Day 1: Rome

First thing I've learned on this trip.  I'm old. I slept a bit on the flight thanks to an eye mask, 3 glasses of wine and a sleeping pill.  Our seats were right by the pooper, so we didn't get much sleep due to all the action.  As soon as we landed and I stood up I realized I had the world's worst cankles.  The right one went down right away but my left one still looks like a Shrek foot. Now that I now what this is like I've got to apologize to my sister for making fun of her Shrek feet while she was pregnant with the twins.  I guess once you hit 45 you have to travel with compression socks.  The swelling is still there so Nurse John (always great traveling with a nurse) has me drinking a glass of wine with my foot propped up. 

We met up with our friends Amy and Neal, checked into our hotels and headed for lunch and some wine. From there we went to the Colosseum, which was great, but you couldn't get in without promising them your first born and a kidney. We walked around it and the property.  Sadly, we will probably remember it more for the aggressive selfie stick sellers, the guy who conned us all into a bracelet (ours are already in the trash, they were turning our wrists orange) the towel headed nuns and the nuns lying on the floor begging.  Lots of nuns on the floor begging.  

From there we split up. John and I saw a few more sights, then on to dinner and more drinks. There was a Ferrari shop, so I was thrilled. And right next door to it was a shop where you could sample shots for free.  So we did.  Duh.

Now we are on the 8th floor balcony of our hotel which overlooks the city.  It is certainly the most beautiful view of Rome. Sadly, Rome is kind of a dump.  Not somewhere that I would come back to as I feel as I've seen everything I needed to see. This is a city for the religious and we just don't fit the bill. Tomorrow we head to the cruise ship where we hope to spend some time in the pool relaxing before heading off to sea at 5pm.

Drinks from our hotel balcony, watching the sun set.

Me at the Ferrari store with my favorite driver, Sebastian Vettel. I was more excited than him, but he's got a race tomorrow to focus on.

Another view from our hotel balcony.

We are missing Dawn. Just not the same without her.