We Stay Aboard Ship

Wednesday, 23 September 2026. We are in Civitavecchia, Italy today with a bit of disappointment. We were due to go for a coach ride around the sights of Rome, but only four people had opted for that option so the excursion had been cancelled. Unable to walk very far - as I found out in Taormina - walking through a large city like Rome would not have been possible for me so sadly we are onboard for the day.

Civitavecchia is not a tourist port. It serves as the gateway for Rome which can be reached by coach or train, the journey either way taking several hours, but the only bit of interest along the seafront is this statue based on the famous end of World War II photo of a returning American sailor kissing a girl in Times Square. This photograph was taken in 2013 on another cruise.

We had, then, already been kicked out of the local fortress as it was now the offices of the port customs and we were asked to leave...

Sitting in Baristas coffee bar in the morning MSC Grandiosa sails out past us. There is something grotesque to my mind of a ship so large. They cannot sail into smaller ports which are often far more interesting than the larger ones and they carry so many passengers that not only is there little chance of running again into someone you have struck up a conversation with at dinner, but the strain they put on local services like coach firms and popular destinations make it a nightmare trying to see some famous sights for the number of people standing in front of them.

There was something about this ship that took us a while to get to grips with which lifts to use. Here we have emerged at twilight onto the deck above the Pool Deck on our way to Horizons Bar to spend the night listening to Tomas and Maris singing.

You get the most beautiful sunsets at sea. As the sun sinks beneath the horizon the whole sky can turn a vivid gradient from blue to orange and red. Sadly we have just missed that moment but instead have the aftermath of darker shades.

Looking back at the Pool Deck below us. A touch cool now for anyone to be swimming. Onboard pools are usually closed by long before this time anyway. Staff have a natural aversion to finding floating corpses of last night's drunks as they open up and clean the pools each morning...

Thursday, 24 September 2026. This was taken the following night. We had just left the port of Porto Cervo, Olbia, Sardinia. It's very strange really but I have no recollection of this day at all. We must have gone there because otherwise something noteworthy would have happened. So we must have stayed on the ship doing something or other until it was time to head to Horizons in the evening to catch Tom and Maris - as my only photo of the day shows! Weird...

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Highlights of The Mediterranean, 18-25 May 2013 Index Page

A series of articles covering our holiday with David and Miss Jeannie (Creeping Bentgrass on tour!) on the Thomson Dream cruise ship. We'll be calling at Palma, Majorca > Day at Sea > Ajaccio, Corsica > Civitavecchia, Italy > Livorno, Italy > Puccini's house at Torre del Lago, Italy > Pisa, Italy > Villefranche, France > Barcelona, Spain. At some point we'll be treated to a storm with storm force eleven winds and a somewhat rough sea with decks closed and lots of people turning green.

I usually take something like 300 photographs during a week's cruise. David came back with 2000... I have therefore had to be ruthless when it came to selecting photos for these articles unless I was willing to write - and you, dear readers, were willing to read for as long as it took us to live through the cruise!

Each of the photographs below will take you to the related article and photographs.

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Civitavecchia - Gateway to ... er Civitavecchia...

Tuesday 21 May 2013. The Thomson Dream sails into Civitavecchia - practice it - Si-vi-tav-ecky-a with the emphasis on the "eck".

Early morning before breakfast. David: "half past three, we've been up since!!!"
Jeannie: "No we haven't! Well whatever - they were up before us and this is still only around half past seven.

The captain is manoeuvring us into position. Carnival Sunshine is to the left in front of us with Aida Vita about to come past us on the starboard side. But... we're off to breakfast!

A lot of passengers are off on tours to Rome today but we have decided that we want to do Rome a little less frantically so a future trip for a few days is being talked about. Today we'll go for a wander round Civitavecchia - say it - Civitavecchia... very good...

Miss Franny and I have been here before once, but I only managed a wander round the outside of the fortress. Today we go in. A uniformed official comes out of a building and starts calling out, walking towards us purposefully.

"Should we not be here?" I ask. "No..." We go out again. Didn't want to look round the silly castle anyway...

In our defence I would note that David had said something like "Pose..." We had a wander up through the town, coming to a local market which felt all cultural and had some colourful displays of goods and fruit. It wasn't a touristy type place though so we made our way down to the sea front and walked for a little while.

I hadn't taken my camera out, only the sketch pad. The sea front was modern and tidy - but not jazzed up for tourists. I suppose the vast majority of cruisers arrive merely to step on a coach or train and head off for Rome. This took a whole ten minutes and another ten to finish off once back on the ship. And it's still crap...

The one attempt to brighten up the seafront was this huge statue based on the famous photo of an American sailor (David: how can you take anyone wearing a hat like that seriously...") kissing a girl at the end of WWII.

Sigh... oh alright I did a funny pose too... Several of the crew from the ship (well... a ship...) came down to do the same. Civitavecchia (go on... one last time...) Civitavecchia's main contribution to tourism.

Once back onboard Miss Franny tested the temperature of the jacuzzi. No... It wasn't switched on anyway... What, Miss Franny? Cold...? Yes it is isn't it?

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Civitavecchia

Tuesday, 26 August 2008. The coach brought us back from Rome to the port of Civitavecchia where the Island Star was docked at the end of a road leading past a moored tall ship and a fortress.

We had lunch and as the ladies prepared to while away the afternoon on the pool deck, after a morning sitting on a coach I was feeling the need to stretch my legs a bit so I took the camera and walked back past the fortress to have a look at the ship.

It was a bit deserted on that part of the dock! I saw only the cabaret act from the night before who was on his way back home with his wife and who had also had the same thought about wanting to photograph the sailing ship. Apart from that there was a young local couple with a baby in a pram and that was it. Eerily quiet.

I took this photograph through the bars of some railings, but then found that by walking a bit further I could pass through an open gate and round onto the wharf where the ship was moored. It was the Signora del Vento and seemed as deserted as the dock itself. The three-masted schooner was built in Poland in 1962. She has been a training vessel since the 1990s and was bought in 2006 by the Italian Society of Navigation. Apart from her training vessel duties, as part of which she partakes in many rallies of tall ships around the world, she can be hired for private and corporate events, offering meeting space and fine dining.

The figurehead was a female figure holding out a white dove and was carved by Birgit and Claus Hartmann. I dawdled past the fortress and took a couple of photos and then made my way back to the ship, being challenged by the official in the hut at the barrier onto the quay where the Island Star was berthed. Showing my boarding card was all that was required, but it's nice to know the port authorities were stopping unauthorised people from trying to get on board. We noticed similar checks at a couple of other ports in the week too. I can't remember being checked so diligently by port authorities on prevous tours, but it was more reassuring than annoying!

Back onboard the Island Star I rejoined the ladies, reading, lazing, dozing and watching any ship movements in the harbour. The Clodia was one of six sister ships, but was the only one to be built in the Sestri Penente shipyards in Italy. Dating from 1980 she originally catered for 1000 passengers and 470 cars. She was enlarged twice, in 1986/87 to carry 2000 passengers and 610 cars and in 1992 to carry 2280 passengers and 650 cars, which reduced her speed from 20 to 17 knots.

Civitavecchia insists on ships using its tugboats. Use of side thrusters is not allowed. Captain "JC" remarks that this is purely a money making venture...

Out at sea, it's a warm night and we are out on the Promenade Deck to watch the sun go down in a blaze of orange and red.

The show tonight is a guest cabaret, Joseph King giving a tribute to Elvis. He must be Joe King... One chap is wildly enthusiastic and is invited onto the stage, but then to Joseph's surprise, doesn't know the words at all and instead breaks into a hilarious dance that totally stops the show and has the audience in stitches.

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All Roads Lead To Rome

Tuesday 26 August 2008. The Island Star docked in Civitavecchia - try saying that fast - and we took a coach trip around Rome.

We had Mum with us so couldn't do a lot of walking but unfortunately the coach wasn't allowed to stop at all in Rome so all my photos had to be taken through the window, which meant lots of reflections of the windows behind me and silhouettes of other passengers taking their own photos!

Not to worry, there's a couple of better ones to come. As we enter the city we start to see the occasional impressive chunk of masonry.

And then the big sights start to appear and crowd us all at once as we enter the centre of ancient Rome. This is Circus Maximus where the chariot racing took place.

The area of the Forum comes next and around us are the seven hills of Rome.

The Arch of Janus is just one of a very many triumphal arches. Janus was a god with two faces, the god of beginnings and of gateways. He is unusual in that the Greeks had no similar associated god.

The coach passes a rather more modern imposing building. This is the Palazzo Venezia with the equestrian monument of Victor Emanuel II ('Il Vittoriano'). It was built between 1855 and 1911 to celebrate the Italian Unification.

We are back in the middle of ancient Rome. We noticed a few of these small mobile refreshment stalls.

The Arch of Septimius Severus is one of the more famous arches. Built in the year 203 AD, it commemorates the victories of Emperor Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta, in Parthia, the decade before. After his death, Caracalla and Geta ruled jointly as Emperor until Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212, after which the relationship somewhat fell apart... All mention of Geta was removed from monuments throughout the Roman Empire.

The Colosseum was high on my list of want-to-see remains. I was impressed by just how many remains of ancient Rome there are.

London has gleefully built over much of its remains over the centuries though of course the Great Fire of 1666 wouldn't have helped! As always on tours like this I merrily snapped away without a hope of remembering what I was taking photos of.

Towards the end of the tour we came to the Vatican and this view of St Peter's. There were so many things to see and forget the names of that visiting Rome on foot is a must for the future. It could be on the cards for next year I think! Meanwhile the coach takes us back to the Island Star and Civitavecchia or "Chivvy" as it seems to be shortened to. There is a fortress and a tall ship in the port - after a morning stuck on the coach I might have to jump ship again and stretch my legs!

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