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Day 6: Civitavecchia (Rome)
It was 5:45 AM when my alarm went off, and the day had finally arrived – we were in Rome, the highlight destination of our cruise! Our family planned very early on for Rome, and although we explored the option of renting a private van for this excursion, it actually was cheaper for us to book our port adventure (Best of Rome CV25) through DCL given the larger size of our party. We got dressed, packing scarves for the cathedrals in our backpacks, and headed to Cabanas for breakfast. We met in the Walt Disney Theatre for our 6:45 AM departure and boarded the motor coach to begin our 11 hour day!
First of all, here is the daily Navigator:
And the port map:
Civitavecchia is 90 minutes from Rome, and there are very few excursions for this port that do not include trekking out to Rome (although I can’t see why you wouldn’t take the opportunity to head into the city). There are many options to get to Rome including trains and the very popular “Rome On Your Own” port adventure.
We picked up our guide outside of the Colosseum, where we began our tour of the most magnificent historical site that I’ve ever had the pleasure of touring. Outside of the Colosseum, you’ll see the Arch of Constantine, which was dedicated to Emperor Constantine in the year 315 AD to commemorate his victory over Maxentius.
Note to everyone – be wary of pick pockets outside of the Colosseum. It is extremely crowded! Because we had a guide, we were able to cut the line and head right up to the top of the Colosseum. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – this place was magnificent, and we were amazed that this place still stands.
As you look around the Colosseum, or Colosseo, you may not be aware that all of the historical sites around you are built on top of other fallen ruins. As our guide explained to us, “Us Romans love our history, so we do not destroy it, we simply build on top of it.” As archeologists have explored the ruins of Rome, they have unearthed even more ancient ruins underneath those that they are exploring.
The Colosseum is the largest amphitheater ever built – in the history of mankind – and it was completed in the year 80 AD! While most amphitheaters of this age were built into hills and mountains to assist with acoustics and structure, the Colosseum is entirely freestanding, and can hold about 60,000 spectators. I easily could have spent an entire day here, examining the names carved into stone and photographing it from every angle.
The stories of the gladiators and what used to be of the Colosseum were intriguing. We walked through every story of the building with our guide as she painted the picture for us of what every last stone of the Colosseum was originally purposed for. It is unbelievable to me that this building is almost 2,000 years old and still exists to this day.
I will warn you, the Colosseum in July is not only extremely crowded, but it is hot. We were relatively uncomfortable in 104 degree heat, especially since we dressed modestly for our afternoon in the Vatican City. If you can help it, I would not recommend visiting Rome in the high heat of July. Although we easily could have spent all day in the Colosseum, we were so hot that our mouths were dry, and we welcomed the air conditioning of the bus when it was time to leave.
We drove past the catacombs and the Quirinal Palace as we drove to the Trevi Fountain to make our wishes and channel our inner Lizzy McGuire. The Quirinal Palace is the ninth largest palace in the world, and is 20 times larger than the White House.
We walked down a few narrow alleyways to reach the Trevi Fountain, which was tourist central. Just look at the selfie sticks!
The legend says that if you make a wish in the Trevi Fountain that you will return to Rome. The one catch is that you can’t look back at the fountain after you make your wish, or it won’t come true. We took dozens of pictures before tossing our coins into the fountain and heading to lunch.
We arrived at a gorgeous hotel where we enjoyed an incredible meal of Italian food and wine. We finished our meal with coffee and gelato and prepared for our drive to the Vatican City.
The Vatican City is the smallest country, or microstate, in the world. Easily accessible from Rome, the city is 109 acres, with a population of just over 500 people. The microstate is 1/8 the size of Central Park in NYC, and is home to St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and The Vatican Palace. If you’d like to see a papal audience, you should plan ahead on getting tickets, and these usually occur at 10:30 AM.
Frankly, I don’t recommend bringing children to the Vatican. It is extremely crowded, and it is difficult to keep track of small children. There is also no air conditioning in the Vatican Museum, with the exception of the Sistine Chapel itself (thanks to the Japanese government – we are yet to figure out how they became involved in providing air conditioning to the Sistine Chapel, but boy are we glad that they did!)
We walked through halls and halls of gorgeous art and tapestries. We passed dozens of marble sculptures and learned the history of each painting and tapestry (most of which were dedicated or donated to the Vatican museum). It was so crowded and so hot, we were relieved when we learned that the Japanese donated an air conditioning unit to the Sistine Chapel.
This room portrays the history of Italy through the murals on the walls. Each represents a different stage of the Roman Empire. This was my favorite room of the Vatican museum.
As we approached the Sistine Chapel, we caught a glimpse of the outside of the building. We were surprised that it was not more magnificent looking.
As you walk into the Sistine Chapel, be sure your knees and shoulders are covered up and that you are prepared to be completely silent. It is a practicing church and there are people praying in the cathedral, so be respectful. We were so surprised by how many people were not respecting the silence rules. Also note that photography is strictly prohibited, and while I usually completely ignore those rules (like in the Amber Room in St. Petersburg), I strictly observe rules in houses of religion.
We then walked out the “secret” back exit to tour St. Peter’s Basilica, which in my opinion, was much more beautiful than the Sistine Chapel. I was at a loss for words when we walked into the building to see the 40 story ceilings of gorgeous art, gold, and marble in this papal cathedral.
Before you enter the Basilica, you can see where the pope holds his papal audiences. This entire courtyard is filled with people when the pope is holding a papal audience.
This is the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica:
Make no mistake – the Sistine Chapel is nothing in comparison to St. Peter’s Basilica. I spent no less than 45 minutes walking through the cathedral photographing every angle at a complete loss for words. And it’s really difficult not to be at loss for words! This piece of art specifically was my favorite in St. Peter’s. It looks like a fresco, but it’s actually a mosaic. The intricate work of this piece and the attention to detail truly blew me away.
Here you can see one of the guarded entrances to the Vatican. There are 6 ways to enter this microstate, but only 3 are accessable to the general public.
Here is the outside of St. Peter’s and another view of the Vatican. I have been to over 25 countries and the Vatican State was easily the one that blew me away the most. You must add this to the top of your bucket list.
We then went to a Vatican City gift shop where we found some of the more humerous gifts that we’ve seen in our international travel experience. You could buy anything from vials of water from the Vatican, to rosary beads, to jewelry and mosaics. Everything that you could buy had a big picture of the pope smiling, which was the funniest part about it all. It was so commercialized that you could easily forget that you were in one of the holier areas of the world.
After we finished shopping, we boarded our bus and said goodbye to our tour guide as we began our 90 minute bus ride back to the ship. We got back to the ship just in time for all aboard (which was at 6:45, and we arrived back at 6:30), and we showed the port authority our passports and boarded the ship.
We immediately showered (seriously – massive tourism plus 100+ degree weather plus no air conditioning in the Vatican means mandated showers as soon as you get on the ship). I headed to the Ultimate Disney Trivia with my siblings to kill some time before our 8:30 PM dinner at Carioca’s. We really thought that we were going to win, but the final question about who the godmothers are for every ship threw us off!
We hung out at dinner eating and talking until about 10:30 while we enjoyed catching up with Genesis and each other. After dinner, I headed to Fathoms to see The Music and Comedy of John Charles, which was hilarious. They were having issues with the sound hookup for his guitar, so he joked around as they tried several fixes to get his sound to work. When they finally got it working, he said “Ok, well that’s all the time I have for you,” and I laughed probably harder than he intended. He took requests and heckled people for the songs that they requested, and it was a really great interactive show.
With such a big day planned ahead of us, I went to bed after the show in preparation for Naples. Our excursion would be heading to Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and to Pompeii, and we couldn’t wait! Keep following along to read about our trip to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii – which is, in my opinion, the #1 thing you should see when you go to Italy.
Up Next: Day 7
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Danielle is a 23 year old Disney fanatic, ICU Nurse, and travel blogger from Nashville, TN. When she is not traveling, you can find her snuggling with her 2 English bulldogs and spending time with her family of 7. You can read more about her trips and adventures at www.daniellefarideh.com.
Instagram: @daniellefarideh
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