Friday, April 16, 2010

Welcome To Civitavecchia, Italy - Day 97

(Queen Victoria)

Several Pictures From Civitavecchia, Italy


Cathedral

Cathedral


















Some Additional Pictures From Yesterday's Tour Of Herculaneum


(Kitchen That Was Part Of A Restaurant)

Wine Cellar And Wine Barrels)

(Floor Inside A Home)

(Beautiful Artwork Inside A Home)

(More Art Work Inside A Home)

(Pretty Tiles Outside A Building)

(Columns With A Fair Amount Of Detail To Them)


Welcome To Civitavecchia

Saturday, April 16, 2010

It had been several days since we had dined in the Main Dining Room and it was great to dine there last evening. As usual, the food, service, and the ambience of the dining room was perfect. We had a wonderful meal. We each had a nice size salad, and we each had the salmon entrée, which was delicious. We had some extra vegetables and we had berries for dessert. One of the benefits of now being in the Mediterranean is the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables from this region.

After dinner, we went to a 7:45 PM variety show featuring Dulcimer Performer Pingxin Xu and singing star Petrina Johnson. The show was terrific. The performance by Pingxin Xu is quite unique and very entertaining. We also greatly enjoyed the selection of songs that Petrina Johnson sang which included one of Keith’s favorite songs from West Side Story, Somewhere.

Afterwards, we went to one of the lounges and ended up chatting with a few members of the crew and we were enjoying such a wonderful conversation that believe it or not did not get back to our room until 12:30 AM. So, like most other people while we tend to mostly be a “creature of habit” last night was not the case.

We did sleep well but considering how late we got to sleep we took the morning off from our daily workouts as we both got up around 7:45 AM. We had breakfast in the room and then got ready to go off the ship.

This morning we docked in Civitavecchia. This port marks the end of the sixth leg of the World Cruise and the start of our final World Cruise leg.

During the course of this leg of the World Cruise we sailed from Athens, Greece to Civitavecchia/Rome, Italy and we cruised a total of 3,139 Nautical Miles or the equivalent of 3,610 Land Miles.

During this seventh and final World Cruise leg we will have four sea days and we will stop in Livorno (gateway to Florence and to Pisa), Barcelona for an overnight, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Bilbao, La Rochelle and we will complete our journey at Southampton, England.

We have visited this port of call on numerous occasions. It is the gateway to Rome. Some people took transportation into Rome but since we have been there multiple times we decided to spend the day walking around Civitavecchia which we did all this morning. For those of you familiar with the port instead of taking the shuttle from the ship to the entrance of the port we just walked from the ship over to the entrance of the pier and then right into town. We then walked all around this nice town. While we have visited this town before it was much larger than we realized. The weather was also perfect and since it was a Saturday so many of the locals were out and about. We visited many areas including the extensive food and seafood markets, where many items were being sold including a wide range of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheese, breads, household goods and clothing and other items. There were many different stands and stores selling these items so there was so much to choose from and they mainly sell to the locals who buy their food fresh. This is the way we remember cities in our own country when people would go to little shops and to buy fresh items on a daily or every couple of day basis.

We also walked to the Train Railway Station, and our walk included a visit to the Cathedral that is dedicated to St. Francis. We walked along the old city wall and also to Fort Michelangelo on our way back. We also walked up and down several streets and into various shops including a few pastry shops. Several trees were blooming since it is springtime.

We stayed out all morning and we walked all over the town. We then went back to the ship for Lunch, which we enjoyed at the Lido Café. Yes, we enjoyed another nice Salad Entrée.

We enjoyed or walk so much that in the afternoon we decided to walk around this town again to get some exercise and fresh air and to just take in all that was around us. Most shops were closed in the afternoon, but it was still fun to walk around. We did find the local supermarket and walked around for a little while. This town is getting better each time we visit it. There has been quite a lot of construction since we were last here in 2008. We think that this town recognizes that with all of the cruise ships that dock here there is a great opportunity to increase tourism. This town could be good t for those who do not want to stay in Rome for say a one or even two night pre-cruise stay. They appear to be on the correct path to compete for this tourism.

Once back on-board we saw many passengers who joined the ship for the first time today. In general, many of the passengers who are scheduled for this leg will board today. Others will board tomorrow in Livorno as they were able to make it to Florence and still others will board in Barcelona. For those passengers who left the ship today some were already on flights that were not impacted by the volcano ashes, others were able to get new flights with connections to airports that were not impacted, others were already scheduled to spend a few days in Rome or in other parts of Italy and still others will spend a few unplanned days in Rome. Finally, there are a few passengers who extended their stay on the ship.

After our walk, we took care of some items on the ship, read, wrote and spoke with some fellow passengers.

Before dinner we are having friends Bob and Glo over to our room for some canapés and then the four of us will go to Prego for dinner. We’ll post more about this tomorrow.

TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

Keith and Anne Marie


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