Graduation Trip To Rome and Greek Isles Cruise | Mommy and Me Monday | 801st ed
For the oldest, for her graduation present/trip, she and I took a 10 day trip to Rome, Italy and then hopped on a cruise to The Greek Isles and then back to Rome!
It was fun, exciting and a little tiring. We walked 6-10 miles every day!
I’ll try to summarize what we did every day but, ask questions if I missed something or need more clarity!
Also, so proud of us. We both carried a carry on backpack and a bigger 40L backpack (we used the Osprey Women’s Fairview 40L) and that was it. It was nice to not have to worry about wheeling a bag on the slatted/tiled streets. If you haven’t tried double compression packing cubes, I highly recommend them (my video here).
We headed out on June 6 on a late afternoon flight. Nice and rested and ready to go. Not really, both of us had run and lifted weights before our journey overnight.
We arrived around 7am Rome, Italy time (which was 1am to us), and hit the ground running.
We used Welcome Pickups to get us at the airport. It was basically like a scheduled Lyft or Uber, except they hold up a sign for you inside the airport and help you find your way to the car. After riding the train (later), we definitely could have figured out the train to our hotel, but with little sleep, I figured this was the best.
Our driver dropped us off at our hotel, Starhotels Metropole, which was near the main train station (Termini) and not too far from all of the sites in Rome. The hotel let us check in early which was great. We had planned to change our clothes and freshen up so it was nice to be able to do it in our room.
Then, we were really off, armed with some Euros, good walking shoes and google maps. We stopped first for a cappuccino and little breakfast snack at a cute restaurant with roof access and took it all in. Properly fueled (and still really tired), we tried to see as many sites as we could see without waiting in lines or going in.
When we got hungry, we stopped for food. We picked places where people weren’t trying to get us to come in, didn’t have pictures of their food displayed and also had good google reviews. We also grabbed snacks at local grocery stores.
We walked some more and saw some more sites and then headed back to our hotel to regroup before our golf cart tour. Thankfully we did, because I realized the original tour we booked was canceled and I frantically found one that was around the same time and had availability. I think it was meant to be, because the Rome Golf Cart tour with Gelato we picked with Alessandro and Lily was top notch! Alessandro was very knowledgeable and passionate about everything. Gave us enough time at all of our stops to take pictures and was just a joy to be around.
Mid-tour we also stopped for Gelato-which after being awake for over 30 hours, ended up being our dinner, too.
The next morning, June 8th, we packed up, grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then took the train to Civitavecchia, the port outside of Rome. I used the Trenitalia app to book the tickets ahead of time to Port Civitavecchia from Rome Termini station. Once in the port, we hopped on a port shuttle (6 Euros a each) that took us straight to the dock for our ship.
We cruised on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas “7 night Greek Isles Cruise” with stops in Santorini, Greece, Ephesus, Turkey, Mykonos, Greece and Naples, Italy.
We were able to facetime with the family which was nice.
June 8th and June 9th were pushing off from the dock and sea days. It was good to help us find our way around the ship and get our bearings.
June 10th (Day 3), our first stop was Santorini, Greece and we chose the excursion “Views Of Santorini.” We were taking via tinder to the port and the bused into the city with a guide. We walked around the city and passages that were like a labyrinth in the city and had two additional stops in market areas for shopping and picture taking.
June 11th (Day 4) was a stop in Ephesus (kusadasi), Turkey (where we were actually in Asia). This excursion was named “Highlights of Ephesus with Lunch.” There was no tinder required here as the boat actually docked. Once again, we were grouped with a tour guide and taken via several stops. We stopped at “Mary’s House” and then went into the ancient city of Ephesus.
We learned that only 15% of the city has been unearthed and also that marble makes for terrible streets and is very slippery. Here you can see the remains of the third (known) library in the world. It’s HOT here. Very hot. And there are no clouds. We had another stop for a traditional Turkish lunch and to learn about Turkish rugs and how they are knotted. They are gorgeous and hand made!
On June 12th (Day 5), we were back in Greece in Mykonos, Greece. This tour was called “Delos Tour.” Our ship docked, but we then had to take a water taxi to the main part of the port. From the water taxi we took a 45 minute ferry to Delos for another ancient city tour. We could see the mosaic floors, art work on walls and remains of the rich people’s homes. We are seated here in part of the unearthed and reconstructed theater.
This tour had a very early start date, so we were back to the ship in time for a late lunch and a little nap. Then it was time for some dinner and bumper cars!
June 13th (Day 6) was a sea day and we sure needed it. We actually slept in and didn’t use an alarm for the first day on our vacation.
June 14th (Day 7) we were in Naples, Italy and selected the “Naples Bicycle Adventure with Pizza Tasting.” This was really an adventure. It was another very hot day as well as hard to maneuver bikes in the busy city streets. But, we managed and had a lot of fun. And got to have some Napoli pizza and a good bit of sparkling water.
June 15th (Day 8) was the day our cruise came to an end. We had some breakfast, packed up our stuff and headed off the ship. We reversed what we had previously done and took the 6euros each shuttle from the boat to the train station, and then took the train (this time the express) back to the Rome Termini station.
From there, we walked to our hotel, Hotel Quirinale which was about an 11 minute walk.
We weren’t able to check into our roome early, but we did drop our bags off at the hotel. We dropped the bags, applied some sunscreen and went to get a closer look at the Colosseum, again without going inside.
Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch, and then second lunch with the kiddos’ teachers! How fun that she went on a trip with them in 5th grade to DC and then got to meet up with them in Rome!
While on the train, we tried to decide what we wanted to do with our last day in Rome. The girls’ fifth grade/ science/stem teachers were also in Rome and they did a food tour and it looked like a lot of fun. Since we had stopped to see all of the main sites on our golf cart tour, we decided to mix it up and landed on the Winner 2024 Rome Food Tour: Campo de’ Fiori, Ghetto, Trastevere.
This was such a good choice. We tried authentic meats, cheese and wines, a fried Napoli pizza (100% recommend, and absolutely wouldn’t have tried one with out this tour), fried artichoke and another Jewish fried rice dish I can’t remember the name of, as well as bruschetta, cacio e pepe and some more gelato. All while getting a tour of another part of Rome, and some history lessons.
We stopped for a picture crossed the Tiber River.
And with our gelato.
After that, we headed back to our hotel room, showered and packed up our bags and tried to get some sleep.
The next morning, we had to set another alarm get up, eat some breakfast and back to the train station to the airport. The only obstacle here is they allow no water through security and also have 0 places to pour out said water if you are being eco conscious and using a refillable water.
We definitely packed in a ton of adventures on our trip and made a lot of memories!
We decided if we had to rank our tour/excursions starting with our favorite, it would be the food tour (Winner 2024 Rome Food Tour: Campo de’ Fiori, Ghetto, Trastevere), the Rome Golf Cart tour with Gelato, Naples, Ephesus, Santorini, Mykonos. Use that ranking however you’d like, but we both agreed!
Also, take trips with your kids! It’s so different one-on-one than with the whole crew (which is also great…just different).
What did you do this week?
GET IN THE PICTURE WITH YOUR KIDS! Who cares what you look like? Who cares how you appear? Who cares what you are wearing? JUST DO IT! Come share your picture on the Facebook thread or use #MommyAndMeMonday!
It’s time again for Mommy and Me Monday. Pop out from behind that camera and capture yourself in action with your kids. Check out the inaugural Mommy and Me Monday for more information. Need another reason to participate in Mommy and Me Monday? Read my post about why I blog with words from a friend’s husband.
