Live from Quest Rome to Venice

We’re here in Civitavecchia, waiting to board the Quest tomorrow for our first Mediterranean cruise ever. We got here on Wednesday, having re-arranged our flight for a day earlier because of a threatened air traffic control strike (which in the event didn’t happen).

We had a lovely day yesterday exploring Civitavecchia. We especially enjoyed looking around the markets and seeing the harbour where there were a lot of cruise ships, including the Symphony of the Seas - wow, that is a very large ship!

Last night we ate at a little restaurant called Il Fuoco Di Bacco. It was very different - a tasting menu of 7 courses - all for €25! They were all very much local dishes - cheese & salami, seafood pasta, calamari risotto etc. The chef, Roberto, was also the waiter, sommelier - everything!

Today we are getting the local bus to Tarquinia. It was a bit of a performance getting tickets, but eventually we managed to buy them at the train station. They are train tickets, but we were assured they were also OK for the bus.

I’ll let you know later if they work!

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Have a great time Host Grandma. Look forward to hearing all about it!

Don't miss the Etruscan museum in Tarquinia.

The train tickets worked! We got the bus and have just got back and yes, marinaro44, we did go into the museum which was fascinating. Tarquinia is a beautiful hilltop town with interesting winding streets and very old buildings. If you walk right up to the top of the Main Street you end up on top of the walls with a magnificent view for miles over rolling hills. Gorgeous.

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We always prefer staying in Civitavechia rather than Rome, it’s a nice seaside town and in the summer evenings especially on the weekends can get lively. There lots of small restaurants that offer very good food at reasonable prices.

Hope you have a great cruise on Quest HGC you’ve certainly chosen a good itinerary.

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Have a great cruise HGC! I look forward to following along with you & DH-HGC :*

The train tickets worked! We got the bus and have just got back and yes, marinaro44, we did go into the museum which was fascinating. Tarquinia is a beautiful hilltop town with interesting winding streets and very old buildings. If you walk right up to the top of the Main Street you end up on top of the walls with a magnificent view for miles over rolling hills. Gorgeous.

 

 

 

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So pleased that the train tickets worked for you. We normally go to a small arts shop near the bus stop to buy tickets or, I think, that you can buy on the bus.

Did you get to the Etruscan tombs? It's a free bus ride from the town centre.

And there are some lovely little bars for excellent Negronis and "nibbles" in the centre of Tarquinia. The prices are very reasonable too..

We cannot wait to go to Tarquinia again.

Bon voyage [boy is that hard to type with autocorrect fighting every step!]. Hope to sail with you again soon 😀

Sounds like a fantastic experience! Glad you made it and enjoyed the day. Bon voyage!

So pleased that the train tickets worked for you. We normally go to a small arts shop near the bus stop to buy tickets or, I think, that you can buy on the bus.

 

Did you get to the Etruscan tombs? It's a free bus ride from the town centre.

 

And there are some lovely little bars for excellent Negronis and "nibbles" in the centre of Tarquinia. The prices are very reasonable too..

 

We cannot wait to go to Tarquinia again.

No, we didn’t get to the tombs. When we asked about the bus, we were told that it doesn’t come very often. We didn’t fancy the long walk in the heat, but the museum was great and there are a few ‘mock-ups’ of tombs in there, so we were happy with what we saw.

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We had an excellent meal last night in the Gambero Rosso in Via E. Toti, just off the Piazza Fratti in the Ghetto area behind the hotel. Really good quality food in a very pleasant setting.

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See you soon!:)

Phil

Have a nice cruise Grandma. How long is your cruise?

Ivi

Nice to hear you are enjoying my town. Have a great cruise!

Well here we are onboard for our 9 day cruise. Embarkation was easy yesterday. Our Hotel shuttle bus took us straight to the ship at 11 am. We were given a number in the terminal and had to wait for about 20 minutes. Our number was 72 and we were a bit concerned that we’d have to wait forever when we heard ‘3’ being called, but then the next number was ‘71’ !

We were onboard by 11:30 with glass of bubbly in hand and the staterooms were ready by 1:30, and so was the luggage.

Muster was early, at 4pm, so that us Brits could then watch the football on the big screen in the Cabaret Lounge.

The cruise critic meeting was held at 5:45 in the Drawing Room.

Russ gave us some interesting information about future entertainment plans.

Starting with the Pursuit in August there will be a group of 4 singers and 2dancers (sound familiar?). They are currently rehearsing three new shows for the Pursuit. Then the same format will start on Journey in December with three new shows for the Journey, then it will be repeated for the Quest 3 months later. Those 9 shows will then rotate across the three ships over the next 3 years.

We had a lovely meal last night in Discoveries, then I went to watch the end of the 4 singers show in Cabaret, which I thought was very good, whilst DH went into Spirits to watch football.

It’s now 7:30am and I’m sitting up in bed drinking tea and watching the Amalfi coast go by as we approach Amalfi.

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Some photos of Tarquinia

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Host Grandma Cruising thank you for the heads up on Pursuit’s entertainment, certainly does sound familiar[emoji3]

Hope that you have a great day in Amalfi.

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Yes, Russ told us about the new entertainment plans last week too. Seems like Azamara have realised their mistake and are reverting to the old format of singers and dancers. (y)

I think the dancers were much missed, there seemed to be something missing from all the shows and certainly at the top tier party. It was the amazing dancing displays that Sasha and Dima and Alina and Alex did. I really hope they bring them back.

Sasha and Dima have been back on Journey a couple of times dancing under the 54 Below banner.

Phil

Grandma, thanks for your posts. Have a great day in Amalfi. We’ll be there in a couple of weeks’ time :) so will be interested to hear what you did

Brenda

Thanks for the information on the entertainment. What a pity...I am not so keen of the old shows. Different strokes....

We have just got back to the ship after being ashore for most of the day. This morning we got the open topped bus up to Ravello. It sets off from the roundabout in Piazza Flavia Gioia at the bottom of the hill, close to where the tender docks. It’s only €5 a head each way. Someone told us they had been quoted €60 for a taxi one way. (Here’s a link to the buses web-site https://www.city-sightseeing.it/en/city-sightseeing--amalfi-coast-amalfi/ravello/).

It was a wonderful drive along the coast a bit, then up a very windy road, a lot of which is a single lane with lights controlling the traffic flow. At the top we took a short walk into Ravello and went to see the Villa Ruffolo gardens (€5 for senior citizens & youngsters/ €8 for others). What a beautiful place. The gardens and villa have been created on and around a cliff face and all the sections of gardens had beautiful flower displays.

We went back to the ship for lunch (and some air conditioning) then took the ferry to Positano (you get tickets at the land end of the jetty where the tender docks).

The boat ride takes about half an hour - and it’s a bit of a ‘bun fight’ to get onto the ferry.

Positano is a beautiful place but, maybe because it’s both main holiday season and a Sunday, it was wall-to-wall people. Not pleasant at all. We had a lovely gelato from a bar near the harbour, a quick walk around a few of the narrow streets, and got the next ferry back. We’re now soaking up the late afternoon sun on Deck 11, our favourite deck.

Tonight there will be a soprano singing on the stage on the pool deck at 8:15, with Cannoli being served for dessert on the open deck.

I’ll try and add some photos later.

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Thanks for the information on the entertainment. What a pity...I am not so keen of the old shows. Different strokes....

The shows will all be different. It's just that they will have a resident onboard troupe of singers and dancers again.

Maybe the new shows will start on the JR for the Cmas cruise. I had heard something about new shows starting. It had no idea of dates.

We also have a few guest entertainers we need back.

Time will tell all

Thank you HGC for this thread. [emoji3]. It’ll help our post cruise low, knowing what’s happening on ‘our’ ship since we disembarked yesterday. You have a lovely itinerary ahead.

Russ had told us about the new cast and shows to come but I forgot to write about it on my blog.

Corinne.

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