No visit to Italy is complete without seeing Rome – which, as the saying goes, was certainly not built in a day.  This city is millennia old, and history oozes from between the cobblestones.  It’s the only city with a nation inside it – Vatican City, a city-state within the borders of Rome.

Rome is an art-lover’s dream, with works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and others aplenty.  If architecture is more your style the Vatican, Piazza San Pietro, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica are only the most well-known highlights; there are other, less well-known but equally beautiful buildings everywhere.

For shopping, Rome simply cannot be outdone.  Begin at the Piazza d’Spagna (the Spanish Steps) and fan out into the streets that branch out from the Piazza.  Via Veneto and Via Condotti offer fabulous (but expensive) designer goods; the Via del Corso and Via del Babuino offer more eclectic and modestly-priced purchases.  If you begin to get weighed down, some shops offer delivery service back to the ship.

For just plain fun, walk into the Piazza Navona, which bars automobiles for good reason; it seems the whole world is here, walking, dancing, laughing, eating, and shopping.  Keep an eye on your pocketbook, though.  Along with everyone else, pickpockets love this place and are on the lookout for tourists.

If you need a break from all this activity, visit the botanical gardens at Orto Botanico.  Actually 19 gardens, you won’t be able to see all of them, but a stroll through one or two gardens, and a half-hour seated beside a fragrant flowering bush will revive you.

No cruise through the area is complete without visiting Rome and returning with some lifelong memories.