Tag: Rome

European Cruise: Day 6 Rome and the boat!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Day 2 of running around Rome like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get it all in. Boarding on the boat starts at 2pm and we HAVE to be on board by 6:30pm. Here we go!

The others in my group did a more expensive Vatican tour so they left the house around 5am. I had a shorter, less expensive one so i left around 6:45am. I took the metro all by myself! I had gotten directions from a tourist information place yesterday so i knew exactly which lines and ways to go. I navigated it like a champ!!! Hahaha. 

I purposefully got to the meeting point about an hour early because it was a coffee shop. I ordered a large cappuccino with a croissant and enjoyed people watching for 45 min then met up with my tour group.

 

There were so many beautiful things!!!! Everywhere you looked was a photo op

No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel but we got one in the front in St Peter’s square! …….I may have made an Angels and Demons  (movie) reference

It worked out well and both our groups got to the Sistine chapel at the same time. We then all headed back to the apartment, gathered our things and headed for the train station. 

We decided to not wait for the train an hour later and made a run for the train that left in a little less than 20 min.  This was not the best idea as we ended up running for the train with one person catching it by literally about 10 seconds. But what was done was done and we were on our way to the cruise ship!!!

We got to the ship settled in a bit then had the obligatory safety gathering and life vest try-on party….and by party I mean boring talk. Now we have laundry going because we have already been traveling for 6 days!!!! My backpack was getting stinky. 

After the washing is done and we switch it to the dryer we will go explore a few levels. 

We had the obligatory saftey meeting then headed to the deck to watch the departure. 


Then came dinner, calzone!! And more exploring. After looking around we got distracted and watched part of a movie then decided we needed to go to bed instead. 

Tomorrow off to Naples!!! Here we come Vesuvius and Pompeii!! 

European Cruise: Day 5 Rome!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

We have 1.5 days in Rome to squeeze in as much as we can. Get ready to be exhausted just from reading this post.

We started with a 10am tour of the colosseum 

This was out 2nd tour buy the company ‘CityWonders’ I HIGHLY recommend them. Their people are funny, unique, and soooo interesting. They also have lots of different kinds of tours. 

With our colosseum tour we got to enter through the private gladiator entrance with only 1 other group. It was pretty cool to enter the colosseum through the private gladiator entrance. 

This place was pretty amazing.

There are ruins everywhere you look in this area

Pagan arch 


Then off to lunch we went!

More pizza!!!

Tiramisu!!!

After lunch it was off to explore Roma!!

The Pantheon 

Crazy amazing 

Then dinner, then to the spanish steps we went 

And the Trevi fountain!!! Yes, I through a coin in and made a wish.  

And now I am in for the night and ready to sleep.  So far i have been consistently walking about 12 miles a day. Almost a half marathon a day!! 

Tomorrow we head to Vatican city! This will be an interesting day, the other 5 of my traveling companions are taking a different tour than I am (it was too rich for my blood) so I get to navigate myself their and back alone…….I got this!!!……right?

European Cruise: Day 4 VVFPR

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Today is a go, go, go, cram everything in kind of day. We are waking up in Venice and ending the day in Rome.

We got up at 4am (well i woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep) and caught a train to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet! 

We only stayed in Verona about 3 hours, just long enough to catch the major sights. But they were pretty great. We were there right as the city was waking up!

Espresso and a pastry were a must!

We made it to Juliet’s house just as it was opening and beat the crowds, then something amazing happened,  a choir was visiting….just listen.

Found a big church to explore.  It was beautiful inside!

Now its back on the train to Florence!

We stayed in Florence for about 1.5 hours, no where near long enough but I’ll take it over not stopping at all. We got Gelato 

and saw an incredible church

 and some crazy square with insane statues

 and stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for appetizers, thankfully they had a locally sourced appetizer….and it was delicious!! 

We overestimated our time a bit which left us literally running tp catch our train. 

Back on the train for a quick stop in Pisa!

We were here the bare minimum, just long enough to get to the tower, see it lean, walk in the cathedral, get some dinner and its back on the train to ROME!!
I am soooo exhausted am going to sleep so good tonight hahaha. Even though I’m exhausted I am going to take some melatonin tonight to make sure I don’t have a repeat of last night.