90 Minutes in Rome

The fourth morning of a Mediterranean cruise, our ship pulls into Civitavecchia. From Parma to Corsica the week has started great. The ship is not a luxury cruiser, but has more than enough facilities for the evenings and the day at sea to get to the first port. But the highlight of the week is about to begin. This port is less than 40 miles from Rome.

It's 9am. We've breakfasted and are ready to start the day. The ship is due to depart at 3 so we have to get moving. The port is huge. It's a bus ride from where the ship is docked to get to the train station.

Navigating foreign public transport with zero language skills is always an interesting experience - the extent of my Italian is Mi scusi, mi no parlo Italiano - but train tickets were acquired. Despite the relatively short distance, it was 11am before we arrived in Rome. We checked for the return train and saw that we would need to be back here for 12:30, as the train after would get us back to the port after the ship had set sail. But although we would only have an hour and a half, we would make the most of it. We were in Rome after all.

We stepped out of the train station into torrential rain. All that week had been 25 degrees minimum. It had been that in Civitavecchia when we had set off. I was wearing an Italian rugby shirt and shorts. We stood under the awning watching the rain come down, feeling the precious minutes slip away.

Across the road were a series of bus stops. We decided to jump on a tour bus. A lot of people don't like the tour buses, but I find them useful. They cover the entire city, you can get on and off as you like, and they have commentary in the language that you understand, which is useful for helping you get around.

We wanted to be able to see the sights so we went up to the top deck. It was an open top bus, but with a canopy to keep off the rain. This didn't do much to keep it dry, and all the seats were soaked apart from the middle seat of the back row, so we tried to both squeeze into the small space.

Rome is possibly the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Even grey and mired in rain, the architecture is beyond compare to almost anywhere else in the world. Every time the bus turned a corner a new marvel waited.

We passed the Coliseum, and from the road we could see that the entrance was closed, and we unfortunately didn't have time to wait for it to open again. I'm not going to try and describe it. It is like nothing I've ever seen before. My head followed it all the way around as the bus followed the route around and carried on through the city.

The Spanish steps were another highlight, leading up to the Trinita dei Monti church at the top. I had no idea what most of the buikldings we passed were, but everything was spectacular. We finally got off the tour bus on the Via della Conciliazione. Time was tight, but this was the lead up to the Vatican, and St Peter's square was just ahead.

Time was tight, but we had to wander up to the smallest country in the world. There was a queue running the length of the square, so we wouldn't be visiting, but we have a look around. We were stopped by a tour guide, offering for us to join one of the tours going in to St Peter's Basilica. We informed them that we wouldn't have the time and stepped on.

Five paces later a different person asked us if we were looking to join a tour. Again, we declined. We hadn't moved more than two steps when the third person asked. This one had actually been looking at us as we rebuffed the last salesperson. Honestly, that annoyed me, I didn't want to dedicate any time to it, but my no the third time was most definitely more curt.

Back on the bus we go. and it soon completes its circuit. We don't have much time to do anything else, but you can't go to Rome and not sample the food. There is a little hole in the wall food kiosk opposite the train station, and getting a slice of pizza is one of the best parts of the day.

Annnoyingly, when we get back to Civitavecchia, the weather is perfect. The cruise continues.