On our fifth day, we went to Pisa and Florence. We booked a tour through the cruise line that gave us free time in each city, which was just perfect. Thankfully, we had Maxwell with us to lead the way!

We were only in Pisa for about 45 minutes, which was just enough time to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the surrounding building. It's always a little surreal seeing such famous landmarks.

The girls took turns holding the tower up. ; )

After our time in Pisa, we spent about 3 hrs in Florence. It's seems ironic that this was one of our favorite stops but we didn't get any great pictures. Probably due to the fact that we had to watch the kids closely since the cars drove super close to the sidewalks. We had a wonderful time eating an authentic Italian lunch that included pizza on the menu that didn't have cheese, which was awesome for this dairy free, pizza loving lady. We also found vegan gelato, which was SO delicious.

That night we had our second formal night for dinner

and found this little critter waiting for us when we came back to our room.

Day six started with a Dr. Seuss character breakfast. The whole breakfast was so well done and the food was delicious too!

Naomi was brave and tried the green eggs.

After breakfast, we dropped this crazy crew off at the kids club and Joe and I enjoyed the sights of Marseille, France alone!

We walked around, did some shopping, and ate crepes. A perfect last full day of our cruise.

Once we were back on the boat, we grabbed the kids and had a little family fun.

Mia did awesome on the ropes course. 

Naomi and Maxwell had fun playing mini golf.

One last shot of our ship. 

Leaving Barcelona to start our journey home. Side note, the kids were amazing on the long flight, which makes it exciting to think of all the places we can go, after an adult only vacation that is!!

That wraps up our Mediterranean Cruise! It was amazing and exhausting all at the same time. Traveling with kids is always an adventure but it's so fun to look back at the pictures and see how many amazing memories were made!

Check out the other posts from our cruise:

Barcelona

Sicily and Pompeii

Rome

This is going to be a beast of a post because Rome was a beast of a day! I can't believe that my kids made it through. We started our day with an hour ride to the Colosseum and poor Maxwell got car sick on the way there and threw up ALL over! It was a rough start but once we arrived and paid the $2 to use the public restroom to clean up, he was totally fine. 

Seeing the Colosseum for the first time was a pretty amazing sight!

We booked family friendly private tours for our time in Rome since we knew everything would be very busy and thought it would be hard to keep up with a large group tour with our 3 kids. Without a tour, it would be really hard to get into the Colosseum and museums since the lines were so long.

After our time at the Colosseum, we took a taxi to Vatican City for our next tour.

We had just the right amount of time to get an authentic Italian lunch.

Our next 3 hour tour was through the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.

Maxwell's favorite sculptures were of the animals.

As the tour progressed, Naomi and Maxwell were getting pretty exhausted so Joe and I took turns carrying them. I was so proud of Mia for being such a trooper.

The Vatican was absolutely breathtaking.

After walking through the Vatican, we got to spend some time in the Sistine Chapel. Photos were not allowed and people were asked to be quiet. It was a really neat experience seeing such famous works of art.

After the Sistine Chapel, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. I love everything about this picture because it's real life. Vacation isn't always rainbows and butterflies. Maxwell feel asleep in Joe's arms, Joe was  exhausted from carrying him and Naomi was totally done and crying.

I somehow talked Naomi into getting off the floor and got her to smile pose for a picture. Since Joe and I really wanted to be able to look around, I had to think fast of how to get Naomi excited so I asked her if she could be the photographer and gave her my cell phone to take pictures. Joe ended up sharing his phone with Mia and they had the best time zipping around taking pictures. It was amazing seeing them go from 0 to 100!

Here are some of the pictures the girls took:

   

  

St. Peter's Square

Doing two big tours in Rome was a lot but we got to see so many amazing things in one day. Since we only had one day, I would probably do the same thing again (but maybe bring the stroller next time)!

Up next: Pisa and Florence

Link to the beginning of our cruise in Barcelona

Link to our time in Sicily and Pompeii