Our First Transatlantic - Fort Lauderdale to Rome

 14 Day Princess Cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Rome

I had been watching numerous videos and reading up on taking a transatlantic to Rome ever since I started cruising. I was concerned initially that I would feel claustrophobic on the ship if we didn't see land for 9 days. I was also concerned that we'd encounter rough seas and we'd be seasick for most of the journey.

With that in mind, I chose a cabin on the lower deck, but not right above the theatres and other venues. Deck 8 was that one bad deck, so I picked a cabin on Deck 9 that was near the middle of the ship. It was a good choice and we loved the location. We didn't use the balcony that much, but it was kind of nice every once in a while to go out there for some fresh air. Especially when they closed off the promanade deck due to inclimate weather. April is pretty rainy and windy when you're on the Atlantic Ocean.

It was pretty nice on the first couple days of the trip, but it got colder on the next few days. We were still able to go out and walk around to get our 10,000 steps per day. (Okay, confession time; we may have averaged around 6,000 but it was mostly up and down the stairs as we never used the elevator even once.)

We had the drinks package, so we started our very first cocktail once were go on board. We didn't drink alcohol every day of the cruise, but we had the mock-tails a lot and those would have cost as much as a boozy drink, if we didn't have the package. So I feel, we got our money's worth. (It was actually the free Wifi that made the Princess Plus package worthwhile to get.)

Our first morning on our adventure.

The water was like glass on the first morning of our trip.

The first few days of the trip were very nice.

I really enjoyed a drink call the Boulevardier. It was supposed to only be for the elite guests but I found the sign and asked for it a couple of times. They made it for me, so I was happy.

Ponta Delgada, Azores

Before we knew it, we were on our nineth day at see and we pulled into Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The weather was beautiful and the town was right there. We walked around a lot, enjoying being on firm ground. Not a lot of the cafes were opened because it was Easter, but there was a lot to see, if you walked around a lot.

Hermitage of the Mother of God (Ermida de Nossa Senhora Mãe de Deus) in Ponta Delgada, Portugal.

We could see the entire town from the church yard.

View from the other side of the church yard.

Forte de São Brás in Ponta Delgada, Azores was just around the corner from where the ship was docked.

The Monument to Joaquim Silvestre Serrão located in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores.

The park was all done up for Easter with lots of flowers all in bloom.

Gibraltar, UK

We had two more sea days before reaching Gibraltar. We should have had a stop over in Corsica, France, but there were protesters that wouldn't allow the ship to dock. Too bad, but it can't be controlled.

I liked going onto the balcony with our binoculars to see what there was to see. I often saw ships cruising past us.

The yummiest dessert ever made was the tirimasu we had in the Italian restaurant, Sabatini's. My goodness was that ever good. It was a definite goal of ours to see if the ones in Italy would be as good as this one. This was so big, we couldn't even finish it!

Easter Sunday on the ship was great. There were displays set out for photo sessions. 

Pulling into the port was very picturesque. I really had heard a lot about the Rock of Gibraltar, so I wanted to catch it as we pulled in.

On our walk about, we found a path up the side of the mountain, to the castle that had ruins all around. There were no tourists at all, so we had a great time climbing all the steps and enjoying the views.

The apartment buildings were built right into the ruins. We saw many workers making the paths safer. On the other side of these paths were narrow winding roads.

Workers just up from here steered us towards the Castle. Unfortunately it cost 30 British pounds to see it and it was closed. We could have seen the apes and the caves as well for that price, but we just turned around and went back to the ship via the down town steps. We were tired and had really enjoyed our walk up the paths amongst the ruins.

I did end up seeing one ape...

We used to watch a show when I was a kid called the Pig and Whistle. I'm not sure if this is related, but it was cool to see this pub's name. It was still too early in the day for a Guiness, so we just got one later that night on the ship.

Evacuation Memorial in the centre of town to commemorate the citizens of Gibraltar evacuating WW2.

A good view of the Rock of Gibraltar and all the ruins. This is where were had hiked earlier.

The views pulling out of Gibraltar were breathtaking. What a lovely place that was.

It amazed me how close the airport was to the rock. Apparently there is a walking path across the runway and a person could walk into Spain.

Once again, we had a lot of onboard credit left, so we bought a bunch of stuff we really didn't need. We just didn't want to leave it on with the ship.

We had our Guiness at the Irish Pub, O'Malleys. We liked the food there too!

I can't seem to get enough of my Guiness!

The sunset on that last evening was stunning.

The sea was so calm on that last night.

Day 1 in Rome, Italy

We got to Rome early in the morning and today was the first day European Union countries were mandated to roll out the EES (Entry Exit System). Lucky us! I anticipated a "shit show" so I booked our train to Rome from Civitavecchia at 9:45 AM. It wasn't as bad as anticipated and we were at the train station by 8:30, so we had a bit of a wait before the train got there. We had booked with Trainline, and had an assigned seat. Other than the fact we were at the wrong end of the train when it stopped, we hustled our butts to the correct car and found our seats. I'm glad we opted for medium sized luggage rather than the large suitcases because even these barely fit in the overhead compartments, but they did fit, so all was well. 

Once we got into Termini station in Rome, we decided to walk to our hotel. We were staying at the Hotel Golden, which has been in the same family for over 40 years. It was too early to check in, but they let us keep our bags there and we started our exploring right away. This was one good advantage of not flying into Europe because we'd experienced the 6 hour time change over the two weeks and so, we didn't have jet lag. Our first lunch was at the cafe next door and it was okay, but expensive. The sandwiches were huge. We ended up skipping supper as we ate too much for lunch.

 

We visited Villa Borghese Park and went to several lookout areas.

We walked by the Spanish steps and the 

The Fontana della Barcaccia is in front of the Spanish Steps

Hotel Golden

Once we got back to the hotel, we checked in and found our luggage already in the room. The lady who checked us in was very nice. She had limited English but was pretty good. She showed us everything as well as the kettle in the hallway. There were no cups so we ended up picking some up and a box of instant cappuccino so we could have something early in the morning. I usually get up around 5 or 6 AM, so I like to have a coffee then.

The room had a safe, except it didn't work. The lady assured us that everyone who has access to the room is like family so we don't need to lock things up. None-the-less, I locked our stuff in my suitcase as it has a lock on it. 

Since we didn't have room to eat supper, we had a few sips (the entire bottle) of Limoncello. We had to buy the little plastic glasses. Nothing but the best for us, it was 4 Euros a bottle.

Ooops, did we drink all that???!!!!

This little step to get into the bathroom took me by surprise at first. One banged toe later, and I never forgot again.

Day 2 in Rome, Italy

We bought tickets for the Borghese Gallery online, before our trip started, for 9:30 AM. It was the time the Gallery opened and we were the first at the gate. It was nice to be able to walk through the museum without waiting for a group or a guide. We actually found that once too many people were let in the museum, it got a little loud and crowded. We left after about 1.5 hours but we'd seen so much and the crowd was getting to be too thick. We felt we got our money's worth. (It was 20 Euros each) We didn't take a lot of photos because there was just too much to see. We looked up to the ceiling, down to the floor mosaics, on the walls and at the statues! Everywhere we looked we were astounded at the art work we saw. It was actually a little bit overwhelming.

In the afternoon we walked to the Pantheon and passed by the Spanish steps again and the Trevi Fountain. It was pretty crowded around the fountain.

We also walked by the Largo di Torre Argentina in Rome and that got us excited to see it up close when we went to the Colosseum the next day.

We looked for the cats that were supposed to be in the "cat sanctuary" but we didn't see any.

We didn't take any photos outside the Pantheon but it was really, really crowded and we didn't get to enjoy the experience as much as we would have, had there been less people. Even with our prebought tickets (5 Euros each) we had to wait for about one hour in the lineup.We stopped at an eatery for lunch and had the famous pizza you bought by weight and a couple of Suppli (Italian snacks consisting of a ball of rice (generally risotto) with tomato sauce) We enjoyed it all and it was very refreshing to be able to sit inside a cooler place at no extra charge.

I am enjoying eating the suppli and tried not to get any on my shirt.

On our way back to the hotel we walked by Victor Emmanuel II Monument, a large national monument located in Rome, Italy, overlooking Piazza Venezia. We thought it would be fun to go see, but we never did go inside.

Since we again, ate too much for lunch and we'd had it late, we opted to have gelato at a nearby store the hotel owner recommended. It was very good and we definitely weren't hungry for anything else. We thought it was neat that they put whipped cream and a cookie on the top of the ice cream.

Day 3 in Rome, Italy

We again bought the Colosseum ticket online at  https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/ before the trip for 18 Euros each This was the cheapest way but was a bit tricky to get, as all the tour groups are buying them us so fast. I missed out on the early morning ones but managed to get tickets for 10 AM. The Colosseum was much better managed than the Pantheon, so we had no wait to get it at our allotted time. This was a lot of fun and it included seeing the Roman Forum and Palatine hill. We were exhausted after we saw everything and definitely still missed a lot because we just couldn't stay out any longer. We had a fun supper at a tavern that the hotel owner recommended.

One option was to just go on the colosseum floor for 20 minutes, for the same price, but we're glad we did the two levels and walked all around. 

From Palatine hill, we got a good view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. We didn't go there at all as we aren't religious and there were so many more places we wanted to see instead. Afterall, we only had 5 days to visit Rome and fit in a trip to Naples and Pompeii.

For lunch, we had a sandwich from a deli. This deli had meat hanging all over and was filled with flies. It was a bit tough to get past that, but the sandwich was good and we didn't get sick. 

Day 4 Naples and Pompeii

We walked to the Termini train station from our hotel, leaving by 6 AM. We had to make arrangements for the owner to let us out because we were locked in at that hour. I tried not to overthink it worrying what would happen if there was a fire. We had a big window in our room that opened and we were just on the third floor, so I'm sure we'd have been fine in case of a fire.

We got our tickets to Naples through trainline with the fast train going there belonging to Trenitalia and the one coming back belonging to Italo. The Italo was a lot nicer, although the Trenitalia wasn't bad either. 

We took the commuter Regional train from Naples to Pompeii and that was pretty bad. We were crammed in with standing room only and we had to stand up for the full 45 minutes. I was also surprised that this one, at 9 AM, didn't stop at most of the stops. It only stopped once or twice before reaching Pompeii. I was a bit afraid it wasn't going to stop and that we'd be going all the way to Sorrento. But it stopped and mostly everyone got off. 

I only took a couple photos in Pompeii but it was really enjoyable. We got our Pompeii tickets for 18 Euros each at https://pompeii.vivaticket.it/. We didn't hire a guide and just used the MyPompeii app provided on Google Play. It worked similar to the Maps app and really helped us know what we were looking at and how to get around. We were exhausted by 13:30 and we took the awful commuter Regional train back to Naples.

We were going to walk around Naples and find a place for a stone fired Neapolian pizza, but we were too tired and we found a great pizza place upstairs at the Naples train station. 

I couldn't help but take a few photos of minis I saw in a store at the train station.

We spent $15 Euros each to stay for three hours in the Italo lounge where we had free coffee and treats and comfortable chairs. We loved the seats on the train and next time we're in Italy, we'll go out of our way to take Italo instead of Trenitalia.

Day 5 Rome, Italy

We had no plan for day 5, but I wanted to visit the Jewish Ghetto and try what they call Jewish pizza. So we just walked around towards this taking in the sites along the way.

After a while, going past the Trevi Fountain, was just another great sight that you see every day in Rome.

There was less of a crowd that morning so we got in a better shot of it, without so many people.

In 1546, Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Conservatorio delle Vergini Miserabili (also known as the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili Pericolanti or Conservatorio di Santa Caterina della Rosa) in Rome.The historical site of this charitable institution is located at the complex of the Church of Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome. It was to help young girls born from prostitution change their path to that of a nun or to have a respectable marriage.

We saw fountains in practically every piazza. This one is Fontana delle Tartarughe

Pasticceria Boccione, a historic bakery located in Rome's Jewish Ghetto

We're eating a Jewish Pizza in the Roman Jewish Ghetto. It's a dense, crispy, and addictive fruit-and-nut bar cookie. Packed with almonds, raisins, pine nuts, and candied fruit, it’s a centuries-old Roman-Jewish treat.

We passed by a brass plaque known as a Stolperstein or "stumbling stone," which is part of a widespread memorial project dedicated to victims of National Socialism. There were quite a few in the Jewish Ghetto and it was sobering to see them.

We stumbled upon some ruins being restored just around the corner from the pastry store. Temple of Apollo Sosianus ruins in Rome, which are distinguished by three remaining Corinthian columns. The site is situated directly adjacent to the Theatre of Marcellus.

Theatre of Marcellus.

These are artworks by artist aleXsandro Palombo depicting Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano.The panels are titled "Anti-Semitism, History Repeating" and depict the subjects in concentration camp uniforms.They were installed in Rome's Jewish Ghetto near the Casina dei Vallati, which houses the Shoah Museum

 Monument to Federico Seismit-Doda located in Piazza Benedetto Cairoli, Rome

More stumbling stones.

A big pile of artichokes outside a shop in the Jewish Ghetto. It wasn't open yet, so I couldn't try the deep fried artichoke. I did have a steamed artichoke at the restaurant the day before. It was good.

After leaving the Jewish Ghetto, we walked towards the main tourist areas of Rome, just looking at the buildings and stuff we didn't get a chance to look at during the first few days. 

I'm in front of the equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius located in the Piazza del Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill in Rome

We decided to visit the Capitoline Museum and paid 20 Euros each on site to enter. It was so massive and quite overwhelming. Way bigger than the Galleria Borghese but just as stunning. We were again, completely mesmerized and overwhelmed with the vast amount of things to look at: floors, ceiling, paintings, statues...

Replica of the she-wolf that raised Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome outside the museum.

The real thing inside the Capitoline Museum.

At some point, we just had to sit down and take it all in. We were pretty happy there weren't a lot of people in the museum. That made it pretty pleasant.

View of the Roman Forum from the museam walkway.

We stopped by a fountain just past the museum doors and took a rest beside Marforio.

We were getting pretty tired again, so we decided to head home once we could get up, that is.

We got a better shot of the Victor Emmanuel II National Monument, located in Piazza Venezia, Rome. We walked by it several times but until now, there were too many people. Today, it was closed off for some reason.

 There were fountains you could drink from all over Rome. 

Keflavik, Iceland

We had the hotel owner call a cab for us to go to the airport and we spent a bit of time in traffic before finally arriving. We were early, but since we flew Saga Flex class with Icelandair, were were able to access the lounge. The lounge was pretty crowded and in this smaller room this one couple thought they should lie down and sleep on the sofas, each taking up the space meant for three people. Since there wer two arm chairs that were free in the room, we took them and didn't even try to be quiet for the sleepers.

We liked our seats at the front of the plane and I enjoyed my first gin. Icelandair has a gin menu and I did my best to try as many as I could. I only got through one on this flight though.

We got smoked salmon (I think) and other stuff. I gave any other stuff to Bruce and he gave me his fish, as he hates fish. I found the cold meal very good.

I tried to capture Iceland as we flew into Keflavik.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the bilboard light up with an advertisement for a Penis museum. (We didn't go...)

We stayed at the Aurora Hotel which was steps away from the airport terminal. We were here for a 22 hour layover. Our room was plain but clean. I didn't request two beds, but it was okay.

We were in Iceland for only 22 hours. Taking this flight enabled us to fly business class at a much cheaper price than what we would have paid for another airline. About half the cost! We decided to spend the morning at the Blue Lagoon hot spring spa. We caught the bus at the airport and it only took 20 minutes to get there. We booked from 8 AM to noon. It was really cool. Even the drive there was interesting.

We had a very expensive coffee and muffin at the spa restaurant. We were so relaxed from being in the hot spring.

I took a photo from the restaurant to show that the springs were a series of pools interconnected. There was a drink bar, a sauna and a mud place. All very relaxing and fancy.

This is outside the area of the spa, but basically depicts a lot of what we saw off the highways in Iceland.

They are building more stuff at the spa.

The Saga lounge in Keflavik was really cozy and not crowded at all. We spent 2 hours here and could have stayed all day. The food and beverages were abundant and really tastey. I had another gin type while I was here.

On the aircraft, going back to Miami, I tried a couple other gins. This one turned pink from being blue in the bottle, once you mixed it with tonic water.

Bruce had a lemon spritz and it was the best he'd ever had. We're on the lookout for this brand.

And, another gin type from the gin library on board. After all those beverages, I slept all the way back to Miami in my comfortable seat in business class. I like Icelandair. 

We stayed at a hotel in Miami and took the tri rail back to West Palm Beach. Then we took a taxi from the Tri Rail to our home.

Conclusion

We really enjoyed every aspect of this trip. From the transatlantic to our Roman adventure and finishing it with a relaxing sejour in Iceland. Flying business class is what I want to do from now on. I may be going to Iceland again, just for the flight. Although, I may not stay overnight, then again, maybe I'll stay longer. 

Total Cost:

The total cruise cost was $5,141.66 CAD that included Princess Plus and $500 USD on board credit.

Our Flight with Icelandair was $3,436.60 CAD

The hotel and excursion costs in Rome/Pompeii totalled $3,773.26 CAD

So, our trip cost us $12,351.52  CAD for 21 days away which is $294.08 per person per day.