JM. After giving up we went to the Bus Station Help Desk, but he spoke no English and that was hopeless as we couldn't make ourselves understood at all.
We walked every bit of it, probably a couple of miles, took a thousand pictures or more, and went to sleep very tired, very confused and praying ... a lot...for a better day tomorrow.
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