Trip of A Lifetime Part 5

Day: 6  Cinque Terre

Day 6 our boat ported in Livorno.  We had a lot of great options as far as excursions went in this port city.  Our options were Florence and the Michelangelo's David, Pisa, a Tuscan wine tour, or The Cinque Terre.  When I saw that Cinque Terre was an option I was beyond excited!  I have seen so many fabulous pictures from this amazing place and have always wanted to experience it for myself.  It was a big decision to pick this trip because that meant we would miss out on the Leaning Tower of Pisa & the Michelangelo's David; 2 big spots in Italy.  However we are not one bit regretful of our decision!  It met every expectation I had and more!

Cinque Terre means "5 Villages" and that is just what they are.  5 villages built into the cliffs.  We were able to vist 4 of the 5 villages.  This was another excursion we did through Norwegian Cruise Line.  If we had been more confident and researched it we would have loved to do it on our own but the excursion ended up being a good option.  We took a tour bus from Livorno to one of the villages called Manarola.  

On the bus

 Grapes!

The hills are all terraced and covered with vineyards

 Manarola from the top

From here we walked down into the town until we came to the Via Dell'amore or Pathway of Love.  This pathway connects 2 of the villages and it is super cool.  It goes up and under the cliffs and has graffiti love  messages, bike locks that people have put to "lock in there love", and a lovers bench.  

 

The path connects village of Manarola to the village of Riomaggiore.  Once we reached Riomaggiore we had a few minutes to check out the village and grab a snack.   

Riomaggiore

This village had so many cool old little boats tied up

From this village we hopped on a boat to go to Vernazza.  Here we were again given time to explore and take it all in. Tyler and I were dying to swim in the Mediterranean Sea so we used our time to swim!  It was so much fun, the water was so warm and so clear!  We could see everything in the water around us.

 Loading into the boat.  There was no dock, the ramp was just thrown out onto the rocks for everyone to load in

  

So excited to be swimming!

 

Our last adventure was to the village called Monterosso.  We hopped back on the boat to get there.  

Here Tyler and I had an amazing  Italian lunch and wine, shopped and swam again.  

Hotel built on the cliff

Monterosso

Yummy bruschetta & wine 

 Rocks we climbed to to swim

The beach

When our excursion was over we took a quick 5 min train ride to Levanto (I think thats what it was) where our bus driver was waiting to take up back to Livorno. 

Train tracks built into the cliffs 

We would give anything to go back to Cinque Terre and stay for a week or so.  We loved the small, quaint and slow pace of the villages, not to mention everywhere you look is beautiful.  

If you don't have this destination on your "To do" or "To see" list I highly  recommend adding it! 

Trip of A Lifetime Part 4

Day 5: Rome Baby!!

So I don't even know how to begin to describe our day in Rome.  I could go on and on about how amazing the sites were and how cool it was to be driving in the city and all the sudden see ruins pop up in the middle of the hustle and bustle.  Words like incredible, beautiful, and spectacular don't even begin to touch this city.

Some friends of ours had gone on this cruise last year and they recommended doing a private tour of Rome.  We took there recommendation and booked our tour with the same people.  It's called Driver Guide Service and it was AMAZING!  We invited another couple to join us so there were 4 of us.  Our guide/drivers name was Pietro and he was there to make our experience perfect for us.  We could take our time at one location and be quicker at another, stop for lunch, coffee, bathroom..  he was so accommodating and because he was from Rome he was extremely knowledgeable of all the facts and history of the ancient city.  With this tour we were able to see way more than we would have been able to with one of the excursions the cruise ship did.  We were also able to avoid all lines and had our own guide for the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel.

What we saw in Rome:

Coliseum
the Roman Forum of Caesar
Circus Maximu & Imperial Palace
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
Pantheon 
Vatican Museum
Sistine Chapel
St. Peters Square

Coliseum

The middle area that is "cells" where the eild beasts, slaves and prisoners were held before they were killed

the "stage" looking floor is an example of what was laid over the top of the cells where the battles were fought

Forum

The field is the Circus Maximus where the chariot races were

The Palace behind it is the Imperial Palace

Amazing sculptures 

 Trevi Fountain

Statues on the fountain

 The size of these sculptures were incredible 

The amount of people at the Trevi Fountain

 Spanish Steps

There was a Mc Donalds in Rome... weird with the Pantheon to the side of it.  That is what was so crazy about Rome, the city is just built around all of these antient building.

Pantheon 

 Navona Square where we stopped for lunch

La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi; one of the 4 fountaing in the square

close up of part of the fountain

Vatican Museum (in most of the Museum photos are restricted so there aren't many pictures)

Real mummies in the Museum... I found these SO cool

 Amazing painting on the ceiling.  It looks 3d w/ crown molding but it's all in the painting

Forbiden hallway to the Vatican City

Sistine Chapel

Guards guarding the Vatican city

    St. Peters Square.  The large buidling in the center is where the Pope lives

This square is where people gather each week to watch the Pope give his  speech   The white screen there in the center is used to project him on for a better view. 

   Well I hope you enjoyed your tour of Rome.  If you ever have a chance to go I highly  recommend  the service we use.  I usually don't write reviews on the websites for things but this one was so good I wanted others to know how much we liked it!