Rome is definitely a city that you will want a car service for. I can honestly say that we saw more of Rome than humanly thought possible in 9 hours. This was mostly because of the excellent service we received through our excursion with Papillon Service. Our driver was amazing!
http://www.papillonservice.com/
It takes approximately 90 minutes to drive to Rome from the port. The car was waiting for us as we disembarked at 8 am. Booster seat already in the car for our littlest one.
Our first stop, St. Paul Basilica. It is still early in Rome so we are treated to a near deserted church.
Our next stop, the Colosseum. Papillon had purchased our tickets for us allowing us to join the cue immediately. Thank goodness because it is already crowded. I could only imagine what it would have been like later in the day. I took about 30 minutes to enter the Colosseum. The kids loved it. In hindsight, we would have gotten more out of it had we hired a guide to walk us through. There are many individuals at the entrance looking to be your guide or the service would have arranged one for us. In any event, it was great and got some great pictures.
Now the mad dash back to our waiting driver who is in front of the Arch of Constantine and takes us to the overview of the Roman Forum where we stop and marvel at the site. We walk around and take it all in.
Next up our driver has a very fun treat for us. I have been to Italy many times, but I had never heard of this gem. He drives us to a parking space where he points us to a green door. Come, he says, take a look through the key hole. What do we see? The garden of the Embassy of Malta and beyond the Vatican. So, standing on Roman soil, we peer into the country of Malta and beyond see the country of Vatican City. How fun is that!
We head to the Piazza Venezia and the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, down to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. We took no chances and each of us threw a coin in the fountain guaranteeing a return visit.
Our whirlwind tour includes stops at Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. I must tell you that Rome is sweltering in August and we relished the air conditioning of our car.
Our driver takes us to a lovely place - away from the tourists - where we eat like Romans. We have a lovely relaxed lunch before heading out again. TIP: we stop and buy some delicious wine to take aboard the ship for tonight's dinner.
Next stop Vatican City and St. Peter's Square and Basilica. We opted not to visit the Vatican Museums which are very crowded and houses many galleries. I just didn't think the girls would be interested or up for a 2 hour tour. We later find out that it was sweltering and crowded inside the museums so we are happy with our decision but we are a bit sad that we did not get to see Michelangelo’s masterpieces in the Sistine Chapel.
Being on a cruise - you don't get to pick what day of the week you visit a particular city. We visit Rome on a Wednesday which means that the Papal address is in the morning. Be aware that on Wednesdays (except for late July and August when the Pope goes on vacation to Castel Gandolfo, and holds audiences there), the Pope holds an audience at Saint Peters in the square. Tens of thousands of people attend the papal audience and the whole area will be packed. This also means that the Basilica is closed until the audience is over - no one can get into the Basilica until 1 pm. All this equals one VERY very long line of people waiting to enter - in scorching heat with no shade in sight.
This is where I offer the very best TIP of our trip. As I have mentioned before, prior to our cruise I trolled the internet to ensure our excursions went off without a hitch. One thing I really looked into was how to get into the Vatican / the Basilica quickly. The Colosseum had advanced tickets, so did the Vatican museums, how about the Basilica? Trolling on Trip Advisor Forum Boards, and every site possible, I could find nothing - until this - a skip the line entry into the Basilica with an audio tour. Jackpot! But, was it too good to be true? Our tour company - located in Rome - thought it was, Vatican Boards on Trip Advisor did too. My thought - if it was a scam, I would be out a bit of money - if it worked - I would be a hero. It worked! Like a charm - we waited no more than 15 minutes to get into St Peter's - much to our driver's surprise. Here is the link https://www.ticketsrome.com/en/museum-reservations/st-peter-s-basilica-entrance-with-audioguide-skip-the-line.
Our last stop is for our daily gelato and we head back on our 90 minute ride to the ship exhausted and happy - we could never have seen more in the short time that we were in Rome. The key was using the service to take us from zone to zone throughout the city all the while listening to our driver talk to us about each amazing site and the history we were seeing.
