When in Rome..........

Do as Romans do.......isn't that the quote?

Before you can do that however, you've got to do some planning.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's start from the beginning.  For the past several years, we've talked about going to Europe. Everyone's doing it, right?  Then one day, Meghan and/or Marissa said "you should just do it.  Why aren't you?"  And we didn't have a good answer to that question.

Around the same time, a flight deal popped up on my phone for airfare from Los Angles to Rome for an unheard of price (too low to print here, but let's just say it was cheaper to fly to Rome than to Los Angeles roundtrip). It was so low, it had to be bought, so I did. And it timed perfectly with Hannah's Spring Break, so why not?

This trip would be celebrating not only our 15th cruise, our Anniversary, but also would mark 10 years since I was first diagnosed with cancer, and 5 years since the recurrence diagnosis.  

Originally, we were just going to spend a week or so in Rome.  But then I got to looking and found a cruise that matched the dates as well, so why not?  Taking a cruise would actually be less expensive than staying on land for 7 days as it includes hotel, food, entertainment and transportation to different areas.

I am sorry, as this was a trip of a lifetime, I took a little too many pics and many of them found their way into this post...so it is pic heavy and a little lengthy.  Pop some corn and have a seat as you scroll through.

I have spent so many hours and hours and hours researching each port, especially Rome, and figuring out what and more importantly, HOW to do the things we wanted to do.  This wasn't like a normal Caribbean vacation......different money and different languages!   Where do I exchange money?  How much Euros do I get?  Where to catch the bus....which bus to catch...and when....how to get to the subway....and which line to take and which direction?  What tickets to get?  Rome itself has 4 different transit tickets...bus+subway....24 hours.....12 hours.....unlimited...you get the idea.  Because we never have done a ship excursion, where everything is planned out for you, but twice as expensive, the planning was extremely important.  We love riding the city bus, and subway, and taking the least amount of taxis as possible. We feel like it really gives us a feel for where we are, instead of hopping on a bus from the ship, going to the location, and then riding the bus back.  You miss so much of the area/country you are visiting!  I knew it was all coming together one day when we were at the bus stop, where multiple bus routes stopped.  A bus was approaching and she said here comes the bus.....and I looked and said, "no, that's the wrong bus. We want bus #150, and it should be here in 7 minutes."  She then said she felt so much more at ease because I knew what bus and where to catch it and we should get off 5 stops down, and then we go to the subway Red line, heading this direction for 2 stops and then we will be at our destination.

Our cruise was with MSC, relatively new to American cruisers, but pretty established in Europe, where they are headquartered.  Our ship was the Meraviglia and less than 2 years old, so still new.  This was the biggest ship we've been on, but it didn't seem like it.  It was a very beautiful ship - the fanciest one we've been on as well.  

We left Salt Lake en-route to Los Angeles early Friday morning just after a spring snow-storm, which resulted in delays as the plane had to be de-iced.

We went from a smaller cramped plane to this:

The plane was full..so full we were asked if we wanted to be bumped and paid $800 each...but we would have had only 1 hour to get to the ship and that was way to close.  Over 500 people on this plane

The monitors had a "live" gps map of the plane and where it was.  You can see here, we went off-roading off the runway for a bit

This would be our 11 hour flight - to Frankfurt and then on to Rome

They also had live cameras on the bottom of the plane and the tail.  This is from the tail as we were flying somewhere over Northern US

We left LA at 4pm and got dinner around 7, just as it was getting dark.  After that, everyone tried to get some sleep.

What???  Around midnight, it was this bright outside and they served us breakfast. There is an 8 hour time change (ahead) and they decided to apply that to the flight too

We had a fairly long (5 hour) layover in Frankfurt and we were able to find a secluded part of the airport to take some naps.   

The airport bathroom even had rope swings!!!

A little snack

We were then finally on our way to Rome.  Hannah was just saying the other day she has always wanted to board a plane from the tarmac and go up the stairs into the plane....instead of the boarding ramps normally used.

Well, she got her wish.  We actually went down the normal boarding ramps.....and got on a bus....that drove us all over the runway area to the plane, where we...........boarded via steps!  Hannah was very happy ha ha!

We arrived at 7pm and were definitely ready to sleep!!  

We had a car rental as the port is about an hour away, and Rome itself is 30 mins away from the airport.  Our "hotel" was 10 mins from the airport, so we drove there and then in the morning planned to go to a historic site very close by, and then drive by the Temple and then head on to the port.  Taking a bus/taxi/train for all that would have been more than the car and much more time consuming.

Most "hotels" in Europe are not like hotels we think of, and most places to stay are small and converted homes.  Our first stay was at a small B&B which was a house, converted into four rooms for guests.  

It was a home in this little neighborhood

We went to dinner at a little place down the street. It was more like a family party and we definitely did not fit in.  It was packed at 9pm (Italian's typically eat dinner late).  There was one table in the back left. It was loud with a guy singing with the volume up to 10+, and it was a small room.  We had to yell at each other to talk, but everyone was loving it.  He wandered around going to each table getting people to sing karaoke.  He came over and sang to Hannah ha ha.

VIDEO: (turn it up and view full screen for maximum enjoyment

In the morning we had this little breakfast waiting for us.  In Italy, they eat sweets and cake and cookies for breakfast.

Early Sunday morning, we headed out to Ostia Antica, which was less than 10 mins away.  Ostia Antica is a large archaeological site that was the ancient harbor city of Rome.  It is at the mouth of the Tiber River where it meets the ocean and was Rome's seaport.  Over the hundreds of years, due to sediment from the Tiber River, Osita Antica is now 2 miles from the ocean.

The oldest remains left date back to the 4th century BC.  This was site of several battles in a fight to control the port.  Pirates also once took the city for a time until they were defeated.

Julius Caesar used Ostia Antica as the main supply of grain to Rome.  The grain would be stored and processed here before moving it to Rome.  The city grew to a population of about 50,000 in the 2nd century to a peak of about 100,000 in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC.

It was a very cool place to just wander around and look at everything.

They don't put much work into the roads here

There were tunnels all around showing there was more here than meets the eye.  

Around the forum, were 60 stalls that would have been shops for those attending the forum.  Many had mosaics representing ocean/sea trade, depicting the importance of the port city

The grain was held in these huge cement containers

One of the many coffins found

The original road leading to Rome

VIDEOS:

We then headed out to go to the Temple to see the visitor's center.  It was about a 30 min drive, and we only turned on the wrong road twice ha ha, but we finally made it.

The Temple and grounds are beautiful.  The Temple was announced in 2008 and just opened last month.  Ground was broken in 2010 - it took 9 years to build!  Some of the delay was because any new buildings in Rome have to have trenches dug every 10-15 feet to determine if there are any ruins on the site. If some are found, construction stops.  Luckily, no ruins were found.  Then, it was difficult to find workers who could build something with exactness a Temple requires, so that took some time as well.

 Cut-away showing inside the Temple

There are two main focal points in the visitor's center.  One are the Christ statue and the 12 apostles.  These are all exact reproductions of the original statues created in the early 1800's that were commissioned for the historic Church of Our Lady in Denmark.  The originals were carved out of marble quarried in Carrara, Italy and these reproductions were made out of the same marble from the same quarry.

The other focal point is the stained glass display.  It's a hidden picture of sorts, as every single parable Christ taught, and every story about Him, is somewhere in this mural.

In this close-up, there are 12 rocks instead of stained glass, representing the 12 Tribes of Israel.  The rocks actually came from the BYU Geology Collection, some dating back to the 1800's.  They used Exodus 28 as a guide to find which stones would represent the tribes.   There is a short video with more information HERE.

There used to be an olive orchard here, and they saved several of the old olive trees

It was beautiful and we were glad we made the effort to go!

We drove about an hour to get to the port and board the ship.
As English speakers, we were definitely in the minority of the 4000 people on board.  Most were Italian, then German and Asians!  All the announcements made were in Italian, English, German and Spanish.

This ship has the largest LED screen, and it runs the length of the ship on the Promenade.  It looked real!

This was the first night's show.  Most cruises have 2 or 3 nights where there is a production dance/singing show.  This ship had that every night.  The dancers/singers did three shows a night....and they were really good.

The chocolate store

Along with the macaroon store

Yep......all chocolate

Chocolate roses anyone?

Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.  I thought it was the Peanut M&M guy...but Hannah told me it was Humpty Dumpty.

All chocolate

The dome screen changed colors and designs constantly

We had to try the gelato....wow....was it ever GOOD!

It was a little cool this cruise, so the pools only were used a few days...but it was a very nice pool area and huge pool

They even had a full court inside!  So the balls wouldn't go into the ocean

....and bowling

Most ships have hand sanitizer stations when you enter the buffet area.  This ship had several actual hand washing stations!  Never seen that before

VIDEO:

Our first dinner.......

Yum

Hannah got the ravioli

Of course dessert

Monday - Palermo (Sicily) 

We didn't have many plans for this stop.  I actually wanted to go HERE, but I was out voted.  Probably best to avoid nightmares. Instead, we took the HOHO (hop on - hop off) bus around town.  We got off at the outdoor market and walked just a LITTLE too far and ended up in a sketchy area.  We were trying to quickly get out of the area, but were a little turned around.  If you ask Hannah, she will tell you she knew the way out the entire time, but we wouldn't listen to her.  She may be right.

VIDEO Bus Ride:

Every kind of bean you can imagine

Ok...whoops...what happened to the market?  Now things quickly turned into a weird yard sale of people's junk.  We definitely did not fit in here.

After finally listening to Hannah, we made it out and back on the bus

Tuesday - Malta

Malta is an island nation of about 450,000 people. It's the world's 10th smallest and fifth most densely populated country.  The official language is Maltese.

Arriving into Malta is definitely a sight you want to see!  The shore line is very rocky, steep, and beautiful.  The harbor is very small and ships can barely squeeze in.

VIDEO:

Someone thought it would be fun to paint this crane like a giraffe! 

They built an elevator to take you up to town, or you could walk about 12 mins up a steep street and stairs.  The elevator cost 1 euro per person

This is how much room there was on both sides of the ship - not much!

Malta was heavily bombarded during many wars, especially WW1 and WW2 and they have heavy forts to help protect.

We rode the city bus about 30 mins out of town to Mdina - the walled city or the 'silent city'.  Mdina was the capital of Malta in the 8th century BC.  It was built within walls and was considered impenetrable by the fortified walls, and it's still all contained inside walls.

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The remains of this old aqueduct ran through the entire town

We have arrived at Mdina. It's pretty small and you just walk around and explore the many alleys and walkways.  It was very cool and we got there before all the cruise line buses. When they arrived, it was SO busy!

Hannah asked what this was. We told her of course, it was a time-out receptacle for naughty kids

This was the mote area that surrounded the city. It's now grass and flowers

Next we walked about 10 mins to St. Peters Church to see not only the church, but also some underground bunkers from the war.  These bunkers provided shelter from the hourly bombings.  Each family was allowed one area to live in

This was one area

VIDEO: Walking through the Catacombs

Some even had mosaic tile floors

Malta is also the place where the Apostle Paul came to preach. When he was shipwrecked, Paul ended up on Malta.  Here, he taught the people about Christianity.  It is said, this is where Christianity began

More of the ancient aqueduct on the way back

Uh oh...Hannah has the phone. When she has the phone, she likes to take 20, 30, 40 pics as she runs away as I am trying to get my phone back

We arrived back to our temporary home

VIDEO of ship:

Each night, the Cruise Director says Hi/Welcome to everyone in several languages.  Here he is doing so:

The show tonight was a high energy rock hits show.

After the show, Hannah was walking weird:

Wednesday was a sea day, so we explored the ship a little more and relaxed.

Uh....this was on the buffet at lunch.....Mint Mash Peas?  Does not sound that good

Doesn't look good either

Going along with the elegant theme of the ship, even the buffet and waiter staff were always dressed up.  This was the normal uniform - vest and tie always.  Normally, it's not this formal

And the supervisors are in white

They made so much cheese on board!

Still working on that peanut M and M

The promenade was always busy with things going on....dances....activities....parades...it was a happening place and great place to people watch

VIDEO of fun time:

Tonight's show was Broadway shows...this was Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins

On most ships, you are constantly asked if you want something from the bar.  Not on this ship.  If you want something, you just press the button. Otherwise, they leave you alone

Fun bubble ball games....we couldn't get Hannah to go do it though. She said she'd only do it if Jacob was here with her.  :-(

VIDEO:

The ship has some good night photo places

This was the covered pool area with a retractable roof. It was busy during the day

White night dance party

VIDEOS: Turn these WAY up

We each got a whopping 3 euro credit do use on the slot machines. It didn't take long to use that up, even though they were penny (euro) slots

Here was my winnings

This was the chocolate buffet...yum yum

Resting after eating too much chocolate

VIDEO Sailing:

Master Chef competition - it was pretty funny to watch

Over at the court, soccer was a HUGE hit

So was the Ropes Course

Dinner was kinda small that night......all the big plates were gone

VIDEO Baked Alaska:

Video: Getting lost in the wine maze

Every night at dinner, they had 'ice cream' as one of the desserts.  Well, 'ice cream' in Italy means gelato.  We got it every night!

VIDEO: All that gelato got Hannah clicking her heels with excitement!

Thursday - Barcelona, Spain

This was one of the days I was looking forward to, but a little anxious everything would work out with getting to/from where we wanted to go, as it included taxi, walking, subway, train, funicular, and possible cable car and then bus.  Well, it all worked out!

Very early, we headed to the Familia Sagrada which is extremely crowded if you don't get there before 10am.  It's a huge church that was started being built in 1882 and it's still being built. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site also.  Relying solely on donations to fund the building, it went very slowly and then stopped for a time during the various wars. It's currently slated to be done in 2026.

It is very unique in architecture and extremely intricate designs and features.  We were not disappointed.

Inside it's built with very durable pillars that branch out like tree limbs, to hold the rest of the church and yet to be built towers.  This allows everything to be seen.  The many stained glass windows bring colored light into the church

VIDEO Inside Church:

One of the very heavy iron doors with carved words of the Lord's Prayer

After the church, we hopped on the subway and headed over to Montjuic Fort, which sits high up on a mountain top overlooking the city.  Montjuic is an old military fortress built in 1640 that has protected Barcelona from various wars, including WW2. 

This is a still functioning cistern of water.  It was placed inside the fort so enemies couldn't poison the water

This flag tower was used to alert the city of various things - ship coming in...pirates coming...air raids coming....they had 99 different signals made from colored flags, depending on how they were arranged

Barcelona is very huge - over 1.6 million population

VIDEO:

The mote area is now colorful lawns and flowers

We also went to the dungeons where prisoners of war were held until they were executed. We couldn't take pics inside but they have removed layers of paint in the cells. Under the paint are all kinds of graffiti from the prisoners, from calendars, to last words of those that were executed. 

After this, we headed out to La Rambla - a very lively almost 2 mile street of stores, shops, street performers and just the place you want to be to be seen!

Legs of meat were displayed like this all over - hoof and all!

Time to head back

VIDEO: 

Barcelona was one of our favorites because it was so easy to get around.  The subway was extensive.  Barcelona is the #1 pick-pocet place in the world, with Rome being #2.  As long as you are aware of your surroundings, it was fine.  We never felt unsafe.

Back on the ship, it was time for the kids parade. Notice the dome is now under the sea

VIDEO: Under the Sea

The main show tonight was Latin

We then had a special dinner at the Cirque du soleil show. For the very small space they had to work with, they did amazing things.

Notice the two guys walking sideways on the LED screen

Friday - Marseille, France

We took a bus, because the train didn't come as often, to a college town about 30 mins away. The bus left every 5 mins!  We went to Aix-en-Provence which is a typical provincial town, just like on Beauty and the Beast!  We took a little sightseeing tram and then walked around and went to the soap making store to get some very nice smelling soaps!

There were these statues all over town at the corners

We were parked next to another MSC ship, but much older. Compare it, to ours below:

Just a little different!

Time to set sail

Time for a little nap

View out our balcony

The show tonight was Italian Love Songs

Gelato was calling our name again

Crepes

Sitting in the space chairs eating our gelato!

Saturday - Genoa (or Genova as they called it)

Genoa is a very hilly, steep city on huge rocks.  They have many many trams to take you up the steep hills.  We decided to take a mountain train about an hour, with several stops along the way to small mountain villages.  At the end of the line, we walked around a small village and had some extremely yummy chocolate and crepes!

Just off the bus to the top of town, and now walking to the small train

We missed the early train by 4 minutes!  So we had an hour to kill so we walked around and found this small castle

Oh Hannah, and her poses

She was going crazy today!

Look at these door handles on the castle door

Ah, what a nice little path down a little hill

Perfect for Hannah to run down and jump.  My job was to take pics as she was jumping

Oh wow! We found a pastry shop and these were SO good!!!!

Finally on the train headed up and over the mountains

Here you can see part of the track up the mountain

Map of the train

Finally made it to the top and we walked around town, and through this little market

We found a small cafe....what a fancy sign for the toilet!

This was so rich and yummy!

But this was even better

Do you think we liked it?

More treats

What a nice relaxing way to spend your day!

We made it back down the mountain and were headed back to the ship

The show tonight, was the one day the dancers and singers got to rest.  It was hand shadow things....it was a little different, but the guy was pretty good!  This is ET

Hannah loved the diamond sparkling stairs

Sunday - time to leave the ship and head to Rome

This colorful ship was in port next to us. Now that looks like a fun cruise ship!

On the train heading to Rome

Our top speed was 153!

Once past the airport, it's mainly farmland until you get closer to the actual city of Rome

We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and walked the 7 minutes to the Colosseum

We arrived!  Photos don't do it justice

Next to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum

Hannah got the phone again

VIDEO:

All the cars are very small, which allows them to park like this

The view out of our hotel window

Time for a little nap

After a little nap, time to head out for a 2 mile walking tour

Most people don't realize Rome has the most obelisks than any city in the world. There are 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks and five ancient Roman obelisks spread out in Rome. The Romans "stole" the ones from Egypt, building special ships to transport the heavy obelisks down the Nile River and then across the Mediterranean Sea to Rome.

We missed going inside the Pantheon by 5 minutes as it was closed for the day.   It's HUGE!  

Look how big these iron doors are

This is the tallest obelisk in Rome, and the largest standing Egyptian obelisk in the world, weighing in at around 455 tons.

Up close, you can see the ancient Egyptian writings

This is Trajan's Column that celebrates the Roman Emperor Trajan's victory in one of the many as Rome was taking over Europe around 113 AD

Up close you can see the circular carvings that tell the story and win of the war

Trevi Fountain - the largest fountain in Rome and one of the most famous fountains in the world.  You are supposed to throw a coin over your shoulder for good luck and to return to Rome someday.  The water still comes from one of the largest underground aquifer as it did over 2000 years ago

It was EXTREMELY packed!

Moving on to the Spanish Steps

We finally made it back to the hotel and stopped along the way for some yummy dinner

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, one being a huge running race next to the Colosseum, which forced us to walk completely around the entire Forum and Colosseum to get tickets, and then walk back to get in, and a subway station being closed, we ended up walking much more than intended today.  Almost 12 miles in all!  We were ready for BED!

Monday - Rome Still

We got up early to leave at 6:20 to make our way to the Vatican for an early before everyone floods the place with crowds ticket.   25,000 people visit the Vatican city each DAY!!!!  Yikes.  Get there early!  If you don't have tickets pre-purchased, you'll probably wait in line 2-3 hours.

The Vatican City is their own country, being the smallest country in the world.

On the subway heading out

Hannah got to be the tour guide for a bit, even holding the flag!

St. Peters Basilica in the background.... We will be going there after

There are 2 miles of museums in the Vatican City

These are hand sewn tapestry pieces

One area is devoted to hand painted maps of every territory in Europe. They were made with amazing detail and are still used today

VIDEO:

There is a huge Egyptian museum with artifacts found in Rome

From here, we went into the Sistine Chapel.  Photos are not allowed in there, but it is beautiful and extremely detailed.  The paintings depict the Last Judgement, the Creation, the story of the Flood and Noah, Adam and Eve being tempted and banished from Eden, Creation of Adam and Eve, and much more.

Our ticket also included a "back door" entrance into St. Peter's Basilica.  This is the largest church in the world.  And WOW, the scale of the inside of the church was amazing and unbelievable.   

VIDEO: Inside Church

The Swiss Guards are the Vatican's "police force" and protect the pope and the church.  They must be unmarried males between 19-30 and have to take basic military training.  This one in this pic, never moved.....ever.

This other one, did talk to certain people and saluted them as they walked in and out of the area they were guarding

The outside of the Basilica.  Did I mention how big it is?

Something was coming up, as all these chairs were being set up

VIDEO: St Peter's Square. Note the line to get in stretched all the way across the square....About a 2 hour line.  We walked right in the back way with our ticket. SO glad for that!

Back on the subway to head back to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill by the Colosseum

Police presence was EVERYWHERE just like this.  Near all the major squares, fountains and anywhere there was a crowd

The Palatine Hill is one of the 7 hills in Rome. This one is next to the Colosseum and is where the important people lived

Nice parking job again

I guess I don't need to tell you what store this is

Our last meal in Rome

It was SOOOOO good!!!

We left at 9am Tuesday to head back, and got home at midnight Tuesday (after gaining 8 hours) and spending 26 hours up with little sleep!  We were ready for bed!
WOW! What a trip!  It was everything we thought it would be and then some!

Thanks for watching!