Day 13 (Tuesday 19 Nov 19) Port of Civitavevcchia and Rome

Firstly there is no way to see all highlights in 5 hours. The port of Civitavevcchia is nearly 1 1/2 hours away from Rome. The Port is industrial (as you would expect) and a curious mix of old and new. We chose to find our own way to Rome through a travel company called “Shore Excursions” who promise to get you back to port in time or take you to the next port. Sadly for us, the ship cut our time in port by 1 1/2 hours so our visit was going to be even tighter. 

As it turned out, our travel company is broker for other firms which made sense in their hopeless responses for timings and information. We were lucky,  the actual firms doing the tour (SIT shuttle buses and Big Bus Rome) were very good to deal with. However with three hours of travelling (one and a half hours each way) to and from Rome, it meant that we had only 5 hours in Rome (10:30am to 3:30pm).

Rome is impressive. It extremely busy but the central section of old Rome is clean and in good repair. The very opposite of Athens in terms of look and feel. Ancient buildings are on almost every street corner. Our hop on hop off bus was well run but sadly we found out after the Colleseum it 
only went in one direction (1 hour 40 minutes circuit) which blew up our carefully planned day. As result, we spent 2 hours in Colosseum and rode the bus to pickup point near Termini train station.  The bus tour showed most of important landmarks with a great commentary but we didn’t get up close and personal as planned. what will saw from the open air bus was impressive. 

The Colosseum is huge and impressive. Good tours last 3-4 hours and we believe it. The sheer size of it and when it was built numbs the mind. The purpose of Colosseum is sobering and terrifying if you were “on the schedule to perform”, however if you were a citizen, we imagine you would feel powerful and proud. 

We wandered around the Colosseum and forum area dodging scammers, beggars (Nigerians and old ladies), and street hawkers. Painful people! Often very aggressive when a purchase is not made.  

The city is beautiful and impressive. We believe based on the feedback from experienced visitors to Rome that you would need 3-5 days to see most of it.

The Italian government obviously takes terrorism fairly seriously because at each cities large tourist attractions we have visited, we have seen watchful but friendly armed troops carrying automatic weapons at the ready. 

Of course, we tried the local pizza which is superior to anything we have tasted in Australia restaurants. Our pizzas are very much overloaded with everything by Italian standards. The pizza base was thick but yummy and filling. 

 

We will be back. 😀

On return to the ship we dined and took in a show. A bid day!