Cruise - Rome, Italy

We heard a ton of negative things about Rome – it was dirty, crowded, expensive, etc – and we had the exact opposite experience. We loved Rome! We chose to avoid all the planned tours and did it ourselves using Rick Steve’s podcasts for information, which I think made all the difference.

We took a train in from the boat and 45 minutes later we were dropped off at the Coliseum. It looked a lot different in person and sort of confusing. They took the floor off the gladiator field so that you could see down into the catacombs into where the animals and people would have been kept. It was interesting reading about all the differences we see in the movies versus what really happened in the arena.  For example, Christians were never killed there and the crowd did not decide who got to live by giving the thumbs up or down sign. That being said, the audience still got to decide who died but they gave the cut the throat sign instead to make their vote. Who knew?

We wandered next to the Roman forum, which was stunning. This is where Caesar was killed and burned after he died and where the old Senate building would have stood. All the fantastic arches are there to celebrate the victory of Titus (and one for Constantine) and the Judea crusade. It was so exciting to be in the center of the “known world” at that point in history. We literally walked in the footsteps of Rome and it was fascinating.

This is where Julius Cesar was buried. I so needed a Susanne Fellows reenactment!

Next was a pleasant surprise – the tomb of the unknown soldier (the Victor Emmanuel Monument). It is a HUGE white building in the middle of the street with guards and statutes and all sorts of awesomeness. We had no idea it was there but it was one of the coolest buildings that we saw.

The Trevi Fountain was beautiful but that was the most crowded place we found outside of the Vatican. We just snapped a photo, ate a gelato and hightailed it out of there.

The Pantheon is also a must see. It is so pretty on the inside. Most people seem to skip that building and it is quiet and uncrowded. I have no idea why – it is amazing. 

The next stop was the Bernini Fountain and plaza. There is so much hilarious history in this plaza. For example, Bernini was sculpting The Four Rivers statue when a lesser sculptor was commissioned to make a fountain near it. Bernini, as a joke, sculpted a man looking away with a blanket over his head because the sculpture man couldn’t stand to look at the ugly fountain near him. You know that joke would have taken him months to complete. 

Don't look at the other horrible statue, stone man!

                                          

Our last stop was the Vatican City. We did the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. I think I actually liked the map room (with the large map tapestries and the painted ceiling) better than the Sistine Chapel. We went there around 3:30 (it closes at four) and we ended up battling a serious stream of people fighting to see everything before it closed. That was the only annoying part of our day.

                                         

We took the secret route to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was great. Be aware: there are a ton of dead Popes on display there. It was a little startling to see without previous warning. Some of them are dipped in a green/grey wax and it sorts of looks like they are decomposing. I was not a fan. The church itself is outstanding. The plaza outside doesn’t disappoint either.

Since everything is super close together you end up walking from one place to the next. We didn’t see many cabs and they were dang expensive to use anyway. That being said, from the start to the end point is a LONG distance apart, even though everything is close together, and we were beat after hammering it all out. There are also huge lines at the attractions that involve standing out in the sun for long periods of time. Luckily, we were able to avoid most of the hassle by running everywhere and beating the crowds.

We’d like to go back and see all the same sights lit up in the evening. Although it was not my favorite port, it was probably the only one that we would go back and do over with the kids with us.