First stop of this
cruise is the port of Civitavecchia, Italy.
The ship arrived before 6:30 a.m. Also in port were the Aida cruise
ship, Stella, with 2,700 passengers; the Norwegian cruise ship, Epic, with
4,100 passengers, several ferries and many container ships. The Pullmanur cruise ship, Sovereign, with
2,850 passengers sailed into port as we finished breakfast.
We ate breakfast in the Oceanview Café because of the
early start today. Sue and Suzanne
joined us part way through. They were
taking the same “Rome in a Day” tour so they met with us and Brendene and Brian
at 7:45 to get our ticket stickers for the bus assignment. The temperature was 16 C sunny with a few
horizon clouds and a light wind.
The bus left the port by 8:15. Our guide Enrica helped us
pronounce the port’s name, Civitavecchia. It is pronounced “Chee-vee-tah-vek-ee-ah”, with the accent on
the fourth syllable.
The drive to Rome took about 95 minutes, including a
restroom break. The highway had two toll booths - one as we left the port and
one as we got close to Rome. Enrica
informed us that we needed to be at Galleria St. Pedrio in St. Peter’s Square
no later than 4 p.m. She also gave us
some history and facts about bus drop-off and pickup stops. Before we left the
bus at each stop she repeated the return time and when we all were off the bus
she took us to the meeting point for that stop.
It was usually a five minute walk to where our bus was parked. The tour made three stops in Rome.
The bus passed the Aurelian city wall sections, built in
the late third century to replace earlier city walls; Pyramid Cestia, an
Egyptian-style pyramid tomb for Gaius Cestius between 18 and 12 BC, later part
of the city wall; and Saint Paul’s Gate, then drove up Via di Gregorio and we got
off the bus in front of the Arch of Constantine, which was built in celebration
of the 312 Battle of Milvian Bridge when Constantine defeated Maxentius.
The first stop was the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the
Colosseum and Roman Forum. The group of
51 were given 90 minutes to explore the area, some chose to brave the lines of
people to go inside of the Colosseum or Roman Forum. The oval shaped colosseum’s
actual name is Flavian Amphitheatre, named after the three emperors of the Flavian
rule. It was able to hold 50,000
people. The construction took from 72 AD
to AD 80. We walked around the perimeter
of the Roman Forum and Colosseum and along the ancient Via Sacre. So far about 4 miles accumulated.
The second stop was People’s Square. We walked through
the square with Brendene and Brian as we followed Via del Babuino to Piazza di
Spagna, where we saw the fountain at the foot of the Spanish Steps surrounded
by people and took pictures of it and the steps, also with masses of people
traversing them. We continued walking to Trevi Fountain where we found more
crowds, but took our photos. We still
had 50 minutes to return to the meeting point and find something to eat. We returned to People’s Square and found a
restaurant, but we found a little Gelati store with about two dozen
flavours. After checking in with Enrica
so she knew who had come to the meeting point, the group walked to the bus and
we drove to the final stop.
We continued the tour crossing the Tiber River then
passing St. Angelo’s Castle and its “secret passage” from Vatican City.
The third stop was the Vatican City. From the bus garage by Vatican City we
emerged onto Via della Concililiazione and turned left into St. Peter’s Square
and the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica. There was not enough time to buy
tickets, get into line and visit the interior of the church, but we wandered around
the square and then walked along Via della Concililiazione to St. Angelo’s
Castle and views of the Tiber River. Soon it was time to leave Rome and the
group was in the bus leaving the garage by 4:15 just a light rain shower
began. The traffic was slow in Rome, but
once we were on the toll road back to Civitavecchia the rain stopped. The trip was a few minutes longer than the
time into Rome.
We dropped the backpack in the stateroom and quickly got
ready for dinner.
·
More
detail to be added later.
Total walked today = 8.8 miles.
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