George Rebane
Our friends Tony and Paula arrived from Hong Kong in the middle of the night and were all set to go on the following morning. We requested the hotel to set up a registered guide for us, and after a delightful and exhausting day, we all agreed that this is the way to do Rome. Signora Francesca Tolomei (info@tolostours.com) arrived at 10am to pick us up. She is the short lady in the middle in front of the Colosseum. Francesca is an art history graduate who guides private tours professionally. She speaks excellent English and has a depth of knowledge about the city and the history of the Roman Empire that astounds. Sparkling personality, sense of humor, good looks, and the endurance of the Energizer Bunny. We lucked out.
I’m not going to go into all the details; it’s late, today was another big day, we had a splendid dinner, … you get the drill. Anyway Francesca took us ‘everywhere’ and delivered a wonderful synopsis lecture at every imaginable point with no end to all the answers to our questions. She quickly picked up the level of interest of each of us and fashioned her answers accordingly – after 12 years of doing this, she really is a pro.
At the end of the day we gave her hugs and several large bills, and staggered to our rooms for a little nappy-poo before a very light dinner.
Today it was cloudy and we did the St. Peters square two-step with a few thousand other tourists who waited in a very long line to go through the cathedral itself. We were happy just to mingle, buy souvenirs, and then took a long walk by the Tiber and San Angelo castle back to our hotel. The hotel is very centrally located to all the good shopping places which the ladies decided to ‘explore’. Tony and I had some important materials recorded on the inside of our eyelids that we needed to review before dinner. Tomorrow we drive to Rome’s port city of Civitavecchia to start our cruise on a ship whose 138,000 tons is guaranteed to consist of mostly cholesterol.
Puna and Harper liked the pictures, but they wanted to know where the dogs are ? No Italian Greyhounds ? They thought the long walk through Rome would have been enjoyable with them heeling beside you all.
The personal tour guide, Francesca, sounds wonderful! We look forward to every blog, and the pictures enrich it immensely !
Posted by: Ellen | 23 April 2010 at 03:09 PM
George,
Thanks for the pictures! We have found that hiring a guide gave us access to venues that many unaided tourist never see.
Posted by: Russ | 23 April 2010 at 05:03 PM
George sent and e-mail to let us know that connectivity on the ship was limited and he doubted that it would be possible to create new blog posts until they reach land with more Internet access. Stay Tuned.
Posted by: Russ | 26 April 2010 at 05:58 PM
And we thought he was just enjoying his vacation!
Posted by: Steven Frisch | 26 April 2010 at 08:00 PM
Thanks for keeping us posted George! Have a great time. Hugs. Ted and Rae
Posted by: Ted Aaselund | 27 April 2010 at 08:36 PM