October 25 - We bid farewell to Rome and board the Island Princess cruise ship

After packing up our suitcases and having another leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we walk over to the Vatican for one last look.

 It is extremely crowded.  The security lines are longer than what we experienced 3 days ago.  It is Sunday and there is a large TV screen set up for Mass this morning.  I believe the pope makes an appearance at noon and gives a blessing.

The line was also very long for entrance into the Vatican Museum.  It had to have been at least a half-mile long as it snaked its way along the outside walls and into St. Peter's Square.  We never did see where the end of it might have been.

Line for Vatican Museum entrance.

I think it may have been "free admission" day for the Vatican Museum, which happens on the last Sunday of every month.

It was too crowded for us to hang around St. Peter's Square so we headed back to the hotel to await our departure to the port.  We had arranged through the Cruise Critic roll call for our cruise to travel to the port from the hotel with 5 other people.  We would all meet in the lobby at 11 am for our van and driver to take us to Civitavecchia, the port about 1.5 hours away.  The hotel arranged the van for us and we split the 200 euro cost among the 7 of us.  That worked out very nicely.

Check in at the port was easy and fast and before we knew it, we were sailing away to our first port, Livorno, Italy.  The first leg of this voyage is very port intensive.  We will visit 10 ports in 12 days.  When we reach Venice, the second leg of our cruise will begin and we will have 7 ports in 19 days and then cross the Atlantic, arriving back in the USA at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

We absolutely loved our time in Rome.  It was great to be able to spend a few days there before the cruise.  We saw a lot, but there is so much more to see and experience.  We hope our travels will bring us to Rome again.

The first leg of our 31-day cruise.