We are moving on to Italy from Barcelona. Rather than shove ourselves and our gear onto a cramped plane, we decided to stretch our time and our legs by taking a 21 hour ferry across the Mediterranean.
Our ferry is not quite what I am accustomed to courtesy of the WA State ferry system. This ship is 254 meters long and carries over 3300 passengers. We are more accurately on a quick cruise, than a ferry in the US sense of the word. This ship has 3 restaurants, 5 bars, a spa, casino, and even a video game arcade. We reserved a room with an outside view and four beds and made great use of those beds since departure was at midnight!
We arrived aboard and after dropping our bags, took a quick tour of the ship and stopped for an ice cream treat before falling into bed for the night.
Morning found us sleeping in until 10 and roaming the ship in search of coffee. We pre-bought meals aboard, so lunch and dinner were an Italian cafeteria fare and the kids had their first taste of primeri and segundi courses.
We hung out on deck and enjoyed the bright sun and calm waters of the Med. The track line to Civitecchia (the port that is used to access Rome) brought us through the narrows between Corsica and Sardinia and we soaked up the scenery of a rocky coastline and tons of little sailboats.
Our room was very similar to the room on the Queen Mary 2 with two single beds and two Pullman bunks above them. It was plenty of space for us for a day. The frustrating part of our room was the room key. Grimaldi Lines uses paper keys with magnetic strips and they became deprogrammed almost every time we used them. To get new keys, we then had to go down three decks to the register desk and try out our Italian to explain what was wrong. Needless to say, this got old quick.
Our arrival into Italy was a long time coming. The crew began making announcements that the ship would be delayed and the more it was delayed, the more worried I got. When we made our reservations, there were four trains that would be departing Civitavecchia for Rome between our arrival time and the end of the evening (these trains stop running at 11pm). With each delay of the ferry there were less trains to catch, until our final arrival time of 10pm resulted in only one train left for the night. That train, with a 1045 departure, still seemed like a great option. We decided to grab a taxi if we found one with no line in order to make our life easier. The walk to the train station from the ferry terminal was 1.65 miles, which would probably take us 30 minutes with our bags.
Unfortunately, after the ferry docked, we stood around and waited for over 20 minutes until they would let the pedestrians off. We were on top of our game and went charging down the stairs and off the ship only to find not a taxi in sight. Not to be deterred, we started walking as fast as we could towards the train.
In what we are learning is typical Italian fashion, the train was a few minutes late and WE MADE IT! No time to buy tickets beforehand, but we were told by a local that we could purchase them onboard for an extra fee/fine. Since our other option was waiting for the 4am train (in 5 hours!) we were willing to pay any fee to get aboard.
What an adventure that kept me anxious until the last minute, but it felt great to sleep in our Roman bed this night.