Rome, Italy

Wow, another long, but fun day today! We got off the boat this morning around 9:30am and met up with our guide. We hopped on the bus and drove about 1:15 to our first stop, the Coliseum in Rome. What an impressive place! It was fun to just stand there and look around imagining all the people in the stands, the gladiators on the arena floor, the lions and other animals in the corridors below. Simply amazing! I think Brandon & Justin really enjoyed seeing this in person, as well.

Next, we drove to a different part of the city with our guide pointing out sites along the way. We got out near an intersection and walked about 5 minutes to a lovely square where we enjoyed a delicious lunch al fresco at a sidewalk café. As usual in Italy, there was plenty of food. This time, we were careful not to fill up on appetizers!

After lunch, we drove away from the heart of Rome, just beyond the city walls where we were to attend Gladiator school. We donned our tunics and reported to the training field. They even let Cameron participate, calling him "wonder-boy" (or water-boy?). Our instructor was a very entertaining fellow. He was strict, but funny and we all enjoyed his wild reactions whenever someone would make a mistake.

Brandon & I had been especially looking forward to this activity and I had been "trash talking" with him all morning about how I was going to kick his butt. Now that we were finally there, he was starting to look a little less confident. He pulled me aside at one point and asked "Dad, could we get hurt doing this?" My advice to him was to pay attention and listen to the instructor.

The first part of our training was a warm up. We did various exercises and practiced lining up, marching forwards & backwards, and rapidly sprinting from place to place. Next, we took turns running through a gauntlet of sorts as fast as we could with sandbags swinging back and forth. He gave us a few minutes to rest and drink some water. Michele saw a big wooden cask with a tap and some cups and starting handing out drinks to the kids. All the kids were complaining of the bad taste and then we could all smell it –the cask was full of vinegar (or very bad wine?). OOPS! Shortly thereafter, our instructor arrived with a case of bottled water.

Finally, we got to the main event. He handed out short wooden swords and began teaching us various attack and defense moves. We took turns demonstrating them with the instructor and then practiced on each other. Slowly at first, but toward the end, we were fighting hard. It was great fun and we really worked up a sweat!

Soon, it was time to go, so we said goodbye to gladiator school, boarded the bus and headed back to the ship. We got caught in some rush hour traffic leaving Rome and we didn't get back until almost 7pm. We went straight up to dinner and now Michele & the boys are watching "Prince of Persia" while I relax, download the photos, and update the blog.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to tour Florence, but we have a few strikes against us already: 1) Our tour starts at 8:30 –too early! 2) We have to take a tender to the dock which can take 45 minutes and 3) Florence is 1:30 bus ride from the dock. I think we may change the plans at the last minutes, show up when we're able to, and stay closer to the ship tomorrow. I think everyone is getting tired of riding around in a bus. We'll see how it goes –stay tuned…