Final 2 days in Rome

On By DBmakesIn Mediterranean

Tuesday and Wednesday, May 12 and 13. At least in Roman time. Tucson was 9 hours behind us, and with Joe and me still texting each other morning and night, it was a little confusing. Time travel is quite disorienting.

All I know is that we got off the ship early Tuesday morning and had a challenge meeting up with our pre-arranged driver. One hand told us to take the shuttle outside of the port, and the other hand said he’d pick us up right at the ship. And since hardly anyone spoke English at the port, it took all four of us to figure out how to get where we thought we needed to go. As it turned out, our driver DID come right to the ship, but we had already boarded the shuttle bus to the cruise port exit. Obviously we finally connected and had about a 90 minute drive to our VRBO in the heart of Rome.

Waiting patiently to hook up with our driver, Alisio. He ended up being a very nice guy who did speak English and gave us lots of tips.
He was nice enough to stop for a potty break, but as luck would have it, their inside toilet was indisposed. My first Italian porta potty!
We made it to our VRBO in the Piazza Capranica. That church across the piazza is Santa Maria in Aquiro. The facade dates back to the 18th century, but restoration records date back to the 8th century. IMAGINE!

We got ourselves settled in our 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment on the 6th floor. Ivonne and I were a little worried about the one bath situation, but it was quite large and we managed just fine. Good thing, as I chose both the Barcelona and Rome VRBO’s.

We had our first excursion at the Coliseum that afternoon, so off we went by foot. THANK GOD for Google maps or we would have been so lost. Rome is crowded with narrow streets going whichever way they want. I was the navigator and the only one with a Samsung. I’ve now learned that Apple Maps is not that good.

Just to give you a SMALL idea of the crowds we had to work our way through while NOT falling down during navigation.
We finally made it to the Forum area. Don’t THEY look relaxed?

I purposely did not take a lot of pictures because with the Internet, you can see whatever you want and even better than I can capture. The world of imaging and traveling has changed so much since Dennis and I started traveling in the late 80’s.

We did finally make it to the Coliseum. And no, that is not a McDonald’s sign, Diana.

We arrived before our Coliseum excursion so we had time to get a bite to eat. But with all the crowds and not being familiar with the area, we ended up in a “tourists come here” spot and had a sandwich. Of course we were also in need of a toilet, and our only option was the “get in line and give us 1 Euro”.

We all kept our sense of humor about it. In fact, I was told about an app called “Toilet Finder” but the map didn’t make much sense to me. So we accepted this option.
Our excursion meeting spot was at The Arch of Titus
Again patiently waiting for our tour guide with a black flag.

Come to find out, our tour was just the four of us beginning with a Virtual Reality of the Coliseum. I LOVED that. I had no idea that there was a gigantic statue of Titus next to the Coliseum back in the day. We THOUGHT we were getting a guided tour of the interior of the Coliseum but it ended up just being a downloaded audio and map and we were set loose to explore. None of us had headphones so we just went inside and roamed around. SO CROWDED, but here are just a few images.

Proof that we were there. Of course with AI now … this COULD be a fake picture, but it’s not.
I remember being here in 1993 with Dennis, and it was nothing like I experienced now. Of course that was 33 years ago ….

Our feet were hurting at this point, so we took a taxi back to our VRBO. We wandered a few piazzas for awhile, and then chose a place to eat. The food was excellent, but we were so tired that I didn’t take any pictures. Back to our VRBO we went and tried to get a good night’s sleep. Rome can be a little noisy.

The next morning, Pete and Ivonne had to find their way to their early and very special excursion, A Papal Audience. They took a taxi instead of walking and did make it in plenty of time. Ivonne said the experience was quite moving, and she sent me these two pictures.

I think this is a GREAT picture!
Wow! They got pretty darn close to him!
While they were at St. Peter’s Square, I had a coffee and croissant in our own little piazza and worked on the blog. That dark door in the background is where we entered for our apartment.
How could I fail to mention that THIS was the view from our apartment! Literally, the Pantheon was right around the corner!
And here it is ~ the Pantheon. All those people are either queueing to get in, or just hanging in the piazza. I got a last minute Viator ticket and walked right in like I owned the joint! The name means “temple of all gods, which it was in pagan times. But then the Catholic Church took it over and it became the temple of only one god.
This is the oculus in the middle of the ceiling. This place is about 1900 years old, even though this current building was completed around 126 AD. The original was built in 27-25 BC but it was destroyed by fire. Can you just imagine being that bird sitting there?
This dome has lasted 2000 years without any steel reinforcement, and remains the world’s largest concrete dome. It is also a giant sundial ~ I watched that bright spot move around the dome.
Just Google this place and be amazed …
The front doors are massive and beautiful.
Mid-day the 4 of us met at a sandwich place by the Vatican which was recommended by our driver. The bread was DELICIOUS!

Then I was so excited for our final excursion in Rome: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Tour.

Dennis and I were in Rome in May 1993 … 33 years before this visit. And see what I had on? SHORTS! So I was refused entry into the Sistine Chapel. I swore I would see it this visit, but ……..

Somehow Viator screwed up our tickets and Ivonne and I were not allowed on the tour. There is so much security now, and as they say, “no ticky, no laundry”. And there is NO WAY you can just show up and expect to get in. So we sent Lynda and Pete on their way into the excursion. Luckily, we met an angel in the tour office (named Angel!) and he suggested we do a golf cart tour at 4PM that same day. Having no other good alternative, we accepted. We had plenty of time to get to the meeting spot, so we decided to have the METRO experience (we couldn’t figure out how to get to the other side of the tracks!). But we finally arrived BACK to the Coliseum area to meet our guide. Amazingly, we were the only two with our own driver and tour guide! We were happy even though …. IT STARTED TO POUR DOWN RAIN.

We got plenty wet, especially Ivonne because she says I kept tipping my umbrella onto her. But we got to see the Trevi Fountain!
And The Spanish Steps!
Wet but happy! These were 2 sites that I really wanted to see, but I would have missed them if we did the Vatican tour. So it all worked out.
Eva and Leo were great! We all got soaked but it was worth it. AND PURPLE, TOO!
Our last dinner in Rome. We all pooled our Euros and Ivonne did a fine job being “Keeper of The Money Pot”. With our larger tabs, I was “Garmin Wonder Woman” and paid those electronically. Now that I’m home it’s kinda fun sorting out all of the expenses we still need to share.
What’s a final night out without gelato?

So there it is …. our time in Rome. Of course we still had the next day (Thursday) when we moved to a Best Western by the airport. It seemed wise to NOT fight the traffic early on a Friday morning to catch an early flight. 

I need to get to bed. My jet lag has not been that bad this trip, but I still have my moments.  Is it almost midnight or almost 9am tomorrow??

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