Day 13: Civitavecchia/Rome

What a day we had!  It was fun, it was challenging, it was exhausting…at 8pm we are back in our hotel in Civitavecchia. Stick a fork in me, I’m done!

It was nice to see sun again this morning when we woke up. Actually, shortly after we woke up; it was still dark when the alarm went off at 6am. We finalized packing up our cabin (the over the door shoe rack and all toiletries were packed in a Princess tote bag for fast unpacking tomorrow on the Norwegian Spirit). By 8am we were in the Horizon Court Buffet lingering over breakfast. Our tentative walk off time was 9:45am. 

It was a rather strange turnaround day. I suspect a large percentage of passengers were staying on until Dubai or Singapore, so disembarkation seemed very easy, and very fast.  By 9:25am they were making the last and final announcement for all disembarking passengers to go ashore, and that was our cue to go down to Deck 7 to disembark. Our two suitcases were among only 20 or so still remaining in the terminal. 

The waiting game then began, as taxi/shuttle after taxi/shuttle would pull into the parking lot in front of the terminal, and a driver would emerge, carrying a piece of paper with a name on it. Couple by couple, the waiting guests were picked up, most of them bound for Rome. Finally a van arrived and the emerging paper contained our name, and we were off, heading to the Hotel Traiano in.Civitavecchia. 

I don’t remember exactly why I chose this hotel for our one night stay. I knew it had an elevator (very important) and very good reviews. The price was certainly right (€81, including transfers and breakfast tomorrow morning). They do a big cruise business here. When we arrived this morning, the lobby was busy with people who were boarding the Sapphire today. 

We were assigned a room shortly after 11am, a nice corner unit on the fourth floor with a wrap around balcony.. It’s very basic but very clean and extremely quiet (which the hotels closer to the waterfront are not). It took us a few minutes to get settled and lock up our valuables in the safe, and then we set out to walk about 15 minutes down to the Civitavecchia train station. Our goal for the day was to go to Rome for the afternoon.

We purchased tickets for €4 each. Our outbound train was in a newer, two level car, and it was nearly empty. We watched while the train traveled south along the water and then did a big left turn toward Rome. I think it took less than an hour; this train was fast, reaching speeds of 92 mph. We disembarked at Stazione San Pietro, about a 10-minute walk from St. Peter’s Square. 

We first walked to St. Peter’s Basilica, thinking we might go inside again (and maybe even stay for the 5pm Mass), but were met with long, long lines waiting to see inside. Someone who worked there estimated it was a 75-90 minute wait to enter the basilica. When we were here two years ago, we had entered from the Sistine Chapel and avoided the line altogether. We didn’t realize until today what an advantage that had been!

St. Peter’s Square

Directional tiles

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Square

Vatican City parking

Lunch stop

Love these balconies!

HATE this trash!

Instead we just walked around Vatican City awhile, and finally settled on a restaurant to have a late lunch/early dinner. It was close to 5pm by the time we finished, and we headed back to the Stazione San Pietro to take a train back to Civitavecchia. Oh my.  The next train to Civitavecchia was cancelled altogether and the one after that was about 15 minutes late. When we boarded, it was standing room only and these were old cars with no bars to hold on to. I inched my way toward the sliding door at the back of the car, where it was hooked together with the next car and I held on to the door handle, hoping that I would not inadvertently open it while we were speeding across the countryside. 

It was dark when we arrived back in Civitavecchia, but we thought we could carefully find our way back up to the hotel. We stopped at a small store on the way to pick up beverages and snacks for the evening and are back in the room. Unfortunately, the WiFi that worked fine in the lobby isn’t working at all in our room, so I am typing this post on my iPhone. It’s good practice for the next ten days. On NCL we’ll be crossing to the dark side, and I will have to rely on publishing my blog posts the next day, pending a decent cellular signal in our ports. I will continue to write, even if I can’t publish, and will get caught up as soon as I can. 

G is fully absorbed in a show on one the TV’s few channels called Container Wars. It’s apparently an American show dubbed in Italian, so he doesn’t understand a thing that is being said, but is watching anyway. I remember he did this same thing in Papeete, Tahiti, only there the shows were in French or Tahitian, but I don’t get it. We have hours of shows downloaded on our iDevices. Shows in English. ;-) 

No TV for me; I will soon be asleep. We walked over 21,000 steps today, on rough cobblestones and uneven pavement, and I am sore (that foot!).  And wiped out. And really, really, really sore.

I felt again today what I’ve felt before... I wish I had visited places like Rome 50 years ago. Sure, I would have been a kid, but setting aside that reality, I have a feeling that all of these places were much less crowded with much less security a few decades ago. They are close to be ruined by both for me. (When did we get used to visiting tourist sites accompanied by camouflaged soldiers carrying automatic weapons? You don’t see that in the travel pix!) 

And cell phones don’t help the situation. G said today that, at any point in time, half the people are talking on their phones and the other half are taking selfies with theirs. He was right. He usually is. 

And it didn’t even add to my hurts to admit that. ;-)

Day 12: Livorno/ Pisa

When I left you last night, we had no idea of how we’d spend our day in Livorno, Italy, and even less of one about what weather we might encounter. I am happy to report that everything worked out so well that it affirms my faith in ‘seat of the pants’ travel. 

The weather was rough until the early hours of the morning; in fact, my Fitbit could tell me exactly what time things calmed down. It said I got just 2 hours 54 minutes of sleep starting around 3:30am, but, in actuality, that was just the time we stabilized a bit. You can imagine what a shock it was to see sunshine(!) streaming in our cabin first thing this morning. Our experience yesterday did not prepare us for that! In fact, though it was partly cloudy and we even had a few drops of rain, the weather today had us feeling worse about the Cinque Terre tours being cancelled. This turned out to be a prettier day than the one we’d experienced on our visit two years ago. But that area of northwest Italy has been hard impacted by this storm, and it’s understandable that some roads are simply not passable. 

I was most interested today in seeing the sights of Livorno, but G really wanted to climb the bell tower in Pisa, and, to that end, we read Rick Steves’ book about how to get from the port to the Field of Miracles in Pisa, the location of the leaning bell tower, the cathedral (aka the Duomo) and the Baptistery through a combination of shuttle bus, walking, city bus, train, and more walking. We walked off the ship around 10:10am or so, and went to a counter in the port terminal to buy shuttle bus tickets (€5 round trip) into the center of Livorno. When we mentioned taking the train to Pisa, we were assured it was not possible (right...) and referred to a desk across the terminal for a bus to Pisa. 

Over we went to that desk, where we learned that, yes, we could take a bus to Pisa but we had to first buy the shuttle ticket for €5 and then add another €15 for a bus from the center of Livorno to Pisa. The problem was that the next bus wouldn’t leave Livorno until noon. The shuttle bus-city bus-train combo that Rick Steves laid out was looking better and better...

...until G noticed a small group of passengers recruiting two more to share a taxi to Pisa. The driver, Lorenzo, would take us directly to the Field of Miracles, wait for us, and return us to the ship for €20 per person.  His Mercedes van comfortably held 8 of us, and within minutes we were on our way. It’s a short drive, probably not more than 30 minutes from the port to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the day was looking sunny, and, for once, I was able to leave behind my wool headband and gloves.

Once in Pisa, we arranged to be back at the van in 2 hours. The first thing we did was buy a ticket to climb the bell tower. The bell tower dates back to the 12th century, and, built in marshy, multi-layered soil, it started to lean almost immediately. Corrections attempted while it was still being built, and also during the 19th century actually worsened the situation.  In 1990 it was closed for repairs for over 10 years. The tower was shored up, cleaned up and straightened up...a little. After all, the fact that it leans is Pisa’s claim to fame; just another straight Italian bell tower would cease to attract the millions of visitors a leaning bell tower does. 

The Cathedral (Duomo) of Pisa

The Duomo


It still leans!

People taking the requisite ‘holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa’ photos

The Field of Miracles in Pisa

The Baptistry is the round building on the left 

But the now open bell tower was not the only change since we were last here. The whole Field of Miracles looked so much better than it used to.  The beautiful green grass areas were striking against the stone of the Baptistery, Cathedral and bell tower.  Twenty years ago, those areas were filled with vendors’ canopies, each one hawking some kitschy souvenirs. Now those vendors have all been relocated down a side street.  And we didn’t have anywhere near the crowds today that we had on our previous visit. We had been packed into the different buildings then, and several in our group had been pickpocketed in the Cathedral (which must result in a sure ticket to hell for the perpetrators). The fact that the Sapphire Princess was the only ship in Livorno today certainly helped. Tomorrow there will be three ships in port. 

Our ticket to climb the bell tower was for 11:30am, and it didn’t take long at all to climb the roughly 280 steps to the top. The stone steps were uneven and very worn, and a little tricky to walk back down, but we had no trouble. In fact, the climb reminded me a great deal of climbing to the top of the dome in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, though much less strenuous, of course. And the views from the top made it all worthwhile. 

The €18 ticket to climb the bell tower also included admission to the Cathedral (which is actually free, but a ticket is still required), so that was our next stop and, honestly, I don’t remember a lot about that from our last visit, so it was like seeing it for the first time. The 320 foot long nave was the longest one in a Christian Church when it was built. The immediately eye catching 15 foot pulpit was intricately carved from stone by Giovanni Pisano. We lit candles and took photos and, by the time we were done, it was nearly 1pm and time to meet up with our group.

Duomo ceiling 

Giovanni Pisano pulpit

Baptistery of Pisa

We were back on board the Sapphire Princess shortly after 1:30pm.  Though there was free WiFi in the port terminal, our free data and texting has greatly reduced our reliance on mediocre WiFi (but high speed WiFi is always a welcome thing). We have been able to text and Snapchat photos to friends and family in each of our ports for free. 

We returned to Alfredo’s for another pizza lunch and then started to do some packing in our cabin. G had the very smart idea to place the items we won’t need until we are on the Pacific Princess in one of our suitcases, as NCL doesn’t have formal nights. I suspect we will also be more casual due to no Captains Circle obligations, an extremely port intensive itinerary, and, as G likes to say, “We don’t know any of those people anyway!”  We will definitely be “freestyle cruising”. 

Our departure time of 7pm was delayed for a late-returning ship’s excursion, but we have plenty of time to make the short trip overnight to Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome. We said our goodbyes to our waitstaff Alma and Boonta, and headwaiter Adrian. They will all be here when we return to the ship in Singapore (but won’t be our waiters), but Maitre d’ Generoso and Assistant Maitre d’ Godwin will be returning home. 

The entertainment tonight was a variety show (which is akin to a seafood medley entree at the end of a cruise), but we were so fortunate to be treated to new performances by violinist Michael Bacala and vocalist Phillip Browne. It was the best ‘last night of the cruise variety show’ I’ve ever seen. 

We are completing our final packing, and will be early to bed tonight. Wake ups on disembarkation days also come early.  We will be among the last guests off the ship around 10am, and, in a perfect world, our hotel shuttle will be waiting for us after we claim our luggage. Our hope is to do some sightseeing tomorrow afternoon...provided we can secure our valuables in a safe at the hotel. 

And the second part of the first segment of our around the world adventure begins the next day. 

Life is good. :-)

Day 11: Toulon, France

Our weather today was not quite as cold as forecasted (mid 50s vs. 42), but, by all other measures, it was pretty darn bad. When we first woke up and looked out, all we saw was heavy fog.  We slept another hour or so, and went to the Horizon Court Buffet for breakfast. The rain fell steadily and the wind was strong. Eventually, we spotted a little clearing and bundled up to go ashore. 

Toulon is most famous for its large presence of the French Navy. Though it offers a few beaches that, I suspect, could be very attractive during the summer, its biggest draw as a cruise ship port is as a gateway to Provence. Aix en Provence, Marseille, Cassis...all these and more are within a couple of hours drive. We have done all of these while on a land stay in France, and, as we had a big day planned for tomorrow in Livorno, we had decided to simply explore the Old Town of Toulon today. 

I had read different accounts of how to get from La Seyne Sur la Mer, which is where the pier is located for cruise ships, across the bay to the Toulon waterfront, but, in the end, it was a simple as can be. We exited the small terminal, and right in front of us was the boarding point for a free water shuttle to Toulon. These boats could probably hold a couple hundred people...if the weather was good...if the open upstairs seating area hadn’t been covered in water.  We hunkered down in the covered lower area for the 10-15 minute boat ride across the harbor where we were protected from the elements.  However, when we arrived in Toulon, it was immediately apparent that the bad weather had taken a toll. The water overlapped the pier for several feet, to a depth of 3 inches or so. In order to step off the shuttle, we had to walk through the water to reach dry land. 

Water shuttle to Toulon

Sidewalk flooding

Wet feet + cold temps = miserable day

G and I brought the right outerwear for this trip. We both have warm, waterproof jackets and fleeces that can be layered, and warm hats and gloves, but we did not have room to pack the kind of boots we needed today. We had wet shoes and socks before we had seen the first thing in Toulon. It had also started raining again, so when the little tourist tram was right on the pier promising an hour narrated tour of the city for €7, it was the answer to a prayer. And it was a nice little tour; though one side of the train was open, the other was closed in and we stayed relatively dry. 

When the tram reached the beaches, it had stopped raining, so we dropped off and walked along the waterfront there, to Fort Saint Louis, which dates from the 17th centery. There were several restaurants and cafes right on the water, and I could imagine that it was quite a lively place in the summer, but not today. We reboarded another train within an hour, and continued the tour of the town of Toulon. 

The tram leaving after it dropped us at the beach

Fort Saint-Louis

We intended to walk through the Old Town after our tour was complete, as we saw a couple of areas we wanted to explore further, but by the time we were back at our boarding point by the water shuttle, the skies really opened up and we had had enough. Our jackets kept us warm and dry, but our feet were freezing. We boarded another water shuttle and were back on the ship within 30 minutes (but not before I bought some Provençal lavender soap in a tent just outside the terminal). 

We returned to our cabin to find a notice that our much anticipated excursion to the Cinque Terre tomorrow had been cancelled due to road closures from the storm. This whole situation started feeling very familiar; a low pressure system parked over this same area of the Mediterranean was exactly what led to our mishap in Nice two years ago. We also heard today that Venice is flooded, a situation I hope rectifies itself in the next three weeks. We are too late to try to purchase tickets online to visit the museums in Florence, and don’t want to face the lines to buy them tomorrow, plus we have already seen the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery.  I’m not entirely certain how we will spend our day tomorrow, though we’re talking about returning to Pisa to climb the bell tower. When we visited 20 years ago, it was being renovated and shored up, and we couldn’t go inside. 

Captain Heikki made an announcement when everyone was back on board today that we were in for a rough night due to the wind and rough seas. Up to this point, it’s been so smooth that we haven’t even felt we were on a ship. But we are rolling quite a bit tonight, and even in our midship location it’s an effort to walk across our cabin. The wind is whistling through our closed (and locked) sliding glass door, and despite the large overhang from the Lido Deck above, everything out there is drenched. 

I think we have finally learned our lesson about Med cruises this time of year!

We didn’t eat lunch until we were back on the ship about 2:30pm, so we weren’t particularly hungry for dinner, but, of course, that didn’t stop us from going. We each had just two courses, and I drank hot tea throughout, in an effort to warm up. I had made two new clothing purchases for this season: a pair of quick dry hiking pants (specifically with the NCL cruise in mind, where I’ll be doing laundry by hand), and a solid black fleece jacket that actually looks nice enough to wear to dinner when paired with a scarf. Well, I have worn that and worn it, and I suspect it will walk itself to the laundry when we get on the Pacific Princess...and then not get worn at all after we reach Dubai. My other dinner clothes simply haven’t been warm enough the last couple of nights. 

The Princess Theater entertainment tonight was baritone Philip Browne, who has starred in a number of West End shows including his break out role in The Lion King, and he was fantastic. What a voice, and what an entertainer. There is going to be a balloon drop party in the Piazza at 11pm tonight, but we won’t see it. In a final effort to warm up, we got hot tea in the Horizon Court Buffet and crawled into bed. It sounds like a blizzard out there right now, but it’s quite cozy inside (not to mention that it’s easier to lie down than be up walking around). It might even be a ‘tuck in the covers’ kind of night.

I have no idea what tomorrow might bring (but didn’t I say that was one of the big draws of travel?), but know that tomorrow night we’ll be packed up and ready for the next part of our adventure. Let’s hope it includes some better weather. 

Day 10: Barcelona

We awakened around 8am in a Barcelona shrouded in fog and mist, and chilly to boot (48F!). It was not a morning to spur one to action. Instead, I gathered up laundry for the last bag we’ll send out this cruise. We had received a notice in the cabin last night that, to be returned in time to be packed on the final night of this cruise, we needed to turn in laundry by noon today. Since we will be laundry-less for the next two weeks, and packed very lightly to begin with, we sure didn’t want to miss that deadline!

After a quick clean up, I joined G in the Horizon Court Buffet for breakfast. It was definitely a hot breakfast kind of morning, and I enjoyed oatmeal with stewed apple wedges and cup after cup of hot water with lemon. We looked out the windows as the rain, though never heavy, fell relentlessly.  Finally, by 10:30am or so, it started to lighten a bit, and, bundled up in our rain jackets and hats and gloves, we walked off the ship and through the amazing Barcelona port terminal C (fancier than an airport terminal). We were in port with two monster cruise ships, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic. The Sapphire Princess looked quite small in comparison. 

Princess offered a shuttle through the port to the Christopher Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla for €5 all day, but the public port bus was only €4 all day, so you can guess which one we took. Plus we had the pleasure of riding with the port workers who weren’t giving up their seats for anyone, regardless of age. I had watched our bus race through the port to pick us up, and knew we were in for a ride, but, holy smoke, I didn’t imagine it to be quite as death defying as it actually was. I was a child of the 60s, and survived the death traps that used to be called playgrounds. This bus ride was exactly like the playground merry go round that, when pushed by older kids (usually perverse older siblings) would spit out the little ones trying to hold on to the metal bars. I had my gloves on, both hands clutching an overhead bar on the bus as the driver took turns at high speed, and the passengers tried to stay on their feet. 

I don’t think the Princess shuttle could have offered the same sense of adventure. ;-)

Once deposited near the Columbus statue at the Plaça de Colón, we paused for a moment to allow our brains to re-center themselves in our skulls and walked toward the famous La Rambla, the pedestrian boulevard that runs at an angle from the waterfront. I wasn’t sure how far we’d walk - we’ve been in Barcelona several times in the past 20 years and have seen the major sights, and so had no specific goal in mind-  but usually, rambling down La Rambla is a fun couple of hours. Today, though, there were none of the usual buskers, and, though the boulevard was busy (with three cruise ships in town), it wasn’t the kind of lively crowd one finds on warm summer weekends and evenings. 

After about 45 minutes, we grew tired of dodging umbrellas and turned right off La Rambla to walk through the narrow alleyways that lie on either side of the busy street. These were the most fun today, and we walked for over an hour without paying attention to a map; we knew we’d eventually hit the waterfront and could make our way back along it to the Plaça de Colón. About the time we thought we’d stop in one of the tiny restaurants for tapas and sangria (G), it started to rain more ambitiously, and we felt chilled. We decided to head back to the bus and the ship.

Catalunya flags proudly displayed, highlighting the political divide with Spain

Once on board, we ate for the first time this cruise at the Alfredo’s pizzeria on Deck 5 in the Piazza. I enjoyed my veggie pizza without cheese (because they didn’t have vegan cheese), but G thought the pizza available up by the pool was better. As we sat there and ate, we could see the rain stop and the first hint of sunshine appear, and then it was covered once again by a dark cloud. It felt like hot tub weather to us, but instead of using one of the four midship hot tubs, we went up to the two large hot tubs on Deck 16 aft, overlooking the back of the ship. I must say again how impressed we’ve been with the Sapphire Princess. On the Golden Princess we were lucky to find half the hot tubs open and none were actually hot; on the Sapphire, we’ve never seen one closed except at night and they are all very hot. It felt incredible to have that light rain and cold air on our heads while our bodies were toasty in the water. And afterward, I used the Terrace Pool for the first time and I think the water must have been at least 85F. 

I can’t wait to return to this ship on November 28th!

We had just enough time for a quick clean up before dinner at 5:30pm. We watched from our table as the ship pushed away from the pier and maneuvered through the large port of Barcelona into the Mediterranean Sea. 

Polish violinist Michael Bacala performed in the Princess Theater tonight. We’d never before seen his show, and it was really excellent. It was amazing how many songs he played that we had in our wedding ceremony, and I pointed each one out to G (he couldn’t tell you, 35 years later, that we’d even had music at our wedding ceremony, which would have been a great question for that game show we played last night about the differences in how men and women think).

G is still out attending the Mediterranean White Party which was supposed to take place on the open deck, but, due to the weather, is happening in Club Fusion instead. I’m tucked in bed with contacts out and The Big Bang Theory on our on demand TV. The forecast for Toulon tomorrow is rain and a high of 42F.  It’s a brand new port for us, so we’ll brave the the elements, but we may see all we need to see in just a couple of hours. We keep encountering people on board who had no idea the Med could be this cold and didn’t bring warm clothing, but we remember all too well the horrible weather we had here two years ago. We even had a shipwreck to prove it!