Rome in 45 minutes (Espresso Rome?)

Making the trip into Rome from where the Voyager docks in Civitavecchia is a bit of an ordeal....as a result of that, busy schedules, and the fact that I've visited the big city many times on past contracts, I hadn't made the trip yet this season. But, yesterday being Daniel's last chance to go to Rome, we decided to make it happen against all odds. We couldn't leave the ship until after the weekly crew boat drill, so we got off the ship around 11am, had to wait half an hour for the shuttle from the pier into Civi, then walk 10 minutes to the train station to catch the train to Rome, which is an hour and 15 minute ride. After that, 10 minute walk to the Metro station, two stops into central Rome, another 10 minute walk to where we ate lunch. One of the dancers had a spaghetti place he highly recommended, near the Trevi fountain. It was amazing....they had over 50 different kinds of spaghetti. Mine was incredible. After that we began our sightseeing. Since Daniel hadn't seen anything other than the Vatican, we wanted to fit in as much as possible. So began our 45 minute special, power-walking through Rome and taking pictures without pausing to stand still. We saw the Trevi fountain, (I threw another coin in...guess I'll have to go back) the Pantheon, and the Colloseum in less that 45 minutes. From the Colloseum we jumped straight on the Metro back to the train station, and caught the 4:09 train back to Civi, made the walk back to town, took the shuttle back to the ship, and made it on board about half an hour before our deadline. Woohoo!! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted. But happy! Daniel got to see the Colloseum, that's the most important thing. You can't go to Rome and not see it. So an incredible, rushed day, but totally worth it.

In other news, we have a new bass player as of yesterday, who goes by Big Ed. He has done about 40 ships in his time, and is a really solid player. It has been a big improvement in our sound. Tonight we have a guest entertainer act - a motown group called Soul Satisfaction. I'm off to rehearsal now, looking forward to doing a guest act since we haven't done one in several weeks. Off I go!!