Tuesday 21 May 2013. The Thomson Dream sails into Civitavecchia - practice it - Si-vi-tav-ecky-a with the emphasis on the "eck".
Early morning before breakfast. David: "half past three, we've been up since!!!"
Jeannie: "No we haven't! Well whatever - they were up before us and this is still only around half past seven.
The captain is manoeuvring us into position. Carnival Sunshine is to the left in front of us with Aida Vita about to come past us on the starboard side. But... we're off to breakfast!
A lot of passengers are off on tours to Rome today but we have decided that we want to do Rome a little less frantically so a future trip for a few days is being talked about. Today we'll go for a wander round Civitavecchia - say it - Civitavecchia... very good...
Miss Franny and I have been here before once, but I only managed a wander round the outside of the fortress. Today we go in. A uniformed official comes out of a building and starts calling out, walking towards us purposefully.
"Should we not be here?" I ask. "No..." We go out again. Didn't want to look round the silly castle anyway...
In our defence I would note that David had said something like "Pose..." We had a wander up through the town, coming to a local market which felt all cultural and had some colourful displays of goods and fruit. It wasn't a touristy type place though so we made our way down to the sea front and walked for a little while.
I hadn't taken my camera out, only the sketch pad. The sea front was modern and tidy - but not jazzed up for tourists. I suppose the vast majority of cruisers arrive merely to step on a coach or train and head off for Rome. This took a whole ten minutes and another ten to finish off once back on the ship. And it's still crap...
The one attempt to brighten up the seafront was this huge statue based on the famous photo of an American sailor (David: how can you take anyone wearing a hat like that seriously...") kissing a girl at the end of WWII.
Sigh... oh alright I did a funny pose too... Several of the crew from the ship (well... a ship...) came down to do the same. Civitavecchia (go on... one last time...) Civitavecchia's main contribution to tourism.
Once back onboard Miss Franny tested the temperature of the jacuzzi. No... It wasn't switched on anyway... What, Miss Franny? Cold...? Yes it is isn't it?
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