Rome to Venice On Our Own Oct. 30 - Nov. 11, 2006

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Traveler’s Background: John, an architect in his mid 40s, and Pam, an association professional in her mid 30s and an avid travel planner, had been to Europe in 2002, but Pam has never been to Italy and John had been in Venice over 20 years ago. We reside in northern Virginia, and we travel throughout the US quite frequently.

Trip Background: This trip was to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and we had been planning it for the last couple of years. We booked the cruise almost two years ago, and we used ff miles to purchase Business Class tickets to Rome (calling at midnight exactly 331 days out). Originally we had booked passage on Celebrity’s Millennium, but changed our reservation to be on Oceania’s Insignia for her October 30, 2006, 12-day sailing from Rome to Venice. (Find our ship/cruise review here: link.) Reason for change: complete focus on Italy only (some smaller ports as well) and the line has no formal nights—it’s a country-club casual atmosphere. Because Pam is an avid travel planner, we did this trip “On Our Own”. Most decisions/plans were determined prior to the trip so that all that was left to do was enjoy it. With that said, the trip was not over-planned (like down to the minute), but resources were packed to help in our daily explorations: pre-purchased maps, guidebooks, hardcopies of train schedules from the internet for the different days/cities, “top ten” lists for each of the ports, etc.

Itinerary:

October 27, 2006 – Fly from DCA to ATL, ATL to FCO – arrive 10/28/2006 in Rome at 9am

October 28 – 30 – Hotel Santa Maria in Rome (Trastevere neighborhood)

October 30 – Embark Oceania Insignia at Civitavecchia

October 31 – Livorno

November 1 – Livorno

November 2 – Genoa

November 3 – At Sea

November 4 – Naples

November 5 – Messina

November 6 – At Sea

November 7 – Kotor, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia

November 8 – Dubrovnik, Croatia

November 9 – Ancona, Italy

November 10 – Venice

November 11 – disembark Insignia, overnight at Locanda Orseolo

November 12 – Fly from VCE to JFK, JFK to DCA (however, JFK to DCA leg was cancelled—more later)

Planning: Could not have completely happened without the internet. Began the process a couple of years ago by purchasing the book European Ports of Call and flagging all of the ports that we wanted to see (in order to get consensus, each of us had our own color of post-it flags to tag our own choices). We also read the reviews of the ships in the book and tagged those that we liked and should research. Once we had consensus on where we wanted to go (and knowing what time of year we wanted to go), Pam began researching the Cruise lines to see which ones fit the criteria we had established (ports, time of cruise, etc.), as well as hotels for pre/post cruise. Resources used for researching: CruiseCritic, Cruise411, American Express Travel, Frommers, Fodors, Budget Travel Online, TripAdvisor, Rick Steve’s guidebooks and website, and others that I can’t remember right now.

If you’d like to view photos of our journey and activities, you can find them on Flickr.

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Rome Pre-Cruise: Based on reviews on TripAdvisor, we chose a small place in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, just across the Tiber from the heart of Rome – Hotel Santa Maria. It was fantastic! (Read our review on TripAdvisor here) Convenient to everything we wanted to do this first trip (more on that later), but not in the heart of the tourist district. We had the hotel arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at the hotel for 55 euro. The last thing we wanted to deal with was trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B with all of our luggage (3 rolling upright suitcases and 2 carry-ons).

Touring Rome: Since we only had one full day (last Sunday of October) and two half days in Rome (Saturday afternoon and Monday morning), we opted to keep our itinerary simple—John wanted to see Renaissance Rome for the most part, and Pam wanted to just sit at a café and absorb the city and the people. Ancient Rome would have to wait until the next trip, as well as the Vatican/St. Peter’s Basilica.

When we arrived in Rome, we checked in at the hotel, entered our room, and promptly took an extended nap. Waking up in time to take a shower and eat a quick lunch, we took off from the hotel with map in hand and proceeded to follow the Tiber River from Trastevere to the Castel Sant’Angelo. From there we walked over to St. Peter’s Square, took in the small crowd, captured some of the first pictures of our trip, and walked back down Via della Conciliazione to find the best gelato that we had while in Rome. After refreshing our tastebuds, we meandered back down the city street by the Tiber to start our exploration of the Trastevere neighborhood, specifically around the Piazza Santa Maria. We ended the evening with dinner at a restaurant that our hotel recommended, and had made reservations for us to dine. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep.

With a good night’s sleep behind us, we were finished with breakfast by 9:30 am and on our way to experience Renaissance Rome and other “top ten” sights. Our walking itinerary today included (and in this order): Piazza Campo de' Fiori, Piazza San Pantaleo/Piazza di Pasquino, Piazza Navona, Nostra Signora Del Sacro Cuore, Palazzo Pamphili, S. Agnese in Agone, Palazzo Giustiniani, the Pantheon, Piazza Capranica, Piazza Montecitorio, Piazza Colonna, Palazzo Wedekind, Palazzo Chigi, Palazzo Ferrajoli, Trevi Fountain, Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, Colonna dell’Immacolata Concezione, Keats-Shelley Memorial House, Spanish Steps, Via dei Condotti, Fontana della Barcaccia, Piazza di Spagna, Castel Sant'Angelo, Ponte Sant'Angelo, Piazza Sant'Angelo, Santa Maria della Pace, Parione Quarter, Palazzo della Cancellria, Palazzo Farnese, Palazzo Spada, Ponte Sisto and back to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Dinner tonight was a great little place, Da Otello in Trastevere, Osteria Pizzeria, Via della Pelliccia, 47/53, down an alley in Trastevere which seemed just large enough for a couple to walk hand-in-hand along, but was used by the smaller city buses (which had destroyed one of the entry glass doors with its side mirror the night before). Two beers, half a carafe of the house white wine, two antipastos, veal, pizza, and two desserts for just 49 euro.

Monday morning found us doing some last minute errands (i.e., going back to the American Express Office at the Spanish Steps to exchange euro travelers checks) before being met by our driver from Bob’s Limousine to take us (with another couple we had met on CruiseCritic’s rollcall message board) to the port. For the four of us (including both stops to pickup each couple at their hotel) the cost was 190 euro.

The following entries to this thread will cover the activities that we planned for each port, transportation info, etc.

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Tuesday, October 31, 2006: Day trip to Florence

The goal today was to take the train from Livorno to Florence, tour Renaissance Florence, view the David, and have dinner on the ship before dressing for the ship’s hosted Halloween Ball. Based on train schedule information we found at www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html, we left the ship around 9:15 am, finally found a taxi that would take us to the train station (12 euro for the two of us for the 10 minute ride through town), bought the round-trip tickets for Livorno Centrale to Firenze for 24,40 euro, validated our tickets in the yellow stamp machine at the track platform, and waited for our 10:11 am train to Florence, which would arrive in Florence by 11:33 am.

Arriving in Florence’s main train station, Stazione Santa Maria Novella, we followed the signs for the underground mall/passage that goes to the Church of Santa Maria Novella. Once above ground, we crossed the street and headed towards Mercato Centrale and San Lorenzo to “shop” through the open-air markets. From there, we continued down the Via de’ Calzaiuoli to the Ponte Vecchio. By this time (around 1pm), we were beginning to get a little hungry, so we decided to try to find a restaurant that had been recommended to us as having the best pizza in the world. (This recommendation came from a server that we had had during a spring trip to Kiawah Island, SC. He had lived in Florence for about a year (back in 2004), and drew us a map to its location—he couldn’t remember the name of it.) With “map” in hand, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio (taking pictures along the way) and made our way past the Pitti Palace to this little place that’s on the same side of the street as the Palace and across the street from a little square where the church Santa Maria is located. He was right--- great food and I’m pretty sure we were the only English-speaking tourists in the place.

Once back out on the street, we started our trek back in front of the Pitti Palace (the tour of it would have to wait until our next trip), crossing the Ponte Vecchio (admiring all the jewelry from the windows), and turning right from the bridge to make our way up to Palazzo Vecchio. (The Uffizi would also have to wait until our next time in Florence.) From the Palazzo, we made our way up to Dante’s house (which also happened to be near the American Express office—another stop for exchange), and then over to the Bargello Museum. Again, we didn’t have enough time in this one day to tour all the wonderful museums/galleries the city had to offer, but, as I mentioned before, John is an architect and was thrilled just to be viewing some of these wonderful examples of design from the street. From there, we continued north to the Duomo, Campanile and Baptistery. We did take a few moments to tour the Duomo before meandering north again, reaching the Accademia about 15 minutes before our reservation time. (John had called the reservations number about two weeks before we left for the trip to reserve one of the last viewing times of the day—4:45pm. We didn’t have to pay for the tickets until we arrived (6,50euro), and there was only a 3euro additional service charge for making the reservation). We highly suggest reservations for viewing the David, unless you have more time than you know what to do with and are willing to wait in the stand-by line for hours. If you’ve never seen the David, or The Prisoners for that matter, in person, we won’t ruin the experience for you. Just know this—there aren’t words to express the awe that we walked away with after viewing this work. Leaving the Accademia, we found our way back to the train station, and we were back on our way to Livorno. The taxi from the train station in Livorno to the port was 10 euro for 4 passengers (another older couple from the cruise that we had helped earlier in the day was on the same train coming back, and saw us asking the taxi driver if he was available).

Wednesday, November 1, 2006: Italian National Holiday—All Saint’s Day

Knowing that most local shops and all banks would be closed today, and waking up to rain showers (which were expected throughout most of the day), we decided that we would treat today as an “at sea” day, even though we were still docked at Livorno for the day. We did venture off the ship right before lunch to see if any of the stores down the main street were open, but only found a couple of tobacco shops and bakeries open for business. Less than an hour later, we were back on board and enjoying a quiet day of rest. It was a nice, unexpected break that helped us to recharge our batteries for our explorations yet to come.

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Genoa – Gateway to Santa Margherita Ligure

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Again, with train schedule (pre-printed at home) in hand, we walked across the street from the port and tried to find the entry into the Stazione Principe. We could see where people were walking off the train and out of the station, but couldn’t for the life of us figure out how to get into the station to purchase our tickets. So, as luck would have it, we turned around and immediately spotted a cab. Pam had printed out a post that someone had authored describing how to get from the Stazione Brignole to Santa Margherita, so we were off to the station across town. After being dropped off at the front door, we soon realized (based on the departures board by the ticket booths) that we had less than 4 minutes to purchase the roundtrip tickets and to get to the train platform and on the train. Don’t be fooled with all the reports of Italian trains not running on time. Breathless, we hopped on board the train just in time to find our seats before the train started moving. (This early morning escapade is where John’s Italian lessons, that he had listened to on his iPod, really paid off.) Roundtrip tickets for two adults in second class cost 8,40euro.

The train ride alone was worth the trip--- the tracks went from small village to small village, along the rock cliffs at the edge of the Mediterranean. Everything looked as if you had painted it to be--- brilliant blue cloudless skies, calm azure blue sea, rainbows of colors in the village houses, etc.

Santa Margherita Ligure was breathtaking. The train station is at the top of the hill, overlooking the port/harbor of this quiet off-season city. We had read reports about how busy it is in the summers, but completely enjoyed having the city pretty much to ourselves in the beginning of November. Everything that you would want to do here is within walking distance. However, if you want to use this city as the jumping off point for Portofino, be aware that during the off season (cooler months) water service to Portofino is non-existent. You can either walk or take a bus. We opted to stay in Santa Margherita and enjoy it’s beauty.

Lunch came early (the shops/restaurants in town closed from 12:30 – 3) at a little pizzeria in the heart of the city, by the Piazza Caprera. The best fresh mozzarella foccacia in all of Italy can be found at Cinzia e Mario, Via Palestro, 26, Santa Margherita Ligure.

Before heading back to Genoa before dark, we found a grocery store (thanks to Rick Steves’ Italy 2006 book) where we bought a six-pack of water, two four-packs of coke light, and three bottles of wine for the outrageous ;) cost of 21,49euro. Knowing we were going to be bringing some goodies back on board the ship (to enjoy in our room), we had planned ahead by bringing a heavy-duty American tourister expandable nylon bag in the backpack that Pam had worn for the day.

Knowing that people were able to get out of the train station by the pier (we had seen them do it earlier), we asked and were told that our roundtrip Stazione Brignole tickets would get also get us to Stazione Principe. In less than a 5 minute walk, we were back through the checkpoint at the port, and back on board the ship.

Naples – Gateway to Amalfi Coast

November 4, 2006

Using the suggestion from Rick Steves’ Italy 2006, we hired Monetti Taxi to take us on an Amalfi Coast driving tour. Pam had booked this in March for almost half of what other drivers/companies were charging. Our driver (and owner), Carmello, was waiting for us at the pier before 9am (scheduled departure time). He walked us to his jaguar sedan, and off we went on a scenic drive like no other. The Amalfi Coast was spectacular. We went from Naples to Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. At each little seaside resort town we were given time on our own to explore. The entire tour was set to be a 7 hour trip, but we were able (due to the lack of traffic) to cut a couple of hours off the trip. There was enough time to add a stop at Herculeum (suggested by the driver), but we opted to make it back to the ship. A little bit of down time before setting sail at 6pm is a good thing.

Messina

November 5, 2006 - Sicily on a Sunday in the off-season

As one might expect, there’s not a whole lot to do in Sicily on a Sunday, let alone in the off-season. We did hear of people taking the ship tours to Taormina and Mt. Etna, and that a few shops were open for the morning, but we opted to have a leisurely Sunday—mostly on the ship. Pam had printed out the train schedule for service between Messina and Taormina, but it didn’t seem that any trains were running between the two cities until after 1:30pm.

We did make it to the Cathedral of Norman, which has a famous astronomical clock. Information from the ship’s destinations service: It was built in Strasbourg and was unveiled in 1933. It stands 213 feet high. A lion, a rooster, and many biblical figures parade through the sounding of the chimes. The noontime display finishes with a creaky recording of Ave Maria blasting throughout the city.

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Kotor, Montenegro

November 7, 2006 – 8am to 2:30 pm

The sail into this port was worth the destination alone. From the ship’s destination service: “The tiny republic of Montenegro has got it all: dramatic mountains and rugged peaks slashed with capricious canyons and scented with pine forest, the sapphire Adriatic sea with its perfect Mediterranean towns, Kotor bay, the biggest fjord in southern Europe, and all of that packed into 13,812 square kilometers, approximately the size Connecticut.”

The waters sailing in and out of the fjord were described as “mirrors”. Just gorgeous. Because of the small size of the ship, we were able to dock right by the old walls of the city. Stepping off of the ship and into this UNESCO site was an experience. However, being accosted by begging gypsies and stray cats as soon as we entered the city walls was enough to make us take a quick look around and hop back on board. Our stateroom balcony overlooked the city and the mountains, so we were able to take in the beauty without the fear of being pick-pocketed.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

November 7 – 8, 2006

We sailed into Dubrovnik the evening of the 7th, much after dark. Not knowing the city, we opted to stay onboard for the evening and make our plans for the next day’s journey into the old walled city. Based on the recommendation of the tourist information person from Dubrovnik that was onboard the ship (who also had handy city maps), we walked off the ship and got a taxi.

As one might expect, when we got into the taxi our driver greeted us in English and asked where we wanted to go. As we were exiting the port area, he asked if we would want to take an hour-long “tour” of the city. Asking the cost of the tour (50euro—compared to the 10euro trip straight to the walled city), we decided that it would be nice to get a little more history/sights of where we were. This driving tour of the area was probably the best “spur of the moment” thing we did. Our driver, Zdenko, was very knowledgeable about the history of the country/city, and shared with us personal insights of what it was like in the early 90’s during the attacks by Serbs.

Not only were the sights looking down onto the old city amazing, but the old city itself was unbelievable. John opted to walk the walls of the city while Pam sat in the entry square watching people. Again, the weather ended up being picture perfect. We’ll definitely make a point to get back to Dubrovnik. After sharing a 12euro taxi ride with a couple of ladies from the ship, we were onboard and watching the sunset by 4pm.

FYI—the Kuna will be officially replaced by the Euro in 2010. A majority of the merchants in the old city accepted either US dollars, Euros or Kunas.

Ancona, Italy (Marshes region)

November 9, 2006

For those unfamiliar with Ancona, it is the capital of Ancona Provence, chief city of Marche region, central Italy. City sights of Ancona include the Trajan Arch, St. Cyriac’s Cathedral, Mole Vanvitelliana, Merchant’s Loggia, St. Mary in the Square, Jesus’ Church and St. Francis at the Stairs, Plebiscite Square, the National Archeological Museum, and the art gallery Podesti.

After researching the Marches region and Ancona, we determined that we wouldn’t make the excursion to San Marino, nor would we take the time/expense to travel to Urbino. We opted to just walk off the ship, find a few open air markets (in search of a leather handbag for Pam), and maybe make it up to the Duomo that overlooks the harbor. The combination of planning and fate breeds opportunity. Since Ancona is not really a tourist driven city, Pam found a great deal on a beautiful bag. While trying to find the other open air markets in this tiny city, we also inadvertently walked from the port on one side of town to the WWI monument overlooking the Adriatic on the other side of town. Breathtaking view, and one that I don’t know that a lot of people from the ship ever found.

This stop in Ancona helped to ease us back into our love affair with Italy, after having been in Montenegro and Croatia the day before.

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Venice - Two parts: Friday from the ship and Saturday on our own

Friday, November 10, 2006

The sail into Venice is breathtaking—sailing up the Canale di San Marco, over to the Bacino di San Marco, then through the Canale Della Guidecca, to the Canale di Fusina which leads you to the Bacino della Stazione Marittima. You are able to take in the sights of the Lido, St. Mark’s Square, Isola di S. Giogio Maggiore, Isola della Giudecca and the Accademia area of the city.

Once given the all-clear for going ashore, we were met by the (free) bus shuttle service that the port authority was running between our berth (#18) and Piazzale Roma. We were able to purchase vaporetto passes, and we headed off on our own. We took the #82 line from Piazzale Roma that followed the same path that we had just sailed onboard the ship to arrive at St. Mark’s Square about 40 minutes later.

St. Mark’s was overrun with tour groups—and this was the off-season. Pam had made reservations for the next night accommodations at Locanda Orseolo, which is just behind St. Mark’s Square, so the mission this morning was to see how much hassle it would be to take the vaporetto (with our luggage) from Piazzale Roma to St. Mark’s, then walk on to the hotel. The directions/map/pictures sent by email from the hotel were fantastic. We found the hotel right away, was greeted by the staff (a report of our hotel stay is on TripAdvisor), and determined that we would take the Alilaguna water bus service (not on our vaporetto pass) from the terminal at the port (where we had to pick-up our luggage from anyway) to the St. Mark’s Square stop.

The rest of the afternoon was spent either on a vaporetto on the Grand Canal, on the streets in the Accademia neighborhood trying to find a place to have lunch, or on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. We returned to Piazzale Roma for the complimentary shuttle bus back to the ship, and we were back on board by 4:30 (sunset). We still needed to do some last minute packing (the bags were outside our cabin by 10pm), and we also had to pick-up our passports from the reception desk between 5 and 6. We would have our last dinner onboard at 6:30.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

We disembarked the ship by 8 a.m., took the mandatory (free) shuttle to the terminal building to retrieve our luggage, go through customs, and find the Alilaguna ticket booth from our transport (with bags) to the St. Mark’s area. The cost—6 euro per passenger and 3 euro for each piece of luggage (our “carry-on” bags were not charged). For a total of 21euro, compared to the 80-90euro for a private taxi, we were rolling our luggage from the grand canal stop in front of Hotel Monaco to the Locanda Orseolo on the back side of St. Mark’s. We did alter our route so that we wouldn’t have to wheel our luggage through all the pigeons in the square. We did splurge for our next morning’s departure for the airport--- we took a private water taxi from the hotel’s side canal entrance to VCE. Well worth the 90euro for the peace of mind and ease of transport.

Today’s agenda was shopping and just soaking up the city. Friday had been chaotic, and Pam had questioned (several times) the charm of the city. Today was different. Fewer tourists. Cloudier skies. A tranquil day in an old-world charm city. And the reception at the hotel, Locanda Orseolo, had done its part to make sure that Venice would be unforgettable.