Italy day 5 and 6: Cruising

On Sunday, we scrambled out of bed and headed to the Florence train station - late as usual. We were running with our 3 roller bags and 2 shoulder bags, bouncing along the cobblestone streets while desperately looking for a taxi (to no avail). We actually made it to the train station with more time than we thought - and then found out that our train was delayed for 25 minutes. Hurry up and wait! The train ride to Rome was very relaxing - we were on the high speed train (155 mph) in first class, so we had plenty of room to put our luggage in storage, and comfy seats and snacks. Transferring to the Civitiavecchia train in Rome was a different story though. When we arrived in Roma Termini, we had 4 minutes to catch the train to Civitavecchia (where our cruise leaves from). The train was leaving from platform 27 - and the platforms where we were standing were numbered from 1 to 24. It turns out that 25-29 were in a different section of the terminal which is about a 10 minute walk from where we arrived. We rushed there as fast as we could, just in time to see the train slowly pulling away. Bummer, but not catastrophic - there was one more train leaving in time to catch our cruise (normally there would be several other trains, but they run fewer trains on Sunday). We waited at that area and watched the monitors to see which platform the next train would leave from, and about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure, the computer running the display crashed and displayed a test pattern. We went over the station attendant to ask if he knew which platform to go to, and he said, "no, but probably one of these 5 platforms." Not that helpful, but that seems to be the attitude in Italy - wait around and hope that you're fortunate. I noticed that they rebooted the computer running the display (watching the boot up screen showed that it's a 75MHz 386 running Linux - this machine was obsolete when I was in high school!), but it crashed again immediately after restarting. Go figure. We started feeling a little nervous because the train had still not arrived, and the attendant was no help at all, when a tiny Italian woman walked up to us and asked if we were going to Civitavecchia. When we told her si, we were, she told us that it was leaving from platform 21 (10 minutes away). Lisa and I weren't sure whether to head over there or not - the train was scheduled to leave in about 12 minutes, and the attendant had told us it would probably leave from where we were standing. The little woman made the decision for us when she said "Pronto! Pronto!" and grabbed one of our bags and told us to follow her. I was shocked when Lisa (who's always on the lookout for a scam) started following the woman, so I followed too, knowing that at least I couldn't be blamed for being a gullible sucker. Sure enough, we arrived at platform 21 and boarded the train to Civitavecchia about a minute before it left the station (and Lisa gave the woman a very nice tip). Score: Italian train system 0 / Random local woman: 1.

The day was blissfully uneventful after that - we boarded the ship, Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas, without problems. Our room, 9502, is located at the very front of the ship directly under the bridge - so a first hand look at where we're heading at all times. Upon leaving shore we stood out on the helicopter pad at the front and received a welcome from the Captain himself when he pulled up the blinds on the bridge to give us a wave! We realized then how the 'usual' doesn't apply to our vacations - most folks were already hunkered down in the bars having drinks and food while we were only joined by two other people on the helicopter pad enjoying the views. In reflection, we also realized that in Florence we chose not to sit in long lines (probably over 1 1/2 hours long) to see the inside of the Duomo or the cathedral.. but rather head to empty the museum where most of the original artwork was moved before the renovation of the cathedral. Furthermore, while most cruisers seem to have chosen to contuine to sit in the bars and head right for the ship's shops as the duty free opened, we toured the boat and settled in the library to quiz each other on Royal Caribbean's daily quiz about the solar system.






Our room is on the top row, second from the right.



When we pulled away from the port, the wind was so strong it was hard to stand upright!




For dinner that night, we met the other couples at our assigned seating dining table. Tony and Tonya are newlyweds from Orange County, California. She works in HR and he is a postman, and going to school to get his AA degree. They are a fun-loving couple who are very enjoyable to talk to. Then there are Luis and Maria. He's a 15 year navy veteran who works as a medical supply officer aboard the hospital ship "Comfort", and she is the mother of three grown boys and very sociable. They live in D.C., and he just finished two consecutive deployments in the water around South America. They also lived in Naples, Italy for several years in the 1990's, and so they had a lot of interesting stories and advice to tell us about Italy.

We thought of Julia when we saw the naming theme for the dinner areas - the dining rooms are Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Swan Lake. We are in the Swan Lake dining room, which is the top level with nice views at sunset.
We had our first good nights sleep of the trip - no fighting neighbors in the street outside our window, street sweeping, ambulances and mopeds! In the morning we landed in Messina, Sicily and left with our tour group to Taormina. This is an ancient but inhabited city about 45 minutes away from the port. The bus ride there was very informative, as our guide told us all about the island and its history. In Taormina, we followed a very crowded route through the main street of the town, that led us past a few churches and many touristy shops. This part was a little frustrating, because we could not hear the guide at all (we had earpieces and she was speaking through a wireless microphone, but the connection was bad and it was just too noisy), and we were pressed shoulder to shoulder as we shuffled along the street. At one point, a taxi pulled up behind us - this was just hilarious when you realize how crowded the street was. We didn't worry about moving out of the way - we just let the taxi follow us at our walking speed. What did make the trip really great was when we got to the Greek Theater at the end of the street. This is an ancient stone amphitheater with stone seating, and they've build a modern stage where they still hold outdoor performances. The best part of the theater, though, is the elevation above the town, the sea, and the surrounding areas. From here we could see the entire coast of Sicily, and Mount Aetna covered with snow across the valley from us. Mount Aetna is an active volcano, last having erupted in 1991 coming only a few miles from the local town.

















After our return to the port city of Messina, we walked around just a bit to see the local port town. Most things were already closed (in typical Italian fashion) however we realized this island of Sicily does not identify themselves with the Italians in any fashion. They call themselves Sicilians and tend to believe they operatate completely separately from the mainland of Italy. In recent years it was proposed to build a bridge connecting the mainland to Sicily cutting a current 30 minute ferry ride into a 10 minute drive, however the government and Sicilian people keep fighting this effort claiming they don't have the money for the bridge and that the threat of earthquake activity would be detrimental to it's structure. Messina is much larger than we anticipated (with over 50,000 at the local university), however it feels like a small town.
Just before we reboarded the ship we enjoyed a canolli from a local bakery (one of the few places open - but WOW what a canolli) and a short visit to a church with a spectacular bell tower run on a mechnanism that made bronze sculptures outside the town move in animation.






After re-boarding the ship, we went to an "international line dancing" class and had a great time - sorry no pictures! After that, Jesse entered the adults ping pong tournament and finished with a disappointing 3rd place finish - but there's another tournament later this week, much to Lisa's dismay.



We ended the day with a formal evening of dinner onboard and a show. After the show we headed to our rooms as it started getting a bit rocky. By midnight the ship was really rocking and by 3am we were sailing under 50mph gusts from the southeast. Jesse slept well while Lisa was awakened by the rocking (and the creaking of the ship under pressure and the loud wind) several times during the night.


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