Day 106 - Thursday April 13

Rome photos
position at 6:30am: N42 05.38 latitude E11 46.49 longitude
(Civitavecchia, Italy - port for Rome)
temperature: 48F, 85% humidity, clear
distance since FLL: 34,069 miles
Clay had an abbreviated walk on deck so he could be back in the room by 6am to make sure Debbie didn't ignore the alarm. The sun came up after 6am this morning and the moon was still almost full. The full moon and clear skies made for a river of moonlight on sea as we came into port. The pilot came aboard just before 6am and we were docked starboard side by 6:30am. We had a quick breakfast in LaVeranda which opened at 6:30am because of the 290 some people disembarking here today. Clay had his usual eggs and Debbie had a ham and cheese omelet with an English Muffin. Fuel for a hard day!
We are in Rome today and are taking a private train into Rome (about an hour away) set up by Regent. The reason for taking this sort of costly train ride is to avoid any surprise Italian train strikes or other transportation snafus on this Easter week Thursday. If there is some kind of problem, it will be the ship's problem, not ours. Here is the description of this 'tour offering'.
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Rome Express - Exclusive Train Transfer

Duration: 9 Hours.
Seated, Wheelchair.


This tour transfer will allow you to explore the fascination of Rome on your own by taking a private train transfer to downtown Rome. Let your instinct guide you and decide which one of Rome's beautiful monuments you would like to visit. An escort will meet you pier side and transfer you to the train departure point. You will reach Rome from Civitavecchia Port by train the exclusive "Rome Express". An escort will help you on board the train and will provide city maps.
The train will stop at St. Peter's Station, near the town center and Basilica so that it will be easy for you to reach the main monuments. Please remember where you are dropped off because the train will leave for Civitavecchia port from the same station.
Please note: If you decide to visit St. Peter's Basilica (or the Vatican Museum) long pants for men are required; no shorts, miniskirts, sleeveless tops or other revealing clothes for ladies are allowed. The train portion of this transfer is 60 minutes.
price: $69 pp
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Let us start by saying that the description above does not do justice to the product provided. This was definitely a value-added offering. We thought they meant a private car on one of the many trains that goes back and forth from Civitavecchia and Rome. NO! They mean a private train from the port! This was a single car with a driving compartment at either end. How did it run? No idea. It could have been electric. It was beautifully furnished with sections of 4 seats, 2 abreast, facing each other on opposite sides of a central aisle. The seats were red leather and very comfortable. A little more leg room would have been desirable, but this was very nice. Only 25 people had signed up for this. Only 23 made it and we held the bus an extra 10 minutes for the last 2 to make it. We have had some hard days recently and some people just couldn't get started this morning. The guide said they usually have multiple cars but for us they only had the one. We boarded in the center and they shunted us all to the back half. The front half was closed. There was a small lavatory in the center section. The big surprise was as the guide was touting restaurants and taxis that she asked if we wanted breakfast. Well, everyone had just eaten. So, the answer was a unanimous no. In came 2 of the wait staff from Voyager with glasses of orange juice and coffee and a tray of pastries from the ship. This was a very nice touch. If RSSC had put this information in the tour description they likely would have had many more takers because you could have had your breakfast during the hour of travel time and slept later. Plus, it was not what we had understood it to be. We thought it was just a bus ride to the train station at Civitavecchia and a private train car on a regularly scheduled train with a guide on board the train. This was pampering. The only misstep that we perceived was that the guide told everyone that they could not walk anywhere from St. Peter's train station or get to public transit. Well, buses stopped right in front and the Metro map that was on the map she provided us showed a pedestrian tunnel between this FS station and the Metro station. We could not find a sign for the Metro stop nor could we find a street sign that matched any on her map and she refused to tell us which direction to walk and instead insisted that we all wait for the cabs to arrive that she had called. No thanks. We could see St. Peter's so we just started walking. Alex, a former distinguised gent, and present sports director onboard had heard us tell the guide that we planned to go to the Colosseum and that was what he wanted to do as well. He asked to share a cab with us. We told him were planning to take the subway and showed him on the map how we planned to walk back through the Forum, visit the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and then depending on the time we would either walk on, take a cab, return to the subway, etc. He had never been to Rome and said that sounded good to him and he asked if he could tag along with us today and we let him. We had not planned to walk through the Vatican City though. We had hoped to stay clear because of crowds related to Easter weekend starting tomorrow. But, since we got off to a loose ends start, we gave Alex a free visit to an extra country. He would have liked to go inside the Basilica but he was wearing shorts and while we walked through the big TV screens were broadcasting the Pope's service inside. He got a lot of pictures though and so did we. This was fun because we could take pictures of each other for each other. We probably have more pictures of the 2 of us together here than anywhere else we have been. (It should also be said the tour description was not accurate when it stated that you would be dropped near the center of town. Only the Vatican is on this side of the river and all the other main monuments are on the other side and not near by.) The regular price for the public train is 9 Euros, so maybe the added value was not 60 Euros per person, but we are happy with our choice here and would recommend it to others.
We had a good time in Rome. This was a short day here with the hour or so to travel to and from. We were on the Metro at 9:56am which was about 2 hours after we boarded the bus at the pier. We did spend about 20 minutes walking to the Ottaviano Metro station though. The Metro ride to Colosseo stop was only about 10 minutes. Cost was 1 Euro each, a sustantial savings over a taxi! We saw the long line at the Colosseum and heard the wait to enter was about 45 minutes and we all agreed to try to get in quicker by paying a guide. We did not have to try hard to find one. They wanted 9 Euros more than the price of admission per person. OK, fair enough. They would have also guided us through Palatine Hill for this same price but we did not have time to do that and anything else so we all decided not to do it. The guide was good and did add value to the visit. We waited long enough for the tour to begin though that we all got worried that we had perhaps been hustled. It was still quicker than waiting in the line for single tickets to enter. The walk was good. The morning started out with the temperature in the 40s and the predicted high for the day was only 60 degrees F. It was also windy so it felt much colder in the morning. By the time we left the Colosseum, it was early afternoon. The sun was bright and the wind had died down. By the time we crossed the Roman Forum, we were all stripping off jackets. We walked behind the Vittorio Emanuelle II monument through a beautiful square containing the Capitolini Museum. We walked on to the Pantheon and passed through a square filled with ruins and cats, called Largo di Torre Argentina. On the way we stopped and got gelati. Alex had never had it and wasn't sure but he bought the biggest one of all of us! Clay had bacio and Debbie had Rosa (flavored with roses! yum). Alex got a big mixed one with chocolate and something else. He really liked it. Then we were in the Piazza del Rotunda in front of the Pantheon. We wandered the square finishing our gelati to enter and Alex visited with some people from the ship who were dining al fresco. The Pantheon was just beautiful and amazing. Vittorio Emmanuelle is entombed in there. Didn't know that before. Then we walked on to Piazza Navona. It really is the most beautiful plaza. Then we walked towards the river and crossed it on the Ponte Umberto I bridge. There was a lovely tree-lined walk to the Castel San Angelo and then straight ahead to St. Peter's Basilica. We walked through the St. Peter's Plaza again and back down to the train station. Again, we got a little lost because the streets around where it is marked on the map are not on the map! We found it and were there at 3:05pm, 25 minutes early for our appointed rendezvous with the guide. Clay went looking for a takeout restaurant and walked to a supermarket and brought back a good white chocolate candy bar. Debbie pointed out that when the bus pulled away there was a bar and grill across the street from where we were gathered and he went over and bought us a ham and cheese panini at the train station. We ate it while waiting for the guide to show up. She appeared as we were finishing it. We reboarded our private train and were met with the 2 Voyager waitstaff with trays of champagne. (We really could have used some of those wet towels!) Then they came back after the train left the station and offered soft drinks or juice. The guide came around and handed out pre-moistened towelletes and amaretti cookies. Most people fell asleep pretty quickly and the guide did not speak. She did pass out comment forms for her company, Sea Train, and the Roma Express private train service. We passed the Civatitavecchia train station again and entered the port area. This time they dropped us much closer to the ship and a complimentary port shuttle bus returned us to the ship. We were back aboard by 5:15pm, just before the 5:30pm all aboard. We sailed right on schedule at 6pm.
Tonight is Country Club Casual. We will probably go to Compass Rose. We did. We only had a main course and left. We are running out of eating steam! Clay had a sirloin steak. There was no Filet Mignon offered tonight, but Debbie did go for one of the offered main courses on the inside of the menu. She had chicken breast wrapped around prosciutto and mozzarella with risotto. Delicious. We were happy to see Ricardo, the wine steward, back in Compass Rose. We had grown fond of Oner though and don't know if he transferred to another restaurant now or if he is still in CR working a different area. We'll have to wait and find out.
Debbie only had one or two bad coughing fits today so she picked up the gym schedule after dinner and is dreaming of returning to the gym. We'll see.
Rome photos