Rome vs Civitavecchia

It's hard sometimes to decide what to do in any given port. Sometimes there are too many choices, sometimes there are too few. The latter was the case here. On the one hand, we've been to Rome 3x but haven't ever explored Civitavecchia, the port from which you go to Rome. On the other hand, it's the Monday after Easter as well as a bank holiday so not much is open in this sleepy little port town. On the other, other hand, Rome is a 2hrs trek each way. On the other, other, other hand, the next 2 ports are new ports to us in France followed by Barcelona (which we adore), so we made the decision to walk around Civitavecchia and allow the day to find its own rhythm.

We got off the ship early and took the shuttle to town. There are 3 cruise ships in port so we anticipated a crowd. We were pleasantly wrong. It was still chilly, so not ideal for exploration. We made a loop around the various parts of the town hunting for the marketplace. Google maps is outstanding, even in foreign countries. We found it but unfortunately it was not going to open today.

We found a museum and decided for 3 euro each, we'd see some interesting artifacts and warm up a bit. Mission accomplished. By the time we exited, we noticed an improvement in the temperature. After more exploration, we decided to head back to the shuttle area to investigate some of the tour options locals were selling. There was still plenty of time to do something more fun and adventurous.

Here is a montage of pics from our morning walking tour.

Back at the port, I've mentioned in previous posts, local tour companies and individuals sell various excursions to cruise passengers as they exit the terminal. Taxi tours, hop on hop offs, and in this case, transportation to/from Rome were all available. Prices are more than half off the Princess excursions cost. That's the incentive, but there are obvious risks doing it on your own....especially to a destination 2hrs away. I'll discuss excursion planning more in my Lessons Learned posts during our transatlantic week. Suffice it to say, none of them sounded appealing. We really hoped Princess or an independent operator would offer a Tuscan excursion to a winery and cheese tour, but that didn't pan out.

Soooooo, we decided to do another loop around the city but this time, be more exploratory, inquisitive and engage locals with questions. It's amazing what you stumble into when allow fate to happen.

It started as we re-approached the market square where 1 shop appeared to be opening. We ducked under the partially open garage door and began to oogle the beautiful aged meats and cheeses. The owner, in broken English, apologized for not being open, he was just there to shave off some Parma de ham for his family gathering. We nodded and smiled and started to leave when he offered us some of this delicacy. It really was delicious, tender and not too salty. After a "mille gratzi", we continued our trek.

Shortly thereafter, we passed an older gentleman out for his morning walk. As we passed, I gave him a nod and a smile, partly conveying "good morning" and partly apologizing for the insinuation he was walking too slow. As I took a pic of an interesting wall and gate, clearly older than its surrounding structures, he began to explain the significance of it.....in Italian. Our spanish helped us pick out a few words but we clearly missed the details. He recommended we walk to the oldest part of town, from medieval times, if we wanted good pics. We struggled to make out the directions so he decided to lead us there. We introduced ourselves. His name was Eduardo, pronounced ed-U-ardo and he told us he was 80 years old. He took us to 3 or 4 of his favorite spots with the oldest structures and then bid us good day with a hearty handshake.

As we got close to the pier, we noticed an older woman struggling with her cane and a bag. As we passed, her cane fell. We stopped and picked it up for her. She handed us her bag and in Italian combined with hand gestures conveyed that she would like us to put her bag in the back seat of her new fiat, which we obliged. She blew us a kiss of thanks along with an italian thank you, and we returned to our trek.

All in all, mission accomplished. Our 2nd loop was much more intimate and made us happy we chose a quiet self tour over another trip to Rome. BUT if you've not been to Rome, it's a must see, bucket list, iconic place to visit. Here are some of my favorite Rome pics from our 2016 trip, including the Vatican and the coliseum.

Lastly, my buddy Scott sent me this pic from yesterday's tour of Naples. As much as I want to be an "eat-to-live" person, I'm a "live-to-eat" guy at heart so I'm gonna embrace how happy I was when my pizza arrived. I almost finished the whole thing.

Hasta manana. !!!