Has anyone else taken the Roman Death March Excursion?
Jul 30th, 2007, 02:54 PM
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Has anyone else taken the Roman Death March Excursion?
THE SAVVY OLD LADY’S EUROPEAN ADVENTURE.
THE ROMAN DEATH MARCH!
Travel Blog By
The Savvy Old Lady©
Several years ago The Crabby Old Guy was planning a business meeting in Europe and much to my surprise he decided that after his meeting was finished the family should meet him in Europe for a vacation. This sounded absolutely fabulous to me but the question where should we start was almost mind boggling. Three of our five children (ages 16, 18 and 21) were trying to decide which country they wanted to visit. Big surprise all five of us had a different country in mind and a completely different itinerary planned.
Okay, so once again it was time for The Savvy Old Lady to rein them all in and plan a vacation that we all could live with and enjoy. Since we all loved to cruise, what better way for us to see Europe as a family for the first time than a Mediterranean Cruise? The way I figured it out was a European Cruise would give us a sampling of at least six different countries and at a future date we could return to our favorite places and do a more in depth land tour of that particular country. So Mom went surfing on the web and found a perfect cruise for us on Holland America’s ROTTERDAM. The cruise would start two days after The Crabby Old Guy’s meeting ended We would then leave from Barcelona and finish in Venice. Wow, it was as if the cruising gods were smiling on me as I quickly booked the cruise. Little did I know then that our European cruise would rival National Lampoon’s: European Vacation storyline.
Since I could probably write a book detailing our adventurous cruise I have decided for the sake of brevity (or maybe sanity) to write it in installments. So get ready folks for a roller coaster ride on The Savvy Old Lady’s : European Vacation.
Once we boarded the ship in Barcelona and after a sumptuous luncheon buffet we decided to go to the touring desk and book our excursions. The first excursion, which we all immediately agreed on was the tour of Rome and Vatican City. Yahoo, for once we all agreed on the same thing, just maybe this cruise would work out beautifully for all of us. Hmmm, did I forget to mention that Murphy and his laws were also sailing with us?
The day for our Roman excursion came and we all appeared at 7AM sharp in the ship’s theater awaiting our placement on one of the buses. Now let me preface this story, the ship’s brochure described this little jaunt as a six hour tour of Rome and Vatican City with a private viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum and for the small price of $100.00+ per person, lunch was included. It also said maximum two miles of walking. NO PROBLEMO! As we stood in line the tour guide walked over to my daughter and mentioned that her skirt was just a little above her knees and it could possibly cause a problem for her getting into the Vatican. My daughter immediately went back to the room and changed into a longer skirt. We already knew that if you were wearing a sleeveless top you had to have a sweater or something covering your shoulders otherwise you were not permitted into Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Okay, we are now on the bus driving through the beautiful Italian countryside (all ships dock in Cittiavechia, 2 hours from Rome) excitingly awaiting our new adventure. Our first stop in Rome was the beautiful Trevi Fountain. When I saw it all I could do was think of that great movie “Three Coins in the Fountain”. I just couldn’t believe I was now standing there waiting to toss in my coin. Oh, Yes I wanted to return to Rome someday. Tradition has it that you must throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder (which means your back is to the fountain) and your wish will come true. Now for some reason the day that we were there the fountain was roped off (I guess they didn’t want the tourists swimming in it.) and we had to stand about 15 feet from the fountain. The Italians are not stupid I must have spent at least $10 in coins until my coin finally reached its target. My family was laughing so hard because this Savvy Old lady was not going to leave until her coin went kerplunk...splash. Next time I go I swear I’m going to bring a few rolls of pennies.
Next stops were the Coliseum, the Roman Ruins and three hours of walking around Rome and standing closely together in the broiling August sun. I never thought about it before but the hot sun glaring off the tons of marble surrounding us was enough to give a Roman Gladiator heat stroke. Thank God I was wearing comfortable shoes. If only I could find a seat to sit down for a minute or two but oh no, Mr. Chips, or maybe I should say Mr. Giovanni, our tour guide had us off and walking and walking and walking and I kid you not, I’m sure this Italian man must have kissed the Blarney Stone at some point in his life because the man didn’t speak in paragraphs but instead in volumes about each sight we passed.
We now found ourselves at Vatican City. Mr. Giovanni gave us all a half hour’s break to visit the gift shop. I didn’t complain since it was air conditioned and I love to shop. My daughter and I were just leaving the store and crossing the little road to enter the official Vatican property when I remembered a movie (I think it was with Ingrid Bergman) where the main character has one foot on the street and the other on the sidewalk and says something like...I have each one of my feet in another country. Okay, so you’re laughing but I do appreciate trivia every now and then. However, as I was trying to tell this to my daughter she kept trying to interrupt me which let me tell you when I’m on a roll there is no stopping me. Finally, she grabbed my arm and jerked me onto the sidewalk. “What’s going on?” Mom, she said “look behind you”. Oops, I almost got run over by President Bush’s limousine complete with 6 Secret Service men running next to his car! “Hi Mr. President it’s The Savvy Old Lady.” Whoosh,...now you see him and now you don’t. Dang, all I got was a scowl from one of the agents, not even a peek at the President and Mrs. Bush, bet they didn’t have Mr. Giovanni as a tour guide!
As we approached Saint Peter’s Basilica the Pontifical Swiss Guards were checking everyone entering. My daughter quickly put on her sweater to cover her shoulders as we watched scene after scene of little old ladies trying to enter with uncovered shoulders. One innovative soul even found a black plastic garbage bag and wrapped it around her bare shoulders. Nope, no garbage bags allowed in church. We proceeded inside and stood in absolute awe at the magnificence of the Basilica. Until you actually go there you can’t imagine how spectacular it is. I looked sadly at Michelangelo’s incredible “Pieta” as it was now enclosed in bullet proof glass and remembered years before when I had seen it up close at the New York World’s Fair. Yes, sadly the times they are a changin’. Still Mr. Giovanni took us through every nook and cranny, talking and talking and talking.
Yeah! We finally got back on the bus...ah, a seat, my poor back and feet were crying out in pain. Wait a minute, Mr. Giovanni just said it would be a two minute bus ride into a parking terminal. We were now going to have the private tour of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum that is set up only for cruise passengers on excursions. Really how long could that take? As we were getting off the bus Mr. Giovanni saw that my daughter was carrying her sweater and told her she no longer needed it and to leave it on the bus. Slowly we all filed into a private entrance of the Vatican. I was now getting really excited about entering The Sistine Chapel and didn’t notice that my daughter and I somehow got separated from The Crabby Old Guy and my sons. Oh well, we were all going to the same place and I knew we would meet up soon. The Diva (my pet name for my daughter) and I passed The Swiss guards at the door to the Chapel and quickly made our way to the center of the room. As the two of us were staring up at the ceiling totally enthralled with Michelangelo’s creation I could hear loud voices being raised in the background. Wow, something sure must have gone wrong for someone. As I looked at the door I could see a young Swiss Guard screaming in Italian at someone. How embarrassing, for that poor person...wait a minute he’s pointing at The Diva and me. What did we do wrong, we weren’t even talking? The next thing I knew the young guard rushed into the room and grabbed my daughter’ arm and escorted her out of the Chapel. Of course, Mom was flying out there right behind them but not understanding a word the man was saying. Finally another guard told us in broken English my daughter could not enter the Sistine Chapel without something covering her shoulders. I tried to explain we were told by our tour guide that it wasn’t necessary on a private tour but the two guards wouldn’t budge. Okay, picture this little scenario...my daughter is now in tears, our tour group is moving along through the Chapel to the exit and the only way to follow them is through a door on the other side of the Sistine Chapel which we can’t enter. Quickly I ran back into the chapel and found the first woman I could see who was carrying her sweater and pleaded with her to please let me borrow it just long enough to get my daughter through one door and out the other. Another tour guide on hearing my plight offered me her scarf which would work just fine and off I went to rescue my daughter. Word must have been spreading quickly throughout the room about the poor little American girl who was being held hostage by the Swiss Guards. Finally it got to the ears of The Crabby Old Guy and the boys. As the Diva and I were rushing through the Chapel, Dad came over and asked what happened. After giving him a quick heads up and explaining she was told not to bring her sweater by the tour guide, both the Diva and I headed for the exit. Now finally breathing a sigh of relief , standing outside the Chapel, I could hear a rather loud exchange of words going on again in the Chapel only this time it was in two languages in half-English and half-Italian. “What now?” I thought. Oops, I began to recognize one of the voices, it was The Crabby Old Guy. Now my dear sweet Hubby is all Sicilian and although he is not fluent in the Italian language, he can get his point across, in this case it was being made to our dear Mr. Giovanni. Really with all the animated hand gestures that the two of them were using they could have communicated using sign language alone which would have been preferable in my humble opinion. The gist of what I was hearing would have had me hysterically laughing if the Diva weren’t standing right next to me. The poor kid was so mortified she wanted to crawl into one of the thousand year old cracks in the floor to hide. Mr. Giovanni was very loudly saying that in all the years that he had been giving tours through the Sistine Chapel he had never ever had any female member stopped for not covering her shoulders. Therefore, (leave it to Italian logic and you’re gonna love this one and I swear it’s the truth) the fault for what happened lay with our daughter. Yes, since she was so, so beautiful, the young Swiss Guard couldn’t stop staring at her. Now in all fairness to Mr. Giovanni’s interesting logic I saw at least a dozen women in the Chapel with bare shoulders and nothing was said to them. Why pick on the Diva...well Italian logic I suppose? But I must say I will never be able to see a picture of the Sistine Chapel again without having a big smile appear on my face! Somehow, I think Michelangelo was looking down on this scene and hysterically laughing.
Finally we started our tour of the Museum, for two and a half hours we walked and stood and I thought I would die from sheer exhaustion. Oh well, all I could think was maybe they’ll bury me in Saint Peter’s tomb and save the old boy from having to ship (no pun intended) the body home.
At long last we headed back to the bus. The ride back to the ship was quite different from the ride to Rome. Early this morning voices were animated and excited, now everyone was just totally exhausted and a bit frustrated by the long day. The Crabby Old Guy sat next to me still stewing over his little exchange with Mr. Giovanni. The Diva was completely mortified and refused to look at or talk to anyone and my two sons kept saying if they never saw another piece of marble again in their whole lives it would be too soon. As I quietly sat there, I could hear some of the passengers try to estimate how much we did walk on that tour, the general consensus seemed to be ten to twelve miles walking and 8 ½ hours touring.
So Folks, whenever you book a shore excursion, be very careful to question a reliable source regarding the true amount of walking and physical activity you need for any excursion you may take. As we finally got to the air conditioned ship and were standing at the elevator I overheard a gentleman loudly say: “Rome wasn’t built in one day; nor was it meant to be seen in one day.” Amen to that!
Stay Savvy! Hugs,
The Savvy Old Lady (C)
wwww.thesavvyoldlady.com
THE ROMAN DEATH MARCH!
Travel Blog By
The Savvy Old Lady©
Several years ago The Crabby Old Guy was planning a business meeting in Europe and much to my surprise he decided that after his meeting was finished the family should meet him in Europe for a vacation. This sounded absolutely fabulous to me but the question where should we start was almost mind boggling. Three of our five children (ages 16, 18 and 21) were trying to decide which country they wanted to visit. Big surprise all five of us had a different country in mind and a completely different itinerary planned.
Okay, so once again it was time for The Savvy Old Lady to rein them all in and plan a vacation that we all could live with and enjoy. Since we all loved to cruise, what better way for us to see Europe as a family for the first time than a Mediterranean Cruise? The way I figured it out was a European Cruise would give us a sampling of at least six different countries and at a future date we could return to our favorite places and do a more in depth land tour of that particular country. So Mom went surfing on the web and found a perfect cruise for us on Holland America’s ROTTERDAM. The cruise would start two days after The Crabby Old Guy’s meeting ended We would then leave from Barcelona and finish in Venice. Wow, it was as if the cruising gods were smiling on me as I quickly booked the cruise. Little did I know then that our European cruise would rival National Lampoon’s: European Vacation storyline.
Since I could probably write a book detailing our adventurous cruise I have decided for the sake of brevity (or maybe sanity) to write it in installments. So get ready folks for a roller coaster ride on The Savvy Old Lady’s : European Vacation.
Once we boarded the ship in Barcelona and after a sumptuous luncheon buffet we decided to go to the touring desk and book our excursions. The first excursion, which we all immediately agreed on was the tour of Rome and Vatican City. Yahoo, for once we all agreed on the same thing, just maybe this cruise would work out beautifully for all of us. Hmmm, did I forget to mention that Murphy and his laws were also sailing with us?
The day for our Roman excursion came and we all appeared at 7AM sharp in the ship’s theater awaiting our placement on one of the buses. Now let me preface this story, the ship’s brochure described this little jaunt as a six hour tour of Rome and Vatican City with a private viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum and for the small price of $100.00+ per person, lunch was included. It also said maximum two miles of walking. NO PROBLEMO! As we stood in line the tour guide walked over to my daughter and mentioned that her skirt was just a little above her knees and it could possibly cause a problem for her getting into the Vatican. My daughter immediately went back to the room and changed into a longer skirt. We already knew that if you were wearing a sleeveless top you had to have a sweater or something covering your shoulders otherwise you were not permitted into Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Okay, we are now on the bus driving through the beautiful Italian countryside (all ships dock in Cittiavechia, 2 hours from Rome) excitingly awaiting our new adventure. Our first stop in Rome was the beautiful Trevi Fountain. When I saw it all I could do was think of that great movie “Three Coins in the Fountain”. I just couldn’t believe I was now standing there waiting to toss in my coin. Oh, Yes I wanted to return to Rome someday. Tradition has it that you must throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder (which means your back is to the fountain) and your wish will come true. Now for some reason the day that we were there the fountain was roped off (I guess they didn’t want the tourists swimming in it.) and we had to stand about 15 feet from the fountain. The Italians are not stupid I must have spent at least $10 in coins until my coin finally reached its target. My family was laughing so hard because this Savvy Old lady was not going to leave until her coin went kerplunk...splash. Next time I go I swear I’m going to bring a few rolls of pennies.
Next stops were the Coliseum, the Roman Ruins and three hours of walking around Rome and standing closely together in the broiling August sun. I never thought about it before but the hot sun glaring off the tons of marble surrounding us was enough to give a Roman Gladiator heat stroke. Thank God I was wearing comfortable shoes. If only I could find a seat to sit down for a minute or two but oh no, Mr. Chips, or maybe I should say Mr. Giovanni, our tour guide had us off and walking and walking and walking and I kid you not, I’m sure this Italian man must have kissed the Blarney Stone at some point in his life because the man didn’t speak in paragraphs but instead in volumes about each sight we passed.
We now found ourselves at Vatican City. Mr. Giovanni gave us all a half hour’s break to visit the gift shop. I didn’t complain since it was air conditioned and I love to shop. My daughter and I were just leaving the store and crossing the little road to enter the official Vatican property when I remembered a movie (I think it was with Ingrid Bergman) where the main character has one foot on the street and the other on the sidewalk and says something like...I have each one of my feet in another country. Okay, so you’re laughing but I do appreciate trivia every now and then. However, as I was trying to tell this to my daughter she kept trying to interrupt me which let me tell you when I’m on a roll there is no stopping me. Finally, she grabbed my arm and jerked me onto the sidewalk. “What’s going on?” Mom, she said “look behind you”. Oops, I almost got run over by President Bush’s limousine complete with 6 Secret Service men running next to his car! “Hi Mr. President it’s The Savvy Old Lady.” Whoosh,...now you see him and now you don’t. Dang, all I got was a scowl from one of the agents, not even a peek at the President and Mrs. Bush, bet they didn’t have Mr. Giovanni as a tour guide!
As we approached Saint Peter’s Basilica the Pontifical Swiss Guards were checking everyone entering. My daughter quickly put on her sweater to cover her shoulders as we watched scene after scene of little old ladies trying to enter with uncovered shoulders. One innovative soul even found a black plastic garbage bag and wrapped it around her bare shoulders. Nope, no garbage bags allowed in church. We proceeded inside and stood in absolute awe at the magnificence of the Basilica. Until you actually go there you can’t imagine how spectacular it is. I looked sadly at Michelangelo’s incredible “Pieta” as it was now enclosed in bullet proof glass and remembered years before when I had seen it up close at the New York World’s Fair. Yes, sadly the times they are a changin’. Still Mr. Giovanni took us through every nook and cranny, talking and talking and talking.
Yeah! We finally got back on the bus...ah, a seat, my poor back and feet were crying out in pain. Wait a minute, Mr. Giovanni just said it would be a two minute bus ride into a parking terminal. We were now going to have the private tour of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum that is set up only for cruise passengers on excursions. Really how long could that take? As we were getting off the bus Mr. Giovanni saw that my daughter was carrying her sweater and told her she no longer needed it and to leave it on the bus. Slowly we all filed into a private entrance of the Vatican. I was now getting really excited about entering The Sistine Chapel and didn’t notice that my daughter and I somehow got separated from The Crabby Old Guy and my sons. Oh well, we were all going to the same place and I knew we would meet up soon. The Diva (my pet name for my daughter) and I passed The Swiss guards at the door to the Chapel and quickly made our way to the center of the room. As the two of us were staring up at the ceiling totally enthralled with Michelangelo’s creation I could hear loud voices being raised in the background. Wow, something sure must have gone wrong for someone. As I looked at the door I could see a young Swiss Guard screaming in Italian at someone. How embarrassing, for that poor person...wait a minute he’s pointing at The Diva and me. What did we do wrong, we weren’t even talking? The next thing I knew the young guard rushed into the room and grabbed my daughter’ arm and escorted her out of the Chapel. Of course, Mom was flying out there right behind them but not understanding a word the man was saying. Finally another guard told us in broken English my daughter could not enter the Sistine Chapel without something covering her shoulders. I tried to explain we were told by our tour guide that it wasn’t necessary on a private tour but the two guards wouldn’t budge. Okay, picture this little scenario...my daughter is now in tears, our tour group is moving along through the Chapel to the exit and the only way to follow them is through a door on the other side of the Sistine Chapel which we can’t enter. Quickly I ran back into the chapel and found the first woman I could see who was carrying her sweater and pleaded with her to please let me borrow it just long enough to get my daughter through one door and out the other. Another tour guide on hearing my plight offered me her scarf which would work just fine and off I went to rescue my daughter. Word must have been spreading quickly throughout the room about the poor little American girl who was being held hostage by the Swiss Guards. Finally it got to the ears of The Crabby Old Guy and the boys. As the Diva and I were rushing through the Chapel, Dad came over and asked what happened. After giving him a quick heads up and explaining she was told not to bring her sweater by the tour guide, both the Diva and I headed for the exit. Now finally breathing a sigh of relief , standing outside the Chapel, I could hear a rather loud exchange of words going on again in the Chapel only this time it was in two languages in half-English and half-Italian. “What now?” I thought. Oops, I began to recognize one of the voices, it was The Crabby Old Guy. Now my dear sweet Hubby is all Sicilian and although he is not fluent in the Italian language, he can get his point across, in this case it was being made to our dear Mr. Giovanni. Really with all the animated hand gestures that the two of them were using they could have communicated using sign language alone which would have been preferable in my humble opinion. The gist of what I was hearing would have had me hysterically laughing if the Diva weren’t standing right next to me. The poor kid was so mortified she wanted to crawl into one of the thousand year old cracks in the floor to hide. Mr. Giovanni was very loudly saying that in all the years that he had been giving tours through the Sistine Chapel he had never ever had any female member stopped for not covering her shoulders. Therefore, (leave it to Italian logic and you’re gonna love this one and I swear it’s the truth) the fault for what happened lay with our daughter. Yes, since she was so, so beautiful, the young Swiss Guard couldn’t stop staring at her. Now in all fairness to Mr. Giovanni’s interesting logic I saw at least a dozen women in the Chapel with bare shoulders and nothing was said to them. Why pick on the Diva...well Italian logic I suppose? But I must say I will never be able to see a picture of the Sistine Chapel again without having a big smile appear on my face! Somehow, I think Michelangelo was looking down on this scene and hysterically laughing.
Finally we started our tour of the Museum, for two and a half hours we walked and stood and I thought I would die from sheer exhaustion. Oh well, all I could think was maybe they’ll bury me in Saint Peter’s tomb and save the old boy from having to ship (no pun intended) the body home.
At long last we headed back to the bus. The ride back to the ship was quite different from the ride to Rome. Early this morning voices were animated and excited, now everyone was just totally exhausted and a bit frustrated by the long day. The Crabby Old Guy sat next to me still stewing over his little exchange with Mr. Giovanni. The Diva was completely mortified and refused to look at or talk to anyone and my two sons kept saying if they never saw another piece of marble again in their whole lives it would be too soon. As I quietly sat there, I could hear some of the passengers try to estimate how much we did walk on that tour, the general consensus seemed to be ten to twelve miles walking and 8 ½ hours touring.
So Folks, whenever you book a shore excursion, be very careful to question a reliable source regarding the true amount of walking and physical activity you need for any excursion you may take. As we finally got to the air conditioned ship and were standing at the elevator I overheard a gentleman loudly say: “Rome wasn’t built in one day; nor was it meant to be seen in one day.” Amen to that!
Stay Savvy! Hugs,
The Savvy Old Lady (C)
wwww.thesavvyoldlady.com
Jul 31st, 2007, 07:32 AM
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On our recent Med cruise,we did an excursion of Pompeii. The excusion description said moderate amount of walking, but what they did not explain was that Pompeii has very uneven streets and boulders. Very hard to maneuver. We had elderly folks on our tour and they found it difficult to keep up. We had another excursion to the Cinque Terre. Again, guide said moderate walking. The boat let us off at one village, then we had to maneuver stairs and a long walk to the next village via Lovers Lane where the boat picked us up again. We had a gentleman who was not elderly, but may have had some recent medical condition that hindered his walking and climbing. Try to get as much information on the excursions before booking. It was not a problem for my husband and me, but if we were 10 or 15 years older, we might have had difficulty.
Jul 31st, 2007, 10:51 AM
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This reminds me of our tour in Rome, also in August. All we really wanted to see in the vat. museum was the Sistene Chapel but by following the signs to it you got routed practically all through the museum itself! Boy was it tiring! Thank God we hired a cab in Civitavecchia to do it privately. We went back to the ship when we felt like we had enough but by then we had seen all we wanted to see anyway. Had we taken the ships tour we would have had to hang on for at least 4 more hrs, B4 going back. We were all dozing in the cab going back when I felt my son suddenly grab the camera from me faster than than a pickpocket. Startled I roused to see what was happening. Well his radar is always on so to speak and of course he was taking a pic of a local, long legged blond beauty strolling down the street. 
Aug 18th, 2007, 11:25 AM
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Jacketwatch,
Just curious but do you remember how much it cost you to hire the cab for the day? Friends of mine are doing the Med in October and are looking for options to the $200+ ship excursion of Rome.
Must say you have a very polite son. My boys would have had the cab stop as they jumped out and had a picture taken with the young lady (and probably exchanged email addys).LOL
Stay Savvy!
Hugs,
The Savvy Old Lady(c)
www.thesavvyoldlady.com
Just curious but do you remember how much it cost you to hire the cab for the day? Friends of mine are doing the Med in October and are looking for options to the $200+ ship excursion of Rome.
Must say you have a very polite son. My boys would have had the cab stop as they jumped out and had a picture taken with the young lady (and probably exchanged email addys).LOL
Stay Savvy!
Hugs,
The Savvy Old Lady(c)
www.thesavvyoldlady.com
Aug 18th, 2007, 11:44 AM
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I sure do. It was $200.00 but bear in mind the USD was 1:1 to the Euro then and gas was cheaper too. However considering what the ship was charging for the same sevice ($170.00 pp x3) we did very well I think. I would think your friends could get by for around $300.00 now. Cheers, Larry 
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