June 27 & 28

We docked in Civitavecchia, Italy, the port for Rome.  We took the train adventure to Rome.  I say adventure because it was quite a trip.  Everyone crowds on with luggage (there were several ships in Port) and there's no place to put luggage except on seats and in the aisles.  Many people had to stand for the 80 minute trip in the semi air conditioned train cars.  The 27th was upper 90s and the 28th close to 100.  Rome was the hottest and most humid city on our trip so far.  We eventually made it to our cute 3 star Hotel Andriotti and checked in.  We walked about for awhile and bought a 2 day pass on the hoho bus and toured the city.  We also did quite a bit of walking so we were quite exhausted when we returned to the hotel to rest up and cool off.  About 6:00pm we went down the street from the hotel for a glass of wine and then found a restaurant for an enjoyable dinner.  The next day, after breakfast, we returned to the hoho bus and rode around, getting off at a few stops.  The final place we got off was an upscale area near the US embassy and we roamed the streets before finding a cafe for a glass of wine & a sandwich.  We walked back to the hotel and decided to call it a day around 3:00 because it was so hot.  Later this evening we'll go out for dinner and tomorrow we fly to Athens.  This isn't really the best time to visit here because of the excessive number of tourists and the heat.  We didn't go into any of the monuments because waiting in line for 2 hours in the direct sun would not be any fun.