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

Now packed and off to bed for a few hours of sleep. We have booked Blacklane to take us to the airport tomorrow morning. We have not had great experiences with taxi drivers here in Rome. Will sum up final thoughts tomorrow

Pictures are amazing. So much to see in Rome.

The Forum and Colosseum photos take me back. It is the only international trip my grandmother ever went on. As a Christmas present to her I got a book made of the photos we took, she was in her 70s and some sites weren't accessible to her. It is her prized possession, but man was it hot and we look "glowing" in all the photos. 

I am glad you and your family got to experience this, and I hope you flight home is uneventful.

Safe travels!

Safe trip home!  Thank you for your wonderful blog and pictures.  I was in Rome for 3 days 2 years ago before my Odyssey cruise and absolutely loved it.  Your pictures brought back many memories.

4 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This is where the kids almost expired lol

DID I NOT SAY TO NOT EXPIRE?!

woof this is a fear of mine with the heat. i am glad you guys are okay and hopefully hydrating.

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

D15 was horrified when her burger arrived and it was black. Turns out it tasted like a regular burger bun. 

wait was the burger black too!! this kind of looks like a pumpernickel roll

what a long day you guys had! i am hoping you’re fast asleep now

Your pictures (I assume your Hubby’s) are amazing!  The blue sky is so beautiful…and I can definitely tell it had to be scorching hot!  I have enjoyed seeing your family making so many memories…very heartwarming. 
Thank you for bringing us along and hope your travel back to home is uneventful!

We absolutely agree! Wow! Amazing pictures!

What an amazing way to celebrate your daughter’s graduation!  Thank you for taking us along on your adventures!  Some a little scary, but most of them amazing!

Safe travels!  Look forward to your vacation after the vacation!

4 hours ago, asquared17 said:

woof this is a fear of mine with the heat. i am glad you guys are okay and hopefully hydrating.

We drank a ton of water, and you can fill up at the fountains here but it was still pretty rough. We were talking about it this morning and if we come back to the is part of Europe again, we will have to wait until I retire in a few years and go during another time of the year. 
 

3 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Your pictures (I assume your Hubby’s) are amazing!  The blue sky is so beautiful…

He said thank you! He was even commenting last night while sorting through pics that the sky looks so blue, almost not real. But I promise, the pics are all real, no photoshop or AI

Blacklane to FCO was very smooth. Moving through FCO was super smooth as well. The whole process from hotel curb to gate was just one hour, and the airport is quite busy too. 

There is also no Delta Sky Club (obviously lol) here at T3 in FCO. Delta One passengers have access to the ITA Airways Piazza di Spagna Lounge instead. We headed here right away after security to grab some breakfast, there’s a delicious, and much needed coffee bar here as well. Now just chilling in the lounge until our boarding time in about 40 minutes. 
 

We are on the plane. All set for an on time take off! See you all back in North America. I am going back to bed. Probably need to sleep for days to catch up

What an amazing trip!!!!

Agree with others.  What an amazing trip, and amazing photos!  Your family is portrait perfect....each one so lovely!  Although I can imagine tiring, an that one negative tour day, seems like an incredible trip and celebration of your daughter graduating. Something you will all remember and cherish.  Thank you for taking us along.

17 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

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

 

Your hubby will love what my hubby and best friend did when they walked out onto the main floor of the Colosseum, they yelled "Are you not entertained?"  The rest of us made sure we were quite a distance away as to not be associated with them.  We could hear our guide say "Stupid Americans." over our headsets.  

17 minutes ago, Shari said:

Your hubby will love what my hubby and best friend did when they walked out onto the main floor of the Colosseum, they yelled "Are you not entertained?"  The rest of us made sure we were quite a distance away as to not be associated with them.  We could hear our guide say "Stupid Americans." over our headsets.  

Hubby kept asking Marco our guide if this was like the movie or if that was like the movie. Marco was shaking his head, but even he admitted he has watched the movie a ton of times. 

We have about 4 hours left of our flight. We all passed out for a bit but now awake and probably not going back to sleep because I don’t want to throw off my schedule too much tonight. Now seems like a good time to sum of some of my final thoughts. 

To echo what many of you have already said, from beginning to end, this trip has been nothing short of amazing. It is hard to put into words how incredibly grateful we are to have had this opportunity with the girls. Something we will all cherish for the rest of our lives. 

I was just going through all our photos earlier and Barcelona was only two weeks ago, but yet seems like ages ago. So this trip has felt long, but yet also whizzed by if that makes sense. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, despite the heat, and the messed up shore excursion, it’s just all part of the memories now. And we cherish them all. 

As a family, we have come to several conclusions. We will be very careful when picking where to go in the future during the summer months. The last few days in Rome were pretty rough with the heat and I think if we were going to head to the hotter ports of Europe, we would wait a few years and do it in the cooler months. The heat and the massive crowds do make it less enjoyable. If we were to head back to Europe in the next few years before I retire, then we would do Northern Europe itineraries instead. 

We loved our experiences with LivTours. I am now convinced that for “must see” destinations, private tours is the way to go. The flexibility and the speed at which you can move is worth it. And it really is like having your own local person taking you around, they know all the tricks and things to avoid, right down to which water fountains to avoid (because of lines) and how to move through the crowds, and which restaurants have AC lol. And LivTours is a fantastic company to work with in pre-planning as well. 

I think that is all for now. Thank you all for coming along with us. The more the merrier. I am sorry that in the last few days I was only able to update at the end of the day. It was just the nature of the day long tours and the exhaustion that followed. I am happy though that I managed to keep this blog “Live” and not fall off. I have never done that before and wasn’t about to start now I will admit it was challenging though this time. We are exhausted, but we are so thankful, and Hubby and I are off again in one week from today!

23 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We will be very careful when picking where to go in the future during the summer months. The last few days in Rome were pretty rough with the heat and I think if we were going to head to the hotter ports of Europe, we would wait a few years and do it in the cooler months. The heat and the massive crowds do make it less enjoyable.

This is the same conclusion I came to. After experiencing 30+ 100% humidity last Christmas on HM I am relieved that Lindsay’s work caused us to cancel our 14 night Western Med cruise that was set to leave tomorrow. None of us would have done well with the heat and humidity.  

September and October, which I know are school months for you, are the best time to do these types of vacations. It will still be hot, but more bearable. 

I am glad you got to experience this with your family, and it became an awesome memory. I am looking forward to the Adventure/Reflection trip.......as I am sure you are as well. 

5 hours ago, Jax said:

None of us would have done well with the heat and humidity.  

It gets pretty hot and humid in the summer where we are in southern Ontario. Even when we go to Florida in the summer we can deal. But like @Ampurp85 said, there is something about that sun in Rome. It is unlike other humid spots we have encountered. 

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am looking forward to the Adventure/Reflection trip.......as I am sure you are as well. 

Yes! As much as I love my kids, I am glad  to have time with just Hubby. And I am looking forward to the more relaxed sailings that we are used to. 

I can't quite gage the time, have you made it home safely?

Are you going to continue this blog, or will there be a new one? 

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It gets pretty hot and humid in the summer where we are in southern Ontario.

It gets hot here but generally we have very little humidity so we aren’t conditioned for it and fade fast. Lol

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I can't quite gage the time, have you made it home safely?

Are you going to continue this blog, or will there be a new one? 

Yes. The flight was super smooth. Left and landed on time. We landed around 3pm at DTW. Customs took a while to clear at the airport. Then we had to pick up something at our US mailbox. The Ambassador Bridge crossing was a disaster. But we got home around 6pm. 

Also, no, not rolling the next trip into this one

2 hours ago, Jax said:

It gets hot here but generally we have very little humidity so we aren’t conditioned for it and fade fast. Lol

For sure. When we spent that summer in 2021 in Alberta, that was one thing we noticed right away. 

i am so glad you are all home safely

I am too glad you had a smooth safe trip. Are you team laundry as soon as you get home?

Welcome back! Thank you!

Got caught up last night. It looks like you had an amazing time, aside from the excursion that went awry. The pictures look amazing. I can't wait to hear all the stories and see the NSFTB pictures in person in a few short months!

5 hours ago, GregD said:

I can't wait to hear all the stories and see the NSFTB pictures in person in a few short months!

I will show you, remind me. You will get a good laugh, but since you and the Boss have kids too, I know you will totally get it!

No time like now to start the live blog for the S2S cruise

45 minutes ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

No time like now to start the live blog for the S2S cruise

I will take a breather this weekend and start it up next week

Wow!  What a great trip and clearly the whole family had a great time!

You did an amazing job keeping the blog live while also having a great trip.

For those don't know, these live blogs are work.  Yet once again you have done an amazing job bringing us along with your family on a fantastic voyage like we all are right there with you. 

Well done!

49 minutes ago, twangster said:

Wow!  What a great trip and clearly the whole family had a great time!

You did an amazing job keeping the blog live while also having a great trip.

For those don't know, these live blogs are work.  Yet once again you have done an amazing job bringing us along with your family on a fantastic voyage like we all are right there with you. 

Well done!

That means a lot coming from my mentor-bot

Some credit has to go to Hubby. Each day, he had to filter through pics to send to me. That was a lot of work too! 

It was a lot of work this time! But I enjoy it, and I do it for our little community here, but also for myself. I think I have mentioned it before, D15 and I like to go back and re-read these to remember what we did.

It also might be a good time to put in a little disclaimer, pardon any typos up until to this point. Mostly all was done on my phone, and I am getting old, so my eyes are starting to struggle with small print, and I feel like I was half asleep (from sheer exhaustion) while typing some of these entries