Civitavecchia, Italy * "Rome" * Tarquinia * Etruscans

[thunefeld]

The NCL Spirit Southern Europe * Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

October 26-Nov 6, 2013

Venice > Greece > Turkey > Western Italy > Barcelona

 

Having been to Rome several times, we opted for the “Tarquinia & The Etruscans” tour offered by NCL. Our tour guide was knowledgeable but not nearly as interesting, interactive, humorous as the two outstanding guides we had on the NCL excursions to Pompeii and Ephesus. She reminded me of my strict, bossy, humorless third-grade teacher who “lectured” rather than taught.

 

We boarded the bus for the tour at 8:15 a.m. and by 9 a.m. were at the 2500 year old necropolis of the ancient Etruscans - thousands of underground sarcophagi discovered in the 1700’s. Hundreds have been excavated and dozens are open to the public.

 

Each excavated crypt is accessed by its own steep, dark narrow stairway of about 25 steps down to a viewing window. Push a button on the wall and a light comes on inside revealing dazzling displays of the funeral chamber, so vivid that they could have been painted 100 years ago rather than 2500 years ago!

 

Each crypt is radically different – like snowflakes, no two were anywhere near alike. Like Pompeii the day before, we could have spent hours here rather than the 90 minutes allotted.

 

Following the incredible excavations, the bus “transported” us (as they like to say) to downtown Tarquinia and its excellent Etruscan museum. Again, a more interactive and accommodating guide would have made the half hour introductory museum tour more interesting, but she covered the basics as she marched us through the museum before allowing us 60 minutes of free time to “explore the city or museum” before re-boarding the bus.

 

The museum had a few interpretative laminated 8x11 cards in some of the rooms explaining the exhibits in English, but I wished that we had done a little more web research on both the necropolis and the museum before embarking on the trip. We were transported to an Agriturismo for a light buffet lunch (offering authentic Italian fare) and a glass of wine before “transport” back to the ship.

 

Terry Hunefeld & Ann Dunham

Inn At Moonlight Beach Bed & Breakfast

San Diego

 

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Our post of our Venice arrival, hotel and water taxi

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36088603#post36088603

 

Our post of our Istanbul “On Our Own” adventure!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36086839#post36086839

 

Our post of our Athens “On Our Own” adventure:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36083644#post36083644

 

Our post of our Izmir-Ephesus NCL Shore Excursion

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36087284#post36087284

 

Our post of our Mykonos, Greece “On Our Own” visit:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36087446#post36087446

 

Our post of our Napoli - Naples - Pompeii - Sorrento Italy NCL Shore Excursion

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36087629#post36087629

 

Our post of our Napoli - Livorno – Pisa - Florence NCL "On Your Own" Bus Transport Shore Excursion

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36087973#post36087973

 

Our post of our Toulon France “On Our Own” visit:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36088045#post36088045

 

Our post of our Barcelona Spain visit:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36088220#post36088220

 

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PORTS OF CALL ON YOUR OWN:

 

If you’re on an NCL shore excursion, the process for disembarking for one of their paid shore excursions is streamlined, straightforward and efficient like all of the processes on NCL. This is quite a feat considering that there are sometimes thousands of cruisers getting off the boat to board dozens of different buses.

 

However, if you wish to do your own thing, and be among the first off the ship, here is a tip: For example, we wanted to do Athens “on our own” and it was our first port of call – so we had no experience with the disembarking process. We wanted to be in the first group off the ship to “beat feet down the street” to get to the metro and to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 a.m. to beat the crowds because Rick Steve said that the best time to be at the Acropolis is before the tour busses disgorge throngs of tourists at 10 a.m. He was dead-on correct!

 

BEWARE: NCL Spirit arrived at the cruise terminal at 6:40 a.m. We were told by two different NCL employees the evening before that there would be an announcement as to when we could disembark, so to be “waiting in our room” or in a “public area” until the announcement. We were discouraged from queuing up near the stairs or elevators prior to the announcement. When we had not heard anything by 7:20, we wandered down to see what was happening only to find that disembarkation had begun 25 minutes before! I inquired why (again asked 2 separate NCL employees) who replied that the ship does not make announcements before 8 a.m. So, there you have it… if you want to be first off before 8 a.m. on an NCL cruise, you need to be aware. My motto after this misinformation was to ask multiple different NCL employees the same question until I got the same answer THREE times. That seemed to work okay.

[VirtualRain]

Thanks for sharing all your port visits... Some great details and useful info!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the reviews.

[katiepe]

We did a private tour with Smart Cruise Tours on this same cruise as we also had been to Rome and visited the Etruscan burial site(Necropolis) at Cerveteri. So incredibly interesting.