Sunday - our cruise ends and Rome begins!

We were sad to see the end of our most enjoyable transatlantic cruise on Sunday morning but anticipating getting to see some of Rome.

We arrived at the pier in Civitavecchia at about 6am. Carl saw this ship come in -- with Superman designs on the outside. Like Moby (that had the Warner Brothers characters painted on it), this is a passenger and freight ferry.

Civitavecchia is the port of Rome

We had originally booked our transfer to the hotel in Rome for 9am, but when we found out how early we would be arriving at Civitaveccia, and that Norwegian wanted all passengers to vacate their cabins by 7:30am, we contacted the hotel and asked that the car come for us at 8am. We decided to handle our own luggage rather than putting our bags in the hallway and then having to collect them in the cruise terminal. We were a little concerned that the elevators might be very busy come 7:30am, so we left our cabin about 7am and made it easily onto an elevator, off the ship, through the terminal, and outside by soon after 7am. The driver for the car service had some difficulty getting into the port (there was a lineup of vehicles as cargo trucks and taxis and busses were all coming in the same gate), but he got there about 8:20am.

It was about an hour drive into Rome, and the driver delivered us to our hotel, the Cosmopolita Hotel Rome, Tapestry Collection by Hilton. We were too early to check into the hotel, but that was okay - we wanted to go see some things on one of our two days in Rome, and the hotel would hold our luggage for us.

I told a little about our planning for this trip in the Livorno post. Even though we only would have two days in Rome, I figured we would be able to visit the Sistine Chapel, which was what I really wanted to see. But... the cruise was ending on Sunday, and the Vatican Museums are not usually open on Sunday, and it turns out that our second day in Rome was May 1, "Worker's Day", like the US Labor Day, but a big holiday in much of Europe, and that there would be very few things open on that day -- including that the Vatican Museums would be closed.

However... there was an outside possibility -- the last Sunday of the month is a free visit day to the Vatican Museums, but there are a lot of people who line up to go that day, there are no "skip the line" tickets available, and the last entry is at 12:30pm and all need to be out of the museums by 2pm. The information I had read indicated that it opened at 10:30am (the website now says 9am - it may have changed between when I was doing research and now). We weren't sure how many people might be showing up to get in line... we weren't sure when we would actually get to our hotel in Rome and how long it would take to get to the Vatican... so I wasn't holding out much hope. But now, since we were able to get off the ship earlier than anticipated, it looked like there was a better possibility!

From the moment we got into Rome, we started seeing beautiful buildings and monuments (this was a quick picture taken from the taxi as he was driving from the hotel to the Vatican -- I think it is Altar of the Fatherland -- "Grand marble neoclassical temple honoring Italy's first king & First World War soldiers.")

We saw a lot of miniature cars!

When our driver got close to the entrance to the Vatican Museums, we saw a line, and what a line it was! We told him not to worry about getting us closer to the front -- we'd have to walk to the back of the line anyway.

It probably took us 5 minutes or so for us to trace back along the line to find its end -- we joined the line at about 10:30am -- there were LOTS of people waiting in line. We wondered if there was any possibility that we would be able to make it to the entrance by 12:30pm. Some of the other 100s (1000s?) of our closest friends who were in line with us (in this section, it snaked back and forth 4 times before continuing around the wall of Vatican City).

Along the wall (this was part of the line behind us).

The line yet in front of us  -- this was at 11:51am.

Carl was taking pictures of the line and of the Burger King across the street!

In sight of the entrance at 12:17pm -- we made it!

I did not realize how huge the Vatican Museums were and how diverse and plentiful the art was.

A view out a window over the city of Rome.

We honestly did not take the time to enjoy all the other parts of the museums as our goal was to make it to the Sistine Chapel and have time to appreciate it before the ending time of 2pm.

There were also SO MANY people there that seeing the displays were difficult except for the ceilings.

And... we didn't get the audio guide, and generally could not get close enough to see descriptive panels (or we didn't even see that they existed in most cases) -- so our pictures are without descriptions...

... but the ceilings were really neat...

... even if we don't know precisely what was depicted.

I did not realize that the Vatican Museums have a lot of non-religious art.

These may be religious...

... but we honestly don't know.

I kind of think that art that is on the ceiling (and thus specifically done for the Vatican Museum) probably is religious in nature.

We came to a room that had tapestries on the walls -- they were huge, and there were good descriptions that were easier to get to. This one is the Adoration of the Shepherds.

Adoration of the Magi

The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord

The Resurrection of Our Lord

More ceiling art

Carl getting pictures of ceilings

We finally got to the entry of the Sistine Chapel at about 12:50pm.

No pictures are allowed inside the Sistine Chapel. It is not a huge room, and it was PACKED. We managed to find two seats along the benches that are on the walls of the room, and could sit and look. There is so much detail and so many things to see. I did not realize that the Creation of Adam was just one of many frescoes on the ceiling of the chapel. (If you go to Wikipedia, you can see a picture of the Creation of Adam but then there is also one of a larger part of the ceiling, so you can see how the Creation of Adam is just one part: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam). We were glad to be able to sit down and look up -- most people just had to stand in the middle of the room and look up -- since we were able to sit, we probably spent about 30-40 minutes looking and enjoying -- if we'd been standing, we'd never have been able to look upwards for that long!

Leaving the chapel was such a press of people -- the door out was narrow and only 1-2 people at a time could pass through it.

More ceiling pictures from the part of the museums after the Sistine Chapel....

Exiting the museums there were these neat spiraling ramps.

When we left the museums, it was sprinkling a little rain.

We were hungry after all that touring, so stopped at a sidewalk cafe near the Vatican. It had umbrellas over the tables, and the rain had also pretty much stopped.

We got an order of spaghetti bolognese and a pizza buffalo mozzarella to share. Yum!

We had decided that we would walk back to the hotel, and try seeing some sites as we went. Our second day in Rome had a prediction of rain all day, so we thought we should enjoy as much as we could on Sunday.

We walked past the Castel Sant'Angelo

Tiber River

View of St Peter's Basilica and St Peter's Square from the area in front of Castel Sant'Angelo (along with a view of some of the crowds that were in Rome on Sunday).

Another view of Castel Sant'Angelo from the bridge over the Tiber

The street continuing on the other side of the bridge.

A statue on the bridge (Angel with the Cross by Ercole Ferrata)

Our walking took us to the Pantheon...

Obligatory selfie with the Pantheon

We were heading from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain...

Along the way, we came across the Church of St Ignatius.

 

It was starting to rain a little more, and we were ready to sit down for a little bit, so we went in - so beautiful! This was the front altar...

... one side altar...

... and the one on the other side.

... a better look at the ceiling of the front altar.

As we were leaving the church, we saw The Neapolitan Crib

We happened to see this sign along our route -- we didn't realize that we were following a path that is a common route...

... however, we did realize that a LOT of other people were also following the same route. It was a bit hazardous with all the umbrellas. We had left our umbrella at the hotel - there were lots of opportunists who popped up selling umbrellas and rain ponchos, but we had our caps to keep the rain out of our faces, and it wasn't *pouring* down!

We saw lots of gelato shops and stopped at one to get a scoop in a cone - we found an umbrella outside a nearby restaurant (there were no tables placed under their umbrellas) where we enjoyed our sweet treat.

Our final planned stop on the route to our hotel was at the Trevi Fountain, though there were SO MANY people there, we did not toss any coins into the fountain (I read online that 3000 euro a day are put into the fountain!). Carl got this picture that shows few people by holding his phone high over his head.

Another church along our route -- we didn't go into this one.

Another gelato shop along the way -- they were making the frozen dessert in the window of their shop.

What a day! We had a very short last night on the ship as we were packing and then got up early to eat and get out of the cabin by 7am. A bit of stress with finding the driver from the car service, and then wondering if we would get into the Vatican Museums or not. But we enjoyed what we were able to do in Rome on the first of our two days of visiting!

Saturday in Livorno, Italy

Our last port visit was scheduled for Saturday, in Livorno, Italy. We had planned to take a shore excursion through the cruise line to Florence, but it was scheduled to last 9.5 hours, and we decided a few days ago that we'd prefer a more relaxing day.

The port was busy - a few different passenger ships -- Moby was interesting as they had Warner Brothers cartoon characters decorating the outside of their ships (there were two in the port). https://www.mobylines.com/

It seemed to be a more industrial port than others where we've stopped.

Carl captured me stepping off onto Italian land...

So... the way that this cruise came about is rather a tangled tale. We discussed, back in 2020 when we got married, that we wanted to be able to do some international traveling. We also have heard from many seniors to do the traveling you want to do sooner rather than waiting because later you may not be able to... 

But, COVID hit and we weren't able to travel for a couple of years.

Last November, we traveled to Dominican Republic. Carl suggested that we try to do two "trips" a year, so we started looking for a trip for the spring of 2023. 

Way, WAY back when I was in 8-10th grade, my Latin teacher would take some students from the school on a trip to Europe in the summer. During the school year, we would study about what they would be visiting on their trips. During the three years, the groups went to Italy one year, Greece another, and London another. The trips were a cost that we couldn't afford, but a dream to go to those places was born for me.

When I worked for IBM, I was sent to teach in London at one point. On the day that Dwayne and I arrived in London, sleep-deprived and jet-lagged, we dropped our luggage at our hotel and immediately went to the British Museum to see the Elgin Marbles -- which I had learned about in high school -- so one of those dreams was realized.

I've always wanted to go to Italy, it just has never worked out.

So, Carl and I started planning a trip to Italy -- I actually was considering it instead of going to Dominican Republic, but decided that spring would be a better time to visit. I was planning a train trip, starting with 3-4 days in Rome, then going to Florence for a few days before ending in Venice. I started looking to see if there were any interesting cruises, and found that transatlantic cruises were pretty cheap - so we decided to do that, still thinking that we would do the train journey. Then I looked into one-way airfares for us to return from Europe - yikes! they were 4 times the round trip fare (~$800 roundtrip, $3200 one way). We could get airfare through the cruise line for $750 for both of us (two tickets for $750) -- great! The only catch: you have to fly back within 2 days of the cruise end.

Oh well, we'd enjoy the cruise, and we'd enjoy as much as we could in Rome on the two days after the cruise!

So... that's why there's a picture of me stepping onto Italian land -- to document the beginning of the dream being realized -- though Livorno is not really a town in Italy I would have identified as wanting to go to.

We are welcomed to Livorno.

It was a LONG way from the cruise port into town through all sorts of industrial areas. Walking it was not allowed, so we took the cruise bus from the ship into town.

We didn't have a list of things we wanted to do... so we just started walking...

We saw the Cattedrale di San Francesco (1595) - but we didn't find a door unlocked to allow us to go inside.

We found interesting streets to walk down...

... and an outdoor farmers market.

Lots of people shopping.

There were also folks selling other things -- Carl could have gotten a cap had we not found his in Cannes! (Story of the lost-and-found hat can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/04/if-its-friday-this-must-be-france.html)

There was also a large inside market...

... octopus...

... squid.

There were shops selling fresh pasta.

We took a picture of a French Bulldog for Carl's son Steve and wife Shay (who have one). We tried to take a picture of a French Bulldog in France, but were not quick enough to get a picture of either of the two we saw.

Outside the market, we found a canal.

Outside of the market.

Some of the apartments along the canal

When we were outside the market, looking at our map and a nice Italian man offered to help us. He suggested that we get to the Piazza della Repubblica.

From https://www.visittuscany.com/en/attractions/piazza-della-repubblica-livorno/:

Piazza della Repubblica, 190,000 square metres in size, is one of the largest piazzas in Livorno. It was built in the early 19th century based on a project by the architect Luigi Bettarini. In Antiquity, chariots would pass through this area, which is attested to by the pillars, used by owners to tie up their horses. Today, the piazza is a gathering place and hosts many local events.

On both sides of the piazza, one opposite the other, there are two statues that were placed here in the 19th century and which depict the Grand Dukes Ferdinand III and Leopold II, made by Francesco Pozzi and Emilio Santarelli, respectively. The Cisternino is also located in the piazza, a Neoclassical building erected in the early 19th century of providing water to the city.

One of the two statues...

... and the other one! (I don't know which is which...)

We stopped in a church...

We didn't take any pictures inside, but this information was on a sign outside.

Street cafes along a pedestrian walkway just down from the church...

... we thought this was a funny sign!

We decided to head back to the ship, so we made our way to the cruise bus stop - we saw a bus just pulling out, so had about 20 minutes to wait for another one. While we were waiting, we talked with another couple who were also there waiting for a cruise bus to their ship -- Holland America Oosterdam -- we had considered taking that transatlantic cruise (it left from Fort Lauderdale) but the Norwegian schedule worked better for us.

"Home" as we returned to the ship for the last time.

Our cruise will end on Sunday morning when we disembark in Civitavecchia (Rome). :-(