The third stop of the cruise took us to Rome, well actually Civitavecchia. Once again we quickly took a train from the port town to the city of interest, exactly as planned. The first stop we made was at Vatican City, and I’m glad that we did it this way. I’ve read all about horrible crowds for the various sights, but when we arrived there were more pigeons than people in Saint Mark’s Square, and we walked right into the Basilica with no problems at all. From there we headed off to the Vatican Museums (which houses the Sistine Chapel) and though there was a small line, it was nothing like I had imagined. So we took some extra time to visit various rooms, especially Raphael’s Rooms, and then finished off the visit in the Sistine Chapel, where photography is banned.

From there, we took a quick walk over to Castel Sant’Angelo, a castle with great views of Rome from the top. Once finished there, we continued walking and stopped by both the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain with little problems. Both were swamped with people at this point, but still worth a quick visit. One thing I quickly learned is how close together so many of the sights are, which makes for a perfect walking tour. Next, we visited the Pantheon and then continued over to the Forums and ancient Rome.

Our last stop of the day was at the Colosseum. I knew it was going to be an amazing sight to see, but I was completely blown away by the engineering and architecture of something this old. We ended up with plenty of time to spare, so we took our time walking through it, and even got audio guides to listen to along the way. I hope that some of my pictures do justice to this magnificent structure, but really you just can’t get a feel for it’s massiveness without actually being there. By far one of the cooler things I’ve ever seen.