Florence, Rome and the Vatican

Aside from the Dueling Piano shows I'm contracted for, I signed up and was chosen to be an escort for a couple of the ship’s official guest tours. The first was an all day tour to Florence. My job as an escort is laughable really. All I have to do is wear my nametag and just be present. The local guides do all the work. So, it’s basically a free tour for me, and these all-day tours cost the guests $230 - $300. 

Florence was like a picture postcard. There are statues and mosaics everywhere, and the streets are lined with old stones that have been polished by centuries of pedestrians, horses and cars. All the buildings are adorned with ornaments and beautiful shutters on colored Italian stucco.  The City of Florence was more or less the center of the Renaissance, so it’s history of Art is deep and broad. They have a plaza that functions as their outdoor museum, and is full of marble sculptures by some of the greatest sculptors to ever live including perhaps the most well-known sculpture ever, called The David by Michelangelo, which is of the beautiful youth, David right before he fights Goliath. So beautiful in fact, that I bought a cheap plaster reproduction. 

The following day I was chosen to escort a full day tour to Rome and the Vatican. The Vatican museum is quite a grand affair, and is absurdly crowded. You are surrounded by a streaming mass of humanity just flowing through the large passageways that house perhaps the most extensive religious art collection in the world. There was so much to look at and so little time to see it. I would love to go back again when I had more time, but I doubt I will. Part of the museum is the famous Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo painted the ceiling fresco. As you exit the museum you are allowed to go into St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the most important church in Roman Catholicism as it is built upon the remains of the first very pope, the apostle Peter. 

As I type this, I’m sitting at the coffee bar on Deck 5. A couple of the Blue Men actors just came by and we’re talking. One of the things I love about this ship is how much of a community the entertainers have. It’s like we’re all in the same boat…umm…yeah. Anyway, I’ve made a lot of friends.

Ok, was interrupted again by a passenger from Scotland asks me if I play “The Eyes of Texas” (The University of Texas fight song) [yes] and “We Didn’t Light the Fire” [yes] at our piano show tonight.