Thursday morning I woke up very congested and unable to
breathe properly. We were scheduled to
take a shuttle into Sorrento that day, but I wanted to be in top shape, so I
headed down to the medical office after breakfast to buy some pills. The nurse practitioner informed me that I
couldn’t purchase any more decongestants unless I booked an appointment with
the doctor. In my opinion, this was
quite ridiculous, because I only had a cold, but I wasn’t about to waste time
arguing. I just decided to find a
pharmacy in Sorrento.
When we boarded our shuttle bus, a father with a young baby
sat directly in front of me. The baby
was only 10months old and very cute. Ironically,
the tour company had sent a large 60 person bus, but there were only 8
passengers on board, so it was very spacious.
Jessie tapped me on the shoulder and suggested I move further
to the back of the bus, so as not to infect the baby. While this was a very thoughtful and
practical suggestion, I teased her about sending her own sister off to be
quarantined.
The ride from Naples to Sorrento took about 1h 15mins. The journey along the coast was winding, but
extremely beautiful. When we arrived, we
were given 6 hours of free time to walk around and be tourists before the bus
picked us up again.
We spent most of that time walking around and shopping. Even Hildy was finding her inner-tourist and
bought four beautiful scarves. We all
bought some jewelry and various trinket items.
Nearing noon, we began looking for a Wi-fi connection and
found a gelato café which advertised internet.
This turned out to be the best gelato we’ve ever tasted; it was made
right on site with fresh, local ingredients.
What’s even better was that they gave us the upstairs room to use which
featured cute café tables and a verandah window which overlooked the street
below. This provided a nice, private
place for us to call home and get updates on life back in KW.
Following the gelato, we continued shopping and found a cat
peering out from his balcony above us.
Hildy loved this sight and we took many pictures. We eventually made our way back to the bus
pick-up location with plenty of time to ensure we weren’t late.
I slept on the journey back to the ship and when we arrived,
we were hungry! We went to the salad bar and Hildy grabbed a Bratwurst (which
she shared) as a snack before dinner. We
found a notice in our room about a mandatory meeting at 5:15 so we made sure we
attended.
During the meeting, we were informed about the “Code Red” in
affect on the ship. There had been
several GI (Gastro-intestinal) illnesses on board during the last few days and
the crew were doing everything possible to stop the transmission of
bacteria. In an effort to be extra-thorough,
they wanted to clean the entire ship from top to bottom the following day,
which meant that all passengers must be off the vessel. That was disembarkation day for most guests,
who were ending their cruise in Rome, but for us, we were registered for
back-to-back cruises, so we were planning on staying on board.
In an effort to keep everyone happy, while ensuring maximum
health and safety, the cruise line offered us a complimentary tour in Rome,
complete with transportation, guide and lunch.
The only catch was that EVERYONE must take the tour, so that the crew
could sanitize the ship.
We were quite thrilled with this news because it gave us a
free tour, when we didn’t really have a plan for the day to begin with. Part of me was slightly disappointed because
I was under the weather and thought it would be beneficial to spend a day in
bed, but the perceived value of a complimentary tour won me over.
We went to dinner afterwards and had a lovely meal. We were told by Titto that both he and Purna
would be moved to closed dining the following day, so it would be the last time
we would be dining with them, which was unfortunate. However, I’m sure we’ll still see them around
the ship.
During the end of our meal, Hildy reminded us that today
would have been Opa’s 80th birthday.
Jessie and I had both neglected to remember this day and we felt
horrible for not trying to do something special for Hildy in remembrance of
him.
After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the
deck. I asked Hildy if she was sad today
and she said that yes, she was. I wasn’t
quite sure what to say to comfort her, so I told her that I’m sure that if Opa
could see her, he’d be happy that she was traveling around the world and making
memories with her granddaughters. Of
course, I couldn’t get that all out without blubbering, so we were all standing
around crying for a little bit. Then it
got cold and we went inside. In the
room, Jessie and I hugged Hildy into a ‘Hildy Sandwich’ which got her
giggling.
Our last task for the evening was to clean our room
immaculately so that all of the surfaces could be sanitized. This is not an easy task for three people
crammed into a stateroom—we had so much stuff!
Finally, however we managed to pack everything up and clear off all of our
surfaces. We went to bed and prepared
for the day in Rome tomorrow.
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