Cruise Day 6: Civitavecchia

The ship docked in the port of Rome today. Civitavecchia is actually an hour away from the city of Rome, but it's the closest port, or at least it's the one we used. Since we've been to Rome several times before and seen a lot of it, we decided to visit the ancient port city Ostia (now called Ostia Antica) that sits at the mouth of the Tiber river. The Roman ruins there are fairly well preserved and there are some large mosaics and intact buildings worth a visit.
May 20, 2010

The ship docked in the port of Rome today. Civitavecchia is actually an hour away from the city of Rome, but it's the closest port, or at least it's the one we used. Since we've been to Rome several times before and seen a lot of it, we decided to visit the ancient port city Ostia (now called Ostia Antica) that sits at the mouth of the Tiber river. The Roman ruins there are fairly well preserved and there are some large mosaics and intact buildings worth a visit.

Civitavecchia, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We thought to save time this morning by ordering breakfast from room service, and thus I was finally able to get my granola with fruit and yogurt without having it all blended together, or with milk added in, or any of the other ways I keep encountering when trying to get this simple breakfast dish. Why do they need to make it more complicated than it is? Even still, I failed to specify plain, unsweetened yogurt, so I wound up with black cherry sugared yogurt, which wasn't bad, just not what I'm looking for.

After breakfast, we rushed out of the boat and took a shuttle to the end of the pier, which took about 15 minutes. It's walkable, but takes about a half hour to get from boat to the end of the pier, and then whether arriving by shuttle or on foot, it's still another 20 minutes to the train station from there.

We took the train in to Roma Termini and went straight to our favorite pasticceria (U. Giuliani's - it's got a big green sign) and had caffe and croissant and some glacéed clementines for us and for later and for our hall neighbors, Mike, Michelle, and their kids Collin and Shane. Then back to the Termini train station to take the metro another train station and from there we caught another train to Ostia. We used all this travel time to write journal entries and read books or nap, and then we arrived at the ancient port.
[If anyone can tell us how to make these glaceed oranges, we'd really, really like to know. We've made some attempts, but they've never turned out right. --Ryan]

From Cruise 2010 - Ports

A map of the ruins was an additional 2€. We bought one even though it only gave names and not descriptions of the buildings because we had the Lonely Planet PDFs on Ryan's iPod for those. There's a large bath (in fact there are several in Ostia) built by Hadrian, with an impressively large mosaic of Neptune and his tritons. We went into an ancient restaurant with a nice fresco of the daily menu still painted on the wall, and a bar of marble in the kitchen where some customers probably sat and drank or placed orders while they were waiting to be seated. We explored some underground tunnels that were probably ancient waterways or something. They were larger than I would imagine for sewers, and shored up in more recent times, but still fun to poke around in the dark with a flashlight. We had to roll up our jeans because of the deep puddles of water in the tunnels. We explored for about two and a half hours, and then, disappointingly, it was time to leave. [Interesting to me was the storefronts that had small mosaics in the front to indicate what they were selling. --Ryan]

From Cruise 2010 - Ports

Tunnels under the baths, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Bath mosaic, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We took the train back to Rome and then the subway to the Pantheon stop where we were to get some gelato. I couldn't remember the specific gelateria so Ryan confused me when he went into the first shop we passed and ordered a single scoop ice cream cone. I had some lactaid pills with me specifically for the indulgence of this superb gelato, and now we were in the wrong shop, and ordered some myself. Once I'd paid for my double-scoop cone, Ryan said, you know we're getting gelato again in about thirty minutes. Boy was I mad. What are you doing, going into the wrong store then and suggesting this was our specific destination? I didn't know you didn't remember the name of the shop, etc. I was furious because I'd wasted my one ice cream for the day on this inferior stuff (it was too soft and the flavors weren't great, just good) and then by the time we sorted everything out my stomach was rumbling in an unpleasant way telling me it couldn't stand any more dairy, even with the pill I'd taken.

We went to the Pantheon and saw the impressiveness of it (again, we've been before, of course), and I dream of someday the Roman Catholic church taking their tacky candles out and restoring the alcoves to statues of the Roman gods. I suppose that's never going to happen.

Pantheon oculus, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

After the Pantheon, we went to the proper gelateria. Now I recognize it. Now I remember it. Too bad my stomach is still upset at me, and I'm still upset at it. I sit on the step while Ryan picks out his favorite flavors. Ryan enjoys his ice cream while we had back to the subway, my stomach still terrorizing me with its borborygmous turbulence. Finally, I've had enough. I can't stand being in Rome on a single serendipitous day and ruining the chance to have some excellent gelato. Ryan was happy to turn back, even though before he'd acted like we were in a rush, and I got some gelato: licorice, caffe espresso and pistachio bronte (bronti?), which I think had a crisp crunch in it and some chocolate swirl. Fortunately I had a second lactaid, and even though I broke my rule of only one ice cream a day, I was happy to make this exception.

From Cruise 2010 - Ports

We tossed a couple coins in the Trevi fountain and then took the train back to Civitavecchia again. Once there, we spent about a half hour uploading prior days' blog entries and then reboarded the Magic and got ready for dinner.

Coins for the Trevi fountain, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Tonight's theme was Master Chef, and we ordered pheasant for supper. I don't remember the other items (appetizers and salads), nor the dessert. We're trying to get our hands on some menus to help us out with the earlier dinners when we weren't diligent recordkeepers. Peter Pan showed up during dinner and startled guests everywhere with his exceedingly quick movements. We posed for a photo (why not?) and he dashed away again.

After dinner, we tried to meet up with Jenna, Chris and Evan, but the pool was taken over by teenagers having a party. I think those three had come, seen the crowds and left, but Ryan and I swam in the pool a bit while Wall-E played on the big outdoor screen, and then once there was room, we went into the hot tub. Some of the teens returned to the hot tub and we chatted with a couple of them. The movie was almost over by the time we arrived (our dinner table is always slow) and we left once the movie was over because the night had turned cold and windy.