A Tour of Rome, Italy By Chance
In the Vatican, which is quite huge inside, at this time, they frowned on anyone talking pictures because I believe that they were in the busness of selling slides all over the place. The Swiss Guard informed me that I was not allowed to take any pictures inside. So I told him that I would obey his instructions and not take a picture. Someohw this one got away from me and I was taking a picture of that stairway that leads down to where the popes are buried. I was suroprised that it actaully came out good.
A quick story of how we got to take the above picture and how one makes a few dollars while in the military. I'm not going to say that people on some of our ships were able to make a few dollars on the side but sometimes it does appear to be very obvious. One day, while our ship was docked in Naples, Italy, an annoucement came across the PA System notifying the staff of the ship, both Navy and U.S. Marines, that this was the last day to sign up for the three day trip to Rome, Italy.
They informed the staff that the three days included meals and lodgings at the Hotel Clodio in the center of Rome, Italy. This would be within walking distance of the the Vatican City and that the trip included several tours. I looked at my fellow Marines and we all concluded that it would be a nice thing to do but money would be an issue. We all smiled and just went abotu business as usual for marines oin a ship mand waiing for the next meal.
There was a short pause in the announcement and the speaker continued with an additional announcement that the tour operator informed them that it would be nice if they got a few more people so that they could at least fill up one bus. We all smiled and continued on with the waiting.
About five or ten minutes passed and another annoucement came across the PA System stating there would be a Captain's Inspection the following day at 0800 Hours by the Captain of the ship and that we had to be in our full dress uniforms. It took a bit of time to set in but everyone was getting more and more pissed off that we had to go through this Captain's Inspection and in full dress uniforms, too.
As we were contemplating what we had to do in order to get ready for the next day's inspection, the PA System started with another annoucement which stated, "Last call for the tour to Rome, Italy for three days. Hurry to the mess hall so that you can guaratee your seat for the tour."
The mess hall was crowed with Sailors amd Marines signing up for the tour. It ended up that not only was one bus filled but there were at least three to four buses that were going to take the ride from Naples, Italy to Rome, Italy.
We arrived in Rome, Italy and got booked into out rooms. We got introduced to Alfredo, who ran the small hotel bar in the lobby who kept funneling drinks up to out rooms for the three days that we stayed. He would carry the drinks up and he referred to us as the crazy Americans who drank so much. Our drinking bouts got us to miss the one audience that we were going to have with the Pope but I believe that it was one of those crowd meetings with the Pope. If we were going to get a face to face, I think that we wwould have made an effort.
The one good thing about if was my exposure to the Italian culture where you get a pasta meal in the large dining hall at the Hotel Clodio and then that was followed up with a main meat course. I didn't know it at the time that I was in the training mode in Rome, Italy for my future.
Return to: greendougherty's Links for So You Served
Marty Dougherty
Return to: greendougherty's Master Links
Note: If you are the owner of any of these pictures, please let me know so that I can add your nme to the credits for the picture. You can click on my name above (my email) to let me know.
Donations: Please go to Paypal.com and enter in my email address - doherty167@yahoo.com and make any donation from $1.00 and up. Thank you in advance. Marty Dougherty