Europe – Day 17 & 18

 This day was to be a relaxing day with a couple of places we wanted to visit.

First, we headed south to the far end of the old city of Rome where there was a flea market and church we wanted to visit.

We have visited this flea market several times and we were disappointed that it was not the same as before.

The good news is that was a stand, one of many, selling purses and Barb bought a new, brown big one to carry when we are going on trips to replace here black bag.

Then we visited the church a few blocks away that is the Church that the Pope’s go to.  We are always amazed at how beautiful this church is.

We took a taxi back to the center of the city and walked from the Coliseum to our hotel, about 2 miles.

After drooping off our purchases, we went to a neat little restaurant for lunch.

Then we went to the hotel and packed and we left our luggage there until after dinner.

Then for the next 3 hours we wandered the city down many little roads just enjoying and having fun.

We then looked for the restaurant where we wanted to eat for dinner, found it and made reservations for 7:30pm. 

We went next door to a bar and had a Limoncello.  While we were sitting outside, it started raining and they raining really hard.  They let us come into the restaurant and we sat for an hour waiting for the rain to stop and it didn’t!!

After another Limoncellos, it was 5:30pm and the rain was still coming down a little so we went next door to the restaurant where we had a later reservation and ate an early dinner.

After dinner, we went to the hotel and go a taxi to go to the closest Marriott to the airport.

We did this to go from a very expense hotel room to a less expensive one and much closer to the airport.

Taxis are sometimes hard to get and since we had a 6:05am flight we wanted to get close.

We woke up at 3:30am, got ready and were in a cab by 4:30am going to the airport.

We had a quick 2-hour flight to Paris and a 3 hour wait until our next flight.

I am writing this in the Paris airport.

We will get home to Merna probably around 7:30pm

                                                        Going our for out last day

            

                                                Shopping for her new purse

                                                    Just part of a very large fle Market

                                                            The Pope's Church

                                              Time for lunch -  Pizza - buy it by the ounce!

                                                    A nice walk by the river in the center of Rome

                                                    A little drink before dinner

                                                                        Onion Soup

                                                               Lasagna for the main course

                                                                                   Tiramisu

                                            `    It's 4:00am and ready to go to the airport

                                                    Just walking around on our last day in Rom

Europe – Day 16

 It was a beautiful day in Rome when we woke up and went up to rooftop to have breakfast.

Then we took a taxi to the Vatican as we had a tour booked for 10:30am.  We arrived there at 9:00am and the lines were so long to get in that we almost missed our tour time.

The guide we had, with 10 other people was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of things that we did not know before.

After the tour, we went into the Treasury and oh my gosh the riches that are in the Treasury are amazing.  Everything gold or gold plated, gold threads, and lots of jewels!!

Then we walked back to hotel area and had lunch before going to the Coliseum and Forman areas to see the excavations.

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We took a cab because it was a long walk to dinner at the La Taverna Del Fori Imperiali, voted as one of the top 10 restaurants in Rome.

We met the owner when he came to our table and the restaurant has been in the family for over 100 years, 4 generations.  The 5^th generation is a boy and he is 14.  Amazing.

The food was delicious.

We have walked 18,647 steps for a total of 7.2 miles!!

Back to the hotel to go to sleep after having a glass of wine on the rooftop terrace.

Night from Rome.

                                                                At the Vatican

                                    long lines to get in.  40 minuites to  get to  this point!!

                                                    Some of the ruins being excavated.

                                                                Dinner

                                                        Seared Tuna

                                                        Then a pasta dish

                                                        Lamb Chops

                                                    A meat marked on the way to the hotel

                                                Part of the excavations

                                                            In the Treasury at the Vatican

                                                        Dinner - that's the owner

Europe Day 15

We were out of our room by 9:30am after having a nice breakfast on the rooftop terrace.

We had several goals to day and we met them all!

First, we walked to the Trevi Fountain.  On our first of probably 6 trips to Rome we went to the fountain and threw coins in and laughed that we would probably never come back.  Well, every time we are here, we throw coins in and this year was not an exception.

As it was Sunday, it was very bust but we managed to get to the rail to take pictures and get coins into the fountain.

Then it was to the Spanish Steps because we knew there were good pizza places along the way.   We had their traditional pizza by the ounce and it was very good.

As we were walking all of a sudden we came apon the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and we went it.

It was amazing.  Most people know him from his painting, including the Mona Lisa, but my the other things that he accomplished pale by comparision.  He is considered the greatest genius of all time and if you have time, read about him and what he did - we did not know all that he invented.

They just outside the north gate to the old city there was a flea market that we wanted to go to.  We did and it was disappointing,

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel, about 1 ½ miles with a lot of interesting places to see along the way.

Of course, during the day, we visited a lot of churches and each one was beautiful.

After we were back at the hotel, we went to the rooftop to have a class of wine and some snacks before heading out to dinner.

Earlier in the morning we had gotten caught in a huge rainstorm and we took shelter under the awning of a restaurant that made their own pasta for the 3 restaurants that they owned.  Barb talked the head cook while we were there and promised to come back for dinner.

When we got to the restaurant, we got the last table that they had and from almost that moment they had a line.  At one point we counted 40 people in line.  People who sat next to us said they only had to wait 40 minutes and that sometimes the wait was 2 hours.

The pasta was wonderful and after that we came back to the room and now it is time to say good night.

Night from Rome – tomorrow we are in Rome still.

                                               Breakfast on the rooftop terrace

                                                            Ready to  go our for the day

                                                                    At the Trevi Fountain

                                                        One of many churches

                                                    A drink and snacks before dinner

                                                             Dinner

           

                                                

                                                    Some Lemoncello for a bedtime drink!!

                                                         Breakfast on the rooftop terrace

                                                    At the Trevi Fountain

                                                    Making pasta and then at dinner that evening

                                                  

                                                                Dinner

                                           Making pasta for the restaurant we ate at for dinner

Europe – Day 14

It was a beautiful day in Genoa when we woke up.

They asked us to be out of our room at 7pm so we were up at 6 and out at 7 and to the inside restaurant. 

This was the first time we had eaten breakfast inside.

We had a 12:30pm train to Rome so we didn’t want to get off too early as the train station was only about 15 minutes away.

At 10:15am we asked our butler to take us off the ship and WOW was it easy for us. He took both of our carry-ons and walked us to the baggage area where he put the 4 pieces on one cart and took us outside where he arranged for a taxi to take us to the train station.

The trip was so quick that when we got to our train platform, we had 1 ½ hours to wait.  At least we were there.

The train was right on time so with the help of a big guy, we got ourselves and our luggage in our car.

We are in the first-class car and it has 45 seats and there are only 9 people in the entire car.  The 6-hour train trip only costs us $113.00 so it was a great but, in our view.

We were only 2 hours away from Rome when the train came to a complete stop.  After a little bit we heard the bad news in that there was a body on the track and the police were are the scene!!

After 2 hours we finally starting.  So now the train got to Rome at about 8pm and we took a taxi to our hotel.

This is the same wonderful hotel (The Pantheon Iconic Rome Hotel)  that we stayed at last October when Ed was sick so we are looking forward to it this time with both of us feeling tired but great.

We checked in, went to our room, and dropped off luggage and immediately went to a great pizza restaurant.

We are here for 2 full days and on the 3^rd day we will leave the city late to go to an airport Marriott as we have a 6:25am flight.

We have some places in Rome we are really looking forward to seeing and we will share them with you.

Our hotel room is very elegant with windows that look out over the front street and we have the windows open to get a great nights sleep.

It will be a relaxing couple of day.

Night from Rome

                                                        Time to leave the ship

                                                            Our butler leading us out

                                                        Heading to Rome

                                                                    Going to dinner

                                                            Pizza in Rome

                                                        This street is very narrow!!

                                                                The view from the rooftop terrace

                                                    Another view from the rooftop

Leaving the ship

Our room in Rome

We have also added some videos from the past several days to previous days on the blog

Europe -Day 13

 We awoke at sea on our way to our last stop Marseille, France

The weather was cloudy so we could not sit in the sun so we just relaxed in our cabin and then went to the photo lab to look at our pictures.

The ship docked at 1:00pm and so we got off right away.

We took the ships shuttle bus to the city center, about a 30-minute drive and then spent the next few hours walking around.

As we had to be back on the ship by 6:30pm we did not take time to have lunch so we could see some of the sights that we had not seen the time we were here before.

We got back to the ship at about 4pm, went to the pool deck for food and then back to our room to pack as tomorrow we get off the ship.

As it our custom, we went to the 7:30pm show and it was music from the Mediterranean and it was very good.  We fell that the performances on this ship were better than on Celebrity ships.  On Celebrity, there always seem to be a couple of shows that are not very good.  Here the cast of performers have a different musical event ever night – so much better than Celebrity.

Then it was back to the ship to get ready for our last dinner on board the ship and it was delightful.

After dinner we went to the casino where Ed had his biggest night of the trip and Barb lost a little.

After we finished, we met with the Host and they gave us a certificate for a free cruise in the Mediterranean!!

I will post the pictures tomorrow because we have to be out of the room by 7am in the moring.

We will have breakfast and at 10:30am exit the ship to take the train to Rome.

Night from our last night on the cruise.

Some final words about the cruise from both of us

The ship was amazing -the cleanliness, the space, the luxury and most importantly the friendless and attentiveness of the staff.

The entertainment was fabulous, not throw away shows to fill gaps like other cruise lines.  Every show was fun and very well done.  All the show were made up of the dancers and singers from the ship’s cast as well as specialty performers who were excellent.  Not the same old stuff.  The performers were better than any other ship we have been on.  The sound system was perfect, not loud like on Celebrity.

Because the theater was small, it was much more intimate which we liked.  The butlers would rope off an area for us to sit every night which assured us of good seats.

The room was more spacious, the bathroom was huge and the shower was unbelievable compared to our previous suites.

But, all of this is in the Yacht Club and we would not cruise this line again if we were not in the Yacht Club because with 5,000 passengers no matter what you do, it will be always crowded!!

The lines getting off the ship were massive; however, with the butler you went off easily ahead of everyone else.

In the Yacht Club none of the public rooms were ever crowded.  When we walked around if the general areas, it was very hard to fine a quite space.  On the decks around the pools, almost impossible to find an open chair unless you got up very early.  On our pool deck, there were always lots of lounges available in all sections of the deck.

The pool deck with all the food and a bar was wonderful with great lounge chairs.

It was very easy to get to know the casino staff, from the manager down to the dealers.  The staff in the casino was the same as we have experienced in the Celebrity Casinos.

One big difference is that on Celebrity we have to wait weeks to find out if they would comp us on a future cruise or not.  With MSC, we received a free 7 night European cruise certificate on our last night because of our play!!

If you were in a regular cabin on this ship compared to Celebrity, Celebrity would win.

If you compare our experience on the MSC Seashore Yacht Club compared to the suites on Celebrity, hands down, MSC is better by a large amount.

If we had to choose any cruise line, it would be MSC and the Yacht Club.

                                              The newspaper delivered to our room every day

                                                    Ed on the couch reading the paper

                                                        Going our for the day

                                          We visited this church - it was huge and amazing inside

                                                           The skull of Lazarus

    

Our last Gelatto for the cruise

                                                                Going out for the final evening

                                                    Appappetizers for dinner

                                                One of the amazing dance acts in the theather

Europe - Day 12

The ship docked in Valencia, Spain.  We had shuttle tickets to go from the pier to the city center which took 30 minutes.

While we docked at 7am, we were told that nothing opened until 9am, so we took the 8:30am shuttle.

We had to walk over a bridge to get into town.

We headed towards the main cathedral in town and it was very, very impressive.

The church had audio guides so we could walk the church and hear all about the history.

The most important part of the church was the section that housed The Holy Chalice of the Lord’s Supper, The Holy Grail.

Here is a quote from the literature that we were given.

“Based upon references from the ancient liturgy, various investigation from distinct scientific disciplines, and even the legends of the Grail – all indicate it is perfectly plausible that the Hold Chalice of Valencia was in the hands of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, and it contained the Most Precious Blood of the Redeemer.  In contrast, there is no evidence that counters this position.”

WOW!!

After that we went to the large food market and bought an Iberian Ham and cheese sandwich and sat on some steps and ate it along with a lot of other people in the area.

Since we had to be back to the shuttle bus station no later than 2pm, we started walking back enjoying the sites along the city streets and of course buying a few items.

After taking the shuttle back, we went up on the pool deck and had some snacks and relaxed until it was time for the show.

The show was a production number and it was just fine.

Dinner was wonderful and then we went to the casino where Ed had a nice win and Barb lost a little.

Tonight, the seas are a little rough and tomorrow we make our last stop, Marseilles France.

Night

                                                        Going out for the day

                                           Meeting our Butler whowil get us through the long lines

 

                                                    The Valencia Cathedral entrance

                                                            Inside the Cathedral

                                                                    The Hold Grail

                                                    The ceiling of the chruch over the alter

                                                    Buying lunch

                                                             and eating lunch

                                                 

                                                    Inside the Opera House

                                                    The pool deck food and drinks