cruisegal415

Our upcoming cruise in the Riviera has us getting into Civitavecchia at 8 am on August 24th. We stay there overnight and the next day, the cruise ends and we disembark, get a transfer to the airport and fly home. Since there was nothing we wanted to see in or near Civitavecchia, we thought we would just disembark on the 24th, transfer to Rome, spend the day there, and return to a hotel by the airport that night so we can catch our flight early the next morning. I spoke with someone at Oceania, who said, yes, we can disembark a day early, we just have to let the front desk know when we check in. However, I didn't ask what time we would be able to disembark. There was a tour that we really wanted to take in Rome that was booked up during the pre-cruise days that we will be in Rome, but is available on the 24th, at 11 am. Now I'm worried that will not give us enough time to complete the disembarkation process, get to the hotel to drop our bags, and make our way in to Rome for the tour. Does any one know, if you disembark a day early, how early in the morning they let you leave?

Actually just got notified that my tour was cancelled, apparently they were full when Viator took my reservation. GRRRRr

Got this from Rome Transfers:

I actually found one through TripAdvisor, and I wasn't sure if it was the actual Scavi tour but it is tickets through Vatican tickets and I called to double check.

We are returning from a cruise and looking for a place to stay for one night in Rome. Our flight out the next morning is at 10:30. The Hilton Garden Inn in Rome is 10 minutes from the airport, and offers free shuttles, but if we stay there, we'd have to pay about $100 in cab fare (RT) to go in to Rome for the day. Hilton Rome is located in the terminal, it says, does not offer a shuttle, but is a 10 minute walk to the terminal, according to their website. However, they offer a free shuttle from the hotel to downtown Rome, which would save us about $100. Our concern is, we are not youngsters and do not travel "light." Each of us will have one large suitcase, one carry on and one personal item. Does anyone know if the ten minute walk from the Hilton (not the Hilton Garden Inn) is do-able? Are there suitcase trollies available to use? Is it a straight ten minute walk, or will we have to navigate steps? Alternatively, if we opt to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn, which does not offer free shuttle service to downtown Rome, is the train station nearby?

Great! Booked a SCAVI tour and the Galleri8a Borghese. Thanks!

At the risk of being accused of hijacking this thread (don't mean to!) I was looking at options for a day trip from Civitavecchia since our cruise in August returns there a day earlier and since we're pre-cruising in Rome we didn't want to go back there that day since we'll be returning to FCO the next day. The day trips I found from Civitavecchia are to Tarquinia including the Underground City of Etruscopolis, or to Tuscany, or to Orvieta. Comparing Tarquina to Orvieta for a day trip, which do you recommend?

A day in Tivoli sounds promising--Villa D'Este and Villla Adriana sound lovely!

I have been looking for a shore excursion from Amalfi that would allow us to maybe take a boat ride along Capri, maybe have some time in Capri and/or Anacapri and also spend some time in Positano. We have visited the Amalfi coast before and spent time taking the drive up to Sorrento (my grandparents are from there) so this time we'd like to see the Amalfi coast from the water, maybe visit Capri, and definitely spend time in Positano, one of the most beautiful places we've seen. I've been looking at all the usual excursion companies, and most of the excursions I have described either start from Naples or Sorrento, or go to Pompeii and Capri (we are going to Pompeii when we stop at Naples later in the cruise). What makes it challenging is that this is a tender port and last time we visited, the cruise line allowed people who were taking the cruise ship's excursions on to the tender first, and the ship was late in getting to this port and by the time we were able to get on the tender, it was already close to 10:00 am. I thought about just taking the ferry from Amalfi to Positano, and from Positano to Capri, or taking a ferry from Amalfi to Capri, then Capri to Positano, then back to Amalfi, but in looking at the ferry schedules, I'm not sure if this would work. Any suggestions?

We are spending three days in Rome before our cruise in August (I know, too hot and crowded but we had our reasons for going at that time). Last time we were in Rome, we saw the following: Rome Colosseum with Underground Tour, Forum and Palatine Hill; Catacombs of San Sebastiano, The Basilica of San Clemente, The Capuchin Crypt and Museum; Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica (including seeing the pope); The Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Colonna, Palazzo Montecitorio, Pantheon, Palazzo Madama (Senate of the Italian Republic), Piazza Navona – Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Campo de' Fiori; Trastaverte We don't feel a need to visit any of the above again, except we will go back to St. Peter's Basilica to see the papal tombs, which we did not see last time. Apart from doing a day trip to Florence/Pisa (been there also) or to Tuscany (been there also), what suggestions do you have for us to see this time? We do plan on spending time just wandering around, but we know that it will be hot and crowded so are trying to plan out tours ahead of time.

Has anyone ever booked an excursion in Italy with "Project Expedition" tours? They have a tour we are interested in to both Pompeii and Herculaneum from Naples but there are no reviews. It is operated by Askos tours.

If we took a ferry from the port in Amalfi to Capri, is it difficult to wander around the island on our own? And if we wanted to go to Anacapri also, same question. Walking? taxis available? A day exploring these two places seems like a nice day. I see that the ferry ride takes about an hour, so we would have about 5 hours or so. We have to take a tender from the ship and I remember last time we did this, since we were not taking the ship's excursion, it took a couple of hours after we docked until we could get a tender from the ship.

This is very concerning, as our cruise is in August!

wow that is interesting and good feedback! We enjoyed Positano when we last visited, and I would certainly not mind going there and Sorrento again (love Sorrento, but it holds a special place as that is where my grandparents are from). That being said, we have visited there but have not been to Capri/Anacapri. Some folks recommend a boat ride around Capri, don't know if that is something we should look into.

Our cruise in August is landing in Positano. The cruise line offers an excursion to the Emerald Grotto, but having read about it, that sounds like a waste of time. My parents did the Blue Grotto and said we have to go there! However, when we were last in Positano several years ago, we took an excursion to Sorrento and really loved that town. I see there is an excursion offered that goes to Sorrento and Ravello, which is supposed to be beautiful also. For those of you who have done both, would you recommend a boat tour around Capri including the Blue Grotto, or a day in Sorrento/Ravello?