Our vacation this year was designed to maximize exploration of Italy that consisted of 6 days of land based exploration and then 12 days of cruising around the boot of Italy into Adriatic sea to explore Montenegro, Croatia, and then finish with two days to explore Venice.
We spent the first 4 days in Rome and stayed at the Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora . Our travel focus was visit and tour and much as we could in the morning and early afternoon, while leaving the late afternoon for refreshing ourselves at the hotel and finding a great spot for dinner
Day 1 : Fly in and acclimate to the new time zone. We sent a majority of this day walking around the city of Rome, enjoying Gelato and staying hydrated.
Day 2: This was our Colosseum tour day along with the Roman Forum We booked our tour through the Get Your Guide app and that included a ‘skip the line’ entrance. This was very professional, great guide and fun group to spend the morning with. Our afternoon walk back to the hotel we enjoyed the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and more incredible Gelato.
Day 3: Was our tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. I had booked this tour 9 months in advance through Tours by Locals . Our Tour guide: Ennio Giannecchini was amazing, and I would highly recommend him for any tour. Extremely knowledgeable, very patient, informative, and fun to be with.
Day 4: We visited the Pantheon in the morning and because it was a Sunday morning, we enjoyed mass as well in the Pantheon. It was a welcome surprise to our Sunday Morning. The afternoon was another great walk around Rome and back to our Hotel
Day 5: We traveled to the Port of Civitavecchia (Rome Port) where we boarded our Celebrity Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation for our 12 day cruise around Italy, into the Adriatic Sea, visiting Montenegro, and Croatia, before finishing near Venice.
Day 6 & 7: We traveled north to Livorno Italy, to have time to take the train and buses to visit Florence & Pisa. Highlights included: The Ponte Vecchio bridge , the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, (Florance Cathedral took 140 years to build (1296-1436), the Palazzo Vecchio. Piazza della Signoria, and the replica of David outside the Florence Museum
Day 8: We had a sea day. A chance to enjoy the amenities of the ship and relax.
Day 9: We vistied Salerno Italy we we enjoyed the Amalfi Coast along with a tour of Pampeii
Day 10: We visited Messina Italy (Sicily) where we visited the Messina Cathedral and saw the great astronomical clock
Day 11 : We had a sea day
Day 12: We visited Montenegro and enjoyed Kotor Serpentine Road to have a great view of the bay and the beautiful countryside in the interior of Montenegro
Day 13: We visited Dubrovnik Croatia, one of the highlights of the trip. The Old City tour was worth the walk around, Gelato was amazing as usual, and our tour guide was one of best. She grew up in around the Old City and had a lot of great history to share from her personal experience.
Day 14 : We visited Split Croatia, a fun day on the small motor boat visiting some of the islands in and swimming in the Adriatic. Spectacular day, a great small group of 5 others and our guide, the boat captain, who was super!
Day 15: We Vistied Zada Croatia where had had a small group of 3 others and sailed to another island and enjoy more swimming and eating yummy gelato.
Day 16: Was a travel day to Venice Italy. We departed the Celebrity Constellation in Ravenna, Italy ( about 2 hour south of Venice. We had a great driver take us to Venice taxi port where we boarded a boat taxi that took us to our hotel St. Regis Venice. The hotel had a taxi that took us to the Murano Glass factory to learn all about Glass works.
Day 17: was our Tour of St. Marks, Rialto Bridge and stroll the streets and enjoy tea and scones in St. Marks Square at Caffè Florian.
Day 18: We finished our trip with a water taxi to the airport and traveled back to the US