March 9, 10. Rome.

March 9. Rome Day 1.

We got off the ship bright and early and had a little delay waiting for our transfer to Rome. Before long we were on our way. It took about an hour and a half to get to Rome and we were checked into our hotel by 11:30am.

We had a 2:30pm Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel tour booked. Our hotel was about 15 minutes away, so we walked over in the light sporadic rain. There was just an overwhelming number of people. When Kory and I did the tour in 2018, we did the first one of the day. I don’t particularly like getting up to be on a 7am tour, but I would do it for that experience. Our tour guide was quiet and mumbled, so it wasn’t the greatest tour. But I was happy Penny could get the experience and see the vast size of the Vatican museums and the obligatory Rome experience of standing in the Sistine chapel.

 

By the time we were done with the tour, we hightailed it back to the hotel for a few minutes to freshen up and then a 15-minute walk in the other direction to get to our Street Food and History walking tour. It ended up being the highlight of our time in Rome.

Our tour guide was Daniele… he was quite the personality, a Rome native, and the self-described “best tour guide in the world”. He kept the group of 12 moving along and told the history of each of the five items we tried, as well as relevant information of the neighborhoods we walked through.

We were all filled up on food and exhausted by the end of what ended up being a two hour 45 minute tour and the half hour walk back to the hotel. We had no problem getting to sleep!

"Before we eat pizza, we eat Suppli"

 

Then we eat Pizza... 

 

 

 Not pictured but was delicious... Porchetta Romana... a classic Italian street food. Slow roasted pork bellu with garlic, rosemary, and fennel.

The only true "Roman desert" that they usually eat with their coffee in the morning. Maritozzi are brioche buns scented with orange zest, vanilla and honey, then filled with whipped cream. It was like a cream puff.

 And then we ended with gelato.

 

March 10. Rome Day 2.

We started the day walking to Campo de Fiori, the flower market square. We were hungry so we just sat on the patio of a place on the square and had basic breakfast and people watched. Then, we spent about three hours doing the Rick Steves Audio Tour through the heart of Rome. We saw many Rome highlights… Many statues, ancient obelisks (more than any other city in the World), fountains (including the Trevi fountain), piazzas, the Pantheon, aqueduct ruins, Spanish Steps and more. 

 

 

 Penny in front of a window full of Aperol! We've had a lot of Spritz's on this trip!

Then, just to say Penny saw it, we trekked to the Colosseum and took a look around the ruins in that area. It was a beautiful 65 degree afternoon, so we stopped and had an Aperol Spritz break and basked in the glorious sun… and they also brought us finger food snacks.

 

 

 

By the time we returned to the hotel we had walked over 9.5 miles on our adventures. We went to the rooftop bar for a cocktail. It overlooked St. Peter’s basilica and the rooftops of the neighborhood. Then we sat outside for our last meal in Rome. All in all, a great trip and two weeks of fun and adventures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 8. The Italian Riviera.

Today our stop was in Genoa, Italy. I had booked a tour… I thought. It ended up being more of a car service. The listing said we would have an English-speaking driver to take us around the Italian Riviera. Our driver, Laura, didn’t speak much English. She tried here and there though.

That ended up not mattering because we had a great day. Our first stop before many people were there was Portofino. It was absolutely crazy to me and I’m still thinking about the Universal Orlando Portofino Bay Resort being an exact replica of Portofino Bay. I was not expecting that. I thought the real Portofino Bay would be larger honestly. There are mountains around it and churches and things, but the actual bay and surrounding buildings are compact. I also still need to look up where the style of painting stucco buildings really fancy at all these cities on the Italian Riviera came from. Anyways, Portofino’s population is about 350. The bay is just packed with little eateries and stores, so that was cute. But we saw everything in about an hour after walking around and up to an overlook point. I am happy to say I saw it, and it was beautiful, but I don’t need to go back.

From Portofino we backtracked to Santa Margherita Ligure, or, from what I gather the locals call it, Santa Margherita. This city was a little bigger, with a population of about 3,500 and we liked this one much more. There was the main bay and beautiful waterfront area, but there were tons of little streets with shopping areas, restaurants/cafes, and squares off that. We walked all over for a couple hours. I got a shirt to remember the trip by. Then we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant with seven tables. It was called, “Time Out”, and it drew us in because they had a 16-euro fixed price lunch with first pasta course, second meat course, side, half bottle of water, and half bottle of house wine. I don’t know how they made any money because we had a delicious lunch. We don’t have any pictures of the fantastic pasta because we dove into it too quickly. We each ordered something different and mine had crispy bacony slices in it which is exactly my taste. My pork chop and roasted potatoes were delicious, as was the wine. We left stuffed and happy we got a great lunch during our stop.

 

The last city we visited was Camogli. It was on the other side of the mountain and was more modern, but just as beautiful. On the waterfront promenade there were tons of locals out on a Sunday afternoon lying on the beach or sitting at the cafes with their coffees or restaurants eating all types of seafood. I liked seeing the contrasts of Camogli packed with cars and people compared to the first two places we stopped.

 

 

We headed the rest of the way back to Genoa and Laura passed by a few Genoa sights and main streets before taking us back to the ship. We had a full seven+ hour day of touring around, so we just had a low-key last night on the ship. We had our last big meal, checked out the photos the ship took and spent time packing everything up.

 

Overall, I liked the cruise and all its offerings. It had many unique bars and drinks and food. We didn’t go to nearly the number of shows or entertainment as we usually do. It was crazy to me that the cruise director and activity director ran through everything they said in six different languages. When they did trivia or similar activities they put the questions up on screens in six different languages. There was definitely a diverse crowd of people of many different nationalities and ages on this cruise and I loved that variety. Though it is a huge ship with 5,000+ guests it never seemed overly packed or crazy. It was also much less stressful boarding and departing the ship because people start and end their cruises at all different stops. (Unlike in the U.S., where everyone gets on together on the same day and get off together on the same day.)

I can only think of a few critiques. Decor… very stark all around the ship. It wasn’t a “pretty” ship. Seems like they were just going for upscale chain hotel in lots of grays and a minimal amount of boring artwork. Also, the entertainment can be hit or (mostly) miss because they are trying to appeal to such an international audience. I am sad to say much of the entertainment could have been an S.N.L. skit. So, maybe it WAS entertaining in that regard? My final though is that though we didn’t spend much time in the casino, it is very small and definitely not U.S. cruise ship sized…Where it seems like there can never be enough casino space.

We encountered almost universally happy, chipper employees who always went out of their way to say hello and help with anything requested. We requested the same servers at the restaurant we went to several nights because they were so fun. And the speakeasy was so cool and unique, definitely a highlight of this ship. In summary, I don’t think I’d go out of my way or anything to cruise MSC again. But I wouldn’t rule it out if it was an itinerary we wanted at the right price.  

March 5, 6, 7. Day at Sea; Barcelona, Spain; Marsaille, France.

Three days in a row here since there isn't too much to report...

After leaving Malta we had a day at sea to get across the Mediterranean to Barcelona. We did the normal sea day things... ate a lot, spent a few hours in the thermal spa, drank too much, etc,

 

We then arrived in Barcelona to pouring down sideways rain and gale force winds. I could tell our ship was fighting the wind to get docked. We had a tour booked for Sagrada Familia, so we got off the ship and took a taxi there. It is probably the forth or fifth time I have been there and it is always so unique and beautiful to me. It is really more like an art museum to me. It was originally master planned by Gaudi, but after his death there were so many different artists that added their flair. The stained glass is stunning. Hopefully it is all finished in my lifetime so I can see it in its complete form, (if there is such a thing.) 

 

After our tour and spending time in the museum we went back outside to the continuing terrible weather. We decided it just wasn't our day to see Barcelona and cabbed it back to the ship. We relaxed in the afternoon and then went out and about for cocktails, the main theater Broadway show (which was terrible... seriously, but at least it was only a half hour,) and dinner which is always a highlight.

 

Today we were in Marseille, France. Originally we had booked an all day tour to go through the city and then out to see the countryside in Provence. We decided yesterday that we were overloading too many early activities and it looked like the weather wasn't going to be great again... so we decided to cancel the tour and wing it when we arrived.

We ended up getting a cab from the ship to the "Old Port" historical area of Marseille. We took the hop on hop off bus tour on its hour long loop (but didn't get off anywhere). There were some beautiful churches, like just about everywhere in Europe, but other than that, it didn't look like anything to interesting or out of the ordinary was here. (Translation - I don't need to come back... lol... unlike Nice or Eze or parts of the French Riviera closer to Monaco which we loved.) 

After the bus loop, we wandered trying to find a place to eat for a long while but most of them were expensive seafood places being near the sea. We finally found a super awesome food hall that will definitely be my happy memory of Marseille. I had breaded chicken cutlet, patatas bravas, and chorizo with fresh herbs in wine sauce. Nom nom nom. We were thankful it didn't rain at all when we were off the ship. After about five hours we'd had our fill of Marseille and had a CRAZY taxi ride back to the ship. The guy was friendly and funny and obviously knew every other taxi driver in town... but he was honking at everyone and was a speed demon. Now, back on the ship we are just getting ready for dinner and a low key night before our early wake up for our Italian Riviera tour tomorrow!