I am one of the last in our group to walk through security, and for those of you who haven't been on a cruise before, you have to scan your card when you leave the ship. So I hand them my card and the alarm goes off. It turns out that they really meant it when they put me under quarantine. :( I was not allowed to leave the ship until I met with the medic which didn't open until 8:00. So I sent everyone else on and told them I would meet them there in about an hour.
I cried all the way back to my room because I felt sorry for myself. I sucked it up however and pulled out my book to pass them time until the medic opened. About 15 minutes into my wait, Teena walks in the room. She claims that she wasn't feeling very well and wanted to take some medicine, but somehow I don't think she was being completely honest. :)
8:00 finally rolls around and we head down to the medic where I am declared well but am told that my quarentine lasts until 9:00 and there is no way they can change it. So back to the room we go and now we are not 1 but 2 hours behind the others.
Dizzy, dehydrated, and determined, Teena and I headed out one more time to see if we could make it to Rome. After a little pushing and shoving, we ended up on the 2nd shuttle bus to what we thought would be the train station.
When we stepped off the shuttle, we were not at the train station, but just at the port entrance where we were greeted by no less than 20 taxis all offering rides in to Rome. But at 60 euros a person, we decided that the train was good enough for us. After about a 5 minute walk, we were at the station. However, since we bought our tickets down by the shuttle we had NO idea which platform the train was at. So we just started following the crowd that was running and luckily made it on the right train. I mean...all roads lead to Rome right?
While on the train we got directions texted to us from Luke to get off at the San Pedro stop and meet them at St. Peter's Square. There were plenty of signs and people headed that direction so we made it there without any issue.
When Teena and I got there, the group was already inside the tour so we had a seat and waited for them. We did look around at a few other free areas but to be quite honest I have no idea what it was called or what we looked at. Den said that we should look through the St. Peter's Basilica but we didn't know where it was so we continued to sit and sweat.
After a couple of hours Den and Luke finally made their way out of the labyrinth that was the Vatican museum and met up with us on the steps. Den showed us where the Basilica entrance was so Teena and I headed that way. However, once I got to the line, I started feeling pretty bad so I turned back to let Den and Luke know that I needed to grab the train back.
I really must have looked pretty bad because Den insisted on walking me back part of the way to the train. Even the knock off hand bags we saw along the way were not enough to make me feel better. I finally made it back to the train and had a twenty minute wait.
As I waited, I started to feel worse and worse. Needless to say, what should have been a 40 - 45 minute train ride, ended up being about 2 hours as I had to hop off several times. I am now extremely familiar with the restrooms of several trains stations in Italy...and will probably not be welcome back on the train as a couple of times, the stops didn't come quite soon enough.
After the train ride, I grabbed a cab ride down to the ship. It cost me 15 euros to go 5 minutes but at this point it really didn't matter. All I wanted was to get back to my room. I slept the rest of the afternoon and got up that evening feeling much better. Den and Luke joined Teena and me in the dining room that night for their 2nd dinner.
I took this picture from the top deck as we left port. Shortly after this picture was taken I was fast asleep, hoping that the next day would be better.
