Rome prehotel stay, a titillating riposte!!

Because of the distance from airport, city and port of Civitavecchia we chose the let HAL do the driving.

Their Savoy hotel was more than adequate.

Everyone including bus drivers are trying out for the 2018 La Mans Italian racing team.

But I digress.

Not until we were ensconced in the hotel we were notified that the bus to the ship would pick us up at 11:45am which I thought was more than a tad late.

Sure enough we departed at that time but then proceeded to the suburbs to pick up more cruisers at the Hilton. There we waited as someone slept in or got lost who knows..

Now the bus driver put on his racing gloves and thundered out of town surrounded my hordes of motorcycles and wannaby racers in every vestige of motor cars all vying for every square foot of roadway regardless of lane markings.

What shocked me was arriving at the embarkation tent at the ship as the only vehicle at 1:50pm!!

we 48 traumatized, shaking seniors walked into an empty terminal!!

I told HAL in my survey the pickup time should be way earlier, say 10am.

Alfredo our driver was really cooking that day. I would like to say he got a round of applause for making that terrifying trip but we were too busy praying to pay him angyhomage upon arrival!!

Thank God we had a drink card!!

CHEERS

Bob

We were there in May and as my husband liked to say "traffic lights, signs and rules of the road in Italy are merely a suggestion!" Our drive from Rome to Civi (our hotel in Civi provided the airport transfer) was, to say the least, interesting. I held onto my seatbelt and closed my eyes all the way there!

bobpell, please do me a favor and explain how your Post describes a "riposte".

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Smooth sailing :ship: :ship: :ship:

Good lord..the taxi drivers in Rome..there aren't enough St. Christoper medals !

The first time we were in Rome -- back in the 70's -- taxi drivers, bus drivers, ALL drivers -- drove crazy.

We just prayed that the few days we stayed there, that we would live to move onto the next city stop.

Things haven't changed.

We did a pre-cruise tour through HAL in 2013 and I found our drivers to be somewhat similar (but it wasn't as terrifying as the OP described or my memory has faded in the past four years). My DM who is normally a back seat driver at the best of times, opted to stay in the back seat (when we weren't on a bus) so she couldn't see everything. The one driver I had arrange to pick us up in Civi and take us to our hotel near FCO was VERY good. He even stopped for pedestrians, let alone at stop signs. I told DM she would have enjoyed the front seat that time!! I'm hoping to book him again for next year!

Upon perusing my Oxford Dictionary pedantically my rheumatoid eyes espied the meaning of Riposte...(Italian: related to Respond)

Appropriate considering our locale!!

PS... did I mention I thought I saw Paul Newman thundering by our bus on his way to Monte Carlo for the Le Mans race?

:)

Live life with a laugh

Bob

Upon perusing my Oxford Dictionary pedantically my rheumatoid eyes espied the meaning of Riposte...(Italian: related to Respond)

Appropriate considering our locale!!

PS... did I mention I thought I saw Paul Newman thundering by our bus on his way to Monte Carlo for the Le Mans race?

:)

Live life with a laugh

Bob

Delightfully written post.

Thanks for taking the time so we could start the day with a laugh, a smirk and a smile.

How was the rest of your cruise? Would like to hear about it!

Upon perusing my Oxford Dictionary pedantically my rheumatoid eyes espied the meaning of Riposte...(Italian: related to Respond)

Appropriate considering our locale!!

PS... did I mention I thought I saw Paul Newman thundering by our bus on his way to Monte Carlo for the Le Mans race?

:)

Live life with a laugh

Bob

Thanks for the giggles. Thank goodness a few of us Canadians are funny (Howie Mandel, Mike Myers, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Leslie Nielsen....) ;)

We too had one terrifying drive in where I was too frightened to say anything for fear he would go faster. Now I prebook a driver that will go close to the speed limit so I arrive without more grey hair!

Anything does truly go, once we saw a Maserati passing blindly in a tunnel. And when DH took a drive in a Ferrari the Italian accompanying us pushed on his knee so he would go faster!

Upon perusing my Oxford Dictionary pedantically my rheumatoid eyes espied the meaning of Riposte...(Italian: related to Respond)

Appropriate considering our locale!!

PS... did I mention I thought I saw Paul Newman thundering by our bus on his way to Monte Carlo for the Le Mans race?

:)

Live life with a laugh

Bob

Even if it wasn't precisely the right word, no big deal --- don't let him bother you. Got a lot of laughs from your post, remembering Rome. ;)

Sorry, bobpell, if you took my Post the way catl331 indicated, because that was not what I intended. I sincerely wanted to know how the event (as you described it) in your Post was a "riposte" - nothing more, nothing less.

I always try to live life with a laugh (generally at myself) and wish that other people would do so as well. :D

We were there in May and as my husband liked to say "traffic lights, signs and rules of the road in Italy are merely a suggestion!" Our drive from Rome to Civi (our hotel in Civi provided the airport transfer) was, to say the least, interesting. I held onto my seatbelt and closed my eyes all the way there!

The following joke was relayed over the PA system on the bus during a Sunday morning tour of Dublin some 20+ years ago - and it still rings true!

A bus driver and a priest die and arrive at the Pearly Gates at the same time. St Peter ignores the Priest and begins to 'book in' the bus driver in a very attentive fashion.

The Priest is furious and protests loudly, demanding that he be given priority over this lowly bus driver.

St Peter puts down his pen and explains patiently, 'Father, we've been watching your performances in you church for some time. Attendances are falling because your sermons are boring, and you offer no picture of the after life, no hope to your parishioners. Most of them fall asleep in sheer boredom ...'

'We've also been watching the performance of our friend, the Bus Driver and feel that his efforts have done much more to restore faith in the church and in God than have you. His passengers don't fall asleep when he is driving - in fact, his performance is so scary, that when he is driving, all his passengers are praying to God without interruption. And that is why he gets priority over you ...' :D

Upon perusing my Oxford Dictionary pedantically my rheumatoid eyes espied the meaning of Riposte...(Italian: related to Respond)

Appropriate considering our locale!!

PS... did I mention I thought I saw Paul Newman thundering by our bus on his way to Monte Carlo for the Le Mans race?

:)

Live life with a laugh

Bob

Commentators have speculated that, if the race were held in Italy, the Le Mans 24 Heures would become the 'Italian 25 Minutes' ... :D

:oYikes!

Having never been to Italy, how does the driving compare to Boston?

:oYikes!

Having never been to Italy, how does the driving compare to Boston?

Some of the taxi drivers are pretty bad. And I mean my fingers digging into DH's hand.

Originally way back, we did HAL transfers but actually found those scarier.:eek:

But, I found that by booking private transfers we had very good drivers, good manners and they followed the rules of the road. The last few times we have been to Rome, we used private transfers to get to the ship and they worked out well with a nice, relaxing ride.

Italy drivers are better than Greece though IMO. I learned quickly to only cross the street when the crowd went and was literally sitting in the cab with my eyes closed and DH's hand was bleeding from me digging in. I was that scared.

Last time there, again, we had a private transfer and what an enjoyable experience it was. A chance to see Corinth, and then a drop off to our hotel. All with smooth driving and no worries.

My experience has been that a private transfer arranged with a reputable driver yields very good results.

SilvertoGold asked how was the cruise (RME to FLL)

Well the wave height never exceeded 3-4 ft. all the way from speed crazy Italia to the Venice of the States.

Weather was a balmy 75 degrees or 23C for us cruising Canucks and our epicurean European friends. Intermittent rain or showers only 2 of 15 days.

This was our second Trans Atlantic and our first cruise on the Kdam.

I have posted my thoughts on "SS suite bathroom on the Kdam" and an "update on the Kdam library"

Funchal, Madeira was our most favourite stop. Beautiful town built on a sloping mountain that lit up at night.

We renewed our Italian driving terror here by going off road in an old army jeep in Funchal. A blast

This ship at 2,900 sob is a tad to large for us. We are fans of the 1,900 HAL floating all inclusive resorts.

Did I mention the plethora of food. My diet back at home is celery sticks and wine.

Did I mention that Captain Darrin is a Canuck and he festooned us daily with nautical historical facts like...Cristofer Columbus took nine weeks to cross the pond to the new world!! Who knew.

Any questions ask away as I enjoy the repartee

Bulging Bob

The first time we sailed from Civi, we took a car service from the airport to our hotel in Civi. Well, that was an experience! The driver spent the better part of the time looking and texting on his phone until I politely requested that he stop doing so. He was all over the road.:eek:

SilvertoGold asked how was the cruise (RME to FLL)

Well the wave height never exceeded 3-4 ft. all the way from speed crazy Italia to the Venice of the States.

Weather was a balmy 75 degrees or 23C for us cruising Canucks and our epicurean European friends. Intermittent rain or showers only 2 of 15 days.

This was our second Trans Atlantic and our first cruise on the Kdam.

I have posted my thoughts on "SS suite bathroom on the Kdam" and an "update on the Kdam library"

Funchal, Madeira was our most favourite stop. Beautiful town built on a sloping mountain that lit up at night.

We renewed our Italian driving terror here by going off road in an old army jeep in Funchal. A blast

This ship at 2,900 sob is a tad to large for us. We are fans of the 1,900 HAL floating all inclusive resorts.

Did I mention the plethora of food. My diet back at home is celery sticks and wine.

Did I mention that Captain Darrin is a Canuck and he festooned us daily with nautical historical facts like...Cristofer Columbus took nine weeks to cross the pond to the new world!! Who knew.

Any questions ask away as I enjoy the repartee

Bulging Bob

So glad you liked Funchal. And smooth seas and decent weather, how good is that?

As Canadians, eh, we though Captain Darrin was a treat.

Any plans for an encore to this cruise?

Based on our Driving In Italy experience somewhere over 10 years ago was that a private, personally selected driver might make his driving better - but the real problem we experienced was ALL the drivers.

We had to get from Naples to Rome and rental car seemed like the best way to go. As we got nearer to Rome, the road became freeway like and driving was less hectic. However, the first maybe 2/3s of the drive led to more prayers and thank you comments than I might totally utter in a year. Never have we experienced such driving!!!! when WE were driving. (We have been to other places have been as bad but we were not driving.)

It was a two lane road that was used as a FIVE lane road, with solid traffic most of the way. How was that done - well there was one true lane going each direction, but both directions the cars hugged the side of the road opening up a third lane in the middle. Now - whoever was the bravest charged into the center lane, passed cars and then got back in line. Many times once in the center land the car had to almost instantly swerve back into the proper lane when they faced drivers coming toward them. It truly seemed like a game of "chicken". Then, many cars (and particularly motorbikes/motorcycles used the shoulder area to from the fourth and fifth lane. We remained safe, but truly exhausted from the tension and frights.

As Europeans, we do rather enjoy watching N Americans knuckles turn white as we share rides with them.

I know that it all looks a little frantic, but the drivers all seem to cope well.

Sandra

Loved th e OP's post. I have driven over 10,000 miles within Italy (DW thinks I am nutz) and love every kilometer. Italian drivers are somewhat crazy...but safe and skilled. In all of our driving around the country we have seen very few major accidents...and most of those involved motorcycles (who are more crazy then car/truck drivers. I am not real sympathetic to the OP's issues with transfers. Many experienced cruisers know that is wise (both for financial reasons and one's sanity) to avoid cruise line transfers and simply arrange one's own transfers. When looking for a transfer around Rome of Civitavecchia we usually book with Romecabs...or just use a taxi. Arriving at the pier around 2...when there are not any crowds sounds like a good thing.

Hank

We use Rome cabs too, with no issues. Once when they were booked we got a texter,ugh. My DH also loves driving in Italy and prefers it to France.

In Greece, we found they turn the two lane roads into four by driving in the shoulder. Once you understand it all works, but when you first see a car barrelling towards you in your lane it is a wee bit disconcerting!

:oYikes!

Having never been to Italy, how does the driving compare to Boston?

Over 40 years ago I swore I would never drive in Boston again (I haven't), and the traffic/drivers there have only gotten worse in that time.

Rome is much, much worse than Boston was then. :eek: Truly, you take your life in your hands there.

You just have to have nerves of steel and cat-like reactions to drive in Rome! I did it once by myself and that was enough. Fortunately, I don't tend to panic when I miss a turn - there's always a go-around to be had. i just take my time.

Now, if you want white-knuckle, try being in a van with 6 others on a snowy night on cobbled roads in the former East Germany out in the boonies. And, your driver is a former bobsled pilot :eek: I was in the front passenger seat and my fingers were imbedded in the passenger-side dash!!!!