The ship disembarked at the Port of Rome, which is really nowhere near Rome. This is one of the reasons I picked this particular cruise. A cruise that stops in "Rome" for a day in the middle of an itinerary doesn't get to experience much of Rome. The trip from the port to the city is 90 minutes minimum, so if you spend 3-4 hours just going back and forth you don't have much of your day to see the sites. With only 2 nights (and 1 1/2 days) in Rome, we knew we only had time for highlights. We decided on Vatican City and the Coliseum as our must dos. My neighbor also told me about the Scavi tour, so we planned the other two tours around that reservation since those were the most challenging tickets to get.
Since my mom wasn't going to tour with us, I picked a hotel next to the Piazza Navonna, which is a great central plaza prime for people watching, shops and places to eat. Trip Advisor led me to a fantastic hotel and the area did not disappoint. Plus we were able to walk to St. Peter's Square and to the Coliseum - both only a 20 minute walk though in opposite directions.
For the Vatican City portion, I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel but read that the Vatican Museums were overwhelming without a guide. I would definitely agree with that. We were there on a Monday afternoon in November (not exactly prime touring time....at least I wouldn't think so) and it was shoulder to shoulder people and hallway after hallway of sculptures, paintings, tapestries and marble treasures. I found a Viator tour called "Vatican for Kids," which was amazing. It was a private tour with just the four of us and our guide, Helene, who was there to tour William while his parents and grandpa followed along! It was perfect, though, because we adults really learned a lot on the kids tour and weren't horribly overwhelmed. William really impressed Helene with his Greek and Roman mythology knowledge. I don't know why it surprised me to see so much pagan art.....the popes were very acquisitive and they wanted the "best" artwork of the times and as it was being discovered throughout the ancient world. But it was an interesting intersection between the mythology gods and the Catholic church/Christian religion.
We were all getting a little tired and hangry as we worked our way through the corridors toward the Sistine Chapel so Helene smartly steered us to the café for a water break and to flip through photos on her ipad to get us teed up for the artwork we would see when we went inside the chapel where no talking would be allowed. That extra stop really helped us get a second wind, as well as be engaged with what we would see when we went inside. I have no idea how someone would appreciate what they were seeing without the information she shared. My biggest surprise is the size (the chapel is small) and shape (it's rectangular). I loved seeing the patches of soot they left so you could see a glimpse of what it looked like pre-restoration. Afterwards we took the back entrance into St. Peter's Basilica and Helene toured us through there we had to rush back to the front entrance to collect John's umbrella (and then eating gelato at Old Chain Bridge Gelato in the now pouring rain. . . .Rain and gelato were a recurring theme on our vacation!).
Michelangelo's Pieta
After our tour ended (although it was pitch black out it was only 6 p.m.), we met up with my mom for an Italian dinner in the piazza. I tried to replicate the amazing pasta I'd had in Venice. It was good, but it wasn't as fantastic as that first meal! I'm going to try to make it at home sometime, too. We'll see where that falls out on the comparison scale.
