Hotel Miramare Civitavecchia

I have been staying in a hostel since arriving in Rome…and this is my first time in a hostel too so I didn't know exactly what to expect. I was in the Alessandro Downtown Hostel which is very close to the Stazione Termini (the main train station in downtown Rome). I was pleasantly surprised too. I met a lot of people similar to me, as in still working from the road and traveling, not just drunk college kids. There ...

We are planning a couple of days in Viterbo now.<br>Chance to look around this lovely town with its Medieval district and also to visit Villa Lante<br>This is us parked under the walls of the town

... under white umbrellas with little gourds on the tables. A lunch special of 7 euros included marguerita pizza with a glass of white or red wine, or a plate of spaghetti. I had the pizza....YUM! Back to meet our driver Marco and an 80 mph ride back to Citavecchia and a last minute gelato stop. I know..how can you keep eating that stuff, but it was one of the best...pistachio and lemon for me. Bob is boring and got vanilla ...

... also remains of the old city walls, and a worthy fountain designed by Vanvitelli, close to the Fort and the old Roman harbour<br><br>Princess Cruise's had a regular shuttle going from the ship to a shuttle stop between the port gate and Forte Michelangelo. The downtown core of Civitavecchia was easy to walk. Beginning at the Port gate, we walked up the Largo Plebiscito, a popular walking mall consisting of retail stores ...

... 8211; what a beautiful city. We had booked a tour to the Amalfi drive that I had last visited in 1968 when I did the driving. It was a lot easier this time and the day was magnificent. Only down note was that we were supposed to lunch in Sorrento &#8211; that had to change literally at the last minute when ship workers went on strike and blocked the only road to Sorrento. Lunch was arranged hurriedly in Pompeii &#8211; the new city - and it ...

... streets and tried to stay in the shade.  We ate at a local restaurant and had a nice lunch, then decided to go to the Colosseum.  Along the way we saw a lot of the ruins from ancient Rome, pretty amazing.  We took the train back to the boat, then off to the Spa.  We both had much needed massages right before dinner and it was much needed after all the walking we did.  After dinner we went to ...

Widi and Frans are our cabin stewards. Every night we come back from <br>dinner and/or a show to find a different towel creature greeting us. <br>We have had a flounder, turtle, peacock, swan, snake and some others I <br>can't recall right now. The monkey is our favorite - even though it <br>scared Elise to death when she did not see it at first and bumped Into <br>him face-to-face. He has become a permanant fixture in ...

... pick us up at the bus stops whenever they find it convenient for them to get around to the area, they take 15 minute cig and lunch breaks, and they drive like lunatics, I dont think they require a liscence for this job. Sounds like a great job to me! Why go on strike?? Ok, I am bitter at the transportation here and probably always will be, so I will just continue with my adventure. Liz and I figured we could at least walk back to the tram and take that, because it was ...

... so clearly there. Its really unbelievable. I continued to be astonished. After that we had free time to wander around the city, and I as quite ready to do a little siteseeing on my own and have a time away from the big group. Unfortunately, our day in Rome fell on a Catholic holiday and the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museums were closed! It was a big bummer, but gave me time to do other things. I walked everywhere, just wandering the ...

... murder. We could not help feeling very strange as we wandered its corridors and dungeons. On a lighter note we went on to have a look at the Pantheon (Romes oldest workable building), the Trevi Fountain (which was not working) and the Spanish Steps (overrated). We arrived back at the campsite too late to order pizza so had to content ourselves with some bread rolls, a type of fritz and some cheese for our evening meal. Tomorrow we are off to Florence.