Carnival Magic - 12 Days in Med review....

[TheCaveman]

A quick history lesson for you:

 

Romulus and Remus

 

Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder. Their maternal grandfather was Numitor, rightful king of Alba Longa, a descendant of the Trojan prince Aeneas, and father to Rhea Silvia (also known as Ilia.) Before their conception, Numitor's brother Amulius deposed his brother, killed his sons and forced Rhea to become a Vestal Virgin, intending to deprive Numitor of lawful heirs and thus secure his own position; but Rhea conceived Romulus and Remus by either the god Mars or the demi-god Hercules. When the twins were born, Amulius left them to die but they were saved by a series of miraculous interventions. A she-wolf found them and suckled them. A shepherd and his wife then fostered them and raised them to manhood as shepherds. The twins proved to be natural leaders and acquired many followers. When told their true identities, they killed Amulius, restored Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa and decided to found a new city for themselves.

 

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So, we were looking for Piazza Venezi, so we decided to ask directions, and this friendly chap showed us the way

 

 

 

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Piazza Venezia – The first king of Italy.

 

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Whilst there, we turned around, and took this picture of Mussolini’s balcony.

 

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From Piazza Venezia, we walk to the Trevi Fountains It was very crowded, but most people consider it a must-see, and so did we. It’s also the place most pick-pocket’ers operate in Rome.

 

 

 

WE walked down this street, towards the Fountains

 

nice and quiet.

 

 

And, we came out here

 

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The Trevi Fountains

 

 

AS you can see it is busy.

 

 

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From here, we walked to the Pantheon.

This walk, takes you through a lot of little roman streets. Beautiful, little, narrow, lovely.

Because the Pantheon became the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyrs very early on, it is the most completely preserved ancient Roman building.

 

 

Found this sgop, sells all wooden stuff

 

 

 

Found it:

 

 

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From here, we walked to the only Gothic church in Rome, the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It has Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk in front, currently under some repairs.

 

 

 

 

 

The Church were really beatifull inside

 

 

 

 

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Next, we walked over some cobblestone streets, to Piazza Navona. With Bernini’s Fountain of the four rivers the centrepiece.

We had to go here, as, it have the scene from Angles and Demons, where the priest gets dunk in the water fountain.

 

 

 

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We started getting hungry, so were looking for a place to eat.

Did I mention it was HOT…. 35 ºC or 95 ºF

But, I don’t care what the thermometer said, it was like an oven, since Rome has no immediate access to the sea. No wind, no breeze…..just pure heat.

 

 

Our Lunch

 

 

Nothing fancy.

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Once we ate, we walked over the Ponte Sant’ Angelo bridge, facing Castel Sant’Angelo. Magnificent place. Beautiful. Queue was too long to stand in the heat so we just moved on the Vatican.

 

 

 

 

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WE stopped for some gelato, that is ice cream if you did not know, before we walked towards St. Peter’s Square

& the Basilica

 

 

 

 

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Once we arrived, we first had to go to the Vatican

AS, the DG is catholic, and the previous Pope was a John Paul II and he was Polish. So the top of her to-do do list for this cruise was Vatican City. Well, we walked, and walked, and just when we thought we were there, we walked some more.

On the way there, you will pas a lot of people, telling you the line to get inside are long, and like a 2 hour wait. Ignore them.

 

 

 

Vatican City Wall

 

 

 

 

WE got inside, finally, went upstairs, and guess what, no line, straight to the ticket office, and we were in. A few seconds it took. So don’t let those rip offs on the street let you…..well, rip you off.

We went up the loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong escalator.

 

Once on he top floor, we saw this:

 

 

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That spiral staircase is the exit of the Vatican. I had to go take these pictures, as we were not going to exit through the official exit. We had other plans.

 

 

 

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The Vatican is the smallest country in hte world....

 

Also the most crouded....

 

 

 

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This guy looked important, back in the day....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Everywhere you looked there were loads of tourists....

 

I had this idea in my head, we will see cardinals and priests, walking along the corridors....

 

 

 

 

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Stuck in traffic