Legend of the Seas - Rome to Venice 8/31 Review

[jrmint427]

Our first task was to figure out how to get to the Colosseum. I had read it was easy to take the Metro from underneath our hotel directly to the Colosseum, so we ventured out to do just that. We went down to the Metro, bought day passes from the machine (B.I.G. tickets, 6 euro pp), and proceeded down a long escalator. Only to see that none of the signs listed the Colosseo stop we was looking for, so we thought we must be in the wrong place. So we went back upstairs, exited the Metro and asked someone at our hotel what to do. Apparently we needed to take the Metro from Repubblica to Termini and change trains there to get to Colosseo. I had even read that in advance, but had forgotten. So we headed back down to the Metro.

 

When we got to the Colosseo stop, we did not have to worry about finding the Colosseum. This is the view as soon as you walk out of the Metro station:

 

 

I purchased our tickets online before we left for the trip for 13 euro per person. I knew we were going to try to fit a lot into our first day in Rome and I did not want to have to worry about standing in a long line to buy tickets. I considered buying tickets to the Underground tour that gives you access to the underground and third ring of the Colosseum. I really wish I had done that.

 

I was worried that our flight might be late and did not want to book any tours on our first day that would require us to be somewhere at a specific time. Even though we got in an hour late (around 9:30am), we would have had plenty of time to make it to the 2:20pm tour.

 

Instead, we decided to pick up a tour just outside of the Colosseum. This was probably my least favorite tour of our entire trip. If you decide to do this, just know that you do not need to pay the extra 1 euro to purchase your tickets online ahead of time. The tour let us straight into the Colosseum without waiting in line.

 

It did not take us long at all to find a tour. We passed a woman with a very clear accent who asked us in English if we wanted a tour. I asked her if the tour went to the underground level and she told me that only the tours you book in advance will take you to the underground. I don’t know if that is true (does anyone else know?), but we decided to join her tour anyway. She was charging 13 euro per person, and we did not have exact Euro so she just took 25 Euro from us in total.

 

We waited just a few more minutes as they gathered more people, and then our tour guide, an archeologist, began the tour. I could mostly understand him, but his accent was not as clear as the woman who had recruited us. We stood outside the Colosseum for 5-10 minutes while he held up pictures in a book and provided some history of Rome and the Colosseum, which was originally called the Flavian Ampitheater. Some of the history was interesting, but at times it was difficult to hear our tour guide or understand him due to his accent and other noise.

 

One other thing about this tour: Our tour guide warned us that we could not drink the water inside the Colosseum. He recommended that we buy bottled water for 1 euro from a nearby vendor who happened to come over to us at that time. We did so, but it turned out that we would have been fine drinking from the water fountains inside – plenty of other people were.

 

 

When our tour group finally entered the arena, I was eager to get pictures and wandered off from the group for a few minutes.

 

 

I went back to the group briefly to grab my husband so we could have a picture taken together. By now I am very comfortable in asking strangers to take our picture so I can be sure we have a few vacation pictures with us together. I looked around and saw a young couple who I thought might be from the US because the guy was wearing a t-shirt from a university that is not too far from us. So I asked them. They took our picture and then we took theirs. As I handed their camera back, the woman asked me, “Are you Jessica?”

 

I was so confused at first, but she quickly introduced herself. We had met through CC and were going to be sharing a ride from Rome to the port the next day. I could not believe she recognized me! Of all places to run into someone you know… and this was just the first out of four times we would run into them on our trip. Our friendship was meant to be! We said a quick goodbye so we could rejoin our tour group, and I was looking forward to chatting with them more the next day.

 

The rest of the tour was just OK. It was fine, but not worth the 13 euro per person in my opinion. In addition to our Colosseum tour, if we stuck around for 45 minutes after the tour, we could have had a free tour of Palatine Hill. But we were hungry, more interested in the Roman Forum and not overly impressed by this tour, so we decided to pass.

 

We walked around the Colosseum on our own for a while. We explored the second floor and took more pictures.

 

 

 

It was amazing to be standing in a place with so much history and almost unreal to picture the events that had taken place there many years ago. We learned from our tour guide that not all gladiators who lost battles were actually killed every time they lost. We also learned that over the course of some time period (maybe 300 years?), over half a million people and animals were killed.

 

I was disappointed that the Arch of Constantine was being worked on, so it wasn’t the best view from the Colosseum:

 

 

After we left the Colosseum, we debated going to a restaurant I had picked out ahead of time for a sit-down lunch or grabbing a quick panini at one of the nearby stands. It was almost 3pm and we were starving, but we did not want to spoil our dinner. In the interest of time, the panini won. We ordered a tomato and mozzarella panini to share. It wasn’t great, but it was convenient and held us over. Next up was the Roman Forum!

[loeytalldog]

I'm tuned in, great review so far! Thanks for doing it!

[Sinppu]

It was huge, especially considering what I am used to at most European hotels. It was larger than most hotels I’ve stayed at in the US and offered a King size bed. The bedroom included a TV, sitting area, desk, entry way with closets and a very large bathroom. Here’s a picture to try to show the size of the room, don’t mind my husband:

 

 

 

Wow! And the room is nice too :p;):D

[jrmint427]

Wow! And the room is nice too :p;):D

 

Haha!! I wish there was a "like" button on Cruise Critic.

[jrmint427]

By this point we were already getting tired (and tired of walking), but I knew there were a lot of things I wanted to see, so we toughed it out and kept going. The entrance to the Roman Forum closest to the Colosseum appeared to be marked as an exit only, so we walked down the street to the other entrance.

 

Along the way, we ran into my favorite street performer of the trip:

 

It did not take long to find the Roman Forum.

 

The ticket to the Colosseum also gets you into the Roman Forum. I wish we could have done a tour at the Forum, but since we did not have time, I pulled out my kindle app to use the Rick Steves’ self-guided tour. We did not explore the entire Forum, but saw quite a bit.

 

 

 

One of the places I was most excited to see was the Temple of Julius Caesar:

 

This is where Julius Caesar as burned after he had been assassinated:

 

I would have liked to explore more, but we were losing steam and still wanted to see a few more spots in Rome before dinner, so we left to find the Pantheon.

[Sinppu]

Along the way, we ran into my favorite street performer of the trip:

 

I love this one. When I saw one of these guys for the first time, I took a photo with my SmartPhone and send it to my hubby with "How does he do it?" :confused:

He answered me in two minutes and explained the whole thing.

Even knowing the secret I have huge respect for them :eek:

[jrmint427]

I love this one. When I saw one of these guys for the first time, I took a photo with my SmartPhone and send it to my hubby with "How does he do it?" :confused:

He answered me in two minutes and explained the whole thing.

Even knowing the secret I have huge respect for them :eek:

 

I was amazed! I googled it as soon as I got home though, but I agree, still think it's pretty cool.

[jrmint427]

I had printed directions, so we decided to walk to the Pantheon. I’m pretty sure we took a long way to get there, but at least it was scenic.

 

 

I kept stopping to ask other people, “Which way to the Pantheon?” I learned that people in Rome like to be about as general as possible in giving directions (at least those who I asked). They would say, “Just down that street,” when in reality, it would be down that street, then a right turn, then a left turn, etc. But this strategy worked and eventually we ended up coming up to the Pantheon from the back.

 

 

 

I cannot believe we I had considered skipping the Pantheon at one point during planning. I thought it would be a quick look inside because I had seen so many pictures, but it was amazing in person. I was in awe of the perfect dome.

 

 

 

It was also pretty cool to see Raphael’s tomb.

 

 

They kept asking for silence in the Pantheon, but most people just continued their conversations. I actually found myself not wanting to leave, but we had a few more stops on our list before dinner that night, so we did not stay very long.

[desamparaditos]

I mostly used Cruise Critic for ideas on what to do in each port and Trip Advisor for reviews of tour guides, hotels and restaurants. I also bought the Kindle versions of Rick Steves’ Mediterranean Cruise Ports and his book Croatia & Slovenia, which I downloaded to my iPhone. This way I would have the information with me while we traveled, without having to be connected to the network.

 

It took me awhile to get organized. I started by using PowerPoint to collect ideas on what to do in each port. I eventually switched to an Excel document where I could track the itinerary and tours along with the costs. I kept track of the total costs in US dollars, the total cost we would need to pay in euros (to help determine how much to take out of the ATM once in Europe), and the costs we had paid in advance vs. needed to pay to help with tracking our budget.

 

I included exact numbers where I could and rough estimates for any other cost I could think of – including parking at the airport, boarding our dog, and meals and snacks in each port. I have not done it yet, but have good intentions to go back through with our receipts and see how close I was to my original estimate of the cost of our trip. I’m going to guess we did not go over it by more than a couple hundred dollars, if that (hopefully!).

 

I also created a spreadsheet to plan my outfits in advance. Everyone warned me that we would over pack, and I did not want to drag any more weight than necessary with us. So I planned my outfits and the shoes I would need with each, and only packed what I expected to wear. And I did wear all 7 pairs of shoes and almost every single clothing item I packed. One of the only items I did not wear: a floor-length formal gown. I packed an old bridesmaid dress just in case I needed something floor length, but after watching what other people wore the first formal night, I decided to stick to my knee-length dresses. There were people who wore floor length dresses, but I did not think I would feel out of place in my knee-length dresses, and that was my preference.

 

Finally, I created a spreadsheet for our packing list. I referred to many Cruise Critic packing lists and started building the list several weeks before our trip so I had plenty of time to add to it as I thought of more items. I think this worked great and felt very prepared for the trip.

 

There were a number of items we bought based on other lists and recommendations. I am breaking these items down to two categories:

 

What we used

• Converter/adapter: This was not necessary for the ship because they had American outlets. I did not pack a hair dryer either because I knew there would be one in both hotels and on the ship. I bought and packed this heavy item only because I wanted to use my hair straightener in the Rome and Venice hotels. It turned out to also be helpful for charging my phone and cameras in the hotels.

• Travel clock: I would have been lost without this. Not only was there no clock in our Stateroom, but neither of our hotel rooms had clocks.

• Money belt: My husband wore this every day. I was glad we spent a little more on a more comfortable money belt so he was willing to wear it.

• Extra memory cards for our cameras: We packed a DSLR and a point and shoot camera. Although one 16 GB memory card would have held all our pictures, it gave me peace of mind to be able to swap out the memory card in our DSLR every couple of days. I left the used cards in our safe and felt comfortable knowing that if anything happened to the camera, we would not lose pictures from the entire trip. Again, thankfully, this was not an issue, but being prepared is always a good feeling.

 

What we did not use

• Mini flashlight: I bought a tiny flashlight that fit on my key ring. I suppose it would have been helpful if power had gone out, but thankfully did not need to use it.

• Sea sickness medication: I was happy to have both pills and patches packed just in case, but even happier that neither of us needed to use them. I have gotten motion sick on small boats in the past and was nervous about getting sick, but I had nothing to worry about.

• Maps of Rome and Venice: Not necessary at all. In fact, on our first day in Rome, the only time when a map would have been helpful, I forgot to bring the Rome map with us. We should not have spent money on maps. The hotels had maps, the ship provided general maps for most ports, and I realized we could have picked up maps at TI’s in the ports if needed.

 

You really do enjoy planning. PowerPoint,Excell, Kindle, IPhone. We are on Legend of the Seas on October 30, doing a Transatlantic from Barcelona. Looking forward to the rest of your review. Nice pics.

[jrmint427]

Our plan was to go to Piazza Navona and then Trevi Fountain, but we must have taken a wrong turn. We quickly saw signs for Trevi Fountain and decided to just go there first. I took a similar approach to directions, asking people every few blocks, “Which way to Trevi Fountain?” Eventually I heard rushing water and got excited when I realized the sound was the fountain.

 

 

I loved the fountain. It was very crowded, but we still got a few pictures. I can’t believe we forgot to throw a coin in the fountain. I’m going to blame our general exhaustion on that one. Hopefully we will still make it back to Rome someday.

 

We walked a few blocks to San Crispino for the first gelato of our trip. When we got to the front of the line, we did not know what we wanted to order immediately, so the worker skipped us and went to the next couple. Thankfully he came back to us before too long. My husband ordered lemon and I ordered hazelnut.

 

 

The gelato was good, but didn't beat the gelato we later had in Venice. We took the gelato back to Trevi Fountain to hang out there just a little longer. At this point we were exhausted and decided to skip Piazza Navona in favor of going back to the hotel to rest before dinner.

[maggieq]

Loving your review. We were on the liberty the same week. Did you have good weather? Every day for us was bright blue sky's.

[jrmint427]

Loving your review. We were on the liberty the same week. Did you have good weather? Every day for us was bright blue sky's.

 

Thank you! We had good weather every day except when we were in Sicily (Sept 2). It was pretty hot a few days, but at least there was no rain!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I am glad you had a good cruise. How did you like the Legend? Best things? Worst things about the ship? Thanks!!:)

[jrmint427]

I am glad you had a good cruise. How did you like the Legend? Best things? Worst things about the ship? Thanks!!:)

 

Ah, those are good questions! The Legend is the only ship I've ever been on, so I do not have much to compare it to. I really liked it, but heard from others that it is small (2,000 passengers) compared to other RCI ships.

 

I'm sure more will come out in my review, but off the top of my head, some of my favorite things were: Large/comfortable stateroom, Windjammer breakfast (especially the eggs and hashbrowns), the piano man in the Schooner bar every night, mini golf, our servers and room steward, trivia nights and the community on the ship. It was small enough that no matter where you went, you would run into someone you knew after just a few days, and I enjoyed that.

 

The worst things about the ship - the first thing that comes to mind was the tender ports. They only had a couple tender boats running and it was a hassle to get off the ship. I'll mention a few other items in my review, but anything else was minor, really. I would sail on Legend again.

[jrmint427]

We took the Metro from the Trevi Fountain back to our hotel. I thought there was a Metro stop close to the Trevi Fountain. It was about a 10 minute walk to the Barberini station, which I suppose was a short walk. Once again we found our way by checking with multiple people to make sure we were heading in the right direction.

 

We waited a few minutes for the next Metro to come. There were a lot of people waiting on the platform but it wasn’t overly crowded. I had my hand over the top of my purse, covering the zipper. This was how I carried my purse the entire time I was in Rome because I had read and heard so many stories of pickpockets.

 

When the Metro arrived, I boarded quickly and a young boy, probably 6 or 7 years old, got on in front of me. He then turned around and started yelling for an adult behind me, and would not move back into the train to let more people on. I tried to move around him, but he continued to push into me, moving sideways with me. That’s when I realized something was going on.

 

And then I felt something on my hand. The boy had a backpack, and I realized his hand was in his bag, and there appeared to be a hole cut out the bottom of his bag – where his hand was sticking out and trying to unzip my purse. It all happened so quickly. By the time I realized what was going on and started to say something to the boy (“HEY!”), he took off and jumped out of the train before the doors closed.

 

Even though I knew I had my hand over my purse, I immediately checked to make sure my camera and cell phone were still there (that was all I was carrying). I was so thankful he did not get either of these items! He did appear to get a cell phone from someone else – as the doors were closing, he was holding up a phone to the adult he was with. No one else around me seemed to notice (or maybe they just didn’t care) what had just happened.

 

I was really mad that the boy had tried to steal from me, but at the same time, I feel sorry for him. I know he was just doing what he’s been trained to do, and he was obviously working with an adult.

[Sinppu]

Sorry you had an encounter with pickpockets but glad you didn't lose anything.

I've been to Rome twice and never had anyone trying to steal from me -but did get conned in a souvenir shop with the change. :mad:

 

They're not even locals. Usually refugees from poorer countries :(

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Ah, those are good questions! The Legend is the only ship I've ever been on, so I do not have much to compare it to. I really liked it, but heard from others that it is small (2,000 passengers) compared to other RCI ships. . . . . but anything else was minor, really. I would sail on Legend again.

 

That is good to hear. We will be on the Legend for 13 days for a transatlantic. I am sure we will get to know everyone, too. 8 of those are sea days. :eek: Thanks--I am looking forward to your comments.

[FLACRUISER99]

That is good to hear. We will be on the Legend for 13 days for a transatlantic. I am sure we will get to know everyone, too. 8 of those are sea days. :eek: Thanks--I am looking forward to your comments.

On this trip you will find out that 8 sea days are not enough!:D

[jrmint427]

That is good to hear. We will be on the Legend for 13 days for a transatlantic. I am sure we will get to know everyone, too. 8 of those are sea days. :eek: Thanks--I am looking forward to your comments.

 

Wow, that is a long time at sea! I'm sure it will be very relaxing. I would guess they step up the day time activities/entertainment when you're at sea that long.

[jrmint427]

We rested at the hotel for an hour or two. I almost fell asleep but rallied and got myself together to go back out. We asked the hotel concierge for a restaurant recommendation. She asked us what kind of food we wanted. Italian, duh! She circled a neighborhood on our map and highlighted a few places she recommended, but told us that anything in that neighborhood would be good.

 

 

As recommended, we began walking down a nearby street. We took our time, stopping to look at menus. So much of the food looked good, but we kept walking and browsing. I had read about a restaurant with good reviews, Cavour 313, so as we got closer to Via Cavour, we searched for that restaurant. But as we were getting increasingly hungry and tired of walking, we finally decided to stop at L’Archetto di Cavour. The menu looked good, was not written in 5+ languages, and the inside looked cute.

 

 

Our meal was good, but not amazing. At 55 euro, it felt a little expensive for what we got, but the service was friendly and my meal was very good. I would go back just for that.

 

When we first sat, we ordered water (which came bottled, and for no charge). They also brought us a bread basket. I had read that there is often a charge for bread, and we did not really want the bread, so we debated asking them to take it back. Instead, we just did not eat it, and I noticed they did not put a bread charge on our bill. We also ordered a half bottle of white wine for 12 euro. We liked the wine!

 

We shared a caprese salad as an appetizer. I was too hungry to remember to take a picture, but the mozzarella was very good.

 

My husband ordered the four cheese gnocchi. It was very rich and tasted like white cheddar mac n’ cheese.

 

 

I ordered the fettuccine with black truffle sauce. We agreed that my meal was better, so we shared both plates.

 

 

We had seen a Metro stop not too far from this restaurant (one reason we decided to stop searching further), so we took the Metro back to our hotel. Thankfully, that trip was uneventful. I wish we would have spent more time exploring Rome at night, but we crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

[jrmint427]

We booked a tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica in advance with Dark Rome Tours. It was supposed to be a 3 hour tour beginning at 8am, before the museums opened to the public, and limited to 10 people. It was more than we wanted to spend, but we were worried about making it to the port in time later that day, so it seemed worth the extra cost.

 

About a week before we left, I received a text message from Dark Rome Tours offering a free upgrade to their Breakfast tour, which included a breakfast buffet in the Pinecone Courtyard before starting the tour at 8am. I sent an email for more information, and they responded very quickly. Even though it would mean a very early morning (we had to meet outside the Vatican Museum at 6:35am), we decided we could not pass this up.

 

I wondered why they offered this upgrade for free, but I think it was because others in our group had already bought the Breakfast package. If we were the only ones who did not, they would have had to come back outside the museum to get us before starting the tour.

 

We were up at 5am so we could get ready for the day and pack up our hotel room. We were not going to be back in time for check-out, so we had asked the hotel in advance about storing our luggage while we went on our tour. They called us a taxi just after 6am, and he arrived almost immediately. The fare to the museum was 10.80 euro. Coming back to the hotel from St. Peter’s Square was exactly the same cost!

 

We met up with the others in our tour group. There were 20 of us total, and they split us into two groups of 10. Our tour guide was Tiffany. She is from the US but has lived in Rome for 7 years and had been a licensed Vatican tour guide for 5 years. They provided us with headsets and we listened to some history while we waited to enter the Vatican Museum. For example, do you know who the statues are above the entrance to the Vatican Museum?

 

 

Michelangelo and Raphael!

 

We were literally the first group of people to enter the Vatican Museum when they opened the doors at 7am. We went through security and then made our way to the Pinecone Courtyard for breakfast. It was amazing to see the place so empty.

 

 

Vatican Gardens:

 

 

The Pinecone Courtyard was a beautiful setting for breakfast.

 

 

The Pinecone represents fertility.

 

 

Breakfast was very nice. There were a lot of options for food. I had scrambled eggs, toast with Nutella, a "Papal" Pancake, half of a chocolate croissant and a Cappuccino. We chatted with two travel agents who were also going to be on our cruise the next day. They gave us about 45 minutes to eat, so it was very relaxing.

[jrmint427]

After we finished eating, Tiffany took us inside to electronic displays where she could talk to us about the Sistine Chapel. Tour guides are not allowed to talk in the Sistine Chapel (guests are not supposed to talk either), so this allowed her to give us an overview. The information she provided was very interesting.

 

We learned that Michelangelo was actually a sculptor, not a painter, and he hated painting. Raphael would have been the obvious choice at the time to paint the Sistine Chapel but he was already working on what are now the Raphael Rooms. So Michelangelo was selected to paint the chapel.

 

He tried to quit after the first three frescoes, but the pope at the time chased him down and brought him back to Rome to finish. At this point, he became obsessed and began working 18 hours a day. He even had a pot brought to his scaffold so he could sleep there.

 

Next we went to a room with Egyptian art and tombs. There was a huge bronze of Hercules in the room behind it, which we could only see from a distance.

 

 

Our tour guide told us that the Hercules bronze had been struck by lightning, and people thought this was God sending a message (maybe Zues?), so they buried the bronze, which was eventually dug up.

 

 

This was the sarcophagus of a wealthy child. You can see what he studied in school pictured on the side:

 

 

We learned that Artemis was both the goddess of fertility and of hunting. As the goddess of fertility, they speculate that the eggs on her represent testicles. One theory is that people would sacrifice bulls in hopes of fertility and would hang the testicles on her statues.

 

 

We also noticed that the male parts on many statues had been removed. Years ago, there was a pope who took a hammer to the male parts on many of the sculptures. Many had been covered up with fig leaves. Apparently they found a box of the missing “parts” – that would have been an interesting find!

 

[jrmint427]

It was a lot of fun to walk around the museum with no crowds. Many times our tour group was the only one in the room. It would have been easy to hear our tour guide without the headset, but it was also nice to be able to wander around a room and hear her no matter how close we were.

 

The Hall of Tapestries:

 

 

The Gallery of Maps:

 

 

The maps here were drawn in the 1500s and it is amazing how accurate they were.

 

 

The Raphael Rooms were really interesting. Our tour guide was great at pointing out details in the paintings. For example, this is Raphael’s portrayal of Michelangelo, shown writing poetry. As a tribute to Michelangelo and his own style of painting, Raphael painted Michelangelo with a lot of muscles:

 

 

When we finally reached the Sistine Chapel, I was in awe. We had 20 minutes on our own in the room and I could have spent longer. It really helped that our tour guide had given us a thorough overview of the room, so I knew what we were looking at. Guards were constantly reminding people, “Silencio! No Photo!” I did not take any pictures, but later wished that I had. So many people were ignoring the instructions and I did not see anyone else being kicked out, but I guess it was not worth the risk.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

On this trip you will find out that 8 sea days are not enough!:D

 

Wow, that is a long time at sea! I'm sure it will be very relaxing. I would guess they step up the day time activities/entertainment when you're at sea that long.

 

We sure hope both of your comments are correct. :)

[jeja911]

Fantastic review so far. I can't wait to read more! This is incredibly helpful since I will be planning a trip like this in the near future. Looks like you had a wonderful time. :D