APRIL 11, 2008, CONTINUED…

CIVITAVECCIA: It was sprinkling most of the morning but I walked along the waterfront and into the town, almost all of it old city, which is what civitaveccia means. There are lots of nooks and crannies to walk through; upscale and ordinary shops. I was actually looking for a market to buy some diet Cokes; this kind’ve gave me a goal for my wanderings. I found McDonald’s and decided to try it since it was handy. I ordered a large diet Coke; what I got was about the size of our medium cups, no ice but the drink itself was cold, and it cost 2 euros, 20 cents. The current exchange rate is about 1.57 USD per euro so it’s an expensive drink in any event even without considering the volume. So the Cokes on the ship are now cheaper than those on shore.
I ran into a huge open air market and you could find almost anything there. One section for fresh fish, butcher products was another, kids clothes, adult clothes, flowers, fruits, vegetables; everything except diet Cokes. The rain varied but never became a deluge; the jacket I wore has a lining and a hood so I was fine but humid. The temp was in the 60s I imagine. Eventually I went back to the ship and found Ed in the Buffet where I also had some fruits and salad, after which we went down to get on the tour bus for our afternoon tour. Just as we were going to the bus, the sunshine came out and we had no rain during the tour even though it returned to the ship’s location later in the afternoon.
MEDIEVAL HILLS AND OLIVE OIL: We explored a city, Tuscania, which was founded by the ancient Etruscans (that’s redundant isn’t it?). It is in the Maremma region for those of you with maps and dates back to the 9th century bC. An earthquake destroyed parts of it in 1971, but they have been restored and still reflect the Etruscan history. We also looked around an ancient site: Tarquinia.
In the countryside, we visited a family owned farm where olives and vegetables are grown, sheep ad beef cattle are free ranged. The owner took us to an olive tree and explained how olive oil is made. After this, we went into a building where tables were laid out with pecorino cheese (from sheep), prosciutto, 3 aromatic olive oils, bruschetta, red wine, and artichoke hearts in olive oil. Ed bought a small metal canister with some of their wines.
Along the way we saw lots of gorgeous countryside. It is the beginning of spring here and everything is some shade of green. There are fields of durham wheat, artichokes, and many other crops. For Nancy’s benefit, this was near the road we took to Orvieto.
When we got back, we finally got through to Lisa on the phone to catch up on events. She asked about the laundry room and we confessed that we have to endure one more run at it before we return home.
DINNER: We came late to the table had 4 folks from an adjacent table at our table with Dave and Twyla; our tables share the same wait staff. The couples all play trivia but on different teams. We started visiting when Bill arrived so the guests returned to their table. We talked about the various sites we’d seen today (Dave and Twyla went to Rome and saw the Colleseum and St. Peter’s Basilica. We talked about various sites in Italy that one or another of us had seen.
We have a new captain on board and he came on to announce that one of the tour busses was stuck in Rome traffic and wouldn’t arrive until 6:45 p (we were us to leave at 6 pm). So later he let us know that the bus had arrived and we were on our way. That is the advantage of booking your tours through the ship: if you tour is late for some reason, the ship will wait for it. If you go independently and are late, you have to fly to the next port to meet the ship after finding a place to stay overnight. It only takes one time like that to make up for the money you saved by booking on your own. If you’ve got a lot of money, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
CLEAN UP: I will download the photos from these two days tonite so that things don’t get too far behind. And recharge the batteries. One corner of the cabin looks like an electronics display only not nearly as neatly organized.
I asked the cabin steward for two additional pillows so I can elevate my feet at night. These long bus rides result in a lot of swelling and tingling around my ankles and lower legs so I need to address it in some way. I can’t use diuretics because of my arm; I prefer trying the simple things first anyway. My tennis shoes are large enough that I don’t have any problems with getting my shoes on and off.
TOMORROW CANNES, FRANCE. We have scheduled a tour of an old medieval town (do you see a pattern here?) that will take about 4 hrs., then the rest of the day we can just roam the streets. We’ve been through Cannes before but never stopped in it.