Filmed: October 2023
Description: Welcome to our European vacation! It’s day five of our Western Mediterranean cruise onboard Symphony of the Seas and we’re in Rome, Italy! We have an excursion that helps us get to and from the cruise port to Rome with a bus and train ride. Once in Rome, we have five hours to explore on our own and see we so many sites! We see Vatican City, the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Navona Plaza, Castel Sant’Angelo, and so much more. Once we reboard the ship we have a quick dinner at Windjammer and see a magician. Stay tuned for more European adventures including our excursions in Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Marseille, Pisa, Rome, and Naples!
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Good morning and welcome to day five five of our European Adventure AO Symphony Of The Seas for our Western Mediterranean Cruise uh today is Rome day Roma um it’s a big day it’s a very big day Rome’s a big a big day um we are
At Park Cafe Park Cafe what my brain is I’m tired this morning um but we are at Park Cafe having breakfast I really like this as a breakfast spot this is great yeah it’s a lot quieter it’s a lot less crowed they still have pretty good food they have nice breakfast sandwiches and
Bagels and stuff like that they still have coffee and water and all of that thing yeah also uh secret they have a second water refilling station here at inside Park Cafe it’s awesome so we’re we’re happy here and the bird sounds are Pleasant to listen to right the only
Thing missing is like the view of the part and of the ocean but that’s okay you can get that from your room um so uh it’s about 7:13 a few minutes ago they already cleared us to be able to go off the ship which feels so early it’s an
Hour is about an hour before but there which is really crazy and exciting um there’s like a little GP sorry that’s flying right in front of the camera um and what’s weird is there are people getting off the ship like permanently off the ship with like their suitcases
And stuff like we’re not sure if like if they’re running two cruises like concurrently because there are these people with orange State Room cards and we’re putting it together that it’s possible that they might have gotten on at Rome and now they’re getting off at Rome which is really
Bizarre we’re really not sure how it works if you know let us know in the comments cuz I’m really curious now if this is right cuz we’ve never seen that before where two cruises are running concurrently no cuz we got on Barcelona cuz that’s what we thought the cruise
Was but I don’t know it might be roome to roam as well as an option which is just really interesting but we’ve never seen people Embark and disembark no uh the say like during a cruise it’s always been to closed loop yeah exactly so we’re not really sure what’s happening
Or if that’s true or not but I mean there are people leaving with suitcases so we don’t know how it works if it’s r Rome or if they went Barcelona to Rome and now they’re done it’s like a for night cruise we don’t know um so that’s really interesting and I think that’s
Got to be partly why we got in so much earlier right because they have to deal with like luggage and and customs and stuff like that with those people um anyway we’re going to finish eating breakfast and then our Excursion meets in the Royal Theater in about a half
Hour so we got to kind of Boogie a little bit and uh make sure that we get everything from our room and our ready to go for sure we’re going to eat breakfast and then we’ll catch up with you guys in the Royal Theater for our Excursion meeting and then we’ll talk
About what our Excursion Is so here we are in the Royal Theater deor we are uh just kind of waiting with the rest of our group to board the express train to Rome yeah so we’re going to Rome today like Lauren said earlier uh we’re getting basically guided to the train station to
Then spend a few hours on the train to Rome uh during that time we’re going to have a guide like a guide with us to help like hopefully that we can like walk through our plans and stuff to make sure we’re not doing something terrible uh and then we’ll have 5 hours to
Explore and they’ll give us a return ticket just HP back on the train and come back to the ship super exciting thank you patience at this time we that man just warned the other man to leave his watch in the room tomorrow in nais cuz before he was held off at
Gunpoint for his watch for an Apple Watch no I think the man behind me like to my elbow his watch ah yeah that’s so the other guy warned him to leave it on the cruise ship cuz he himself was held up at gunpoint for his watch at that
Point you just give him the watch yeah just give him a watch God damn it’s not worth it wow okay we’re on a train we’re on a train to go to Rome this is very cool very it’s very close we’re on the express train so it’ll take only like 50 minutes
Ship it’s only 15 minutes just out to get to R and then from there we have about 5 hours to explore on our own it’s much faster than what we initially thought yeah well cuz on the things say like 2 hours but I think saying like mhm
It’s just like for our ship like they have special ones going so that’s pretty cool and then um we’ll figure out what we’re doing there there’s apparently a Hop On Hop off bus that maybe we could take to the Coliseum and then walk back which was kind of our plan
So we’ll see like what that looks like when we get there I it’s going to work out great I think so too this this Train’s kind of cool because it’s like two floors yeah a double double decker double decker speed train that’s pretty cool she keeps warning us about pck
Pockets in real in particular like on the trains and stuff in real like the the Metro lines and stuff like that there a lot of pockets that’s funny too she called cab drivers big Pockets yeah she said they were very expensive and that they don’t like them in
Rome that is really funny so I’m super excited I think this plan is going to work out perfectly I think so to either way like we’re in Rome we’re going to see something and I think that’s that’s what makes it worth it we’re trying to
Go with the flow a little bit today and and I think we both feel pretty good about today like whatever we see is whatever we see because we’re actually in Rome next summer as well so and we’re seeing like everything with like a guided tour next summer so it makes us
Feel a lot better I think about everything we have that so that’s cool it’s going to be a lot of fun yeah I think so too all right I guess we’ll see you there in room Ciao Yeah okay so this is awesome oh so we’re right next to the Vatican we’ve gotten off our train mhm yeah we’re walking closer to Vatican City she’s going to show us where to buy The Hop On Hop Off bus tickets um as well as a free bathroom
Um cuz normally you have to pay right we we keep seeing glimpses of St Peter’s Basilica uh it’s over the horizon I’m not sure if I caught it in time when we walk by it but we will get it again it’s huge it just dominates the skyline yeah
Well like it’s just kind of crazy we’re here yeah like Realm Amazing yeah so this is Vatican City so we’re going to a different country now right we’re leaving Italy we’re literally going to another country going to you yeah colum yeah okay there is a beautiful uh main okay okay this is cool yep flying okay this is not Italy that’s Vatican
City outside East Italy and this is the line to so this is Vatican City yes and the line that you see around that wraps around let to get inside um that building there that’s St Peter’s Basilica yeah I think so this is incredible yeah it’s amazing
I mean you see all the stratches up at the top yeah absolutely incredible so I don’t think I was prepared for the scale of this like everything like these these columns are literally giant look behind you I’m like holy hell okay all right so we’re walking across
This bridge up here uh to try and get to our Hop On Hop off bus right it was a little chaotic in that store turns out Euros only uh no no Cas only no credit or debit for Hop On Hop off or for anything or for oh anything yeah
Anything give her bank which is wild cuz she had the machine right in front of her yeah and when we talked to her she like moved it out of the way and said cash only yeah so not sure what that was about but uh we got our tickets and hopefully on our way
Yeah it goes like in a different direction than we were expecting so I don’t know like I was hoping it’d be a little bit more direct right to get to the Coliseum cuz our goal is just to get to the Coliseum so that we can then walk back and hit all of our
Stops um so I don’t know it’s like a 40 minute walk so either we take this Hop On Hop off bus or we walk 40 minutes there and then me and are our way back so guess we’re just gonna see how the bus looks yeah well take a look at the
Bus we it is 30 Old per person uh just FYI or 25e per Person Wow so it’s big it’s very big we’re on like one side of it it’s really big it’s again one of those things where I’ll go talking about the Vatican it’s like scale like nothing no videos and stuff ever do it justice no this is really cool we’re not going in we’re just
Staying on the outside so many people out here though huh so many people yeah I don’t know if we want to try to like get a photo somewhere yeah we do some photo ops I like how like there’s just Ro like old real next to New real
You know like you’re just in B I think this is still part of the Forum as far as I know yeah it’s across the way there no I think it was behind us stuff I think it’s just all part of it you know so we’re making our way to
Trevy we’re passing through this really old part of Rome yeah we um we did the Coliseum and then there was a old tourist info point and they had food there so we ate there grabbed some little Margarita pizzas they were all right yeah they were
Fine but now we’re kind of in a tour group accidentally So we’re approaching the uh legendary Trevy Fountain yes this is what I’ve wanted was this there’s 3 trillion people here approximately yep more more than the population of the whole Earth Yep uh we’re going to go fight our way through this crowd the is this is really cool this is what I
Wanted we’re so close that was the get some photos yeah so this is really cool it’s a shame it’s a shame you can’t get any closer yeah for some reason it’s blocked off right now all right we’re going to pause for some photos never we’re good okay I’m going
To throw a coin into the Trevy Fountain and I’m going to become an Italian pop singer just like Lizzy Maguire are you ready for my whole life to change no but we’re going to do it anyway let’s see if I can even make it she made it in you totally made it
In Deon stand do you have your coin I do okay all right do I have to State what I’m wishing for no no nice that was really far that we really far that’s good okay now we’re going to take deon’s photo cuz we swap spots yes okay hello from voice Overland I just
Wanted to pop in here and just kind going to talk about the crowd levels that we saw today in Rome um as you can tell by the Coliseum clips and then this clip at the tribey fountain the crowds were absolutely insane we thought for like you know early October that we
Wouldn’t see that many people cuz we were kind of hoping like the Summer Rush would be done but that just was not true especially around some of these big key landmarks um we were there probably midday and I think a lot of the advice for that I’ve seen like on travel Vlogs
And and websites and things like that are staying like the earlier the better especially for these landmarks um you know obviously we were constrained by our Excursion and the cruise ship and all that kind of stuff but um it’s absolutely insane also in these Alleyways you’ve probably heard some
Weird like squeaking sounds in our different videos there are these like Street vendors on the side trying to get your attention and so they throw their little like toys or they have horns or loud makers or something like that to try to get your attention um so that’s
What a lot of that background noise is but back to the video for gelato what happened oh my God was so good I know okay so we sto at gelato um and I ped off an Italian gelato maker or scooper cuz I asked for chocolate one scoop of chocolate just chocolate and
Then I pointed down the down the case to what we were looking for to the chocolate and he goes to scoop chocolate latte which is chocolate coffee and I said no no no no no chocolate that’s chocolate latte said chocolate he says this is chocolate and I said no chocolate
Latte chocolate and so hey you had to go down the case to get it uh so I think I made it mad so when I paid after I gave him the cash he turns around and he’s just like at the cash register that’s really funny sorry man
That’s right we never have to see him again nope but it’s good what’ you get lemon cello is it really good oh it’s amazing it’s very hot out here guys I very uh for people who are prone to uh not liking the humidity bring some sort of cloth with you that’s
Great um but this is great so we are headed away from the dreby fountain right now um I got chocolate he didn’t ask but I got chocolate Oh I thought we already talked about it I’m sorry and it’s long complicated soy yeah not chocolate it looks amazing it tastes very
Good um yeah we’re going to head to the pantheon next as soon as we can prevent this from dripping on ourselves but away we go I don’t know what this is but I pane on I mean pretty cool except you didn’t know what it was pretty cool it’s wild that in Rome you
Could just you’re next to like a Prada billboard and a couple of restaurants then you literally turn a corner and there’s like this Thousand-Year old building it’s just chilling here in the middle of a square yeah again though just a sea of people everywhere in Rome yeah these people it’s
True it’s super beautiful though mhm pigeons chilling it’s really cool Church of St Louis of the French St Louie Luigi de franceski see that’s awesome yeah so we left the pantheon and now we’re headed towards naona Square which I’m pretty sure is where all of those fountains are um and
There’s the Fountain of Neptune and stuff is there as well beautiful so it’s about like a 3 minute walk still this direction TR to oh go ahead Church of St louigi the French yes we’re trying to make the most of our our few hours in Rome here we
Have uh 3 hours left yeah plenty of time we’re getting there okay made it this is Pia Noona hey guess what Lauren this is also really pretty what a surprise what a shock this is naona PL I just don’t think I’m ever going to get over this mhm everything’s so pretty it’s pretty
Cool phot yeah it’s nice that the path that we’re on now everything is relatively close together you know right we’re kind of just knocking them out which is cool we’re hitting like a bunch of spots at once everything is very crowded but I think that’s just Ro in
General you know but we’re doing okay it’s oh there’s another there’s another tour station behind you like a tourist rest area oh okay nice so it is a pretty good idea to have like a little secluded area for tourists to go get over their panic and go cry in a corner all
The for sure and then get back out to it yeah do you want to get closer and get some I do Let’s Get Closer come here hello again from voice Overland so after we got through the um Noona Plaza we kind of just started making our way slowly back towards Vatican City um
We were enjoying the much quieter side of Rome in all of these like side streets and the cobblestones and the Beautiful architecture we made our way back to the castle the castle that you saw towards the beginning of this video um it’s called the Castel s Angelo it’s
Right near Vatican City kind of right by that bridge that we walked over so we made our way there um and then we noticed this really beautiful like treelined area by the waters we walked along that saw again some really beautiful buildings we saw their Parliament House this really beautiful
Church that you’ll see in a second um and then we also kind of ran into a little shopping area and we found a like random Lego store which was kind of funny and really cool they had a like Roman gladiator made out of Legos in
Their shop window so of course we had to get some photos with that but then after that we made our way back to Vatican City just to kind of hang out kind of people watch until we had to reunite with our tour group to get back on the
Train and then the bus to make our way back to the cruise ship all in all a very busy full 5 hours in Rome oh my God what a day what a day we’re pooped we’re back in our room though back on the ship it’s
6:22 we’re going to go um to Wind Jammer for dinner cuz it’s just the quickest the easiest and the quickest true it is Italian night so it should be pretty good um we’ll probably debrief about real maybe afterwards yeah um overall good day really agree it was really
Exhausting Rome is very big and there’s a lot to take in and yeah I clocked almost 10 miles walked today and over 23,000 steps I broke multiple exercise and calories burned records on my according to my Apple watch today yeah multiple it was intense Deon earned a
Lot of badges today his fitness app yeah it was a lot but it was good we saw I feel like almost everything like we literally saw a ton so much um and we have the sore feet to prove for but we’re going to go eat Wind Jammer and then talk
About I don’t know everything yeah everything and we need to decide what we’re doing tonight we’ve talked about a few ideas yeah we didn’t have too much stuff going on tonight to begin with anyway but we may go see a magic show or something we’ll see who knows but let’s
Go to Wind Jammer washy washy all right we’re at Wind Jammer made it to wind jamer I’m trying a bunch of different yeah so Lauren’s got a little bit of a bunch of Italian night stuff there’s the mac and cheese I mean that’s always there in American Classics
This is chicken farm believe it or not actually looks pretty good um and then there’s like a penny with meatballs I also just got some carrots cuz they looked really good they are pretty good and then this is like the rotini with the white sauce and there was garlic
Bread but I don’t know how to read it yeah maybe Deon will be brave I don’t know and I uh I got some saut snap peas and mashed potatoes and gravy and some pork chops so not Italian night not Italian at all um and I don’t know I
Might make second pass or whatever but I’m want to go look for Lauren’s garage thank you so we are done with dinner we are we just finished Wind Jammer great Wind Jammer is just hitting they’re firing on all cylinders in there seriously it’s pretty good I will say I
Liked the variety more in Ovation I also liked that on Ovation it was less crowded I think it’s just a smaller ship though so I think that’s a little tricky you Ovation is Ovation is a smaller ship so I think it just felt less crowded because of that and I did like the
Variety a bit more on Ovation but it’s still pretty good right I still really like Wind Jammer and I’m impressed by how good Wind Jammer is I think as a buffet oh the lights just came in that’s pretty cool he you should come over here too so we can both be in the
Sunset that’s true now that we have the osmo 2 oh my God you’re not like a Google ad for it Jesus it’s a great camera um but we’re still in deck 16 like right outside of wind jamer there are people eating their dinner right next to us on the other side of the
Glass which is kind of awkward but I don’t know I’m just not looking at him um I think Rome was a lot it was a lot I definitely do like that we had help getting to and from Rome I do think like as an Excursion it’s pretty good I do
Feel like the person the tour guide that we had with our group was very like it’s okay it’s okay everything’s fine everything’s 20 minutes away everything’s so close together not everything was 20 minutes away everybody no but oh just walk 10 minutes that direction no no no no she’s very nice
And she did help us find free toilets which is great you know and you take everything a tour guide says with a grain of salt I’m sure but and you know what do I know about being a tour guide in Italy um but I do really like that
The transportation piece was taken care of for us yeah I think that’s our biggest that’s our biggest stressor whenever we’re in these new areas is double like we cuz we want to double check that we’re going to the right spot yeah agreed and I just think it was it
Was really helpful to have that piece removed and that was a big stress relief they figured out the train they knew when the trains were we didn’t have to buy tickets like we didn’t have to do anything so I think that’s pretty good um and then Rome is is beautiful it’s
Beautiful it is absolutely I can’t think of a city that’s prettier it’s crazy though like how busy everything was everything was packed and I don’t think that’s just because we’re coming on a big cruise ship with a million people no it’s just I think Rome is just really
Packed all over these places are packed pickpocketers are real I’m super glad for the bag that we have maybe we’ll do a like packing video or something like that like what were right final thought sort of thing cuz I really like the bag that we have cuz you can lock it and
It’s cut it’s cut resistant yeah and I think a money belt was definitely necessary for sure a mil a lot of the the people that we saw were a lot of um I didn’t really see any like pick pocketers which she wouldn’t see them right cuz they’re they’re good you
Wouldn’t see them yeah although we did see a guy I meant to point it out to you I saw a guy filling out a report with a local police uh he had his passport out and stuff so I am wondering I didn’t I didn’t see what happened but I am
Wondering if maybe he uh got pick pocket in maybe I will say a lot of what we saw was people just trying to talk to you like trying to engage with you in any sort of way to then get something from you they would ask us for the time and
Like point at their watch they would ask us where are you from they would like compliment us like good-looking couple coming for a fist bump or a high five yes and um from what we’ve read like that’s just the beginning of their interactions so they can get something
From you we also did see a lot of people with just a lot of stuff that they were then handing to other people right um and then once it’s in your hand they’re asking for you to pay for it and they won’t like take it back from you
Happened multiple times we yeah we saw that a bunch where they were handed an umbrella a scarf don’t take stuff from people somebody like when we were at the Castel there was somebody like little people dressed up in like Roman oh yeah yeah yeah things and they like put a
Crown on this woman and then like they wouldn’t take it back from her or they would um there’s also like street performers that like will’ll say like take a photo with me but then they ask you for money so it’s just being really cautious I think like keeping your hands
In your pockets keeping your hands in like closed fists like focusing on the direction in front of you and just like not acknowledging helps I think the not acknowledging thing is the biggest piece there cuz even the don’t even look even the looking at them and saying like no
Thank you nothing like that cuz you’re in they these people are so we we saw them we saw them today they’re so good at what they do and what they do is is to just that they they just come at your money and like you just be careful
That’s all yeah and it was we you know after after Barcelona and Piza and stuff we didn’t think that it was I don’t know I I can’t speak for Lauren but I was thinking maybe it was a little overblown yeah was definitely today was a whole other level whole our
Tour guide said too that Naples could potentially be bad but we’ll see we’re on a guide tomorrow right well you said that one guy said that he got held at gunpo for a watch yes yeah one of the people on our tour group was warning another guy who had a really nice watch
It wasn’t an Apple Watch it was just a beautiful watch yeah Rox or citizen or something yeah um and he warned him like you know at Naples like leave it in your room because I was held up at gunpoint like for my watch um so just interesting
I mean who knows what we’ll experience tomorrow but Rome was beautiful I’m so tired my feet hurt so bad but I think it was worth it we saw so much so much so yeah we were we were hearing everybody when we were group regrouping with our
Tour we were we were looking at uh everybody was like exchanging stories and stuff yeah and most people that we heard just did one or one or two things and and we feel really accomplished that we saw a bunch um yeah it was it was great we saw so many things my favorite
Thing was the Trevy fountain that was like a dream come true that’s like one of the things that I wanted to do when we got here even more than like the Coliseum the Trevy Fountain like that was my jam I was living my what dreams are made of moment with the tribe we
Found de his favorite was Vatican City right yeah it’s weird but it’s just like it’s old and the buildings are so beautiful yeah and there’s so much history there and that’s what really kind of like Rome at large you know but I think if I had to pick one thing it
Would be Vatican City cuz so much stuff is in in such Close Quarters was cool yeah it was a good day uh I think it’s about 7 we’re going to go back to our room hang um hang out for a bit and then the magician is at 8:15 so we’ve got
About an hour to kill before we’re in the roal theater and the magician it’s I think it’s just called Hector’s magic is the name of the show and you don’t need reservations for it it’s just in the Royal Theater so it’s pretty exciting yeah okay I’m pooped me too Yeah so excuse the really obnoxious beeping and our lack of microphones we were sitting on our balcony um just watching the sunset oh the beeping stop thank god um we’re sitting on our balcony and it’s insane how many people are getting on the ship right now oh there’s
The beeping again there’s so there’s so many people getting on here so we talked about it before like this is a stop on the ship like this Cruise had two cruises going concurrently on it we guess I mean that’s got to be what this means a bunch
Of people got off the ship this morning um and now what of people are boarding for day one of their Cruise all these people and it’s just like been a really steady stream steady stream there’s hundreds of people hundreds of them so we’ve never experienced or witnessed this on a Royal Caribbean
Cruise before I wonder if it’s just a European thing is it a European thing is it this itinerary do they go for a full week and get off again in Rome do they get off with us in Barcelona are they just doing like a weekend or short
Cruise the week has to be the case if they’re doing a closed loop cuz they but maybe they’re not I mean they might not be that’s fair but um a week they’ve this ship has done this same itinerary back to back yeah um so I don’t know I don’t know somebody
Somebody who’s smart and who knows let us know in the comments yeah cuz we’ve never experienced this before and it’s crazy to us it’s Cruise 4 yeah Bonkers so so I do want to point out this door first off the handle not great it’s falling apart um but once you open the
Door opens normal like any other normal door does but upon its close it makes a sound very similar to a screaming animal horrible also oh remember to lock your uh cabin door everybody good night hello hello we’re in the Royal Theater where Hector is Magic Hector is
Magic although this has the screens all have a different name for the show mhm it’s called feel the wow this is Hector Ru Ruiz Ruiz feel the wow but I don’t know it’s going to be a magician we’ve always always enjoyed these shows on Royal Kirby and they’re
Always like the the funnest ones as far as entertainment goes so that’s exciting we’re still very tired so we’ll see how long we may get but yes we’re pooped but yeah like de said we have popcorn the trick is the popcorn is always set up near the ice skating ring near Studio B
On the fourth floor so you miss it otherwise and so for Royal Theater shows you kind of have to go out of your way to get it and then come back over here right cuz you wouldn’t even see it especially on nights like tonight because right now they’re doing open
Skating mhm so unless you’re back there for open skating you wouldn’t know it’s there you wouldn’t even know um I’m going to flip it because with all the lights on it looks really cool in here and you can see more I feel like but here’s the
Dude yeah they got like all the lights going looks really cool the last two magicians we’ve seen were like comedy magicians yeah so I hope this is something similar I feel like this guy is going to be way more Ser be serious yeah I guess we’ll find out but we’re
Going to eat our popcorn and probably finish it before the show starts that’s how you do see you after the Magician okay back in our room stay for about half the show a little bit yeah it was it was fine it just wasn’t as engaging as the comedy uh the comedy uh magician people mhm we’re just also very very tired so I think we’re going to call it a night relax we’ve been
Watching National Treasure in little bits and pieces so I’m going to finish that and just go to bed early because we’re pooped uh but tomorrow we’re in Naples which is really exciting our last port super excited and we’ve got a fun tour that we’re excited about um
Hopefully it won’t be as crazy ezy as today but it’ll be I don’t expect to walk 10 miles tomorrow no I really really hope not so we’ll catch you guys on the next adventure thanks for watching see you bye
1 Comment
Yes, that ship had several round trips from Barcelona and Rome simultaneously. First time I see it on an American cruise line. European cruise lines do it all the time.
You definitely took advantage of that day in Rome. Congrats 👏