Day 34 - Civitavecchia - but NOT Rome!

For about 2 – 300 people, this was the end of their cruise and although originally, the cruise was advertised as Sydney to Venice - Venice to Sydney, Princess found that a lot of people preferred to hop off in Rome and others were happy to get on in Rome and off again 21 days later, as this is one of the ports that was scheduled for two visits.  For those of us booked all the way around, there was a mini-bonus in that our minibars would be restocked at each Rome visit as well as at Venice.  For us, that meant trading the refill again, for two coffee cards.

As we had no firm plans for a tour on this visit, mainly as Wednesday in Rome, in August, the day before Assumption, would be horrendously busy, we planned to stay local.

Throughout the cruise, Rome is lauded as a destination, when in fact, the ship docks 90 minutes away (traffic permitting) in the busy change over port of Civitavecchia.  Last time, we did a ship's tour to Rome (which we thoroughly enjoyed) but info on the port area itself was a bit thin.

There was a free shuttle bus to the port gates, on the very edge of town so we piled out, to find a very pleasant, wide, paved area and a beach with a seafront road.  The road had a few stalls along it on the beach side and hotels and cafes/restaurants on the other.  On the beach side is the enormous statue of a 1940's sailor embracing a lady – so although I don't yet have the proof, we were photographed emulating the pose.  We'll publish that later…

For future cruisers joining or leaving here, it appears to be a very pleasant place for a day or so and having now seen it, we'd seriously consider joining or leaving a cruise from here.

We walked along the sea front, towards the railway station (€12 return local, €16 express, for Rome) then turned left towards the top side of town, then left again. On the way I managed a polo shirt at €5.95 then we walked into the local, mainly fruit and veg, market.  Some wonderful local produce with enormous watermelons, grapes, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes etc.  The photograph shows Paula with the grapes (just kidding).  I also managed a thick, leather belt, at €5 which I was more than happy with.       

A wander down the main street was very pleasant but we weren't tempted with any other purchases, not so one hapless passenger.  Despite many warnings as to the crooks around, one (fairly well off) passenger was tempted by a street vendor selling a cheap i-pad.  After checking out that the i-pad worked by taking a pic of the vendor, he bargained hard for a boxed i-pad AND a boxed i-phone for €50.   If it is too good to be true, it usually is.  Back on board, he unwrapped his boxed purchases only to find two ceramic tiles…  He shot off the ship, determined to sort out the crooked vendor, who had of course, disappeared.  Little does the vendor know, that in three weeks' time, we are back again, so if the passenger catches up with him, he may well be getting an Australian knuckle sandwich.

Meanwhile, Ros and her group walked off the ship for a private tour.  They found their straight faced guide who challenged them that they were late.  As it was only ten minutes to 8:00, of course they were a bit puzzled.  He then pointed out that they were a year late, as he was dockside 14^th August 2012!  He proved to be a fun guide for them and eventually, I'll put on a link to Ros' blog, where she has other stories to tell.

Just as an aside, with any tours, either Princess or privately arranged - or even a taxi at a dockside, the experience can vary from all day fun, to someone who rabbits all day long with annoying mannerisms, to a very quiet driver, to the almost surly.  It is a risk you take.

We bumped into Colin and Judy and had an overpriced soft drink at the beachside plaza café, but it was good to get into the shade.  As is often the case, there were several people taking advantage of the free wi-fi and lingering for ages.

We went back to the ship and Paula was feeling distinctly stiff and sore, so as we bumped into Maria from the Lotus Spa, who worked on my shoulder in 2011, she slotted Paula in for a 2:30pm massage which totally revitalised her.

After a delayed sail-away (One tour bus was an hour late, but rumour has it that a passenger complained about the non-functioning air conditioning. The replacement bus took 50 minutes to arrive and the driver then either went on a go-slow, or had exceeded his permitted hours without a rest, depending on who you listened to.) on deck 11 as usual.  We opted for the buffet rather than the dining room, then chatted to M & M, before returning to deck 12 outside the ice cream parlour, our unofficial Dawn Nomads meeting spot.

We retired fairly early with another port day tomorrow, albeit a late arrival at 12 noon.  Messina in Sicily, where once again, we have no fixed plans, but as it is a public holiday and most places are closed anyway, our expectations aren't exactly high.