The Grand Tour; Italy and Greece on the Royal Princess

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Sunday morning dawned with beautiful bright blue skies and temps in the 70's-Perfect weather for sightseeing (Actually we had enjoyed mostly favorable weather the entire trip). We walked the two blocks or so to the nearest HOHO bus stop. There are six (6) different HOHO bus companies! The prices are all about the same (22,00 to 26,00 euro pp for a 24 hours pass) and most run from 9am to 6pm or even later. We just picked the first line that showed up, and as they ran until 10pm I was happy with our choice.

 

Many will say its better to just walk around Rome because the buses can't get that close to the major sites, which is true, but at least the HOHO can get you reasonably close, and it does reduce the amount of walking one does.

 

 

Not the Colosseum, but a theater built in the same style

 

 

A church built in and around a Roman temple

 

 

 

 

This huge monument was originally built to honor Victor Emmanuel, first king of a unified Italy. Now they call it a monument to Italian Unification

 

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At the top of the Spanish Steps

 

 

 

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After riding around on the HOHO, getting off when it suited us, we got off at Stop #2, and went to yet another sidewalk café for lunch. One thing I noticed, everywhere we went no one served glasses of tap water. If you wanted water to drink you had to buy bottled water. If you want non-sparkling water you needed to ask for “Natural Water”.

 

After lunch we went to Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, more commonly known as “The Bone Church.” I could try to describe it, but I have attached a link to wikipedia that does a much better job than I could ever do. It was a bit pricy at 8,50 euro per person to go in, but it was really interesting and an unique experience. No photos, even with flash off, are allowed.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Concezione_dei_Cappuccini

 

And that was mostly it. We had a very enjoyable trip. We would gladly sail with Princess again, and I want to do another Med cruise sooner rather than later.