This is a continuation of my travel series covering our Mediterranean cruise in July of 2010. See my Mediterranean Cruise Day 1 post for the introduction and the end of the post for links to each port of call on the cruise. Today focuses on our day in port of call Civitavecchia. We took an excursion with the cruise line and visited Rome and The Vatican. I’ll be outlining the highlights below.
- The Colosseum
- The scenic drive around Rome
- St. Peter’s Basilica
- Lunch with two Norwegian couples
- Witnessing the pure chaos at Trevi Fountain
- St. Peter’s Square
The beautiful buildings we passed on our stroll to Trevi Fountain.
Trevi Fountain – aka the craziest tourist site I have EVER seen. We are talking wall to wall crazy people. Trevi Fountain really was beautiful but the crowds were REALLY starting to annoy me. Thankfully, we were only there for about 20 minutes. We both threw our coins in {the proper way – backwards over our left shoulders with our right hands} to ensure a return visit to Rome!
Our walk from Trevi Fountain to Hotel Savoy for lunch. I love the little glass encased restaurants along the sidewalk. There are two shown in this collage.
We had lunch on the top floor of Hotel Savoy and dined with two Norwegian couples. One of the women was Dutch {from Holland originally} and told me they have a famous television star in Holland with the last name DeGooyer {my maiden name}. Both couples were a lot of fun to talk to and it is always interesting to get other viewpoints on Americans and how citizens of other countries view us.
After lunch we went to Vatican City. Hence the reason we are wearing pants and short sleeve shirts. Your shoulders and knees must be fully covered while inside. We are not Catholic but this is still such an amazing place to visit. I was completely shocked at the volume of art/sculptures/paintings/tapestries that the Vatican owns. Again, this was 100% sensory overload. Between the thousands of tourists {they average 25,000 visitors per day} and the thousands of pieces of art it was REALLY overwhelming. We also got to visit the Sistine Chapel while in the Vatican, which personally, for me was a letdown. There are no photos allowed and it is just a wing off of the museum. I guess I always thought it was a stand alone building. It was also cool to say we visited another country while in the walls of Vatican City.
St. Peter’s Basilica {still inside the Vatican} is the world’s largest church. I found this much more impressive than the Sistine Chapel. We went at the perfect time because the sun was shining through some of the windows creating a really majestic look in the basilica. Its hard to believe this is where the Pope stands.
Just outside the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica is the impressive St. Peter’s Square. This place is massive and is just unlike anything I have seen before. We also got to see the Swiss Guard.
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