October 24 - Sunday - Arrive in Rome

Sleeping is not one of my better talents. It's true, I sleep deeply, but I generally sleep short. I woke up about 3:00 in the morning, took my pillow and a deck blanket and went out to the verandah. It was a beautiful early morning, the weather cool but the air and skies clear, and I was soon back to sleep. Sometime around 5:30 or 6:00, while it was still quite dark, I woke with a start as a boat speeded up to our ship. It was the pilot for the port at Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. I was awake from then on. I can't resist.

Soon I was rewarded with this view


Welcome to Rome (Civitavecchia Port)

I thought I could spy the cruise ship terminal in the distance, but I was wrong. What I saw was the ferry boat terminal. I watched in amazement as we backed and forwarded into our dock and at almost the same time this huge ferry comes in and backs up into the dock where I thought we would be.

Ferry backing into dock

I could see the men in the open area of the stern going up and down ladders and doing whatever they do before docking - I watched carefully because there were a few moments when I wondered if the ferry was going to crash into us. But no, in no time the ferry was neatly tucked away.

"Parking" score: 10+++

After we disembarked at 9:15, we boarded an hour's bus ride to the hotel. The first time in a new city is a neck craning event as we look this way and that and try to take in our new surroundings as quickly as possible. It's always fun to see what the streets are like, who's out, and generally take in the environment. This time, it's a Sunday morning, and most things are quiet.


Sunday morning in Rome

We knew we were staying at the Grand Hotel Parco dei Principi, and we knew it was on the northeast tip of the Villa Borghese (park), so we tried to watch the streets to see if we could recognize anything we expected to see. We didn't recognize a thing until we came to this more heavily wooded area and correctly guessed that it was the park. The driver dumped us off and we were here.

In strongly Italian-accented English, our HAL representative gave us a few short instructions about when breakfast was each day and the time we would need to be ready to leave on Thursday morning ... and, of course, it was all too much and we remembered only sketches of what she said. The best thing that happened was that I asked her for a second map for us because we both like to have maps, and she gave me a much better one than was in our little "welcome" kit. We've used that map consistently.

Amazingly, our room was ready for us. Our fellow passengers weren't so fortunate. We got our luggage up here, did a few necessary things, and out the door we were. I had Google directions to McDonalds, near the Spanish Steps, from my research at home, and we followed those.

What a confusing day, but confusion means that we're on our way to becoming unconfused. See more about our first day here in my "Interlude" post ...

The one thing I took a picture of, though, on our foray into the more southern depths of our section of Rome, was the Spanish Steps ...


Spanish Steps (Spagna)

That was an accomplishment for me!

(I had previously worried about doing 3-walker HAL tours, and was very surprised that I was more than able to do those. By comparison, this was a 5 to 6-walker tour. I've met my limit.)