Our Roman Holiday

What was meant to be the elegant finale to a Mediterranean cruise became something else entirely: an ambulance at dawn, a foreign hospital, a mountain of luggage, no useful Italian, and one husband trying very hard to look as though he knew what he was doing.
When Ranine became seriously ill in Italy, she and Ian found themselves stranded in Rome, caught between emergency wards, insurance calls, embassy contacts, unfamiliar medical systems, unreliable taxis, mysterious meals, and the small problem of getting home alive.
Told in two voices, Our Roman Holiday is both a comic travel misadventure and a deeply personal account of fear, love, kindness, and survival. Ian notices the absurdity: the luggage, the lost directions, the strange bathrooms, the scooter rides, the banana incident, and the heroic search for edible food. Ranine remembers the other side: the breathlessness, the waiting, the frightened faces, the quiet courage needed when life suddenly changes without asking permission.
Together, their stories become more than a hospital memoir or a travel diary. They are a reminder that love is often practical, that strangers can be unexpectedly kind, and that getting home can feel like being handed your life all over again.
A cruising misadventure, a Roman rescue mission, and a love story — with slightly better medical supervision than originally planned.