Rome City Tour

Day 1-2: San Francisco-Barcelona
Day 3 AM: Barcelona City Tour - Pre Cruise
Day 3 PM: Norwegian Epic Cruise
Day 4: At Sea
Day 5: Livorno (Cinque Terre excursion)
Day 6: Rome (Rome city tour)
Day 7: Naples (Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii excursion)
Day 8: At Sea
Day 9: Palma de Mallorca
Day 10: Barcelona - Post Cruise
Day 11: Barcelona - San Francisco

Everyone with the exception of Dan and my older sister had previously visited Rome. However, all the other tour options didn't look very interesting so we decided to go back.

We pre-booked another private tour with Rome Connection (booked via Joe Banana Limos). Our guide this time was Antonio, a middle-aged Italian man. He was very nice, and we knew we would have a great experience with him. He said that August was the month when Italians take their holiday, so Rome was like a ghost town (for the locals) although there would still be hoards of tourists. Traffic this time of the year was also lighter, which was great for us.

St. Paul's Basilica

First stop was St. Paul Basilica where Saint Paul was allegedly burried. Most of the original church was burned in the 1800s and was almost immediately rebuilt. It was a beautiful church and not very crowded at all. Afterwards, we drove by a small pyramid that was built in honor of Cleopatra, who had some famous affairs with Italian men. It was interesting to see a pyramid in Italy!

Random Pyramid in the middle of Rome

 

Next stop was the Colosseum. We didn't have time to actually go inside, so we just walked around and took some pictures. It was amazing to see how intact the Colosseum was. There were 80 arches around the Colosseum with roman numerals at the top. The people in the old days had a ticketing system which told them which archway and seat they had.

Colosseum

We went to visit the Pantheon, with the fountain in front that was featured in the movie, "When in Rome". This area appeared to be very popular with tourists. After the Pantheon, we were dropped off at the Trevi fountain. We had lunch at a restaurant nearby. The pasta was excellent although the service was mediocre. Unfortunately they didn't have pizza, so we actually went to a second restaurant straight after. That's how my family rolls...food after food. :) Oh, and after pizza we had some gelato for dessert, too!

Pantheon

Another famous fountain where they filmed "When in Rome"

We tossed the coin over our left shoulder at the Trevi Fountain, so hopefully we'll be back in Rome some day. :) After lunch, we met our driver and were dropped off at the Spanish steps. We didn't have much time for shopping so after walking around for a little bit, it was time to go to our next stop.

Trevi Fountain

We went for a quick stop to the Vatican. Dan was amazed at the size of the square, which looked much bigger in person, although the country in total is not very big at all.

St. Peter's Square - Vatican

Our last stop was another fountain with views overlooking the city. The guide reviewed all the sites that we visited that day from the lookout point. We did a lot in such a short amount of time!

Rome lookout point