Rushing through Rome

May I just suggest that if you're going on a Mediterranean Cruise, and you've never been to Rome before, try to find a cruise that either starts or ends in Rome.  While we loved Venice, which is where we started, all the main things to see are doable in one day.  But Rome, forget it, you need more like 3 or 4 days to see all there is to see there.  Not to mention, Rome is 1.5 hours from the port.  So even though we had 10 hours in port that day, 3 were spent just getting into the city.  And because you want to make sure you get back to the ship on time, you really end up with just about 5 or 6 hours in the actual city of Rome. Let's just say we saw a little bit of a lot in Rome.

I wish I could have just enjoyed it more.  What a fascinating city.  With ruins every where and so many iconic places we packed it in.

Our first stop was the Colosseum.  We did have reservation tickets, which we were late for, but they let us in.  We had just about 40 minutes there, which was enough to see it, but not quite take it all in and read the signs about the site and such.  We didn't have time to walk around the Forum, but our tour bus took us around it describing what we were seeing.

Driving around the Forum

We had a walking tour through some of the major sites, but we were limited to minutes in each area.  And I mean minutes. But if you want to get the most out of Rome in a day, you can't dwell too long in one spot.

10 minutes at the Trevi Fountain.

Then on to the Pantheon

Raphael's tomb

A pretty great structure considering it was built in 126AD

We walked from the Pantheon over to Plaza Navona

After this quick walk  it was onto the Vatican.  We also had reservations, but still had only 1.5 hours there.  We were dropped off and had a little bit of a scare when we got to the reservation area and the guy told us our ticket was for yesterday!  I couldn't believe it.  We had booked this tour with a professional company and they booked the wrong date!  I was so mad.  Thankfully, they were nice and change it for us, and we made our way into Vatican City.  I wish, oh how I wish we would have had an entire day to spend there.  But we basically ran through the halls to make sure we got to the Sistine Chapel and be able to take it all in. I, unlike most people, followed the rules and put my camera away and did not take any pictures in the Sistine Chapel.  I just tried to take it all in and enjoy seeing such a magnificent work of art.  It was truly a holy experience for me.  

Art work everywhere in the Vatican

So we had seen the Sistine Chapel and I was a happy woman.  But the happiness did not last long.  You see, we made a wrong turn.  We took the wrong door out of the Sistine Chapel and instead of making our way into St. Peter's Basilica, we ended up exiting the Vatican.  I was just so confused and lost inside the Vatican and we were very rushed and pressed for time, so we asked someone how we would be able to get to St. Peter's.  Well of course they didn't tell us to go the short cut way through the door on the right, but rather told us to exit and walk back to St. Peter's square.  I was nearly in tears when we realized there would be no way we would have enough time to wait in the massive line, and get inside, our bus back to the port would be leaving in 30 minutes.  I still get sad when I think about it.  I was two steps away from being able to see the most magnificent church in the world and we went the wrong way.  Ok, enough, enough, I'm getting too sad.
While we didn't make it inside, we snapped a few pictures outside in the square and just tried to be thankful for all we did see.

So, that was Rome.  We weren't actually very happy with the tour company we had.  While we did have the walking tour portion, our guides didn't come with us inside the two major sites, and it was all just so rushed.  But I am thankful to have spent these few precious hours in such a fantastic and historic place.  Maybe I'll be back again someday... I keep saying that don't I?