Cruising the Mediterranean 1 - Civitavecchia and Livorno

From Paris we flew to Rome and then caught a train to the port of Civitavecchia (pronounced Chich-a-veckia) which is about 80 kms north of Rome. Being on the coast, Civitavecchia is quite touristy but still has lots of old world charm.

We stayed just the one night in Civitavecchia and then very excitedly walked to the shuttle bus for our transfer to the Norwegian Jade.

As first time cruisers we were a bit nervous about whether we'd like this part of our anniversary tour. We were right though - we didn't actually like it, we LOVED it! 

This is me with a glass of wine (the first of many as it turned out), as we sailed out of Civitavecchia. You can see by the number of cruise ships in the background that it's a busy port. Because we were not travelling huge distances we sailed at night and spent each day in a new port.  And so you can make better sense of where we were going, here's the itinerary!

LIVORNO

We decided not to do the shore excursions to Pisa or Florence (because we were going there later anyway) and instead spent a bit of time in the morning familiarising ourselves with the ship and then wandering around Livorno for a few hours in the afternoon.

Livorno is a fairly typical Italian port with basic amenities and infrastructure. It has a fort called the Fortezza Nuova, that was apparently built to defend the city from pirates.

And it has a Church dedicated to St Catherine which while quite ordinary looking has the most beautiful carved doors.

And then there's how the locals spend their Sunday - doing their chores!