Haljo1935

Lunch on the way to Trevi Fountain is at Donati's. House red.🍷 DH has salmon special coming; I'm getting lasagna even though I think that's too heavy for lunch. So, basically DH is having salmon & lasagna. Had clear blue skies this morning, but a few clouds have rolled in. Slight breeze and 72°.

Big Bus says more interruptions today due to demonstrators. Shouldn't impact us since we want to go to stops 7 & 8, fingers crossed 🤞🏼 I like the interruption notices- quite helpful for planning.

I thought of you @ninjacat123 when I saw this kitty at the Colosseum

Awe, your Italian gmama - i feel like I know and love her 💕 💗 She's going to provide you guys with a great welcome home😎

Check photo upload off your list - worked just fine and is beautiful!!

Elevator and stairs from street level looking down/out. "Biscuits" and other breakfast items. For reference, DHs large donut is on a salad plate - it was huge.

We bought our ticket direct on their website and only learned about it when buying g our HOHO tickets. We bought round trip tickets, but don't need them as our hotel at the end of our cruise is in a different location. Round trip tickets are under $20 for 2 people, which would be a good deal if we needed them, lol. The one way ticket that we actually needed are under $14 for 2 people. I'll post links later, it was very easy.

We are staying at Hotel Cambridge http://www.hotelcambridge.it/location.php A couple of these pictures are from their website as I couldn't get a decent angle in some places. I will try to get one from the front so you can see the steps required to get up into the hotel from street level and the elevator. No elevator at street level, so you do have to carry luggage up the first stairs to get to the lobby, then you can use the elevator to get luggage to your room. The elevator will not accommodate 2 people w/4 suitcases - we fit but we had to ride 1 person w/2 bags 🧳🧳to get it to move, lol. They will hold luggage if you arrive before 1pm check-in time.🛎️ Passports required at check-in along w/the daily fee, which must be paid in cash. Luckily we had gotten a very small amount of euros as we planned on using cc card. We pre-paid the room and there were no issues with that. Booked through AA so we could get the miles. Breakfast is included - it is the most basic of continental breakfasts, but has great fresh ground coffee ☕ It works for getting us out the door each morning to Termini to begin our days. We use the HOHO from Big Bus to get around. Because we're playing tourist, the HOHO gets us close to the sites we want to see, then just walk from the stop. Hotel is centrally located, so you probably could walk from it to most sites. With but hips & feet, we choose to ride then walk. We bought a 3 day ticket (prepaid online) that includes a nighttime (not nightmare, lol) tour, walking tour, and bus pass. We also used the Big Bus FCO->Termini transfer when we arrived. It was under $14 for 2 people. More on the Big Bus later.

And as a shareholder, I thank you and say "please enjoy regularly and frequently."🫣 And your sharing it with others is recognized and appreciated.

Thank you and thanks for coming along!

Have Birthday @grapau27

Any color cat is good; go Navy! My parents met while serving in the navy & my grandfathers were in the navy; don't drink beer but many quite enjoy it (it always looks so refreshing, but looks and taste have not aligned for me in hops drink dept). David Brenner - so funny. Pass on the meal, would try the drink & the wine, not been to the port. Let's celebrate Pinckney's day - the southern boundary is very important. 66° headed to 73° for us in Rome, should be sunny 75° when we sail away on Sunday. The Underground was great to see - such horrible things happened there, it sure deserves a place in history. Even though 200 cats live there, we only saw 1, but it was "the one." I don't remember what the guide said its name is, but it did slightly turn its head to look at us when he talked to it. I think it's really old. And although there are reportedly 130,000 cats roaming the streets & ruins of Rome, we've not seen any other than the 1 in the Colosseum. We ate lunch at a restaurant recommended by the tour guide, many locals (including a FedEx driver) were eating there. I had a salad, DH had the special (pasta w/clam, mussels, 🦀 and 🍤 🦐), we shared bruschetta. It was very good. DH was still full at dinner time. Pictures are out of order and seem to want to stay that way, sorry. Prayers and positive thoughts for all.

A 3rd party vendor has an eating tour w/pasta, pizza & wine for $95pp. HAL is offering 1 excursion only - a walking tour for $49pp. We passed on both those.🥴 I appreciate the suggestions here and believe it will be a great day😊

Thanks and welcome! You're just in time - HAL says we leave in 1 day.

YES!! Thanks for sending. My friend going with me on the TA from Rome is insisting we're riding Vespas. 🛵

@bennybear @AroundWithMAPTravels @montythecat greatly appreciate the suggestions for Bari (and area). Is there a concern with us being there on a Sunday that most places will be closed? The tours we find do make a comment about shops being closed on Sundays.

Thanks for the suggestion - we are still looking for something.

@Mary229 Geez autocorrect. Nighttime tour of Rome. 🙄

Here's a picture of all the muster stations from last month.

Very interested in your feedback on the Godfather tour - we're doing one in 2 weeks.

HAL says less than 2 days - woo hoo!😊🛳️ Felt good to see the internet package listed on my itinerary. We have 1 port (Bari) where we did not make plans and will wing it. Seems to be very walkable, but also shows shops are closed on Sundays, which is the day we're there. So, we'll see what happens. Speaking of walking, Samsung thought I had a good chunk of steps in by 11 this morning, that included the walk to the hotel. Thought the total for the day looked a little light, but then decided the time change messed with it. Now I will be looking at the history, too. That is the first time I've ever looked at it.🫣

Thanks for the museum tip; we will research. I have heard that about avoiding restaurants w/multiple language menus and plan to mostly do that. It will likely require use of Bixby to help identify the items, which is important for me - I don’t eat seafood of any kind and am not very adventurous w/my food, but I do like great flavors. We thought for an unplanned quick stop, dinner was good. 😊

Thrilled to hear you enjoyed it. Tickets were hard to get; floor and lower levels were easy to find, but may of the Underground tours were sold out. So when we found some available for a day we would be tbere, we jumped on them. Seeing the Colosseum last night all lit up has really gotten us excited.

I missed seeing a kitty picture from you...

Deployed certainly deserve a day. Would try the meal, probably pass on the drink, try the wine and have not been to Scotland. It was 66° headed to 73° when we landed in Rome. Sunrise over Rome from our plane. Had no idea we were directly over the wing until I took this picture. Shoulder is not happy - it was at a weird angle during the flight then pushing & pulling luggage down the street during the 15 min walk from Termini really gave it a workout. Last night we did a nighttime tour of Rome and today we go see the Underground at the Colosseum then HOHO around Rome. Prayers and positive thoughts for all.