OCD Planner's Mah-valous Mediterranean Adventure on Serenade of the Seas

[ace1zoe2]

Inside views of the Pantheon:

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

The doors were enormous:

 

 

The columns in front were magnificent:

 

 

The exterior side of the building surely shows it's age, almost to the point that it appears to be neglected in comparison to the rest of the structure. After reading more about the Pantheon I learned that much of the marble on the exterior has been stripped away throughout the centuries, as has much of the metal that adorned the portico.

 

 

 

 

It's almost unbelievable that the Pantheon was built in 126AD - almost 2,000 years ago and it is still standing today. 2,000 years later it is the single largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It is a tomb to 2 kings and several Renaissance painters including Raphael. In 609 it was consecrated as a church and still operates as a Roman Catholic Church today conducting mass.

[Coralc]

The columns in front were magnificent:

 

 

 

I'm really enjoying your review! You always have the best tips for vacationing. :D

 

That hotel to the right with the flags is where we stayed for a few nights before an October transatlantic. In my opinion, the Pantheon and piazza were very crowded on the day you visited. It wasn't that crowded when we were there. :) But the dollar is up, so maybe there are more visitors.

 

Your photos are great.

[TNEVol]

Following closely. We are taking Allure in June 2015 from Barcelona and Serenade from New Orleans in Jan 2015. We are also taking your Alaska land/cruise on the Radiance in May 15. Have enjoyed following along with you on all of these. Keep it up and thank you.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Enjoying your review and seeing the places you stayed, it's so nice to rent apartments when there is a group, we did that in Venice when there were 7 of us, much nicer than 3 hotel rooms ;)

Looking forward to your next chapter ;)

[ace1zoe2]

I'm really enjoying your review! You always have the best tips for vacationing. :D

 

 

 

That hotel to the right with the flags is where we stayed for a few nights before an October transatlantic. In my opinion, the Pantheon and piazza were very crowded on the day you visited. It wasn't that crowded when we were there. :) But the dollar is up, so maybe there are more visitors.

 

 

 

Your photos are great.

 

 

Thank you so much for the compliments regarding my travel tips & photos.

 

I was really surprised how crowded it was this late in the season. We had great weather every single day for the entire two weeks. One morning there was a light mist for about an hour and after that it was outstanding.

 

 

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[ace1zoe2]

Following closely. We are taking Allure in June 2015 from Barcelona and Serenade from New Orleans in Jan 2015. We are also taking your Alaska land/cruise on the Radiance in May 15. Have enjoyed following along with you on all of these. Keep it up and thank you.

 

 

You are going to have a great time in Alaska. We did cruise only the first time & land tour/cruise the second time. It adds so much to the trip to see the interior of Alaska. I highly recommend the floatplane tour in Ketchikan if you can swing it.

 

The Med trip is awesome as well. I really want to do the Venice-Greece itinerary some day.

 

 

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[ace1zoe2]

Enjoying your review and seeing the places you stayed, it's so nice to rent apartments when there is a group, we did that in Venice when there were 7 of us, much nicer than 3 hotel rooms ;)

Looking forward to your next chapter ;)

 

Julia,

 

We really enjoyed the apartments. It was great to have room to spread out, hang out, enjoy time together yet have separate rooms. It also gives the option to do meals at the apartment if so desired. It puts you in the heart of the neighborhood you choice to be in to "live" and "eat" like a local.

 

And the best part, at least for us, we saved money over what separate hotel rooms would have cost each of us. I think we stayed 2 nights for what 1 night in a hotel would have been.

 

Cindy

[ace1zoe2]

Sant Agne's Church is one of many that we saw only from the outside. This particular church was built beginning in 1652 and faces the Piazza Navona where Sant Agne was martyred. Each of the alters inside the church depict a different martyr. There is a shrine inside to Sant Agne which contains her skull.

 

 

We also had a chance to visit Sant'Ignacio (which is currently misspelled because when spelled correctly with a "z" which then make the word get **** out by CC because of the 4 letter N word that ends in azi is contained therein) which is a Roman Catholic church built between 1626-1650. The dome was never completed as the church ran out of funding. The eventually hired a painter to "depict" a dome in the ceiling from the interior.

 

 

Pictures from the interior of Sant'Ig****o:

 

 

 

 

By this time it was probably 8-9pm and we had been on our feet half the day! We had some dinner and then headed back to the apartment to share a bottle of wine and get rested up for our tour the following day. This was the end of Monday, day 3 on the ground, and this day we walked 17,352 steps or 7.57 miles!

[ace1zoe2]

Six others joining our group arrived over the weekend and had been enjoying Rome on their own for the last two days. On Tuesday morning we all took a tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistene Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square.

 

I had arranged the tour months in advance thru Italy with Us Tours of Rome. Initially I had planned to book directly with the Vatican Museum using their tour guides. After lots of research I decided to go with Italy with Us as they were highly recommended on Trip Advisor and they offered an exclusive 8am tour to visit the Sistene Chapel before it opened to the general public. (A similar tour is also offered thru the Vatican Museum).

 

I booked online and paid in advance for our group of 12. We all walked from our apartments (6 from our apt, 4 from a 2nd apt & 2 from a 3rd apt - we were all within about a 5min walk of each other) to the store front for Italy with Us. I believe that we ended up in a group of about 20-24 in all. Once everyone was assemble we headed to the Vatican Museum entrance where we waited until our entrance time of 8am.

 

 

Everyone was outfitted with a receiver and headphones so that the tour guide could conduct the tour without shouting. After going thru security (just like at the airport) we went out into the courtyard so that our guide could tell us some history of the Sistene Chapel. She showed us pictures of things to look for and explained that once we entered the chapel everyone needed to be quiet as no talking was allowed.

 

 

The Vatican Museum is also undergoing restoration work as well...

 

 

The Dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the distance looking from the courtyard:

 

 

First step inside the museum and it's already beautiful!

 

[ace1zoe2]

The ceilings throughout are amazing with their Trompe l'oeil painting... the 3d effects are unbelievable.

 

 

The pictures below are of a flat ceiling surface!

 

 

 

Other ceilings are coated in gold leaf / gilding:

 

 

Entrance to the Sistene Chapel - no talking or pictures after this point.

 

[ace1zoe2]

The Sistene Chapel was amazing yet not at all what I had expected. I had pictured it being a huge chapel and in reality, at least to me, it seemed small. We were allowed in before it opened to the general public and it still manageable to walk around, look up or even find a sit at the walls to relax and try to take in all that you are seeing.

 

You could probably spend a week inside and not truly see everything that is being depicted. It was amazing and it was a once in a lifetime "bucket list" place to see. I may or may not have followed the rules... with my camera laying in my lap and the flash turned off and I simply could not resist... on three separate occasions... I know, I'm a bad person. This is what I came out with, without flash, without focusing or knowing what I'd get, I think I got pretty lucky. There were other people standing right out in the middle with their iPhones, cameras taking pictures and the guards would just walk up and ask them to not take anymore pictures... I know that's no excuse, but I'm glad that I did what I did.

 

 

 

The last picture shows some damage to the ceiling where part of the surface has come off. If you look to about the 2-3 o'clock area (or the upper right quadrant) you will notice an area of paint missing.

 

 

After about 20 minutes or so we left the Chapel and continued on our tour. Later in the tour we would come back to the Chapel for another look, although at that time it would be packed wall to wall.

[ace1zoe2]

These next pictures are various rooms throughout the Vatican Museum. Most are ceilings that featured exquisite painting and Trompe L'oeils.

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

The massive spiral walkway inside the Museum:

 

 

This looks like a fine rug:

 

 

In actuality it is a fine mosaic tiled piece. Below is the detail in just a few flowers shown above:

 

 

 

The Statue of the Fertility Goddess:

 

[ace1zoe2]

These pieces of granite in the flooring came from the Colosseum:

 

 

The Tapestry Hall, most of the Tapestries took more than 7 years each to complete.

 

 

I don't recall the name of this room:

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

The Raphael Room:

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Headed out to St. Peter's Square:

 

 

 

 

St. Peter's Basilica (the balcony from where the Pope blesses during mass):

 

 

The Basilica from the back of St. Peter's Square. Chairs are already being set up for Wednesday's mass.

 

[ace1zoe2]

St. Peter's Basilica is huge and beautiful. It is believed that St. Peter, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, is entombed directly below the alter of the Basilica. It is one of the largest churches in the world and known as the best work of the Renaissance architecture. It was built between 1506-1626.

 

Michelangelo's Pieta is just inside:

 

 

 

 

 

[jzad]

Just wondering if anyone is out there following along? I see there are several recent Med reviews and maybe that is the difference this time. In past reviews there have been lots of questions, responses, etc. but I sort of feel like I'm talking to myself this time :)

 

 

 

At any rate, I will continue on and hopefully pick up some followers along the way. I'm currently on day two and we will board the ship on day 5 so if that is what you're waiting for it's coming up soon!

 

 

 

You would prefer more pictures, less pictures, more narration, less? Hopefully, someone will see some information that will help them with future cruise plans at least.

 

 

 

Cindy

 

 

I'm following!! Your doing a great job!

 

 

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[ace1zoe2]

These are my final pictures of St. Peter's Basilica. We spent around 20 minutes inside after we finished our guided tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistene Chapel. Our tour was supposed to be a 2 hour tour beginning at 8am and it was now about 11:15. We had two hours to eat lunch, buy metro tickets and get across town for our Coloseum tour that began at 1:15... we had to get moving.

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

I'm following!! Your doing a great job!

 

 

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Great, thank you!!! I appreciate someone saying something every once and a while, that way I know at least someone is taking time to look at all my hard work :)

[ace1zoe2]

Ok that's probably it for today... up tomorrow will be our Underground and Third Ring Tour of the Coloseum which happened the same day as the Vatican Tour.

 

We're half way thru day 4. We board the ship on day 5!

[Dreamer115]

All I can say is WOW

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Awesome pics, loving revisiting Italy with you.

Thanks for all the hard work ;)

[tidygirl]

it's so nice to rent apartments when there is a group, we did that in Venice when there were 7 of us, much nicer than 3 hotel rooms ;)

Could you post where you stayed in Venice and any good or bad about it?