Happy Birthday to me.
Woke up at 6:30 and got ready for breakfast (which was room service at 7am). Hey, it was my birthday, so I thought I would treat myself.
I walked out of the bathroom to my boys awaiting me with a gift. They had bought me a new watch whilst on board, Minnie Mouse. And then my DH presented me with his gift, a beautiful necklace (I had already said this was a no gift birthday)! Oh well, it was a very nice surprise. I opened my cards and I even had a card and gift in my FE from another cruiser (thank you, you know who you are). After a lovely start of the day we were going to Rome.
We made our way to the awaiting bus just outside the ship that would drop us off at the port gate. AT the gate was lots of people touting for your business whether it be trying to sell you fast train tickets or something else that I didn't hang around to find out.
We walked passed these and out of the port and spotted a beautiful statue that we thought we would get a picture of on our way back, (we totally forgot but discovered that my 9 year DS had got one).
My boy is so good.
This is the picture we forgot to get!!!
We crossed the road and turned right towards the train station. I had read that there is normally a long queue at the station but to go passed this and buy my tickets from the newspaper shop. This is inside and to the right of the ticket area. No one else seemed to know this as it was empty. We bought 4 BIRG tickets for 12 euros each and this gave us unlimited travel within zone 5. We were able to get to and from Rome (approx 1 hour journey), use the metro and can be used on the bus around Rome too.
We validated our tickets in the machine just inside by the ticket area and had to write our names and D.O.B on our tickets. This train was a double deck and we had seats up top.
I used this site to print off pocket sized timetable of trains to and from the port- Rome. It was the best thing I had on me.
http://www.civitavecchia.net/travellers-trains.html
We got off the train at Ostiense and got the metro to Colosseo. The metro is Line B and is only 2 stops to the Colosseo station. When you exit the station, the Colosseum will be directly in front of you.
Note if you are European and have children they get in for free with a passport.
There was a girl outside who offered us a guided tour of the Colosseum/ Forum and Hill for 30euros each. We did this and were glad that we had because the queues were ridiculously long and the man who was our guide was great. He was Italian and very passionate about the place. My DH was impressed by this guy and how he was able to articulate the history and what went on here. Like I said, I did not pay for the kids and the guy took their PP to get their free entry (he has to pay for the group to get in). We did not have to queue to get in, but had a fast pass as a tour group.
One thing I did hear was an American tour guide saying "when we built this". I was shocked because firstly she was not Italian and it just sounded wrong. Secondly, she wasn't around when it was built. I just felt like she sounded like she didn't have any passion for the place and was reading a speech!
We loved the Colosseum and have decided to go back to Rome for a few days without kids (or maybe when they are older). We were going to pick up the 2nd tour of the hill but my youngest was complaining he wanted to eat and then Thunder started to rumble, so we headed back to the ship as we already decided we would come back for longer. We headed to Rome with the intention of the Colosseum, hill, fountain and steps but decided to just enjoy the Colosseum only because we were in awe of it. If you just wanted to run through the Colosseum and move on to other site then you can do it (better with kids), but we planned on being as relaxed as possible because we know we can easily go back. This was just a taster sort of thing for us.
We had to be back on the ship by 6:30pm and tonight' dinner was cruise casual with the show "Villains tonight".
My DH met a lovely man from Singapore and we walked back to the port with him and his wife as they were getting a cruise from there and didn't what stop to get of at and know where to go for the port.
Whilst were at dinner there were a couple of announcement for 2 families to report to GS and we didn't leave until later. Not sure if Disney waited for them or if we had a late slot out of port as there was a few other ships in.
Villains tonight was great!!! We sat with our table mates to watch this show and had good seat in the middle of the middle. After the show it was up top for our drinks and to bed for the next day.
Here's a couple of Pictures my 9 year old son took.
The next picture is the plaque informing you of this mosaic.
He loved these items.
Ooops, if the guy had caught him I et he would not have been happy as they charge you.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/kiki_304/story/15597
Tomorrow we will visit Herculaneum.