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Our Journey

Rome The ride from Sorrento to Rome was almost 4 hours. The landscape on your way up north was beautiful and breathtaking. Rome is a huge city. Unfortunately we were only here for two days. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, which would be about a 30 minute ride into the center of Rome where most of the ruins are. We took a night tour of the city. Apparently tour busses are not allowed during the day so we saw many tour groups take advantage. Being that we arrived on Palm Sunday, our first stop was the Vatican. St. Peter's square was still set up with the chairs and podium from the day's services. We would tour the Vatican the next day, which would last about 4 hours.

Today, March 25 would be our only full day touring Rome. We started by waiting outside the Vatican for 30 minutes, before going through security checks. Our first tour would be the Vatican Museum, many original work of arts are here. Again no pictures or video are allowed. The tour brought us to the Sistine Chapel. Recently restored, the Michelangelo masterpiece is full of color and detailed. In here, besides no photos, they recommend silence. There are guards at both entrances enforcing this rule as well. As you make your way out of the chapel, you are led to the entrance of St. Peter's. You ARE allowed to take photos in here. There is Michelangelo's original Pieta sculpture, the Papal altar, and again artwork. St. Peter's was the last part of our Vatican tour.

Our next stop was the famous Roman Coliseum and "Ancient Rome". The Coliseum was breathtaking, as well as the ruins in the center of the city; Roman Forum, Ceasar's Temple, Arch of Constantine, are just to name of few located outside of the Coliseum. This is pretty much where our tour guide left us for the day. Overall the 6 hour guided tour was well worth it. However, we were unable to see the Spanish Steps, Panthenon and other historical sites, but I guess that will be for another time.

March 26, 2002 Well it was time to pack our bags and head back home. Italy was wonderful, but we couldn't wait to get home. We had a direct flight from Rome to JFK(New York) and the flight was 9+ hours. I was glad to be back on US soil.