This week I have returned to one of my favorite places on Earth…Italy! Last summer I fell hard for Italy’s warm people, late nights, gorgeous food, history, and gelato. It is a country I would love to come back to over and over and with each visit to a new city I am finding something new and exciting. It’s been wonderful to be back.
Our first port of call was Civitaveccia, a port outside of Rome. I was able to go on tour that day, but it wasn’t your typical tour. This journey was just a train ride on a private train, the Roma Express, only for our passengers and then we were given 6 hours of free time to explore the city as we wished. Elena, another dancer, and the ballroom couple were on similar tours so we made a plan to meet at the Spanish steps once we got into town. From there, I was glad to return to some of my favorite sites!
We started with a ride on the metro to get to the Colosseum, where I remembered to get tickets at a different area to skip the horrendous line to get in. Once we were inside we had fun taking all sorts of pictures and just imagining this arena in its heyday, filled with thousands of Romans ready for a big fight and out for blood! It’s just one of the most incredible pieces of architectural history that I’ve ever seen and I wish I could spend more and more time exploring just how intricately it is put together.
After we finished up there we decided to ride back up toward the city center and we headed to the Trevi Fountain. On my previous visit I got IN the Trevi with Laura (see offexploring.blogspot.com), but I didn’t even try this time. This piazza is one of the most crowded places in the entire city with thousands of people tossing in coins to ensure their return to the Eternal City! We then walked and found a spot for lunch near the Pantheon. I was THRILLED to be back eating in Italy! GAHHHH!!! I had a pizza with perfect arugola and proscutto all over it, but while we waited for the food I couldn’t resist and headed to the corner where I got a cone of gelato with raspberry and meringue flavors. It was…perfect.
After lunch we headed into the Pantheon square and marveled at this 2,000 year-old marvel of a building. The gigantic dome was built with amazing engineering for that time and the fact that even the doors from 200 years ago are hanging on hinges completely blows my mind. It’s a beautiful building and we had fun looking around before heading to my favorite piazza nearby, Piazza Navona. I was glad to see all the artists and performers out to play and enjoyed a serving of the famous Tartufo gelato from Tre Scalini, the richest chocolate dessert I may have ever tasted.
Finally we headed to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Square where thousands of people were around sitting in the shadow of the basilica. Once the others had to head out I went and enjoyed just sitting for a bit in the sun, drinking fresh water from one of Rome’s many street fountains. This city is just too big and too full of too many amazing places to see it in a matter of hours. I was sad to have to go so quickly, but it was nice to return to some places that were familiar for once.
I hope everything is going well for everyone. I am sorry I haven’t uploaded pictures in a while, but I have to wait until I have good internet access off the ship to have a strong enough signal to upload. And now that we are in new ports everyday…who wants to sit around online?! I don’t have time for this, people! Ha ha! Miss you guys!
Tripp
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