To say that we had a wonderful time on our Italy vacation would be an understatement! Globus Tours did a fabulous job of planning the Tour of “Italy’s Great Cities” and while it would be impossible to see and do everything in Italy in 9 days, we did a LOT during our time there, and lifetime memories were absolutely made!
I shared a number of photos and quick reviews on our Facebook page while we were traveling but wanted to take the next few weeks to chat in more detail about the places we visited. We will start with the city where our journey began and ended – Rome.
When choosing the tour that we wanted, I always knew that it was important for us to spend a lot of time in Rome, so we specifically chose “Italy’s Great Cities” because it had the most time in Rome, and this easily allowed me to add on a night there before our tour started. Doing this worked out perfectly, as we ended up with almost 2 full days of time in Rome before our tour officially began!
A priority for us was having a good amount of time in St. Peter’s Basilica as I knew that time constraints would limit our time there later on the tour. So I booked an independent tour of St. Peter’s for the day we arrived – and all I can say is that we were overwhelmed in every way. As is often the case, pictures don’t do it justice – and this is definitely true of St. Peter’s!
We returned to Vatican City on the last full day of our Globus tour, with a special guided tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and then St. Peter’s again. Again, overwhelming! (Travel Tip: DO NOT plan to visit the Vatican or St. Peter’s without booking a tour – the lines were LONG and the crowds were HUGE, but we sailed right past them all.)
(Sorry – no photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so you’ll just have to take my word for it – truly breathtaking!)
It’s important to note for anyone planning a trip like this, that there is WAY more to see than is possible in a few hours, so look at it as a “taste” and then make plans to come back and spend more time!
I was a design major in college with an art history minor, so it was super important for me to see some other major buildings, which led us to two other major basilicas (there are actually 900 churches in Rome!) – St. John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore. More magnificence!
We also took some time during the afternoon before our Globus tour began, to take an independent food tour – just the beginning of a week of non-stop deliciousness.
Our Globus tour officially began the next morning with time at the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and of course, the Trevi Fountain, among other fascinating sites. One thing about Rome that we quickly appreciated, is how truly ancient and remarkable the city is – they still use the aqueducts that were built by the Roman empire!
When we returned to Rome a week later, we also were treated to a tour of the papal residence, Castel Gandalfo, which historically has been the pope’s “summer home” on the outskirts of Rome. Since Pope Francis does not use this residence, he has opened it up for “the people” to visit instead – and the gardens and villa are just lovely.
Our next destination after Rome was Venice – but along the way we had a stop in a beautiful countryside villa and the lovely town of Assisi. More to come next week!
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