Rome & Civitavecchia, Italy

And just like that, 108 days on Pacific Princess came to an end. We arrived at the port of Civitavecchia early on the morning of May 15^th and appropriately enough we were met with rain. By 6:40 am mum and I had cleaned everything out of our cabin, said goodbye to our room steward Arnold, and were seated in the Cabaret Lounge for the last time as we awaited our turn to disembark for the transfer to Rome. An hour later we were settled on the bus with a small group of hearty souls who decided to take the very last tour of our voyage. The ride to Rome took about 90 minutes and before I knew it we were standing in an enormous line outside the walls of Vatican City. Apparently a power outage had closed the place down the day before and all of Friday's tours had been postponed to Saturday making it even crazier there than usual. As we waited the clouds opened up again and we were caught in a torrential downpour. The many men rushing around selling umbrellas were doing a brisk business but mum and I decided to tough it our in our ball caps and raincoats. Turns out my “raincoat” is of no use at all, and by the time we finally got indoors I was completely drenched! Nothing like wandering around the Vatican Museum in a wet shirt, carrying a wet jacket. Of course everyone is there to see the Sistine Chapel, but to get to that point you must first traverse a seemingly never-ending series of hallways and staircases jammed with paintings, statues and tapestries. There were some very interesting and beautiful pieces to be seen, but alas the crush of people meant that you had to just keep moving forward at a steady pace, taking quick looks left, right and at the ceiling when you could and trying not to lose the tour guide. Finally we arrived at the Sistine Chapel and the blessed silence that was to be found within. It was as beautiful as I remember it from way back in 1992 and mum was suitably impressed, although she felt that some of the artwork in other parts of the Museum was just as lovely. After 15 minutes to take it all in we were on the move again, back downstairs to eventually emerge beside the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. After a brief tour inside and a stop in front of Michelangelo's Pieta it was out into the rain for a visit at one of the gift shops where you could purchase rosaries blessed by the Pope. At this point we had been touring for hours and were all drenched and exhausted from our early start. We found our way back to the tour bus and were eventually dropped at on of the train stations where we were miraculously able to find a taxi that could take all of our luggage! A brief ride took us to our hotel in central Rome and we happily checked in and collapsed in our room, emerging only for a quick dinner at the restaurant next door. I miss Princess already!

Sunday we decided to find one of the open-top bus tours of Rome and take a ride around the city to get our bearings. We set off in the direction of what we thought was the train station, but quickly found ourselves way off course. Happily the detour took us past some lovely places we otherwise would have not seen, including the Four Fountains intersection and the lovely Quirinale Park and Square. After about 30 minutes we finally figured out where we were, and a short walk later we found ourselves at the Trevi Fountain, one of my must-see stops as I had missed it the last time I was in Rome. I had always pictured it out in the open, not tucked away in a little square, but it was a beautiful sight to behold. Shortly thereafter we finally found a stop for the open-top bus and soon we were ensconced at the back of the bus on the upper level, soaking up the sun and taking in the sights. This is why I love Rome – everywhere you look there are gorgeous buildings and churches, ruins and fountains. There is just so much to see! We decided to adopt a “look but don't touch” approach for our first full day on our own, and ultimately that turned out to be a mistake. Monday we got caught on top of the bus in another downpour as we were heading for Bocca della Verita (the Mouth of Truth) and had to head back to the hotel where we had stupidly left our umbrella so we could change and retrieve said umbrella. The sky had cleared by the time we made it back to the hotel, but not 10 minutes later it was pouring again, and this lasted for the rest of the day. Tuesday we awoke to find a glorious sunny day with not a cloud in the sky, but alas we were scheduled to depart Rome and head back to the port. Our bus tickets were still good so we foolishly decided to take one last spin around the city. We were questioning our decision when we found ourselves stuck in traffic near St. Peter's, and only just made it back to the hotel before our taxi arrived to take us to Civitavecchia. What a wild ride that was! Our taxi driver was a little bit crazy. Out on the open road he kept saying he needed to shoot somebody today. He proceeded to pull out a shotgun shell from his belongings, which he gleefully showed us. We hurtled down the highway reaching speeds of 170 km/hr in a 90 zone. 170! It's a good thing mum couldn't see exactly how fast he was going because she would have freaked! We made it to Civitavecchia in record time, and eventually managed to find our hotel tucked away on a side street. What an adventure!