Rome Tours and Setting Sail

Our bags needed to be outside our hotel room this morning by 7:15a.m. so they could be picked up and transported to the ship while we were on our morning tours.

After breakfast, we left in the "yellow" bus (we are in the Yellow group while the other group is blue :-), met our guide for the day and headed to St. Peter's Basilica. We walked the square (not really square) and in to the basilica which is really huge and filled with crowds of people. This made us really appreciate last night's tour!

... Full sail under a full moon...

Our guide spoke of the history of St. Peter's and pointed out the artwork -- statues and amazing mosaics. There are no paintings there, all of the gorgeous "paintings" on the walls are made with very tiny ceramic tiles.

We went back to the bus and went to the Colosseum. We bypassed the line to enter and took an elevator to the top. One interesting fact was that they used to actually have a system in place that allowed a covering over the whole Colosseum, not exactly like the covers we have now over stadiums but similar. Also, I had thought that one of the main things that happened there was the persecution and killings of the Christians but that actually took place much more at Circus Maximus.

At this point we drove to Piazza Navone with almost two full hours of free time. Gary and I ate lunch at another outdoor cafe. I ate Tomato & Mozzarella Panini and also had some Cafe Gelato. At 2:45 we met up with the rest of our group and walked back to the bus to start our drive to Civitavecchia to board the Royal Clipper.

We were welcomed on board with a reception and snacks and then went to our cabin# C234. The room is nice, classy with lots of polished wood & even a marble bathroom. We had dinner at 7:30 and finished just as it was time to set sail. The Harbor Master guided us out of the harbor and then as we came into the open sea, the sails were unfurled a few at a time (what a show!). It was absolutely awesome and I found myself becoming very emotional.. very happy!!! The feeling of being under full sail under a full moon is breathtaking -- We are both so happy that we decided to take this cruise.

Tomorrow... Ponza Island!