Italy cruise Oct 2012

[MSEm]

We will be taking the Oceania cruise departing from the Port for Rome on 24 Oct 2012 and we depart in Venice. We are planning to fly into Venice about 8 or 9 days before the cruise.

We may stay in Venice to visit Bologna, Pisa, and Florence before going to Rome. We are planning to stay 4 nights in Rome before boarding the ship.Should we stay in Florence overnight?

Any suggestion on places to stay or using the train for intercity travel would be most helpful.

Also one of the ports of call is "Florence". Where does the ship actually dock and is there anything to do where the ship docks?

What about Rome's port. Any thing to see or do there?

Thanks,

MSEm

[Mura]

The port is Livorno. Most people seem to arrange for visits to neighboring cities rather than Livorno itself. Florence, Lucca, etc. Check the ports of call pages.

[bbwex]

For Florence, the port city is going to be Livorno. As it happens we are on the same cruise.

 

To talk to fellow cruisers about the cruise itself, go to the Roll Call section, click on Oceania, then click on Riviera and look for "Rome to Venice, October 24, 2012" or click on this:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1379919

Come join the Roll Call.

 

For the detailed questions about traveling around inside Italy before and after, go to the Ports of Call section, click on Europe, then click on Italy and look for and/or post questions there.

[no fuss travel]

We will be taking the Oceania cruise departing from the Port for Rome on 24 Oct 2012 and we depart in Venice. We are planning to fly into Venice about 8 or 9 days before the cruise.

We may stay in Venice to visit Bologna, Pisa, and Florence before going to Rome. We are planning to stay 4 nights in Rome before boarding the ship.Should we stay in Florence overnight?

Any suggestion on places to stay or using the train for intercity travel would be most helpful.

Also one of the ports of call is "Florence". Where does the ship actually dock and is there anything to do where the ship docks?

What about Rome's port. Any thing to see or do there?

Thanks,

MSEm

 

For Florence, the ship docks at Livorno. It is a long bus ride to Florence. Since we had been to Florence several times, we chose to go to Lucca, which was very interesting. We went into the town in Livorno and did not find it really interesting. It is a port town and therefore is a port town. it was totally destroyed in WWII and when they rebuilt it they did not for esthetic purposes. One of least beautiful cities I have visited while in Italy.

While at the port for Rome, we took the tour to the Etruscan Tombs which we found interesting as again we had been to Rome several times and it was also a Sunday which meant that not everything was open. We did not go into the port town, starts with a "C" (can't spell it) but it did look interesting.

[jpalbny]

What about Rome's port. Any thing to see or do there?

Thanks,

MSEm

 

Rome's port is Civitavecchia. It's a nice place to catch the train to Rome. We have walked quickly through it on a few occasions on our way to the station. :)

 

One of my distant relatives is from Livorno and says that the Venetian fort is interesting - we've been there twice though and always gone out of town to Pisa or Florence. Much of Livorno was destroyed during WWII, so it's not as old or interesting as other parts of Tuscany...