Rome wasn't built in a day...

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...and trying to see it in a day is impossible. But we gave it our best shot.

Wow! Those three simple letters are what first come to mind as we begin this blog... or maybe these three: OMG; or these three: WTF... We could go on and on (especially if you let us use more letters)... Rome and Vatican City are unbelievable spots on our planet. This was the highlight stop of our trip (so far), and we're both committed to coming back here to spend multiple days, and maybe weeks, in Italy. We still have some heavy hitter locations to visit on this cruise (Athens, Greece, Cairo & Alexandria, Egypt, etc...), but Rome is going to be hard to beat.

We had an organized tour booked through some folks we met online. This was a bit of an experiment but it paid off huge. We met some wonderful people (Louise & Bill from BC, and Gus, Maria, Mariela, and Mercedes originally from Venezuela), who spent the day travelling with us to all the sights (Louise & Bill's son organized the trip, and we give it two big thumbs up). It's a 40 minute drive from Civitavecchia (port city) to Rome, and our driver/guide, Marco, did an excellent job getting us their quickly and safely. We started the morning at the ruins of the Roman Forum, then down the road to the Colosseum, over to the Pantheon and then a visit to the Trevi Fountain where we threw in our coins (a “must do” tradition signifying your future return to Rome). After the fountain we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon in Vatican city visiting the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.

Rome is not a city you can do in a day, but what a day we had! We need to come back as you could spend a whole day exploring any one of the stops we mentioned. The Vatican Museums are literally littered with historical priceless artifacts. It's almost like they had so many, they didn't know where to put them. The Forum ruins and Colosseum are huge, and you could easily spend a day exploring them. We are both so thankful we had a guide that kept us moving from spot to spot, and allowed us to taste so much of what Rome had to offer.

If we were try to summarize all we experienced in a blog you would be here for hours. Rome is literally like walking around a giant movie set; every road, every building, every statue, every monument, makes you feel as though you have been transported to a time well before modern history. Rome is as close to a time machine as you are going to get. It boggles the mind that this walled city has been so well preserved, and there are no skyscrapers, block malls, through-fairs to detract from the experience. If there is one city you visit before you die, we would strongly recommend Rome.

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