We took the train into Rome today for our final farewell. We did the Vatican Museum, including the Sistine Chapel, something we never did last year even though we spent a month roaming Rome! We got up at 5:30 am so we could get there early for the line; got to the Vatican about 45 minutes before it opened, and were among the first (not counting the guided tours) to enter at 8:30. We wandered ’til 3:30; I think I took around 500 photos.

We had a good time, but we were both disappointed in the Sistine Chapel. Thought it would be bigger and more magnificent. It is beautiful, but I think we’ve been in more churches in Rome than most Romans, and I must say that several of them, imho, are much more breathtaking. I also wanted one more visit to the Trevi fountain, and we managed to squeak in three other churches also.

We had pizza and a fresh fruit (7 kinds) tart for dinner, then caught the train back to Ostia. Then had to catch a bus & then ride our bikes back to the boatyard. We got here a little after 7 pm, so it was a very long day.  The weather was so gorgeous; we both are sad to be leaving Rome but looking forward to our next leg.

I’ll be checking the weather forecast tomorrow and we’ll decide when to leave for Sardinia. We will only visit part of the northern coast before heading up to Corsica to visit the south and west coasts.

The boatyard finally has given us a date to go back into the water — Tuesday.  This will be great, as we will be able to do the final things to the boat to head on our merry little way.  Robert will change the oil & filters on the engines & generator, the membrane et all on the watermaker, and if all goes well we will head out on Wednesday (depending on weather) for Sardinia & Corsica for about a week.

Weather here is about perfect: mid-70 days & mid-50 nights. It feels cold when we get up, though. Robert commented about it is going to be cold when we do our overnights, and then the multi-day trip to the Balearics. But we both have fleece, so we’ll be fine. The biggest thing will be going back into shift mode.

Next email will hopefully find us underway and getting our sea legs back!

Greetings to all,

Just a short note to let you know that we arrived safely in Rome around 8:20 am local time today.  We had an uneventful flight and landed on a gorgeous, sunny day with very little breeze.  It took forever to get our luggage, but there was no hassle for immigration (didn’t even stamp our passports!) or customs (didn’t look in any of the bags and had no idea about Shadow).  We got a taxi as soon as we came out; a guy asked if we needed a big one with all of our luggage.  Well, they saw us coming, as they charged us 75 euros to Ostia Lido, which is only about a ten minute drive.  You do the math; that’s about $110 USD!!  Nothing to do but pay it and move on.

Anyway, we got to the boatyard.  Mauro was there and let us into the yard.  The boat weathered the winter and summer well but is filthy dirty.  We will have a couple days of just cleaning to remove all of the dust, grime and bird droppings.

Shadow did well on the flight and seems happy to be back on the boat.  We’ll see how he feels once we’re back in the water!  We realized, once we reached the boat, that we had taken his cat pan back to the US with us as we had spent our final days in Rome last year in the city renting a room.  So we got here and the poor cat has no pan.  We will shortly head to the store to get him a pan & scoop and us a few groceries.

We are both suffering from jet lag and it’ll be an early night.  It feels great, though, to be back on the boat, although it will be a big task getting it in shape to set sail again.

Love to all,
Dar and Robert