Day 12 (Getting off Ship)

Day 12 (seventh day)

Lunch beside the Coluseum

At Trevi Fountain

At the Pantheon

We rose early and packed. We hauled our luggage into breakfast and then left the ship. We took a free shuttle to the beginning of the pier and there we negotiated with a driver to take us to the airport with four other people. The driver went down from the original $130 euro per person to $20 euro each for four persons, making a total of eight passengers. We could negotiate this, but I couldn't get the silly vendor selling water to come down from 6 Euros to 5 for three bottles. The Driver had to stop at two ATM machines so Martin could get cash for the the drive. The others were getting anxious because they seemed to have a flight to catch. We took a car from the airport to our hotel and then went into town. The car we rented was too small (see day two) for our luggage so the ladies waited at the airport while Karl and Martin dropped the luggage off at the hotel. Then we went into Rome. We parked near the Coliseum and walked past the ruins and past the Trojan ruins  to the Trevi Fountain. It was so crowded that we walked over to the Pantheon from there. But it was more crowded than the Trevi. We didn't even go inside because it was packed with people. Then we walked to the St. Paul church where Michelangelo's statue of Moses was.  We had seen other pieces of Michelangelo's, but never this one.  It's magnificent.  Finally we didn't have much of a crowd and were able to enjoy the moment.  We walked back to the car and found our way back to our hotel by the airport. We ate in a nice lite restaurant on the Mediterranean and then went to bed.