Day 4 - Rome
The alarm rang early this morning but it’s worth it for a day spent in Rome. We quickly grabbed breakfast and were off the ship to meet our driver at 7:30 for the 90 min drive to Rome from the port city of Civitavecchia. Our driver spoke very limited English so it was a quiet ride - except for Whitaker.
There was quite a bit of traffic as we got into Rome. There appears to be no traffic rules either as cars are going in every direction and merging constantly. Our driver dropped us off right in front of the Coliseum where we met Danato, our tour guide. We started our tour with the Coliseum. The kids couldn’t believe it only took 8 years to build opening in 80 AD. We learned about gladiators and animal fighting and how they executed prisoners in front of crowds of 80k people. Liam learned how to read Roman numerals and we tested him multiple times throughout the day as he read dates in buildings. The views were great, the kids paid very close attention but it was crowded and hot. Danato was great and knew all of the shaded spots to stop and teach us more about the building.
Our next stop was the Roman Forum. Here, the kids job was to find multiple animal carvings in the buildings. We learned about the senate and the courts and the Emperor’s residence from thousands of years ago. Liam spotted the half eagle/half lion statue. Odin found buildings with multiple arches. Ainsley and Whitaker enjoyed a snooze in the stroller.
We worked our way to lunch via a very Italian feeling road to a restaurant called Wanted. Everyone got pasta and we all agreed my rigatoni carbonara was the best but Liam devoured his spaghetti. Our meal wouldn’t be complete without some incident and the uneven cobblestones of Rome didn’t help clumsy Ainsley as she suddenly disappeared toppling backwards over her chair! Classic Ainsley. We brushed off the dirt and she was good to go again.
Danato picked us up from the restaurant and we continued our tour of the city. We saw the Spanish Steps, a few fountains and a few government buildings. It was busy everywhere! Finally, we wrapped up with gelato in front of the Parthenon building. Pretty great way to end our tour of Rome. We hopped back in the van and made our way back just in time for dinner.
We were back at Animator’s Palette for dinner and this time we drew our own characters that were brought to life on the TVs. The kids enjoyed the show and everyone but Liam enjoyed dessert. Whit and Ainsley have Mickey bars every night. Odin has developed his own “Odin Sundae” that our servers bring him.
The evening’s entertainment was the Golden Mickey’s, an Oscar like broadway show. Whitaker only lasted 10 min before he started screaming so unfortunately Keely missed much of the show. Everyone else loved it and loved seeing all the characters come out for different songs and fun. It was great!
Hopefully everyone will sleep in tomorrow when we arrive at Napoli. Our only plan is to walk to get pizza for lunch and enjoy the pools and ship. Seems unlikely though!

Kevin