Today we will tour Rome. This is our fourth port day in a row. We are exhausted in the evenings!!
Since the port for Rome, Civitavecchia, over an hour by bus from the city, we have booked a Princess excursion for today. We have heard horror stories of people doing their own thing and getting stuck in traffic on the way back to the ship. They say the ship will leave without you. We are not taking that chance 🤪.
Our bus leaves at 8:00 am and returns to the ship at 5:30 pm. We have 9.5 hours, but 3 of those hours we are travelling on the bus. Our guided tour is approximately 3.5 hours and we have 3 hours to explore on our own. For a city like Rome this is definitely not enough time. It does however, give us a sample of what Rome has to offer.
Our first stop is at Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the world. This areas is very congested. It is difficult to get a photo of the fountain without crowds of people. Alex and Michael make their way to the edge of the fountain and toss coins into it. This is supposed to mean that you will return to Rome in the future. Only time will tell. I do know that in 2009 Stu and I threw coins into the fountain. I have returned, Stu as well as The Travelling Fish.
Next we see is this. It is called Altare Della Patria or The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument or The Vittoriano or The Wedding Cake, a lot of nicknames for this structure. It is a very large, impressive building. It was built to honour Victor Emmanuel II and completed in 1935. He was the first king of the unified Italy. As you can see the traffic in Rome is very busy. Our decision for the Princess our is validated!!
Our bus moves very slowly to the point where will meet our guide for the walking portion of our tour. A little confusion at the start, as our “bus guide” hurried a woman in need of a toilet, off of the bus without telling us it was time to get off as well. All sorted out, we put on our headphones so that we can hear what our guide is describing as we walk through center of Rome.
We pass by the ruins of the “Forum of Julius Ceasar”. The construction of this forum began in 54 BC. It is pretty ancient.
It is a very busy day in Rome. I am certain that our ship is contributing to the crowds. There are 6 ships in port today with a potential of 11,000 passengers. We have over 4,500 passengers on board the Sun Princess. Not all will be here, but there are lots of people.
We slowly make our way to the Colosseum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world, despite its age.
Unfortunately we don’t have time for separate tour here. We do have time for a selfie!
We have a bit of a walk to get to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, where our guided portion of our day in Rome ends. Our guide gives instructions on where and when to meet the bus. We now have our free time to explore a bit on our own. We have heard that the Pope is not at the Vatican at the moment, so the crowds are much smaller than when he is here.
We are all hungry. We find little place on Via della Conciliazione, which is a short street between St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’Angelo.
This restaurantis very busy and is like a cafeteria style. Everyone else picked dishes that were on display and made their way to the table we had chosen. I thought that the portions were way too large for me, so I ordered a pizza. I wasn’t aware that this was not just sitting there waiting for me to order it, but needed to be prepared. As we sat at the table everyone else finished their food. Mine was taking quite a long time. It finally arrived. It is a good thing I ordered something smaller!! 🤪 I was enormous! Thankfully Adam and Michael were willing to help me out.
We still have some time before we need to meet the bus. So after our lunch Michael and the boys would like to walk the couple of blocks to the Castel Sant’Angelo. I feel like sitting at the patio of another restuarant across the street and have a nice cold beer. It doesn’t take much for Nicole to decide to joing me, not for the beer, but sitting and watching Rome go by.
It is interesting to see so many young priests wearing cassocks and backpacks. We are assuming that they are seminary students. Just wearing backpacks, just like students everywhere. We also don’t normally see nuns in habits in our everyday lives. Here we see a large group of them pose for a photo.
This building features prominently in the movie Angels and Demons that is based on the Dan Brown book. It is also the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Hadrian, the Roman Emperor commission it to be the final resting place for himself and his family. Today it is a museum. It is accessed via the St. Angelo Bridge that crosses the Tiber River that winds it’s way through Rome with many twists and curves.
We find our way, using Michael’s internal GPS, to the bus. We have an hour and a half to get back to the port at Civitavecchia. When we arrive Lindsey is waiting for us as we embark. Not long after we are at the aft pool with refreshments!
