We enjoyed our dinner in Rome and at the hotel.  We decided to have dinner in the room.  We got our last "fix" of Rome Pizza.  LOL.  

​

After dinner we packed and got organized for the morning.

Our transfer arrangements were made with Crystal Cruises as we are using a Crystal Society Milestone which included two private vehicle transfers.  We were in contact with the local operator a couple of times the past two days. Because  of the marathon the operator wanted to have the driver pick us up earlier than planned to allow more time to get around the city.  We were just happy that they got with us about this.  

We slept well and in the morning enjoyed our final breakfast at the hotel.  We can't say enough about how pleased we have been with the hotel.  Service has been exceptional. Same goes for our room and the location of the hotel.  

The driver, Slorin,  met us at the hotel lobby at the revised planned time for our drive to the port of Civitavecchia. Some ask why was Rome built far from the port and as we understand the main reason was to defend the city. 

Although we have sailed the Mediterranean several times including 1997, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2015 this cruise includes seven first time ports of call for us.  They are:

Portoferraio, Italy
La Spezia, Italy
Antibes, France
Olbia, Italy
Alicante, France
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Ajaccio, France

The itinerary for this voyage is very different from our most recent voyage on Crystal Symphony in May.

Crystal Symphony Voyage:  Total of 16 days;

(9 sea days, 6 days in port, 5 unique ports-of-call)

Crystal Serenity Voyages: Total of 21 days;

(0 sea days, 21 days in port, 20 unique ports-of-call)


Cruising works for us as it provides a good means of seeing many places in a relatively short time while avoiding the constant packing/unpacking and moving from place to place that one encounters on a land vacation.  We can also do this in a luxury environment as we sail from port-to-port.  We realize that the downside is limited time in port. The upside for us is that we get a flavor for a vast number of places and we can always return to the ports that we find special on another cruise and in some cases as part of a pre or post cruise.

Our first cruise on Crystal Serenity was a twenty-four day back-to-back cruise in 2005.  We boarded the ship in Civitavecchia as we did today.  

As we got ready to board Crystal Serenity we thought we would take you on a short trip down  memory lane.  LOL.

These are a few photos from our first Crystal Serenity cruise.  First two photos: getting ready for tender drill; Second set of two: Formal night, Cocktail party at Palm Court with Clark (now on Crystal Esprit and Nat who is on Serenity; Photo five from the Captain's Farewell dinner (we had two as this was a back to back cruise) and we believe the last time we had the formal Baked Alaska Parade; Photos seven and eight are our son-in-laws brother Martin meeting us in Barcelona where he was taking a semester abroad (it truly is a small world) and a photo of Anne Marie while we were walking around Monte Carlo.  

Final two photos.  Cruising friends of ours who had sailed with Val and Ernie on the 2005 World Cruise wrote to all of us and suggested we might want to get-together.  We had lunch with them and a few days later dinner.  Over these two meals they walked us through their World Cruise experience.  The timing was perfect.  We had thought about some type of 30 day cruise to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary in 2007.  Between Ernie and Val's thoughts and how much we felt at home on Serenity we revised that plan following dinner with them. The next day we met with the on-board cruise booking consultant Nikki and we wait-listed for World Cruise 2007.  As they say the rest is history.  

The final photo is from Venice, Italy.  We had visited Venice with our family in 1997 and enjoyed one overnight in port.  When we had looked at sailing Serenity in 2005 we had considered the first cruise only sailing Rome to Venice.  We revised those plans combining a second cruise with the first one.  This allowed us to take our first back-to-back cruise, our longest cruise at the time, and provided us with three full days in Venice.

Back to present day.  The drive to the port worked well as did embarkation. We enjoyed speaking with the driver.  A very nice man and we spent a lot of time discussion Italy including Rome, the port city, places we will be visiting and ones we have visited before.  We even spoke about the size of meatballs.  Anne Marie has a recipe that began with her Nana whose siblings and parents were from Italy.  The area that they are from makes the larger size meatballs so now we know.  We do learn from our travels and that includes history as well as so many other areas.

As soon as we were on-board we began to see so many members of the wonderful Crystal Serenity crew and felt right at home.  We saw head of security Sanjeev along with other members of his team.  Chief Concierge Hayley and Concierge Marco, Head Waiter Augusto and Head Waiter Franz who is going on Holiday, Butler Rao, Executive Chef Werner, Chief Accountant Brigita, and we touched base with Hotel Director Hubert just to name a few people.  

Back home in our favorite room.

We are going to post this early as we will spend the rest of the afternoon getting settled and seeing fellow guests and members of the extradinary  Serenity team.  

Anne Marie & Keith

We thought we would begin with some thoughts on Roman history.  It is amazing what was put into place in that era.  This included the construction of roads and the extensive aqueduct system providing sufficient water to Rome.  Another example is the construction and the strength of the wall built around Rome which has stood the test of time. While the wall of today looks different than the original wall the strong foundation remains in place.  This is like what we have seen on visits to the ruins of Pompeii where they had plumbing and reflectors so that you could see the road in the darkness.  In the area of arts they had specialists who created the sculptures that also withstood time.  They  lost much of this talent after the fall of the Roman Empire as was a good deal of the art.  The same was true in the city where many items on the facades of buildings were removed.  With each passing year more items are discovered in Rome as is the case in other areas  of Italy.  Additional items were discovered during construction of the new subway line.  This recognizes that the city of Rome we see today is built over other layers. 

We enjoyed our third evening at the Hotel.  

An amenity of the room we booked included a four-course-dinner for two with a bottle of wine chosen by the Sommelier at the hotel restaurant; Le Jardin de Russie.  

Keith actually had forgotten about this amenity until a few weeks before our arrival when he was rereading the original booking information.  Once he realized this he had the concierge make the reservation for us prior to our arrival to the Hotel.    ​

​

  

​

For us dinner was later than usual.  When we to the room we read and wrote and easily fell asleep.  We are pretty much adjusted to the time zone which is one of the many advantages of arriving a few days early prior to the start of the cruise.  As part of the hotel package we do have the option of having breakfast outside at the restaurant we dined at last evening but once again we chose to have it in our room.  We kept to the same simple breakfast of cereal and fruit which given the dinner we had last evening was more than enough for us.  We got ready for our final full day in Rome.  We enjoyed breakfast in the room and then we got ready for our final day in Rome.

We walked and walked and walked and did this across three separate walks.

​We walked to the Altare della Patria (aka The Wedding Cake) over to the Ancient City and then we made our way to the Colosseum.

We visited several churches including the Pantheon Roman Temple which was built between 113 and 125 AD.  We walked to the area with the high end stores.  We walked over to the Piazza Navona which s a late square in Rome.  We walked up and down several side streets and eventually had lunch and continued our walk.  Lots of locals and tourists ere out and about.  Tomorrow is a one half marathon and the running routes were being set up.  

The weather was a delight.  It was sunny with a high of mid 80's; Fahrenheit. We are including lots of photos.  Please note they are in reverse order from the order they were taken in.

Before dinner we took another long walk.  They were running a race and we believe it was a one mile route.  Lots of people were out and about.  We walked some busy streets and also some with far less people walking.  

We enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant last evening.  It is called Osteria St. Ana.  Keith had written to the hotel concierge a few weeks prior to our arrival to make a reservation for us.  It is located just a short walk from the hotel.

The restaurant is housed in a historical building and this dining venue opened forty years ago.  It serves traditional Roman cuisine.

We planned to take a third walk before dinner but that was not in the cards due to "mother nature".  As luck had it, rain started about one hour before our reservation so we changed to more casual clothing.  The luck continued though as the rain stopped minutes before our walk, throughout dinner and our walk back to the hotel.

We had a nice time.  The waiter was helpful and we asked him for recommendations.  He was very happy that we would look to him for his thoughts and all-in-all that worked out well.   We went with his wine recommendation for a wine that Anne Marie prefers.  +1 for the recommendation.  For our first course we shared two different artichoke items; one was fried artichoke which was a first and the other one was also artichoke.  +1.  For our entree Anne Marie had Veal and Keith Spaghetti with Lobster.  Let's give him a 3/4+.  All in all we enjoyed a nice meal.  We were not rushed.  Very nice wait staff. A very welcoming atmosphere.  We passed on the dessert.  The waiter did bring out something complimentary from the restaurant.

Back to wine.  We think the Italians and the French people have it right.  You can get a very nice bottle of wine and not spent a fortune on it.  The wine was terrific.  
​

​

We relaxed back at the hotel as we organized for the next day.  We both slept very well.  The hotel is very quiet and we we each had some sleep to catch up on.  Maybe the wine helped as well.  LOL.

We enjoyed breakfast in our room.  We thought of going to the restaurant but it is very comfortable to eat in the room.  Cereal, Fruit and a recharge of the batteries with Coffee.  

​

We took a private tour which Keith had booked several months ago.  On previous visits we have taken tours of Rome which included one daytime and one nighttime tour of the Vatican Museum, along with several tours of the Ancient City and other major tourist areas of Rome which we have also done in the daytime and on our last visit in the evening.

The tour was called "Hidden Rome". We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  Our tour guide was Enrico.  He was born in Pisa where his parent's still live.  He speaks English fluently and Spanish in addition to Italian.  He went to University and is a musician and has lived in Boston and Los Angeles before returning back to Italy where he lives in Rome.  He started to give tours to supplement income when not writing or performing.  With two children he devoted much more time to touring due to the better hours and far less travel.

Our tour began with a drive outside the city to visits some of the older areas and sites including Appian Way which was used as the express road back in the days of the Romans to get between Rome and Naples  Enrico pointed out the original stones and explained the construction of the road.  

Our next stop was the Catacombs which included a maze of underground Christian cemeteries dating back to the first century.  Tours were given based on ones language and our tour was given to the two of us plus three other people.  The person giving this tour was very knowledgeable.  

We continued to the Park of the Aqueducts which was one of the aqueducts carrying large amounts of water into the city.  We returned to the city and drove to the other side of the Tiber to visit the bohemian side of the city.

During the tour we revisited the key hole.  If you look through the hole you can see the St Peter's Basilica.  We visited the oldest Cathedral of Rome which is the oldest cathedral in all of Rome recognizing the Vatican is located in Vatican City.  We visited a couple of other Cathedrals.  We also went to the Piazza Del Campidoglio and took in stunning views of the Ancient City.  We made other stops including one near the Pyramid.  

We had lunch at a local restaurant called Il Corallo where we enjoyed Pizza, Salad and of course Italian Wine.

Enrico was a great conversationalist and tour guide.  We covered an amazing amount of ground and that included current day Rome and other areas in Italy.  

Upon our return to the Hotel we went on a long walk.  

The weather was a delight and no rain.

We could not take photos in the Catacombs and the photos below are in the reverse order of the writeup.

We will post about this evening tomorrow.

A major part of travel is discovery and we did just that today.

Anne Marie & Keith

We pinch ourselves each time we travel.  This trip represents our third pre/post cruise stay in Rome for pleasure (Keith traveled to Rome on business and we have enjoyed several visits by cruise ship.  

In our early years of marriage we never imagined that we would visit this historic city.  Rome was one of several places we studied in grade school as part of world history and English classes.  We learned about its rich history including the Roman Empire.  It is amazing how many buildings survived and new sites discovered through excavation. As we walk the historic sites, we think of the people who lived there in the past and all the history; both good and bad.  We also think of the innovation that took place over the years.  

When we think about travel, we think about discovery.  While travel also provides a nice time to relax it provides a great opportunity to learn about history and culture.  

We had dinner in our room last evening as we were very tired, it was late and wanted to unpack.  The service has already been amazing.  When we arrived to the hotel we were greeted by one of the personnel.  She walked us around the hotel, took us to our room and that is where we checked in. 

We enjoyed a simple dinner in the room of club sandwiches and salads and lots of water.  This is exactly what we needed.

​

​

Although we slept for about five hours and we were up early we felt good.  We finished getting everything organized and the next challenge was figuring out how to make coffee in the expresso machine in the room.  After a couple of tries we have figured this one out.  LOL.  

With that said, we decided that we needed some Americano coffee.  Thank goodness that room service is open 24 hours.  Within a few minutes of our call, we enjoyed some of this coffee.

​

It was raining while we were having breakfast as we could see from our room.  When the rain became a drizzle we ventured outside for our first walk since arriving to Rome yesterday.

We walked to an area where we will have dinner this evening and then stopped by to see two different churches.  This included the Church of Santa Maria Dei Miracoli.  The church was constructed between 1675 and 1679.

​

After visiting the two churches we walked to the Spanish Steps.  The monument stairway contains 135 steps.  It was built to link the Bourbon Spanish Embassy with the Trinita dei Monte Church.  

We proceeded to a major shopping area that has many high end designer shops along with other stores.  By that point in time the rain had stopped making it easier to walk around the area.  We stopped in one shop that sells a purse that Anne Marie uses when we travel on the airplane on trips such as this one. She also has a few other accessories from the same company such as a clutch purse.

Cigarette smoking continues to be prevalent in Italy and after awhile the odor can be bothersome.  For a moment we enjoyed the smell of chestnuts being roasted on a street corner.  It reminded us of New York City for a moment.
​

​

We continued our walk for another hour before we went back to the hotel for lunch.

​

We try to be good about drinking water at home and when we travel.  The hotel has been very accommodating.  

​

We each had Caesar Salad entrees with Chicken for lunch but substituted oil & vinegar in lieu of Caesar Dressing.  

Following lunch we went back out for another nice walk.  

We walked over to the Trevi Fountain which is Rome's largest and most famous fountain which was complete in 1762.  When we last visited in 2015 the fountain was in the process of renovation.  

Our walk included a visit to a beautiful park which we visited on our first pleasure trip to Rome in 2005.

The weather was warmer than this morning with lots of tourists out and about.  There is certainly a vibrancy to this city.  Lots of people were having lunch and/or a drink at tables outside many of the restaurants. It was great to get in lots of miles by foot.  

For those of you who remember the movie Home Alone 2 which included the "pigeon lady".  

We plan to take another walk before dinner and will post about that tomorrow.  

Anne Marie & Keith

Shortly after posting we boarded the first of two flights to Rome.  The first flight took us over the pond from our home airport to London Heathrow.  

Our flight boarded on-time.  The walk on the jetway was the longest walk we have ever taken to board a flight.  When the flight attendant greeted us Keith asked if we had arrived to London.  It was all worth it and the exercise was great.   Once on-board one of the first class flight attendants escorted us to our seats.  
 
Although our take-off was a few minutes late, the Pilot said we would easily make up the time, as there was a strong tail wind from west to east.  

He was right.  We landed about forty-five minutes early.  We were pushed around for a few hours as the pilot had predicted. Overall, it was an uneventful flight. We enjoyed dinner and watch one movie.  Ironically, we each fell asleep before the end of our respective movies.  We are not sure if it was the movie or because we were tired.  We slept on and off for four hours but it was sufficient for us.
 
The aircraft differed from the last time we took this flight.  This time we were on a Boeing 747-400.  By the time we learn how to work all the items they change the aircraft so we have to go through the learning curve. Again. Thank goodness for the wonderful foldout program guide which provided photos and a terrific description for each item.   Life it good. LOL.
 
We want to take a moment to recognize the British Airways ground and air personnel.  We realize that there are other airlines that provide a more luxurious experience.  We have taken man of them.  We have to say the best for Keith was back in the day when Keith flew on corporate jets.  
 
With that said we are fortunate to have this direct flight from our home airport to London Heathrow and each time we have taken this flight we have been impressed with the high level of customer service provided to the passengers.  This began when the ticket counter opened 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled opening time along with the attention to detail and the friendliness of the head supervisor who checked us in.
 
This continued at the lounge for the USA based airline we normally fly.  As a British Airways passenger in First Class (Business Class would have been the same) we could order anything on the menu from food to drink without a charge.  The same personnel who work the ticket counter work at the gate and provided excellent customer service.   The excellent service took place throughout the flight.  
 
We are reminded that when we were first married we never would have dreamed that we would have so many opportunities to travel the worlds and our early trips with the family involved coach and we were thrilled just to have those opportunities. So as they say we are happy campers.  We have so much to be thankful for.  

As we exited the jetway someone from the airport concierge service met us.    After a short walk we boarded one of those motorized airport carts and were whisked over to security.  After clearing security we were escorted to the British Airways first class lounge where we waited for a few hours before it was time to board our flight to Rome.  We enjoyed our second breakfast of the morning of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee.  Once again the concierge met us at the lounge and escorted us to the gate for the flight to Rome.

The flight to Rome was uneventful.  After we landed and taxied to the gate a representative from the same airport concierge service we used at London Heathrow met us.    This facilitated getting though the airport including immigration/customs.  The hotel arranged for a private vehicle for us and the driver met us at the exit from customs.  

With an early evening arrival we had a relatively easy drive from the airport into Rome.  We are staying at Hotel de Russie for the first time.  ​The building was designed in the early 19th Century. It contains 86 rooms and 34 suites, Le Jardin de Russie restaurant and Stravinskij Bar.

The hotel is located between Plazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps and in close proximity to the Eternal City.
 
Its layout includes “The Secret Garden” which includes 2,800 square metres of terraced gardens, full of palm trees, yews and white climbing roses.

Upon check-in we unpacked and had a light snack and will be going to sleep shortly.

Anne Marie & Keith

It is day 2, and we have gone nowhere.  LOL. As we post we are at the airport waiting to board our aircraft for the trip to Rome.  You are asking what did we do today?  
 
Answer:  Not much.

We enjoyed a leisurely day at the hotel which included breakfast and lunch.  The hotel provided a late check-out.

When it was time to check out, we made our way to the airport on the hotel shuttle.  The drive took five minutes.  After check in at the ticket counter we made our way to the Club Lounge where we are relaxing until it is time to make our way over to the gate.

We have two flights to get to Rome.  The first is a transatlantic flight to over to Europe followed by a second flight to Rome.  It will be along two days but this is all part of the travel experience. While travel can be a challenge, we remind ourselves how good we have it today.  Our families immigrated to the USA in the early 1900s.  Anne Marie's family came over from Italy (father's side and Ireland mother's side).  Keith's family arrived to the USA from Germany and Eastern Europe.  The trip took weeks by ship and the accommodations were nowhere near the luxurious accommodations of Crystal Serenity. We are fortunate that our European families sacrificed and immigrated to the United States of America.   

We think about Anne Marie's ancestors on our trips to Italy.  In 2015 on the day of a special milestone birthday for Anne Marie we were in Italy.  One year earlier when our son-and daughter-in-law sailed with us on a Crystal Serenity cruise we visited the town where Anne Marie's Nana's family lived before they immigrated to the United States.  

We will post again either tomorrow or the next day and then post daily after that..

Anne Marie and Keith

  ​

Although we fly tomorrow we will stay at the airport hotel as we have done many times before.  

This afternoon a private vehicle drove us to the hotel.

The drive took one hour.

​

Our room was ready upon check-in.  

We plan to have dinner at the hotel 

We will post tomorrow from the airport tomorrow.

Anne Marie & Keith

We have added another map showing the places we will visit over the course of this trip.  Given their relatively close proximity we can see why there are no sea days on this voyage.

Following is the itinerary for our adventure:

DATE    PORT

Sep 18  Travel Day
Sep 19  Rome, Italy (Arrival)
Sep 20  Rome, Italy
Sep 21  Rome, Italy
Sep 22  Rome, Italy
Sep 23  Rome, Italy (Embark Serenity)
Sep 24  Elba/Portoferraio, Italy
Sep 25  Florence/Livorno, Italy
Sep 26  La Spezia, Italy
Sep 27  Monte Carlo, Monaco (Overnight)
Sep 28  Monte Carlo, 
Sep 29  St.-Tropaz, France
Sep 30  Marseille, France
Oct 01  Antibes, France
Oct 02  Genoa, Italy
Oct 03  Porto Venere, Italy
Oct 04  Olbia, Sardegna, Italy
Oct 05  Corsica/Ajaccio, France
Oct 06  Mallorca/Palma, Spain
Oct 07  Barcelona, Spain
Oct 08  Valencia, Spain
Oct 09  Alicante, Spain
Oct 10  Malaga, Spain
Oct 11  Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Oct 12  Cadiz/Seville, Spain
Oct 13  Lisbon, Portugal (Overnight)
Oct 14  Lisbon, Portugal (Disembark Serenity)
Oct 15  Travel Day
Oct 16  Arrive Home

We have also included maps with detailed itineraries for each of the three seven-day voyages.