Blogs from Civitavecchia, Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 2

Geo: 42.0912, 11.7968It seems a lot of people have trouble pronouncing our next port of call. Civitavecchia. It is pronounced (chiv-vita-veck-ia), it just rolls off the tongue once you know how. Again as with a lot of these ports it is not that picturesque and is filled with lots of container ships and tankers. That's said it's a beautiful morning although that dogged northerly wind seems intent on hanging around and pegging the temperatures back a few degrees.I emerge out onto the balcony and look down at the dockside to a scene of organised chaos. I guess most people are up and about early and heading into Rome today. A fleet of coaches waits patiently for its bleary eyed passengers to emerge from Liberty's white underbelly and whisk them the 40 or so miles to the ... read more

Geo: 42.0912, 11.7968A las 9 empezamos a desembarcar y tardamos un rato, casi 40 minutos. Al salir ya nos estaba esperando nuestro chofer para llevarnos a Roma. En el shuttle iba una familia de Guadalajara junto con nosotros. Poco antes de las once llegamos a nuestro hotel... read more

Geo: 42.0912, 11.7968Today we ported in Civitavecchia which is the port of Rome. We had a little later start since we were meeting our guide at 8:00. We had arranged for a private driver to take us around Rome today. His name was Claudio and he was from Rome. He took us to his car and we started on what was supposed to be a 45 minute drive to Rome. We made it to the outskirts of town in no time but encountered a traffic jam (that later we found out had been caused by an overturned car). That delayed us about 45 minutes. We made a stop at some ruins before heading to the Knights of Malta church where we saw an amazing view through the keyhole of the church. It was a great way ... read more

First stop Genoa - Brendan, Nath, Roy and I hopped straight onto the hop on, hop off bus - Greg and Irene did their own thing. We took a pay lift (public transport - now that's unusual) up a hill and then picked up a funicular and rode it to a further peak, had coffee in a great little trattoria built in mid 1800s, were mind-blown by the fabulous views. Then we took the steep long funicular ride down to the town again. Walked the streets and got a replacement bag for Brendan's dead suitcase. Genoa is clearly the most popular embarkation port and we sure as heck knew there were approximately 3,700 people on board and we think they thought the buffet food was going to run out! It was like a shopping centre food ... read more

The title of this blog doesn't quite work unless you know how to pronounce Civitavecchia. (chiv-it-a-veck-ia) The temperature for the past few days has been in the high 70s and today was no exception. Most excursions from Civitavecchia visit Italy's capital, Rome. Rome is 1½ hours by motor coach and about the same by train should you wish to do your own thing. The trains are fairly regular but as we discovered later today, due to 3 cruise ships being in port today the trains were crowded with lots of pushing and shoving and standing room only. It was worse than the London underground during rush hour!! Did we really want to pay between $89 - $329 for an official excursion in an over crowded city rushing around to see all the major sights in just ... read more