"Are these underwear yours?" DIS Viking Italian Sojourn 2018 TR *COMPLETE* 10/14 New TR Link!

[OKW Lover]

UP NEXT: Eating Italy

Ohhh. I can hardly wait!!!

Not that I haven't enjoyed your trip report thus far!

 

[mmmears]

Wonderful update! It's bringing back so many wonderful memories, too. And how fun that you've already run into people who will be on the cruise. Thanks for sharing - I'm looking forward to your next update.

 

[Cousin Orville]

That's awesome you got to go on the Colosseum floor. We wanted to do that, but couldn't make it happen. Looking forward to the food - my favorite part of Italy.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

All I can say is "WOW!" Continuing to enjoy the awesome photography of a gorgeous country, and your being generous enough to write this, and share it all with us!

 

[christannj]

I've often wondered why we didn't go down to the lower level on the Coleseum on the ABD trip since that is listed as one of the unique parts of the tour. Thanks for doing this tour and sharing the photos, now I can truly appreciate what we missed.

Chris

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I've often wondered why we didn't go down to the lower level on the Coleseum on the ABD trip since that is listed as one of the unique parts of the tour. Thanks for doing this tour and sharing the photos, now I can truly appreciate what we missed.

Chris

There is a really limited amount of people that are allowed to do that a day. I know my group with Tauck got to do it in October but our guide mentioned that it doesn't always happen depending on the schedule. Certain tour operators have easier times getting those times than others.

~~~

Loving your report! We did Italy in October so I'm loving seeing your take on it!

 

[missangelalexis]

SOunds like waking up early was worth it! You got some great, empty photos of the Trevi Fountain!

The Colosseum tour sounds like it was a good choice! I'm sure it was cool walking on the arena floor! Lots of wonderful pics

 

[khertz]

Ohhh. I can hardly wait!!!

Not that I haven't enjoyed your trip report thus far!

Eating is always the best part of a trip to Italy!

Wonderful update! It's bringing back so many wonderful memories, too. And how fun that you've already run into people who will be on the cruise. Thanks for sharing - I'm looking forward to your next update.

It was really great to see some of the people we had traveled with on our ABD trip. Some of them we haven't seen since that trip which was in 2014!

Thanks for following along.

That's awesome you got to go on the Colosseum floor. We wanted to do that, but couldn't make it happen. Looking forward to the food - my favorite part of Italy.

We loved the Colosseum last trip, but it was definitely even cooler getting to go down to the floor and getting a new perspective there.

Food is my favorite part too! lol

All I can say is "WOW!" Continuing to enjoy the awesome photography of a gorgeous country, and your being generous enough to write this, and share it all with us!

I'm so glad you are enjoying! I love getting to relive our trip through a TR but it's even better having people actually enjoy reading it.

I've often wondered why we didn't go down to the lower level on the Coleseum on the ABD trip since that is listed as one of the unique parts of the tour. Thanks for doing this tour and sharing the photos, now I can truly appreciate what we missed.

Chris

I wondered that too. Maybe it was a similar reason to why we didn't get to do the nighttime Vatican tour since the trip was so customized. It was cool getting a different perspective of the Colosseum.

Loving your report! We did Italy in October so I'm loving seeing your take on it!

Thanks so much!! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

SOunds like waking up early was worth it! You got some great, empty photos of the Trevi Fountain!

The Colosseum tour sounds like it was a good choice! I'm sure it was cool walking on the arena floor! Lots of wonderful pics

Waking up early was a great decision! Despite the cold, it was really amazing to get to enjoy the Trevi Fountain from all angles without fighting the enormous crowds of people.

The Colosseum tour was a great one. I was really excited to get to spend more time in a place we enjoyed so much last time, and getting to see some things we hadn't gotten to see before.

 

[Gondingl]

I have enjoyed reading this so much! Dustin, the pictures are amazing! Looking forward to reading more about the trip! Can't wait until you're on the boat

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I just went last year I feel like I’m reliving my trip looking at these photos! I just turned 32 as well so I’m in your age range, travel while your young and have no regrets this looked amazing!

 

[met19]

This is a great trip report. I love Rome. I think Italy is one of my favorite countries- I love the history. In 2016, we did the Colosseum floor tour. We tried to arrange it this year with Context but it didn't happen, but our archeological guide was amazing. Looking forward to the next part of the report. We missed you in Orvieto. So fun.

 

[khertz]

I have enjoyed reading this so much! Dustin, the pictures are amazing! Looking forward to reading more about the trip! Can't wait until you're on the boat

Thanks!! I just finished typing that day up, so it will be here soon!! It was so great meeting you & Chris on this cruise!!

I just went last year I feel like I’m reliving my trip looking at these photos! I just turned 32 as well so I’m in your age range, travel while your young and have no regrets this looked amazing!

Italy is so amazing. I love getting to relive it through my TR and others. It's such a special place.

This is a great trip report. I love Rome. I think Italy is one of my favorite countries- I love the history. In 2016, we did the Colosseum floor tour. We tried to arrange it this year with Context but it didn't happen, but our archeological guide was amazing. Looking forward to the next part of the report. We missed you in Orvieto. So fun.

I have wanted to visit Italy for the history and architecture ever since a class I took my senior year of high school. I never thought I'd ever get to visit it ever, much less be lucky enough to go twice!

We were so sad to miss the day trip to Orvieto, as we really enjoyed it in 2014 and there were other things we wanted to do there but didn't have enough time. There was just so much we wanted to do in Rome too! I probably needed an extra week in Rome to do everything we would want to do pre-cruise. lol

 

[OKW Lover]

We were so sad to miss the day trip to Orvieto, as we really enjoyed it in 2014

Just think how much you saved

 

[khertz]

Just think how much you saved

Don't think that didn't occur to both DH & I!

 

[khertz]

Day 2 Continued: Friday March 23rd

I know I teased the last update with Eating Italy, but I'm going to save that for the next update so I can post it all together. After our Colosseum tour, there was a bit more sightseeing we wanted to do before heading back to the room to get ready for our food tour later that evening.

The next spot we wanted to visit was a church our Rome Cabs driver had pointed out to us in the Piazza Venezia behind the big building called the Wedding Cake building. She told us it was really beautiful inside and it was one we hadn’t visited last time.

Viking 03-073 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-074 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-075 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-076 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

When we got to the wedding cake building, we had a bit of a breakdown. I was getting hangry, my feet were tired, and it was cold, and we couldn’t remember on which side of the building the church had been. We ended up getting a little snippy with each other, so I admitted I needed to sit down and take a break. We had done a lot of walking the day before and that day so far, and I was not wanting to walk around in circles, but I felt like my pace was slowing DH down. But we did sit down and take those few minutes to pull out our map and really figure out exactly where we were in relation to the building and where the church was, and we were able to move along towards it in better spirits. At least I was in better spirits until I saw all these stairs I was about to have to climb to get there!

Viking 03-077 by disneymom1024, on Flickr

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My legs were burning by the time we made it to the top! The church is the Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, and it was worth the hike!

Viking 03-078 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-079 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-080 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Inside, there is a small chapel with the wooden statue of the Santo Bambino of Arecoeli which was made with olive wood from Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray before the Crucifixion.

Viking 03-082 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-083 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-084 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-085 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-086 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

All in all, worth the side trip, even if I was a bit cranky. And of course it was a lot easier to go down steps to leave than it was to go up them.

We walked back to the hotel and stopped along the way to grab pizza for lunch. Since it was after 1 and we had the walking food tour booked for late afternoon, we shared on instead of each getting our own.

The walk back also brought us past another interesting fountain on a street corner opposite the one we had seen on our way to the Colosseum earlier that morning.

Viking 03-087 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

By the time we got back to the room, my feet really needed a nice rest. As much as I’m sure it killed DH to be sitting around a hotel room while we were in Rome, I needed the rest if we were going to be spending the evening walking around. We had originally planned to walk to Trastevere where we would be meeting the food tour since we had done it last trip no problem, but I knew there was no way I could walk there and then spend several hours walking from place to place. So after our break, we decided to get an Uber to bring us to the meeting point near the Tiber River.

Our Uber driver was awesome! He picked us up in a nice SUV that he uses for his transportation business and he’s also a tour guide, so he gave us some history and information as he drove us over towards the church on the Rome side of the Tiber River that we had put in as our destination so we could walk the rest. We started getting into traffic so he let us out a little further down from the church, which jarred me a bit and it took us a second to get our bearings to figure out which direction we needed to go in.

Viking 03-088 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
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The tour we were doing was a repeat for us. Karen set it up for us on our ABD trip, and many expressed interest in doing it again, or some who had skipped it in 2014 expressed interest in doing it this time. Thankfully, Karen volunteered to take the reins again and organize it for everyone! She set up a few times for Friday night, and even managed to get a few people moved to the Thursday night one so that they could visit Orvieto on Friday. The tour is through a company called Eating Italy Food Tours and the one we were doing is called the Twilight Trastevere Food Tour.

Our tour was set to start at 4:15 and we had some time before we needed to check in at the monument in front of the church, so we went inside the church to look around.

Viking 03-089 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-090 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-091 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-092 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Viking 03-093 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

While waiting, we got to meet some more couples from our DIS group! Most of them were on the 4:15 tour with us, but there was another couple there just really early for the 5 pm tour. In the meantime, our guide for the 4:15 tour had showed up and was trying to figure out what was going on. As we were all shaking hands and chatting, he asked us, “Oh, so you all know each other?” And we laughed and said, “No, but we are all leaving to go on a cruise together on Saturday,” which I think REALLY confused him. But we didn’t have much time to explain because another wave of DISers arrived that were in our first group, so our guide was ready to get started!

UP NEXT: NOW We're Eating Italy!

 

[SorcererHeidi]

@khertz - Continuing to be blown away by all the photographs, and grateful you're sharing this all with us. Can't wait to hear about my always-favorite thing - FOOD! I figure with your hubby's gorgeous photos, I better eat a big meal BEFORE I read though, or I'm gonna get hangry, for SURE!!

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Gorgeous photos! Thank you for the report. Trish and I did the same thing to go to Trastevere. I had preprinted a map before leaving just in case I was having phone issues and google maps wasn't working but we had done so much walking I needed a rest for a bit so we got a cab.

Looking forward to you Eating Italy!

 

[met19]

love the photos. those churches are lovely.

 

[kastoney]

What an amazing trip so far and gorgeous photos. Thanks so much for sharing. After hearing so much about the cruise, I can't wait to see it unfold.

 

[missangelalexis]

I am sure your feet were really hurting! Those stairs look like no joke! I'm glad the hike was worth it, the pics are beautiful!