Back to Civitaveccia

We entered Roma Termini through the main doors since we had no idea which platform our train would be departing from. Turns out that it was from binario 25 … in the same area where we detrained this morning at binario 28.

The access doors to those platforms from inside Termini were all locked up. So, we had to detour through the shopping area and then had to run to make the train on time. Had we entered the way we exited Termini this morning — through a side door — we would have saved ourselves a whole bunch of running.

Nonetheless, we made the train with two minutes to spare and hopped on the first car we came to. Even as the train began moving, we were using the interior access doors to make our way forward to an upper seating area where we were the only passengers for most of the way to Civitavecchia. Luckily, we had validated our tickets when we first came out to the platforms. Otherwise, we would have missed the train for sure.

It was 6:15p when we detrained at Civitavecchia Station. We had over two hours before all aboard. So, instead of taking the port connection bus back to the ship, we walked back to the Della Pace shuttle station. Rather than following the waterfront, however, we walked along the wide pavement lined with shops and restaurants … the latter filled with people enjoying a night out on town We took our time, enjoying the Saturday night, party-time ambiance of the city. We even stopped at Bar Danilo, where we always get gelato when we are in Civitavecchia … a sweet treat to wrap up our day.

We arrived at Della Pace to find it deserted. At least that was the impression we got. But seeing someone walking in ahead of us, we followed. The attendant, who was sitting in his car, watching a soccer game on his phone, asked if we were headed to Oosterdam. At our confirming nod, he checked our ship IDs and directed us to the appropriate lane to wait for the next bus … which arrived about 10 minutes later. Whew! No need to walk back into town to catch the port connection.

It was a little after 7:30p when we embarked the ship … with still an hour to spare before the stated all aboard … plenty of time to enjoy the veranda.

Oosterdam moved out of its berth at 9:08p … slightly behind schedule.

No matter, we don’t have that far to go to get to Livorno … our last port of call in Italy,Read more