Day 6 - ROME

We visited Rome on Thursday so I’m a little behind on writing the blog. It’s been a busy few days as our days in port were full.

Our port for Rome is Civitavecchia, which I finally mastered how to pronounce. The port is about a 1.5 hour drive from Rome so we were off the ship early to make the most of the day. We had a tour pre-arranged with Tuscan Heart tours along with 2 other couples from the ship. Knowing that one cannot see Rome in a day, we used this tour company to show us an overview of Rome and its highlights. We had a nice ride in an 8-passenger Mercedes van and our guide Robert was very efficient in winding through the heavy traffic and narrow streets of Rome.

Our first stop was at St. Peter’s Square inside Vatican City for some photos. Visiting the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica would have to wait for another trip to Rome as they require an all-day visit to get the most out of the history and artwork of the Vatican.

St. Peter's Basilica

Dome of St. Peter's

Next we visited the Colosseum. One of the couples in our group had taken care of buying tickets for admission and a guided tour over the internet so with directions given to us by our driver, we were able to breeze right by the long lines (queues as they are called here) and pick up the tickets and join the meeting place for the guided tour. As energetic and informative as our guide was, it was hard to hear and understand her English, even though we had radio handsets held to our ears. It would have been better to just use the Rick Steves’ guided audio tour on our iTouch or iPod. If we get back there someday, that’s what we will do. It’s a free tour that can be downloaded from iTunes or his travel website. The Colosseum was amazing to see and imagine what life was like when 50,000 Romans would pack this huge stadium and cheer as their favorite gladiators faced off in bloody battles. Only about a third of the original Colosseum remains. Throughout the years of the Middle Ages and Renaissance the pre-cut stones were carted off and re-used to make other buildings that still stand in Rome today.

Colosseum

Yes, we're really here!

Next stop was the Roman Forum, a rectangular flat patch about the size of a football field and about 20 feet lower than the level of the city today. This is where Rome was born and was the political, social, and economic center of the city beginning about 500 BC.

The Roman Forum

Lunch for the day was in a quaint restaurant filled with mostly locals. We shared a pizza and some good wine before heading across the street to the Pantheon, Rome’s best-preserved monument. Engineers still admire how the Romans built such a mathematically precise structure without computers, today’s machinery, or electricity. Guess have unlimited slave power didn’t hurt!

Our authentic Italian pizza!

The Pantheon

Typical street with outdoor cafes

One of many fountains

Terry on the Spanish Steps

Overview of Rome looking toward St. Peter's

Before leaving Rome, we made sure we stopped at Trevi Fountain. Legend says that if you toss a coin in the fountain, you will return to Rome. We threw in our coins and most definitely hope to return to this city again. It was a terrific day.

Trevi Fountain

Ready to throw our coins in the Trevi Fountain