Not Cruisin' Yet, But Close

Be patient with me, I decided to blog about my cruise in several posts--chronological order, naturally. So the first stop was Rome. Actually we flew into Rome two days before the start of the cruise and saw some pretty cool stuff there. Our hotel was just a few blocks from the Vatican. It was way cool. Back up, as we drove through Rome, to our hotel, it just FELT like I was going to love it here. Maybe it was because it felt very similar to Lisbon. I don't know, but it was a good feeling. So, we got there on Sunday and went walking over to the Vatican . . . this is St. Peter's Basilica--I kept picturing parts of Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code.
I know that some of you know about the Swiss Guard. Well it really is crazy that they still wear the "costumes" that Michelangelo designed.
And of course, there’s the Pieta.



We also went to the museum in St. Angelo’s Castle. It was pretty cool—a bunch of Egyptian artifacts. Mostly though I liked the round building. There’s a bunch of historical stuff that happened here, like the Pope took refuge here at one point but I don’t remember what Pope or when that was. Look it up if you want to know.




Doesn't this tunnel remind you a little of Mom & Dad's painting from Jerusalem?

Also, the Tiber River is pretty picturesque.

On day two we did the whole Roman ruins route. We saw the Coliseum,
the Roman Forum,
Palatine Hill,
etc., etc., etc. It was pretty cool, as we’ve been studying the Roman history with Eli particularly. He loved it when we saw the statue of Romulus & Remus with the wolf on Palatine Hill.

Day three was going to be more of day two stuff but I said that I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. So, Angie and Scott decided to come along with me. First of all you “get” to walk through about a million other rooms, hallways, and chapels and I guess that it’s a good thing that you go through them first because once you see the Sistine Chapel everything else pales in comparison. It was truly amazing. I could seriously spend days in there just straining my neck to see that amazing ceiling. We couldn’t take pictures in there but I got a book. When I get home we can spend hours. It really is incredible to think of all the doctrine Michelangelo had to know to make his work so accurate. Later that day we got on the ship. We spent the next day at sea. My next installment will be on Mykonos, Greece, our first stop.

This is one of the pre-Sistine Chapel ceilings.