TRAVEL THERE: WRAPPING UP THE DAY
Our ten and a half hour baptism by tourism was drawing to and end. We were treated to one more shopping opportunity. This one had to do with Limoncello liquor and came with another restroom visit, but this restroom required an entry fee. Bill didn’t realize that when he he headed up the stairs. A small personal drama ensued.
Lost in Pompeii
So, we heard all about the wonders of Limoncello and several people bellied up to the bar to take some home. Bill headed to the restroom, but I didn’t need to go, so I browsed around the little shop near the bottom of the stairs. Bill was supposed to get me on his way out, but somehow a restroom that required euros damaged his thought process. He headed out of the place and forgot all about me.
After I’d looked at everything in the store about 75 times I started to wander around a bit. I had someone check the restroom to see if Bill was inside. I walked every inch of the building several times. I kept telling myself that he wouldn’t have left without me, but it became apparent that he actually had.
The ‘being lost’ rule in my family had always been, stay where you last saw someone, because if you start wandering around you’ll never be found. The lesson had stuck with me and even though it was apparent Bill was nowhere in the building I kept walking around looking for him. Problem was, Bill was not in my family of origin, so he didn’t know the rules.
I finally worked up my nerve and wandered outside to look for him. He was nowhere in sight. I finally saw some people from our bus, but no one that I knew. I strolled over to chat them up, hoping my desperation didn’t show. Before too long other people from our own little group began to show up, but none of them was Bill. I was relieved, because others had seen him since I had, but I still wanted my husband.
He showed up happy as a clam unaware that I was on the edge of being distraught. He hadn’t missed me, didn’t realize he’d abandoned me in the shop and he felt no remorse about the terror I had been dealing with. It was all well and good to tell me everything was alright, but it wasn’t doing anything for the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
We climbed back on the bus to go back to Naples and I tried to get back into the rhythm of having fun, but it had been pretty upsetting. I did eventually get over it, but if you’ve had a similar experience, you know that you really, really want to be mad at someone for something, even though you know there’s really no need for your angst.
Back on Board
Once back on board the ship, some of our group visited the always-open Oceanside Buffet for an afternoon snack, but food didn’t even sound good to me. I went back to the cabin and got gussied up for the evening.
Bill and I love on board entertainment, so we caught an evening performance in the theater called Kaleidoscope. It was much better than the Whitney Houston thing – very Cirque de Soleil. I know the Bagleys were still very much involved in the whole Art Gallery scene. They were always showing up at the last minute saying they’d been there picking out frames or arranging shipment or whatever. I’m not sure what the girls got up to, but they really liked having drinks and people-watching.
Dinner was at the Tuscan Restaurant, which meant we ate Italian. Exhaustion had set in and I couldn’t tell you what I ate or whether I liked it or not. My journal says we had a perfectly lovely evening, so I’ll have to leave it at that. After the meal, some of us went to Eden to see something called Revelation, but it was late and we were tired, so we didn’t stay long.
The next morning was our day at sea, the one in which we’d celebrate our 25th Anniversary with a Vow Renewal. Come back next week for that for sure!
jane sadek 