Skipping Christmas Day 11

Sad last day on the boat! No real boat activity to report. We woke up and had our usual breakfast at the buffet and hurried off to finish packing. We had to get off by 10am or so; it was a stressful day for the cleaning staff because a new cruise was starting that day! We carried our luggage off the boat and took the free cruise bus into town. We were back in Civitavecchia so we knew how to easily get to the train station. We bought our train tickets to Rome (I think half the cruise took that train to Rome) and had an uneventful 45 minute trip into the city.

Our bed and breakfast was close to our train stop so we were able to walk there pretty easily. This was a B&B I had booked online and it turned out to be great!

The owner explained to us that B&B's in Italy are not allowed to serve food that is not prepackaged. (Don't quite understand this one- home cooked food is part of the B&B appeal!) There were 4 rooms of guests and a communal kitchen. We were not allowed to cook food ourselves but there was a large fridge provided with shelves labeled with our room numbers. We ended up going to a local grocery store and buying some fruit and yogurt to help supplement breakfast. The traditional Italian breakfast (so we were told) is basically coffee and a pastry which was not going to cut it for me, especially after the massive breakfasts we had been eating on the boat.

There was always lots of tasty things to eat!

Lots of dishes to use.

A shelf of guide books! This was essential and we ended up using this a lot. 

We ate a snack of breakfast food and tea and then headed out. With so much to see in Rome we wanted to maximize as much time as possible. Our B&B was only about a 10 minute walk to the Vatican so we decided to start there.

I am waiting in line to get into St. Peter's Basilica. It was Free! 

It took us about 25 minutes to get through the line, not too bad considering how long it was.

All the paintings have been replaced with mosaic replicas- it was really hard to tell.

This is Eric on the steps on our way up to the top of the dome. We did have to pay for this part.

Walking around the interior of the dome was pretty quick, waiting in line to get to walk around the outside of the dome was not quick. It was also extremely cramped and I found myself getting claustrophobic. The curved dome wall was not helping. This was another instance of things that would never be allowed in the US. The space was extremely narrow, a million people, and no emergency exit. There were a lot of little windows we shuffled past and we were very high up. It was hard not to think about earthquakes...

We finally made it! Once we were at the top it was a lot more standing in line. The million people on the stairs were now outside- progress was slow walking around the outside.

Going to the top of the basilica was very cool but required a lot of patience. The line to get back down was just as long as it was to get up. The whole experience took a lot more time than I was originally anticipating. I am glad we did it on this first day. Here is Eric walking away from the Vatican on our way to find dinner.

We found a nice Italian place (shocker!) and had pizza. It was kind of sad paying for dinner... On the way back the lighting was nice and we took some scenic shots of the city.

Overall a good use of our first day. Considering it was kind of a travel day I was really pleased with what we accomplished! And the weather was beautiful which always helps.