We flew overnight to Rome, then directly on to Florence, arriving about 9 p.m. local time due to a delay in our last flight. It would have been quicker to have taken a bus or train, even had the original schedule prevailed.

The museums of Florence were wonderful and so was the gelato! We saw the Academia with Michaelangelo's "David" and the Uffizi with so many great masters' works! The Ponte Vecchio was not to be missed, but we also took in a concert featuring Vivaldi and Pachelbel. The venue also was developing a display of DaVinci's machines: massive crossbow and flying machine, for example.

We returned to Rome by bus, cleverly scheduled so that it took the entire day for a three hour trip. Instead of leaving first thing in the morning, our bus left about 11 a.m. necessitating a stop for lunch -even though we had been told by OVC that such a stop would not be happening. It was well after 4 p.m. when we were settled in our hotel in the Eternal City. That didn't leave a lot of time to sightsee, but we had the next two days for that -except that the second day we had to catch another bus to the ship at 10 a.m. Our three days in Rome proved to be just one in actual experience. At least we did have two full days in Florence, as advertised. Read more