Tons of fancy food and pastries for us to eat. And they always have slices of deli meat and cheese with breakfast. The juices choices were interesting as well: blood orange, regular orange, and grapefruit.
Once we arrived in the city, our bus parked in an underground parking lot and we walked up a subway station walkway to get to Vatican City.
We arrived early enough that the crowds of people had yet to arrive. It was peaceful and lovely...something we would come to appreciate later as throngs of people started to show up.
Even St. Peter's Basilica had very few people crowding around, and the hushed tones and huge open space let us truly admire the majesty of the building.
Every corner, alcove, and square-inch are decorated with carvings, marble, artwork, etc. You could study the pictures of Christ, saints, and other religious figures for hours. Priests were also at work performing ceremonies and ordinances and we were able to hear singing and watch a few other activities take place.
Wandering down another hallway, we found a list of all the popes that ever were!
Once we had our fill of the Basilica, we went back outside to enjoy the courtyard and the sunshine.
And attempted a couple pictures with the Basilica behind us.
Next, we embarked on the madness of the Vatican Museum. I don't think anything could have prepared us for the crowds of people in that place. The Museum sometimes has as many as 25,000 people go through it in one day, and that is definitely what it felt like.
The tour started out viewing a lot of statues and artwork. We entered the pine-cone courtyard with a nice view of St. Peter's Basilica.
Our tour guide spoke into a microphone that was hooked up to earpieces that we each wore. He was specifically talkative and slow in his explanations. We only had so much time before we had to get back to the bus, and at the rate he was going, it was going to take at least three hours to get through the museum.
With views of Rome and a huge bowl made from one piece of red marble, we saw and learned about many cool things. But Mom and I took our own detours away from the group to see parts of the museum that were being skipped (and to just be able to go at our own pace and see what we wanted to see).
Like the Egyptian exhibit. Unfortunately, it was so crowded we could barely walk through it before returning to our group.
Eventually, we couldn't take our tour guide anymore and, worried about timing, we convinced Brigham to break off with us and to finish walking through to the Sistine Chapel on our own. Unfortunately, when it's packed from wall to wall with people, you aren't able to move very quickly. It was so claustrophobic! And we went during the off season! During heavy tourism months, it's even worse.
Despite being trapped in like sardines and shuffling next to each other through the hallways trying to get free, there were areas of beautiful tapestries and artwork, and ceilings that left me with an aching neck from always looking up to admire.
We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel at the end. But just imagine an entire room painted on all the walls and ceilings with pictures about Christ, the Creation, and more by Michaelangelo. People weren't supposed to talk, but respect was low and we were very disappointed by how loud and crazy it was in the Chapel. We felt more reverence in St. Peters and left quickly to return to St. Peters and tour the catacombs underneath.
After that, we only had a half hour before our bus left for the cruise, but Brigham and I were determined and managed to walk quickly to squeeze in some gelato while Mom headed back for the bus with our tour-guide, Nathan. And it was some of the best gelatos on our trip! I tried chocolate and mint chocolate chip. Mmmmm. The chocolate was the best chocolate gelato I've had.
Once back on the bus, I took a picture of Nathan (our tour guide for the past three days) to remember him by. And then as we left the city, one of the beautiful river Tiver with Vatican City in the background. It was gorgeous.
And then it was time to drive to the coast to check into our cruise!
Our cruise ship was the Costa Diadema - one of the biggest cruise ships out there, holding 5,000 passengers and over 1,200 crew members. A big boat! Our room was at the bottom of the ship, on the first floor and we had a good-size window for a view.
After checking into our room, a mandatory safety meeting, and exploring the ship, we headed to dinner in the dining room and had our first of many fancy meals. Our favorite perk was the water package at dinner. Water is definitely hard to come by in Italy and costs everywhere you go, so we kissed those bottles of water waiting for us at dinner each night.
It was nice to know we now had a home base to return to and keep our belongings for seven days, rather than packing from hotel to hotel. Not to mention our home base was full of food and activities. We were definitely excited to see what this cruise held in store for us. We headed to bed on time because the first docking was early the next morning!
This blog post was written ten years to the day after your very first blog post! how's that for anniversaries?!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog!!