A Voyage for the Ages – VY 7/8/2024 – 7/15/2024

After the gelato, we said goodbye to our guide, and caught a cab back to the hotel. You can tell from the pics how wiped out we are. It’s now past midnight here. Completely running on fumes at this point. The heat, as @Ampurp85 said, is really bad here. And where we are from, it gets to over 30°C as well but something is different about the heat here. Going to bed

You’ve seen so many things I had to memorize for Art History courses in college! 

PS. Going back to the David, I had to get a magnet of my favorite piece of art I ever memorized - Snake Goddess from Knossos in Crete! She’s also a little NSFW so I censored her. hahaha

I ate at the pizza place!!! They had a potato and prosciutto pizza that was amazing. It was weird at first but something about the dough, olive oil and seasoning really brought it together.

Sadly, Italian pasta will ruin you. I have never had pasta better than when I was in Italy. Like even the most basic ones are heavenly. 

I am glad things are much better with these tours. 

Also are you guys flying straight from Rome to FLL for the S2S?

Somehow I missed the fact that you had disembarked !  I guess that went smoothly….

23 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

GITCC

Yes!!!

7 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

It was weird at first but something about the dough, olive oil and seasoning really brought it together.

Our guide, who is a major foodie, explained that it all has to do with texture. Toppings, fluffy airy crust, then crispy on the bottom. He said there must be a difference in textures for it to be “good”. 
 

6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Somehow I missed the fact that you had disembarked !  I guess that went smoothly….

Go back to midway through page 15

Rooftop breakfast at Marriott Grand Flora.

We are off to our tour now. Hopefully we survive the heat lol. Probably won’t be able to update until after dinner tonight. 

Have you run into any language barrier issues?

I just LOVE the breakfast spreads at the hotels in Italy!  All fresh foods and so many options to choose from.  Definitely looking forward to that again next Spring!  Your hotel pictures are impressive…

Looking forward to your pictures from where you are sightseeing today  

I love rooftop restaurants. They have them in Greece. I remember seeing the sun going down and turn around to see the moon. It was awesome.

8 hours ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Have you run into any language barrier issues?

No actually. We have done a lot of private tours so that helps. But even while on our own, many around here speak some English. 

7 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

I just LOVE the breakfast spreads at the hotels in Italy!  All fresh foods and so many options to choose from.  Definitely looking forward to that again next Spring!  Your hotel pictures are impressive…

Looking forward to your pictures from where you are sightseeing today  

: All Hubby!

Ok so the reason why I could not update today was because we started Day 1 of our 2 day tour of Rome. This one is called Private Rome 2-day by LivTours. It’s jammed packed and it would not have been polite to our guide if I was on my phone. Despite the heat, I really enjoyed the day today! We also lucked out and got an another fantastic guide, Marco. 

We met Marco at 9am at the entrance to the Borghese Gallery. I will be honest. I knew nothing about this gallery other than all travel guides online said that if you had more than one day here, it’s worth checking out. So when I saw that LivTours offered it on their 2 day bundle, I was quite happy about it. 
The gallery is the old home/office of the Borghese family who was also a cardinal in Rome during the Baroque period. It contains works of art that he collected and some extras. With Marco giving the backstory to everything, I found this place so interesting! It was probably my favourite, and D15 too! I would have loved to have stayed longer but there is a 2 hour limit here, and we stayed the full two hours. We have a ton of inside pics but again, family blog so not sure if it’s appropriate to post. It’s also unfortunate that the front facade is under renovations for the jubilee. That seems to be the running theme today.

After the Borghese gallery, D17 wanted to visit the Spanish steps again and we also convinced Marco to let us walk through the oldest McDonald’s in Rome. He did cringe though lol

After McDonald’s, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Before we entered the “blender” (as Marco calls it), he pulled us aside and said he had one goal…get to the water. Then he said, “Follow me.” He was an all star. He weaved us through the blender in about a minute or two tops. And  it was packed! 
 

From here we made our way to Vatican City. Here we stopped for lunch before going into the Vatican. 
 

Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. 

We got a huge history lesson here but it truly made it more enjoyable. 

We even caught a lull in the massive crowd and took a pic with Marco 

After the Vatican, the tour wrapped up for the day. We will meet Marco tomorrow morning again to tackle all the hot spots (quite literally). I might need to follow D15 and bring my umbrella out tomorrow. The heat is bad here. 
Dinner was at a place our food tour guide recommended and he said it was not a tourist trap. No one left hungry here, but there was still room for gelato! 
 

Need to go to bed now! We are all seriously running on fumes. Hubby still has energy, but that’s about it lol 

I see the shoulders covered. I was able to go on a Sunday. It was amazing. The Cardinals all had on red robes. Did you go to the place where the nuns shopped? No black habits. I saw a couple of outfits I wanted.

I was able to attend a Papal Audience back in May 2006.  It was amazing…the entire St. Peter’s square was packed!  Back then (if I recall correctly) we had to request tickets through our diocese office in advance and picked up the tickets at the American College in Rome.

When we are in Rome next year it will be May 11-14…might have to consider our options!  

4 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

From here we made our way to Vatican City. Here we stopped for lunch before going into the Vatican. 
 

We’re using LivTours in Rome in August and likely will need a lunch spot near the Vatican. Where did you go and would you recommend?

On 7/16/2024 at 1:15 AM, Ampurp85 said:

Also are you guys flying straight from Rome to FLL for the S2S?

Omg! In the words of @asquared17, I would expire if we did that! I might already have expired from the hustle and bustle of the last two weeks. We are flying home tomorrow, doing much needed laundry, resetting, ditching the freeloaders and off to PC on the 25th to catch AD first. 
 

6 hours ago, Sweety said:

I see the shoulders covered. I was able to go on a Sunday. It was amazing. The Cardinals all had on red robes. Did you go to the place where the nuns shopped? No black habits. I saw a couple of outfits I wanted.

We did not shop there but we did go by the place. 
 

5 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

When we are in Rome next year it will be May 11-14…might have to consider our options!  

It’s going to be crazy here in Rome next year. That is what all the guides have said. The jubilee year is going to push the crazy onto a whole other level.

3 hours ago, CruisingAndy said:

We’re using LivTours in Rome in August and likely will need a lunch spot near the Vatican. Where did you go and would you recommend?

Can I be totally honest? It is so hot here, we picked our place for lunch based on who had AC we ate yesterday at a place called Claps. There are several on that street right outside the Vatican museum entrance and only that one had AC. 

Wow. I just caught up and I’m tired just reading your schedule!  I’m so happy your family is making such wonderful memories!  Your girls are blessed to have parents who make such special family times. And you and hubby are blessed to have teens still happy to hang with mom and dad! What an amazing experience for all of you. Thanks for sharing. Safe travels. 

May you have a peaceful and relaxing trip home. Thank you for getting AD ready for us. We are on August 2.

Well, we are headed off to Day 2 of our private Rome tour. Meeting our guide Marco near the Colosseum. Will update after dinner tonight. It our last day of our trip. Ready to make the most of it! 

7 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It’s going to be crazy here in Rome next year. That is what all the guides have said. The jubilee year is going to push the crazy onto a whole other level.

Yes I’ve heard about that.  I already looked and there are no huge events going on in Rome during the days we will be there.  I am sure crowds will be nuts anyway but we will be prepared as much as we can be.  
Perhaps one good thing is we will not need a hotel in Rome since we have some family members flying over and renting a huge house via AirBnB.  

please do not expire!!!!!!

Another great day touring with Marco from LivTours. Today our plan was to meet Marco outside of the Colosseum and tackle the whole Roman Forum area along with the Colosseum. We are so thankful that LivTours and Marco schedule this in the morning. It was blazing hot, especially in those areas because there is not much shade. 

Marco decided to head into the “oven” first. That is the pretty much the middle of the forum. He said that is the hottest place so best to tackle early on. This was around 9:30am and the crowds were pretty thick already. But Hubby still managed to get some really great shots. 
 

Today’s theme was all about the “layers” of Rome. A lot of these guides say that Rome is like a lasagna, layer built up layer. It was here in the forum that we got a really visual for what that really means.

Here we saw where street level used to be, and then a new level built upon that, and a church where the door appears to be in the air because the street level used to be where the door was. It was a bit surreal standing there in the middle of the forum, listening to all the stories and thinking that we are standing on the same ground.
 

Our last stop in the forum was Domus Aurea, the house of Nero. Great views of the forum from up top here. After that we began the blazing hot walk back to the Colosseum. 

By the time we got to the Colosseum it was hot and the crowds were crazy town. You literally had to wade and swim and bump your way through people. One of the best things about LivTours is that they arrange all skip the lines tickets. There was no real waiting at any of the places that required admission. 

Hubby loved the Colosseum. This sort of thing is right up his alley. He has watched Gladiator more times than I can count. Watching him here today was like watching a kid at a candy store. We almost had to drag him out of there. We were here from about 11am - 1pm. This is where the kids almost expired lol

After the Colosseum we were all in serious need for a breather. Our stop after lunch was the Basilica of San Clemente so Marco suggested that we head to a restaurant just down the street from there with AC lol. We didn’t even care what was on the menu there at this point. The AC sold us again in the end the food was quite good too! D15 was horrified when her burger arrived and it was black. Turns out it tasted like a regular burger bun. 

After lunch we headed to the Basilica of San Clemente. This church is a gem. From the outside, it’s not impressive at all. However, once you wander in and down, it’s a marvel. Here we really got a good idea of how the city just built on top of one another. There are actually 3 churches here, all built one on top of another, spanning almost 2000 years! So fascinating! Definitely a must see if you have more time in Rome. No pics were allowed here. 

After that a LivTours driver came to pick us all up from San Clemente and drove us to our final stop. Also, no pics were allowed here at the catacombs. This was also very interesting to visit at least once. It was a bit strange being down there though. 
 

On our way back to the drop off point, Marco asked the driver to swing by Circus Maximus for a quick photo stop. 
Then we said goodbye to Marco and headed off to dinner. 

Dinner was at Camillo at Piazza Navona. This was another place recommended to us by Brando, our food tour guide. We did not want to eat outside but when we walked inside, we were quite shocked. You will see why in the pics. 
 

Of course, we could not let our last night end without gelato. Delicious as always!