Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 26: Monday, November 24, 2025 - Rome, Italy

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: Rain, upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 13,596; Steve: 14,488

This was the third and final time that there would be a passenger transition - and the second time we would leave the ship for the day and return to a hole lot of different passengers.

We awoke early to get started because today's excursion - the longest of the cruise - began at 8:00.
After breakfast, we returned to the room, collected our excursion items, and headed out.

The excursion was called Snapshots of Rome. Our guide was Anna, and our driver was Angelo.
We were in Italy way back in 2004.
We had a little bit of a drive to get to the city. By "little", it was a little more than an hour. Anna gave out maps of Rome for us to carry, with the meeting / pick-up spot circled.

But we enjoyed - the best we could due to some rain - some sites along the way, drining along the waterfront.


















The route took us through the city, passing by some ruins. Eventually we arrived at Circus Maximus, the site where chariot races used to be held. At one time there was seating for as many as 300,000 around the field too.


Continuing on.





Normally I would have cropped this old house adjacent to ruins differently - perhaps even digitally removed - but the humorous ghost cars was worth keeping this the way it is presented here.

The bus route weaved through the city - even double-backing - and there were ruins and sights to see all over the place.













Then we passed to Colosseum.


Ater the Colosseum, our route essentially headed north to the drop off spot.



















































We passed by the royal palace. Okay, the entrance to the royal palace.



And continuing on.

The Palace of Justice was the last landmark we passed before crossing the River Tiber and pulling into the bus stop.




We crossed the bridge - seeing Saint Peter's Basilica in the distance.



The group gathered in a small plaza near the bus stop before heading into town a little on foot. We didn't go too far before coming across Piazza Navona that had the Neptune Fountain and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi.




We took a selfie in front of Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi.

At this point, Anna explained some of the logistics of the rest of the day: we were free to "Rome around the city" (get it?!!?) until 2:45, when we had to be back at the same spot the bus dropped us off.
We started by heading in the direction of the Spanish Steps - we saw them before, but we wanted to see them again as last time they were just SO crowded.
Our trek started by weaving through the city a little, eventually accidentally coming upon the Pantheon.


At this point it was really starting to rain. Hard. And it was getting a lot cooler. It was just a little too early for lunch, but we decided to step into a random restaurant called Ristorante Pizzeria La Sagrestia. We were one of the first ones in the restaurant too. We got coffee and sat chatting for a bit.



After more than a half-hour, we finally got around to ordering. And we ordered... a pizza. The third land-based pizza in a city in Italy in a week.


We ate slowly and enjoyed the meal. Eventually, we used the restrooms, and headed back out. And the rain had let up almost completely. As we strolled to the Steps, we randomly came upon a church - a large church - called Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, and went inside.












































Outside it was still wet, but the rain was significantly less, and nearly stopped at this point.
Not far from the church we came across a chocolate shop called Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato Via del Corso. The back wall of the store had a giant choclate fall (at least that's what it looked like).


Another couple of blocks down we came across the Trevi Fountain.
There was a mob around the fountain, fencing, and security guards. It was so crowded that I couldn't get a single good shot (I held the camera up as high as I could to get the shots), so I put some together that was the best I could do.



We tried to get a selfie too.

The coin was supposed to be tossed by the left hand over the right shoulder, but we didn't know that when we did this.

An unusual ancient artifect...


Along with gas prices, I like to capture the cost of a Big Mac® in a city / country to get an idea of how expensive it is. Here, it is $7.43.

Another couple blocks down, we came across another church - nay, a basilica. This one was called Basilica Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. We stepped inside this one too.












We didn't have too much further to go...


Finally, we arrived at the Spanish Steps.




Just like last time, we paid the golden arches a visit to check it out as it is the first one in all of Italy. And it looks like no other on the planet, primarily because of the Roman theme throughout. They also supposedly serve unique menu items, including chicken wings and beer.
We entered, passed the McCafé, stepped down the couple steps, turned, and went up to the second floor.










We weren't in the restaurant for long - just for the photo op - but at this point, we had to start making our way to the meeting place as we had a bit less than a half hour to get back there.







By the time we arrived at the meeting point, it started to rain again. The group boarded the bus, and we began our journey back to the ship seeing interesting architecture, a tiny car, and a rather large solar array - and more.


















The bus arrived at the port a little past 4:00, and grabbed a cup of hot coffee at the Living Room bar before heading to the cabin.

At our usual time, we made our way to The Restaurant for dinner, and sat at table 53.


Linda had the Insalata di Carciofi con Pecorino, Viking Seafood Stew, and Raspberry & Rhubarb Bavarois.



I had a double order of Tiger Prawns, Viking Seafood Stew, and .



We took our wine to the atrium for some music from the ladies before heading to the cabin for the evening.

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