Day 9: Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)

Today we woke up around 6:30, and room service was delivered shortly afterwards. Disney did open the restaurants earlier today, but we didn't want to have to worry about standing in line or getting up even earlier. Breakfast was very good, and it was great to have some tea to help me wake up. The ship arrived in port around 7:15, with an all ashore time of 7:45. Our excursion was meeting in the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:45. After seeing the huge crowds for our excursion in Tunis, we decided to head down to the Theatre earlier. This worked out well, and we ended up being on the first of 6 buses to head for Rome. We were quickly whisked down to the gangway, and onto one of the buses waiting just a few steps away. We had a Disney escort from the youth activities department onboard with us.

Our excursion guide welcomed us onboard and passed out the audio head sets for our tour in Rome. Civitavecchia is about an hour and a half away from Rome, so we started the drive through the countryside, while learning about the coastal area and getting information about our day in Rome. Just before arriving in Rome, we stopped at a service plaza to use the bathrooms and grab drinks. Several people found out the hard way that Europeans do not believe in taking coffee to go, as they were served coffee in china cups. We grabbed a few Coke Lights and got back onboard the bus. Shortly before arriving at our first stop, we picked up our local guide Max and then headed to the Coliseum.

The bus stopped about a block away from the Coliseum, and we got our first cultural tidbit from Max: "We are going to have to cross the street. When you cross a street in Rome, never look the drivers in the eyes, it gives them permission to go. First, we say a little prayer, and then we just walk." Fortunately we were able to survive our first test of crossing the street. Of course, it helped that there were 24 of us and we had 2 guides and a Disney escort to keep us safe. We saw the Arc De Constantine and then took pictures with Gladiators in front of the Coliseum. Max then took us through the tour entrance, and we walked by an hour and a half worth of line to get in. We toured the upper and lower bowls of the Coliseum and it was just incredible. It is hard to believe that they could build stuff like this thousands of years ago, and that it still stands today. Most of the features of the Coliseum inspired modern arenas, such as multiple bowls of seating and multiple gates. It was also interesting to hear that the holes all around the coliseum were caused by the Vatican taking the marble out of the Coliseum to build St. Peter's basilica.

We left the Coliseum and took a short walk up to our bus. A short 15 minute ride later, and we were walking towards the Trevi Fountain. For such a huge and famous fountain, it certainly is hidden. You are just walking along through a normal looking neighborhood, and BOOM, huge fountain. We were given 15 minutes of free time, so we headed down to the fountain to take pictures and throw coins into the fountain. One coin guarantees a return to Rome and two coins is to find your true love. I also took an opportunity to "Do as the Romans Do," and drink out of one of the fountains, nice fresh mountain spring water brought down by ancient aqua-ducts.

Once we all reconvened, we started the walk to the Hotel Bernini for lunch. As the first bus, we were fortunate enough to be able to eat on the rooftop terrace. The dining room was absolutely incredible and the view was fantastic. Since Rome has relatively short buildings, you could see everything. For lunch we sat with a group that also worked for Disney, and had some great conversations with them. We had two bottles of wine, two bottles of water, and a three course lunch comprised of penne pasta, chicken, and the best tiramisu I have ever had. After lunch we headed back to the bus, barely making it across the street, and left for Vatican City. The traffic was starting to get heavier, but we got a nice tour of the city seeing the river and several beautiful parks.

We circled the Vatican to get to the bus parking, and then walked into another new country. There was a long line to get into the Vatican, but once again we were able to use the tour entrance and had no wait. Once past security, Max stopped by a display of the Sistine Chapel art to give us a tour of what we would be seeing, since no talking is allowed in the Chapel. We then went through several of the galleries of the museum. If you stopped to look at each piece in the Vatican collection for 40 seconds, you would be in the museum for over 10 years. Personally, I don't know what was cooler, the art, or the buildings they were housed in. We toured the main statue gallery, the tapestry gallery, and the map gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was beyond words, it was incredible seeing the famous God bringing Adam to life in person. The Sistine Chapel is definitely a place to visit during the quiet times of the year, I was amazed at the number of people they squeezed in there.

We left the chapel through the tour door and went straight into St. Peter's Basilica. The Basilica is incredible, and huge. It, like so many things in Europe, cannot be described in words, and photos don't do it justice. We were able to peer down into the Pope's burial catacombs, rub the foot of St. Peter, and see the high alter on which only the Pope can perform Mass. The smaller side altars are used by the regular Vatican priests and Cardinals. From St. Peter's we headed out into St. Peter's square which is just massive. It features one of the many obelisks of Rome, and statues of many of the Saints. We also had the opportunity to see the lights in the Pope's Office, and see the famous Swiss Guards. In an interesting note, the Swiss Guards uniforms have the same color scheme as the Disney stateroom attendants.

We made a quick stop in a gift shop to use the bathrooms, and ran into our friends Mike and Susan as they were just leaving the store. We hopped back on the bus after saying goodbye to Max, and headed through the very thick Rome traffic back to the port. We were back around 6, way earlier then we had expected. The dining room manager hopped on the bus to let the early dining people know that they were welcome to go to dinner (something we saw throughout the week). You can't beat Disney customer service. We had planned on going to Topsiders, but with a combination of us being back really early and Topsiders serving a buffet for dinner, we decided to go to dinner in Animator's Palate for what looked to be an awesome Master Chef's dinner menu. We grabbed some antipasti in Cove Cafe before heading down to the room to get ready. Raymund had just finished our room, so we talked with him for a while and gave him several tips for when he got a chance to visit Rome. There was no show in the Walt Disney Theatre since so many of the passengers were either ashore or dead tired.

Animator's was insanely busy for dinner, it was the first time during the cruise that all 20 people in Summer and Igor's section were at dinner. Our table mates had done the Rome on Your Own excursion and got back just as dinner was starting, so we had an opportunity to compare our experiences from the day. Dinner service was a little slow with almost every seat in the dining room being taken, but the food was delicious. I had Citrico's Shrimp from Grand Floridian, and Yachtsman Steakhouse surf and turf from Yacht Club.

After dinner I went down to Rockin' Bar D to meet up with my friends and enjoy the Rock 'n Country dance party. I tried to escape line dancing, but Katrina had saved a hat for me and brought me up to dance. I ended up on stage rocking out with the band after David handed me a guitar and pushed me on stage, definitely made for a memorable night. Once the dance party ended, I went upstairs and collapsed into bed.

Up next Day 10: La Spezia, Italy (Pisa)