We arrived at "Chicken Pizza" [really called Civitavecchia. I had no clue how to pronounce that place, so this is our nickname for it] and then toted our luggage to the waiting shuttle buses. I believe this was the smoothest check in for a cruise I've ever encountered. No line! Good job Royal Caribbean! Our ship is called Mariner of the Seas.
In Genoa, the dock for the cruise ships is a little out of the way, so you have to purchase transfer tickets if you did not book an excursion with ship. For this stop, we went to the main part of the town via shuttle boat. The town is beautiful and the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
A huge draw is the aquarium, but we decided not to visit it. Since we were seeing the town on our own, we wandered through interesting narrow streets to the Zecca-Righi Funicular. It's like a subway that takes you up a mountain. The view from the top was lovely! We were starving yet again so we stopped in to a place next to the last station. They had a handwritten menu and I tasted the area's signature sauce, pesto (on gnocchi)!! We sat and enjoyed the view from the patio overlooking the city and water. We ventured back down the funicular and took a look at the Christopher Columbus house. It was very tiny. A guidebook I checked out before we left suggested that we not go inside because the 4 euros were not worth the view. We then walked back to the shuttle boat area taking our own route through the streets of Genoa.
Back on the ship, we got cleaned up for dinner and got to meet our new table-mates. The first night we were not assigned a table. I really enjoyed the people we ate with nightly. S and I were the youngest by far. One couple was from Omagh in Northern Ireland, another from Canada, New Jersey, and Florida/Maryland (mother/son). The guy from Maryland is a professor at the Naval Academy. Our head waiter is from Turkey. We found out that our ship spends half of the year in the Mediterranean and the other half based out of Galveston. After dinner, we were able to enjoy a fantastic sunset.
Our next stop was Ajaccio, Corsica [France]; birthplace of Napoleon . We decided to take an excursion with the ship to get us to a beach. The outing we picked was called something like "city tour and beach transfer." We sat on a bus as we drove through the town to the beach. Along the way, the guide mentioned what buildings were coming up.
The only stop other than the beach was to look at a statue of Napoleon for about 10 minutes.
Later on in the day, I discovered the cute fox towel animal left by our cabin steward.
This was also the first formal dinner night so we got to get dolled up. I somehow got my still injured foot in my heels. Ah what women do for beauty. Mom would be proud. I only brought 4 pairs of shoes for the entire trip!!
The only stop other than the beach was to look at a statue of Napoleon for about 10 minutes.
Blue water + white sandy beach + mountainous backdrop + beach towel + my Kindle = perfection.
The beach was gorgeous! When our time was up on the beach so we returned back to the ship. I really enjoyed looking at the island from the boat. 
Oh my gosh, that looks like it was awesome! Thanks for sharing the photos - you should royalties for the spikes in tourism from all the places you travel to. :)
ReplyDelete