Day 37bn Wednesday 30 April 2015 Civitavecchia to Rome

The birthday we missed in the previous post

was young William’s.

We docked at the port of Rome and were the lucky first bus away even though we were an hour late leaving because we had lost someone, it turned out they wouldn’t let them eave the ship as they had to settle their account. The port is some distance from Rome and took about an hour although the last 20 minutes was a crawl.  There was very little urban sprawl, the streets are tree lined with sycamores and are quite attractive, and as we drive in would spot some beautiful building or monument and go OH MY GOD! And so it continued…

We began our walking tour after negotiating narrow paths of Rome we emerged at the Trevi Fountain.  The fountain was undergoing renovation but it was quite impressive.  It was then on the Pantheon which ordinary looks hid its impressive ceiling.  We wandered around the Piazza Nouva which It was great ordering a milkshake and receiving gelato instead.  Perhaps saying “choco milko” was too imprecise on my part. After lunch we went on the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.  The Vatican would have to be the most impressive art collection on the world, especially if they had the one about the dogs playing cards.  Each gallery was better than then the next and there was far too much to photograph.  One unexpected delight was the gallery of the maps. The Sistine Chapel was amazing but this was before St Peter’s Basilica.

St Peter’s Basilica was just ridiculous…I mean…ridiculously awesome!!  It was extraordinary, you see incredible art in one part of the church, move on and then see something else that is quite breathtaking. TRAVEL HINT An interesting feature is that tour groups have their own reservations so we didn’t have to queue with the long lines like those million other poor sods in a huge line.  It was a huge time saver. 

At night we had dinner at a local restaurant with opera singers who in general terms were excellent.  We then had a brief night tour with some of the ancient sites lit up. We are staying two nights at our hotel - Hotel Cicero.