Home Nov 19

 We departed the hotel at 7am, and the Princeps had prepared a sack breakfast to take with us:  dry pork sandwiches on white bread (pretty inedible), some bottled pear juice which was pretty good, some water, and some packaged toast which was destroyed in transit to the airport.  

We had several choices of transportation:  a cab costs about $65, a shuttle arranged by the hotel was about $80, but we chose to walk a few blocks to catch a bus for less than $20 total.  The bus was clean and comfortable (though the driver warned me we couldn't eat our sack breakfast on the bus), and it had wifi.  Once we got out of the Rome city center, the oldest part of the city where our hotel and most of the tourist hotspots were concentrated,  the roads became wider and less congested.  It took an hour to get to the airport, which is modern and efficient, though we had to pass thru multiple security checkpoints.  We left on-time, the flight was fine (one nice meal, one spartan one with tasteless hot pocket-like burritos), and a hot chocolate cookie.  They had a nice variety of movies, shows, games, and music on in-seat screens to help pass the 9 hour flight. It was good to have only 1 stop on the way home.

We landed at JFK Airport in New York City, a huge airport which had unclear signage and uninformed employees, but we found our way.   Back in the old days, when you returned to the US from overseas, you had to fill out a customs declaration card and talk to a customs agent.  This time, nothing like that, they did a facial recognition scan and that was it.

The flight to Cincinnati was ok, caught a quick Uber, and got home after a 21 hour travel day.

Various post-trip thoughts:

- We were concerned about having enough foreign currency, and Diane was especially concerned about having enough 1 euro coins for pay toilets.  This was not an issue.  Credit cards are almost universally accepted.  For the whole trip, we converted dollars to about 90 euros, and ended up spending about 20 euros at the Rome airport just to get rid of what we had left. 

- This was a good time of year to visit the Mediterranean.  The weather was quite pleasant, and I suspect the crowds, while still a little overwhelming at places like the Vatican and Colosseum, were mostly tolerable and no doubt far less than summertime. 

- We are very pleased with Viking cruises...I used them for the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise with Jerry and our Yangtze River cruise in China.

 

Diane's comments:

This was a trip of a lifetime, seeing places full of history and culture. I was so glad we spent a few days in Rome on our own at the end of the cruise so that we could explore and experience Rome as we wanted. I bet we walked 20,000 steps a day which was an experience in itself - doing Rome up close and personal! Most of the sights we wanted to see were in the city center area, so made it more fun to do on foot.