Hello, the big day has arrived. Today we are finally visiting Rome. Our port is actually the town of Civitavecchia. Phonetically it is pronounced Chi-vi-ta-vek-e-a (is that right Daria?). According to our tour guide Frederica, the name means Old Town. I forget the whole story, but the town dates way back.
Today we took the tour “Jumping Back into the Eternal Rome”. The tour started off early, so we had to get up and out of the room by 7:30. First stop was Topsiders, for the breakfast of champions, donuts! We met our tour in Animator’s Palette. We were on bus 20. Due to the size of the port in Civitavecchia, we had to take a shuttle bus to the entrance of the port, where we caught a bus to the train station. We took the train to St. Peter’s station, where we were met by another bus and made our way to the first stop, the Coliseum! To think you are walking in the steps of the mighty gladiators. It was really quite awe inspiring. Our next stop was a walk through central Rome. We first visited the Trevi Fountain, after receiving a lesson on how to throw a coin. You throw the coin with your right hand, over your left shoulder. If you throw one coin, you will return to Rome, two coins means you will return and fall in love, and three coins means you will marry the love you fine in Rome! Kirstyn and I chose to only throw one coin!
After the Trevi fountain we walked to the Pantheon, the pagan temple dedicated to all Gods. This temple is one of the best preserved temples in the world. It is really beautiful. Our third stop on our walking tour was the Plaza Navona. Unfortunately, the statue was being renovated, so our view was obstructed, but what we saw was awe inspiring. The fountain is a tribute to the four corners of the world. North America wasn’t represented as there were not enough Catholics (or so our guide say), and Australia wasn’t represented as it wasn’t discovered yet. We then walked to the bus and made our way to an Italian lunch of lasagna, antipasto, and tiramisu. Again, very good. After lunch it was back on the bus to our final destination, the Vatican.
At the Vatican, we toured the square, and made our way into St Peter’s Basilica. The Pope wasn’t there at the time, and we noticed that his home was being worked on. We didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel, but did see the roof of the building it is in. All in all, the tour was very good. After the tour of St. Peter’s, we made our way by bus and train back to the ship.
Once on board, we caught the ship premier of Ratatouille. A very cute movie, that I’m sure will be a hit for Disney. It is time to go off to dinner at Parrot’s Cay! Take care all!
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