Connections and Sunsets

Sunset over the Sea as We Departed
Celebrity Constellation 
May 13, 2024

It was a vacation travel day. We transitioned from our lodging in Rome this morning to a train and then to the ship. There were more than a few moving pieces. 

First we walked the 1.4 km to the Termini train station dragging our luggage. That wasn't bad because I left enough time for us to get a pastry and coffee at one of the station shops. We needed the coffee. I think the last few days are curing me of my caffeine addiction.

Then the real fun began. I had to find which track the train to Citiavecchia, the Port for Rome, was on. Turned out to be platform 27. Then we had to thread our way through the train station, I am wholly unfamiliar with finding platforms in train stations--but we persevered and found our platform before the train arrived.

The trip to the port was over an hour and uneventful. We saw a lot of Italian countryside.  

Celebrity Constellation
Civtitavecchia, Italy
May 13, 2024

Arriving at the port we were faced with a quandary. My advance reading suggested that we could walk forom the train station to the ship. Standing there looking at the situation, and with a total of 7 cruise ships in port, out ship, Celebrity Constellation, was the furthest away and it was a long way. So now I was confronted with the decision to take a crowded bus which did not go all the way to the ship or pay an exorbitant €30 for a taxi for delivery to the ship. We were tired and chose taxi!

We made it to the ship and after standing in the processing line for over an hour because the Rome Port only had half of the security machines working, we arrived on the ship.

The ship is great and we left port shortly after 5 PM. We enjoyed our first dinner on the ship; meeting a nice couple and finding out that our staterooms are next door. 

Weird!

The only problem I am having is that I cannot get images to load into my blogging program due to crappy internet! Ugh! We pay a fortune for internet on the ship only to be confronted with trash!

Ah, well--we were sailing into the red sunset and the sea was almost flat. I have a great image that I will load later. 

Day 5 is complete and Day 6 is Florence and Pisa.

-- Bob Doan, at sea off the Italian Coast