Tuesday
October 4 to Saturday October 8, 2016:
Today (Tuesday), we took the lovely evening Lake
Lugano cruise and then had dinner at a traditional Italian “grotto”
restaurant. After all, Lugano is in the
Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. I
got to take some great pics of Lake Lugano, a place I’d never seen before. This was excursion # 4. (Excursion # 3 was climbing Mount Pilatus,
which is located in Lucerne, Switzerland).
The following day (Wednesday), we left Lugano,
passed through the commercial capital of Italy, Milan, and turned towards the
Mediterranean Sea. We arrived in Pisa,
Italy and while there, marvelled at the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.
After leaving Pisa (with terrific pics taken), we
headed toward nearby Florence, Italy where we enjoyed some free time to explore
the many gold and leather shops on the Piazza San Croce before having a special
dinner with Tuscan specialties and wine at the Finisterrae Restaurant in the
piazza (or, place). That was excursion #
5.
The next day (Thursday), we were taken by a local
guide, Leah, through Florence on a walking tour that lasted a couple of hours,
I think. We visited Michelangelo’s
celebrated “David” in the Academy of Fine Arts (an art gallery and a
museum). We also admired the magnificent
cathedral, Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Baptistry’s heavy bronze “Gate of Paradise”
and visited the sculpture-studded Signoria Square. After the tour, lunch followed and, of
course, shopping. Then, we left Florence
for the “Eternal City”, Rome, Italy.
In Rome, on Thursday afternoon, we arrived at our
hotel, the Crowne Plaza, Rome – St. Peter’s around 4:30 pm. At 5:15 pm (with only time to drop off our
suitcases and other bags into our hotel rooms), we were taken to an enjoyable
dinner at a restaurant downtown, but I don’t remember its name. No sooner were we finished dinner, then
disaster struck.
Around 8:00 pm, just after we’d gotten through
dinner and back on the bus, I was suddenly overwhelmed with nausea, started
throwing up a number of times, and sweating profusely. I got so weak, I couldn’t speak. I asked Rosie, our tour director, to call an
ambulance for me (not a taxi). I
couldn’t trust myself to even walk anywhere.
In the hospital, I was asked who I was and to show
them my passport (to prove my identity).
Rosie had given the doctor my pertinent personal information, which
helped them too. The doctor then tested
me: blood pressure, several blood tests,
EKG, etc. and then treated me with a saline IV drip for a while. After about five hours, they didn’t find
anything terribly wrong with me and I was then allowed to leave. Rosie had been waiting at the hospital for
two hours, wanting to know my condition.
When I got permission to leave, she took me back to the hotel by taxi where
we arrived at about 2:00 am on Friday morning.
Rosie told me to rest in my room all day Friday if
necessary and take the time to recover. As
it turned out, after a good night’s sleep, I woke up on Friday morning around 9:00
am (we were staying in Rome for two nights) hungry, and wanting a shower
badly. So, after taking a hot shower, I
ordered a continental breakfast from room service for five Euro-dollars and got
a great breakfast indeed. After eating
it, I felt much better. Tomorrow
morning, we leave early for Ferrara, Italy and ultimately, Venice, Italy.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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