Traveling: Rome, Trivia, and Soccer

We wake up and make our way back to the train station from our hotel in Rome (which is only a few blocks away). We accidentally bought the wrong tickets yesterday, and we aren’t supposed to use them for today (they were a one day only pass). We think about just getting on the train anyway, but I am too chicken, and we wind up buying two train passes back to Civitavecchia (10 euros). Lo and behold, just like on the way from Civitavecchia, they do not even remotely check our tickets. Honestly, we could have saved money both ways and just hopped on the trains, because no one cared either way. Oh well, at least we’re honest!

Kurt leaving Hotel Everest in Rome

We meet a couple on the train going back to the Carnival Breeze, and they live in New Orleans! What a small world. We talk to them a bit about different Nola things and different cruises and such. Finally back on the boat, Kurt and I eat some lunch on the Lido deck, before relaxing a bit. Before we take off, the cruise director makes an announcement for anybody that has not checked back in yet. Unfortunately, a few people took a wrong train and end up going to Milan and missing the boat. They have to take a plane to catch the boat in Dubrovnik. I personally think it’ll be cheaper to take a train there, or even the ferry across the Adriatic, but what do I know?

We go to the Ocean Plaza on deck 5 to just sit and relax. We wind up playing 5 games of trivia (totaling 2.5 hours). We come in second place twice, but that 1st place piece of ship alluded us. We go to dinner at Blush again, and having skipped it two nights in a row, our waiter is very happy to see us again. We assure him that we didn’t abandon him, just spent a night in Rome. For starters, Kurt has steamed duck pot stickers and I have Vietnamese pumpkin and chicken broth, which is quite delicious. Dinner is sirloin steak for me and seafood stew for Kurt. The sirloin, which I order medium, comes out well done and pretty tough. Definitely not the best steak I’ve ever eaten.

After dinner, we stake out our spots on the Lido deck to watch Spain vs. Italy in the final game of EURO 2012. I had bought an Italian flag in Rome from a very awesome shop with a great older gentleman who was quite funny. He asked me which flag I wanted, and I gave him “the look.” He said, in a thick Italian accent, “What? I am Italian, and I am for Spain!” I assured him with a name like Cristina Cavicchia, I was decidedly for Italy. So donning my flag, as the game finally commences, it becomes glaringly obvious that Spain is just the better team. Poor Italy is 0-2 by halftime, and once Torres comes in for Spain around 70′, we go down 0-4. Not to mention, we use all of our subs and have to pull out another player because of injury, so we are only playing with 10 people. Needless to say, I have a sad this night. At least Spain breaks some records and makes some history with their win.