Florence to Civitavecchia

It’s always good when the low point of the day is early on, and everything else goes along fine from there. This is just what happened on our (very easy) trek from Florence to Civitavecchia. We get to the train station and buy tickets (see, we’re smart this time, and are not in a hurry). They are 97 Euro (roughly $120) for two tickets. I later (after they were bought and printed) realized that was 88 Euro to Rome and then a mere 9 Euro to Civitavecchia. We could have taken the slower train to Rome for probably 50 Euro less. The real kicker here is not the expenditure, but rather, that for an hour and forty five minutes we had no seats. We sat in the stairwell in between cars. On arrival at Termini in Rome, we changes trains and got to Civitavecchia with no problem (and with seats).

Once in the (tiny) train station, Florida Keys Guy says to me “How do we get to the port from here?”. In a moment of brilliance I pointed to a ship in port and said “It’s right over there, we just stroll down the street”. It did not end as badly as you might be thinking. We got to the entrance of the port, with a stop to buy some knock-off sunglasses, and there was an information booth where I learned of the shuttle bus to take us to the ship. A mere 10 minutes later we were aboard the Seabourn Spirit, champagne in hand (the champagne will be a recurring theme).

Once in the lounge waiting to check in, I went to get myself a glass of water. This is where I first learned “the Seabourn way”. Grudgingly, the waiter at the water table let me put ice in my own glass. See, it is his job to do it for me. He did not, however, let me pour for myself. Since I live in a do-it-yourself world, it is really a treat to have people bring you things, do things for you and even take your plate from the buffet line (not that there is a line, mind you) to your table, which they have already scouted out for you.  Life is good.

After about 2 glasses of champagne (which could not have been that long, as David is quick on the refill), we were checked in and given our ID cards. It is the photos from these ID cards that the staff use to learn the passengers names.

Once in our suite (it is an all-suite ship, we’re not that special), there was a bottle of champagne waiting for us, and within moments our stewardess greeted us with canapes and a choice of soaps -L’Occitaine, Hermes and an exfoliating one. She insisted that we try all three. There is that Seabourn service again. A person could really get used to this.