The Sunday after Valentine's day , the girls and I boarded a flight to Rome. Sitting next to me, my friend E. In between my girls, their friend J. We had been planning this trip for week and were all so excited to be finally heading out on our adventure that everyone behaved - even me! It was an uneventful and quick flight and we thanked the travel gods for arriving safely. Luggage was collected, train tickets purchased and restaurant reservations confirmed. Smooth sailing so far. But that didn't last. Unfortunately, the odds were stacked against me...
There are a million pickpockets (OK, maybe I exaggerate) in Rome. And this being my third time in the city, with no incidences to date, it was my turn. As we were leaving the metro station and heading up our last escalator, we were surrounded by a group of men that offered to help us up the now stalled (because they stopped it) escalator. After telling them no thank you a few times, they took it into their own hands and helped us with our luggage. And one of them helped himself to my phone. I knew instantly that it was gone. But what was I to do? My girls were already upstairs waiting for us, I had 3 suitcases to carry and we were all alone in the hall. It was the perfect crime for them. And as much as I hated losing my phone, I was grateful that I still had my passports and wallet and that my girls were safe. Not the best way to start our trip, but I was not about to let it get us down. We had a lot of adventuring ahead of us...
After a short walk to the hotel, and a quick taxi to our restaurant, we were ready for a glass of wine and some nourishment at one of my favorite restaurants in Italy. We sat down at Alfredo's (yep, THE restaurant that invented the Alfredo sauce) and ordered as quickly as we could. It was late (about 10 pm) and I thought we might be able to get some food into the little one before she fell asleep like last time. We did, but just barely...
After a good nights sleep, we had an hour to spare so we walked the Spanish steps. And took a few pictures, of course...
And then it was time to catch our train to the port in Civitavecchia. It didn't take but a minute for the girls to be completely zoned out and miss the Italian countryside flying by their window...
Boarding the ship was easy as could be... much to the help of the guide who took pity on two women, travelling alone with 3 kids. We were in line, processed and on board in less than 20 minutes. And we even stopped to take our picture...(Thank you E for the perfect shirt!!!_
We had a few hours until we sailed so we signed the kids up for kids club, dropped our luggage in our rooms and wandered around a bit to get our bearings. I have cruised many times in my life, but no two ships are alike. It takes a while to get your bearings on each floating city.
After attending the compulsory safety drill, we settled in one of the many lounges and filled out our journals for our first day. They girls recorded their thoughts about the trip so far, and E and I planned what we would do tomorrow...in Sicily.
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