A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #128 Bye Italy, Hello France
Ciao Roma and Firenze!
Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice of life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.
Dear Internet,
Greetings from the sea! J is currently abroad in Nice while I do laundry and write this.
We got to the Viking port and checked in about 2 p.m. on Thursday. After dumping our bags, we immediately did a tour of the ship.
Jesus, this place is baller.
There are seven to nine bars on the ship, half a dozen restaurants, plus activities happening all day and well into the night. We bought the upgrade liquor package and started drinking before dinner with our final drinks the house white with dinner the first night we were on board.
Every need is taken care of and every desire is granted. We met a couple who are on one of the world cruises which takes 90 or 120 days, I forget which and I can see why living on the ship is so attractive. Granted, rooms are a bit tight and storage is lacking but we’re making do.
Days 2 and 3 of Rome went by pretty fast. On day 2, we walked nearly 30K steps also known as 13 miles. We went everywhere. We left the hotel at nine that morning and came home at nine that night. We started at the Cappuchin Museum then on to a few churches for some Caravaggio viewing. We also spent a good portion of the day at the Vatican Museum and the Basillica of St Peters. We had dinner near the Vatican at Fresco before heading off to Castel Sant’angelo, which started out as Hadrian’s tomb and just grew from there at times a medieval fortress, prison (rumor has it Caravaggio was once imprisoned there), and army stronghold. Now it’s a sprawling museum.
The next few days in Rome were a bit on the less grand side. We went to Galleria Borghese where I basked in the room of Caravaggios and the newly renovated Palazzo Barberini where Judith Beheading Holofrenes by Caravaggio is on display.
Our last day in Rome was kept short since our driver was picking us up again at noon to head to the ship. Rome’s “port” is actually 1.5 hours out to the sea port Civitavecchia. Our wonderful guide Marco (who desperately loves gangster films and wants to move to Miami) tried to teach me how to pronunce it and I am afraid I could not roll the Cs enough to make it work.
We toured the ship when we got on board and just marveled at everything available to us. Our own steward, 24 hour room service, numerous places to eat, unlimited booze, spa and pools, great views from our veranda. It’s pretty magical.
We spent two days in Florence.
Day one was spent at the Uffizi. This place is fucking huge.
To start you got to the top of the building and to get there, there is no elevator but floors and floors of steps. I felt fine but I was breathing heavy on the way up so we stopped in the middle for a few minutes to catch my breath.
It was a lot of stairs.
The Uffizi was at one time home and office for the Medicis so there was a lot of their influence and patronage.
Not only did I get to see more Caravaggios but my ultimate favorite painting, Judith Beheading Holofrenes by Artemisia Gentileschi. (I guess you could say I have a thing for strong women.)
(Flip through to get to the image.)
How lucky am I get to see my favorite paintings in one trip?
Our second day in Florence was mainly shopping, walking around the sculpture gardens littered through the old city, and eating.
Florence is known for their leather so we splurged on wallets, eyeglass cases, and a leather coat for me. I’ve been buying a lot of magnets as we go so when we get home, I’ll take a picture of my travel magnet side of the fridge.
We’re half-way through the cruise and we’re currently shored outside of Villefranche-su-Mer with tenders going to Nice and Montecarlo. It’s thundering outside and our day trip was only a few hours in the old town Nice and after the last few weather miserable days in Florence, I opted to stay on board, get a facial, relax and read my Agatha Christie novel in the hot tub. I’m catching up laundry now and writing this. J should be back around 6 p.m. where we’ll head to dinner and drinks before getting to bed early tonight. Tomorrow we are heading into Aix-en-Provence (I’ve been here before) and then on Tuesday, we spend a day at sea on our way to Barcelona.
I’m writing this directly in Substack so I have no idea how many words there are so I’ll end it for now.
Ciao,
Lisa x
I took your lead and made my background the Artesmia version. Lol
I had that Caravaggio as my phone background for years, lol. I’m sure it’s what he would have wanted.