We have been unofficially planning a family European vacation for 5+ years (since Brian & I went for my 40th birthday), and seriously planning for a year and a half... We figured it was the best time to go, since Ben is almost 13, and Abby will be heading off to college next summer. So, I did what I do best and researched MANY options before deciding together as a family to try a Mediterranean cruise to get us to see as many places as we could on our lists!
Below is a map of our travels, beginning in Rome, Italy and ending in Athens, Greece... Our stops along the way were in Naples, Sicily, Santorini, Ephesus, and Mykonos!
We had multiple family meetings to discuss locations, excursions, packing, etc... but I'm pretty sure everyone just stared at me like I was crazy and entrusted the planning to me. Before telling you the adventures we had (some amazing, but not all great...), I would like to say that all of the excursions that I booked worked out beautifully in the end, and we had everything we needed with us, thanks to my incessant planning :) So, call me crazy if you will, but overall, we had an AMAZING time!
After reading Facebook posts and travel blogs for over a year, including a lot of tips and tricks to cruising, I came up with a VERY detailed packing list for each of us, and we managed to fit it all in our bags (and all under the weight limit)!
We were finally packed and ready to go...
Even though Brian and the kids ditched me to go through the TSA approved line, I was happy to spend a few moments to myself while they began the trip with something we would become familiar with...
a lot of waiting around!
We made it to the airport in time to grab a quick meal before heading to our layover destination of Atlanta.
Only an almost-teenager bottomless pit would fill up with a double bacon cheeseburger and a large fry before a night of flying, but he was thrilled!
So excited to ACTUALLY be leaving... after our first hour and a half delay...!!!
We had a rainy start to the trip, but we had no idea we wouldn't see rain again until the plane ride home (although there were a lot of times we were wishing for some when we were overheating in Europe...)
One of my favorite parts of flying in a storm is finally rising above the rain and seeing how spectacular the sky looks.
Our layover in Atlanta wasn't terribly long so we decided to take the airtrain to the international terminal, but apparently everyone had the same idea as us. Again, we should have known this was our welcome into the next 10 days full of crowds of people and constantly counting our family of 5 so we didn't lose anyone (and for the record, I'm happy to say we didn't)!
Our overnight flight to Rome went smoothly, and while Brian got about 7 hours of sleep (he is definitely a seasoned traveller), the rest of us managed to get a couple hours too, off and on... except for Emily...
She couldn't sleep at all, but there were plenty of movies to keep her busy...
Waking up in the morning to see us flying over the Alps was a beautiful surprise, and I think Switzerland is now one of the top countries on my travel bucket list!
We finally made it to Rome... with our bags! Several people had told us about how losing your luggage could ruin your trip, so after taking care to pack across different bags & keep our essentials in our carry ons, when our bags arrived, we considered ourselves very fortunate and ready to take on Europe (that feeling wouldn't last long, but we enjoyed it for the few hours we did)!
I had booked an airport bus transfer to the heart of Rome, and it was actually where they said it would be! We got a comfortable, air-conditioned ride as we took the 1 hour trip to the terminal near our Air B&B.
We were thankfully able to get into our apartment early to drop off our bags before touring the city, but the directions to get in were like an escape room!
There was a very old, creepy elevator that only fit three people squeezed in at a time, so it took a little while to get all of us plus our luggage up to the 5th floor!
Here were a few pictures from the website so you can check out our cute, downtown apartment!
After dropping off the bags, we headed straight out to see the sites... Since we were all starving & hot, and Emily hadn't eaten much since the day before in the airport, we needed something fast and reliable, so much to Brian's chagrin, our first meal in Rome was McDonalds.
After our very American lunch, we grabbed some tickets to a tour bus to get us around the city, and enjoyed a ride around to see the major sites, before getting off at the end of the line to explore.
Our first stop off the bus in the Trevi area was to find some ice cold gelato. It was a nice cold & sugary pick-me-up for those of us who were already fading from the sun and the long day of travel...
We headed to Trevi Fountain as our first official tourist stop, and it was as beautiful as I remember it!
I was actually able to get up pretty close for some photos this time, but what you usually see in the pictures isn't always what it's like...
Zoomed out, this is what it actually looks like with the crowds, but we were thankful to be able to see it close up!
After the bus ride around Rome, some gelato, and a stop at Trevi fountain, we took the long walk back to our apartment to cool off and unpack.
Emily fell asleep immediately face down in our bed after not sleeping on the plane.
This is the point... still on day 1 of our trip, where the crazy adventures truly began... While Ben and Emily needed some time to rest, Brian, Abby, & I decided to go out to a little restaurant on the corner for our first European aperitivo together!
“L’appetito vien mangiando,” is one of our favourite Italian sayings. Why? It roughly translates to, “Eating awakens the appetite.” We could not agree more, which is why we love aperitivo.
An aperitivo is a pre-meal drink; the experience of aperitivo is a cultural ritual. Derived from the Latin aperire, the tradition is meant “to open” the stomach before dining. Accordingly, for centuries Italians have said cheers – cin cin – over drinks and appetizers in the early evening hours between work and dinner.
The prosecco was refreshing and the appetizers were "okay", but we knew we'd be finding many wonderful spots to dine on our trip, so we were quite happy... Until...
...We got up to leave and my purse had been stolen. Along with it, were our 3 passports, my driver's license, and my credit card! I immediately got a text from the credit card company saying they shut down my card because they detected fraud, and sure enough, someone had attempted 4 charges. I was fine closing my card and using a different one, and I was even "okay" with having to get a new driver's license when I got home, but the passports being stolen in a foreign country was a tough blow.
We immediately headed to the police station to file a report, but apparently at 5pm on a Saturday night, they all shut down for the weekend (and the language barrier didn't help us understand what was going on)! There were a few open stations around the city, but the lines to file a report were 3+ hours long! (We learned through this process that Rome is AWFUL when it comes to petty theft crimes :( ) We attempted going to 3 different stations before we decided to grab a pizza for dinner and head back to regroup and do our research on what the next steps were for us.
The end of night #1 in Rome was not ideal, but we had a plan ahead of us to hopefully get new passports and still make our cruise on time, but since the US Embassy (where they grant emergency passports) is closed on the weekends, we knew it was going to be a close one since we were supposed to be at the ship at 12pm on Monday. But, we were ready to try and make it happen, and even try to enjoy one more day in Rome before the mad dash to the ship...
The next morning, Abby woke up vomiting from a terrible migraine (probably from a teeny bit of stress from the night before) and no one wanted to get out of bed, so it looked like our tickets to see the colosseum were going to be a bust that morning.
So, Brian and I got ready and took off to see what we could do to figure out our situation (with my backpack in its new super-safe position). He took off to the embassy for a dry run to make sure he knew where to be first thing Monday morning, and I took off to try and find an open police station to try again to file a report.
After two more failed police station attempts and a trip back to the restaurant where it happened, we met up and finally took an uber together to the Trevi fountain area and found a station to take our report. It was the 6th station we tried, we waited there about an hour, we had to use google translate to fill out the report, and the office was full of frustrated victims of theft. When we were done, we don't know what we were doing wrong, but we couldn't get a taxi back to the apartment, so we rode electric scooters the 25 minutes back on the terrifying, traffic-ridden streets of Rome. BUT, we survived with an official police report in hand!
The kids were still wanting to stay in bed for a bit, and Abby was still recovering from her migraine, so Brian and I decided we definitely deserved some wine and apps before getting ready to go out and salvage our last night in Rome.
When we came back to get the kids, they were finally ready to try one more night out on the town, although Ben was a bit nervous to leave the apartment, and was even busy "burgler-proofing" our room while we were out before.
We got some of his nervous energy out and pumped him up to go out again!
We decided to get back on the tour bus to finish our exploring...
It was another hot afternoon, but the girls enjoyed the spray bottles with ice water to cool off on the bus...
We finally made it off the bus to go see the colosseum, and since we'd missed our morning tour, I decided to buy last minute tickets to try again... It was all looking good until the tickets didn't come through in my email, and it was then that I realized I had bought tickets for the NEXT DAY. We felt like at this point, with two sets of wasted entry tickets, we were meant to enjoy the colosseum from the outside, so after a walk around and a few pictures, we headed back to the bus. With everything that had happened so far, at least we could all laugh about it! What else could we do??? I think everyone was over Rome anyway!
All of our walking around gave Ben plenty of time to check out the European Pokemon characters!
On our way back to the bus, Emily wanted a quick detour to play in the sprinklers... anything to cool off a bit and bring some light-hearted fun to the trip!
Brian took his turn keeping the two remaining passports safe as we walked around!
We did a little history lesson on the bus ride back. We passed by Circus Maximus which was the first and largest stadium in Ancient Rome and was used for chariot racing.
We also passed the building called Quattro Fontane (the Four Fountains). It is an ensemble of four Late Renaissance fountains built in the 1500s. The figure of one fountain is said to represent the River Tiber, in front of an oak-tree. A second fountain represents the River Arno and the other two fountains feature female figures believed to represent the Goddess Diana; the symbol of Chastity; and the Goddess Juno, the symbol of Strength, but it is possible that they may also represent rivers.
We also found a lot of glass artwork shops, and Emily loved spending time looking at all the Van Gogh pieces!
When we were in Rome 5 years ago, Brian and I found a sweet little restaurant called, "Sofia" where I had the best pasta dish of my life. I've told the kids about it many times, and we decided to find it again and see if they still had my dish. This was the first highlight of our trip, as the restaurant was still there, still had my pasta dish, and everyone's food was amazing! (And for our own memories- some of us MAY have gotten locked in the bathroom there, but we won't talk about it)!
Brian ordered some Sea Bass ceviche:
Ben & I ordered the infamous pasta dish, and not only did I love it as much as I remembered, but he loved it too!
Abby & Brian got some terrific filet mignon steaks...
...and Emily was thrilled that the upscale place could also accommodate her wish for fresh, buttered pasta!
I would definitely say we enjoyed our meal!
Their take on tiramisu was also amazing and might just be Emily's new favorite treat!
On our walk back to the apartment, the perfect way to end the evening was with another gelato stop! Now it was off to bed to get ready for our early start to our "mad dash to the ship" day ahead of us...
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