Day 4. Rome-Civitaveccia-Seabourn Pride

yum donuts.

This morning, we woke up before the sun did!!! Think we are still adjusting to the time change. The birds started chirping very early and were keen to get the day started, so we watched the sunrise again. Breakfast was delicious. Surprise surprise, Cory managed to find some donuts !!! The coffee is SOOOOOOooooo good in Rome. Now I understand why the Italians are such coffee snobs.

With a few hours before we had to leave Rome, we decided to visit the Villa Borgese gardens. It is the second largest park in Rome covering 83 hectares. It was a touch of paradise away from all the buzz in the city and a lovely way to spend the morning...

We headed back to the hotel and picked up our bits and pieces. For some reason, our baggage seems to have gotten heavier and heavier... We hauled all of it around the corner to the train station and waited for our train to the cruise port, Civetavicia. There were lots of gypsys looking for tourists to con at the Rome termini and lots of beggars as well. The police were constantly chasing after one or the other. It was amusing to watch, but we held tight to our bags. The train turned up and there did not seem to be that many people getting on, but it felt as though the train was pretty packed. It was very comfortable though, and  it zoomed through the Roman suburbs and countryside to the port. This was a train bound for Milan via the coast, so faster than normal. It was very exciting to catch our first glimpses on the Mediterranean as we approached the port.

The train journey from Rome to Civitavechia

The Seabourn Pride was parked at the front of a few ships and looked very proud indeed. Much smaller than the others though, which Cory pointed out very quickly. ;) The welcome was amazing and very personal, like we were joining a family at their home. Champagne was flowing and the white gloved crew were very attentive indeed. On this ship, registration etc is done on board. This was in the show lounge where all the passengers were busy sizing each other up. We heard lots of accents and saw a generous smattering of M2M couples amongst the crowd. There was only one child, who we later found out was traveling with the Captain... There are 196 passengers on board, so almost a full ship. Thats slightly more than we carry in a 737, so not many at all really.... We settled in quickly and it wasn’t long before the Captain was giving his spiel, warning of a choppy sea in front of us for tonight. His advice was to take a sea sickness pill to avoid a night of nausea.  

We decided to have a little afternoon tea, which was little sandwiches and scones. YUM! It wasn’t long before we were being pulled away from the pier by a tugboat. (The old gag: Anyone for a tug? did bring a smile to my face. LOL).

We passed the HAL Maasdam, a ship we would love to go on one day! We were headed for Naples, and the bumps did not take long to start!!!!