For our summer cruise a year later we had chosen a trip to the Baltic- Estonia, Sweden and Russia but as time went by we began to yearn to see Rome again and so canceled and instead found a cruise starting in Rome and visiting various Italian ports before terminating in Barcelona, Spain. Rome would be the only city we had visited before.We liked the idea of the warm Mediterranean with it's outdoor dining opportunities and ancient history, still alive today in the buildings left behind, over the cool of the Baltic.
We had been talking about Rome since our return home in late September. Neither of us had been in Italy for many years prior to that-in fact in my case my previous visit to Italy (Rimini) had been 49 years earlier!! How time flies...
To say we fell in love with Rome on that 2014 visit would be understating the matter. Every minute discovering that city was a joy.
Now with a new booking to arrange we immediately decided we would need two full days there before joining our ship in the port of Civitavecchia, 65 miles away.
As we would need transportation from the airport (Fumico) to our hotel and two days later a car from the hotel out to Civitavecchia I went on line and booked a car to do both using the excellent tour company Rome In Limo, which we had used a year before. The cost was $60 for the airport transfer and $160 to the port. You can pay in advance using a credit card. If you pay on the day you use their services you pay in Euros and we wanted to avoid carrying extra cash around when there was no need to.
With all the potential pickpockets in Rome awaiting our arrival the Euro cash we did take was carried in a money-belt I wore under my clothes and out of sight (and reach of pickpockets!).
We would need two hotels-one in Rome for two days and one in Barcelona for two days. For Rome we returned to Albergo del Senato which sits next to the Pantheon. It had been perfect for us a year before. For Barcelona I researched on Tripadvisor.com and found a classic elegant hotel which had been in business for 100 years-Hotel Majestic.
*This cruise was planned in March 2015 when we found we didn't have tickets to the Bayreuth Festival in Germany (see my first blog of the Festival in 2013) and Plan B was a cruise. The Baltic cruise we had originally booked and expected to cancel in favor of Bayreuth was now canceled in favor of Rome to Barcelona.
The itinerary which the cruise line changed when Tunis was considered too dangerous after some cruise passengers on MSC cruises were murdered by terrorists as they visited a museum. Salerno, near Naples, Italy would be substituted.
An app called Shipmate on my phone kept a countdown for us
A weather app promised good weather in Rome during our weekend visit
When Wednesday September 23 finally came we were in O'Hare airport in Chicago waiting for our evening flight to Rome
Our aircraft was waiting for us
And soon we were out on the runway as the sun was setting
Carol was anticipating what lay ahead after a 9 hour direct flight to Rome
And we are taking off on what should be another great adventure!
Arrivederci Chicago!
By the time we had finished breakfast the West coast of Italy, North of Rome was appearing below us
(above us and it would have been a problem!)
And we are landing
The hardest part of our journey is over as we wait in a crowd for our luggage. Once we had our bags we would exit Baggage Claim and find our Rome in Limo driver waiting for us...
Next up- Rome!
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