Civitavecchia is the port of Rome, and we’ve been here numerous times to start or end a cruise. This time, though, it was a stop during a 13 day Mediterranean and Adriatic cruise and we decided to stay in town to get to know the city a bit.
The Port of Civitavecchia is a huge container port, but the cruise ships have a designated area closer to town and a free shuttle is provided to the port gate. The old downtown core is just on the left side of the main drag that runs along the water as you walk out of the port toward the train station.
The shuttle depot attracts lots of tour service providers who aggressively compete for customers, offering a private transportation to Rome for as little as 10 Euros each way per person, or various guided tours. Rome can be reached in 40-80 minutes by train(under 5 euros each way), depending on the kind of train, and the train station is about a 15-20 minute walk from the shuttle depot.
There are rental car companies near the shuttle depot as well. We had taken the trains to Rome at times, and we also had rented cars here. All worked fine and simple.
Exiting the square from an alley at a corner, we reached the next street and turned left to find another interesting church, Saint Mary of the Prayer. It was not a big church but quite ornate and well maintained with care.
Turning left as exiting the church, we were back on the street that seemed to be one of the major streets in the old town area and dotted with shops and eateries. At the end of the street, we turned left and found Civitavecchia Market in full action. Many local people were buying fish and vegetables and fruits. Shopkeepers were friendly and laughing with customers exchanging stories, it seemed.
We walked toward the water a bit, then, turned left to arrive at Piazza Fratti, the square in the center of the Ghetto of Civitavecchia. There were Free WiFi signs around this square, thus, we sat on a bench to get online. The signal seemed strong but we could not connect. The tourist map of the city showed free WiFi signs dotted all over the city, but we were never able to use it. We stopped at the Cathedral, which was good sized and had the look of a serious “cathedral,” on our way back to the port.
The whole walking tour took about an hour, then there was not much else to do. We had originally made a reservation at a restaurant near Piazza Leandra called Quantum that offered 20% discount via thefork.com, but it was only about 10:30 AM by this time. We reluctantly canceled this reservation & found a small cafe near the shuttle depot and sat there to use their WiFi.
If you approach with open mind and kind eye, you will find beauty in each place you visit. But, then, there are places you walk into and just be charmed without any effort.
Livorno(population: 158,000) was certainly not the second case. We stopped there only because our cruise ship stopped there. Most people go to Pisa and Florence from there, but we chose to stay in town because we had been to Florence, one of our favorite cities in Italy, and did not need a quick drop-in.
The port of Livorno tried its best to welcome us. There was free WiFi at the makeshift terminal, and a free shuttle was provided to the city center. The port is actually right next to downtown, but the third biggest port in Italy was mainly a container port and getting in and out of the huge port took about 10 minutes.
The shuttle stop in Piazza Grande area was convenient for visiting(map) the Duomo and the Central Market. We did not feel the need to go inside the Duomo, and we walked to the canals around Fortezza Nuova. There seemed to be boat tours offered in these canals, but, Pat’s reaction was: why?
The Central Market showed real local color. You got the feeling some of the merchants have been there for ages. There really wasn’t much evidence of aesthetic concerns in displays. That made us, though, feel that we were part of the local life.
a wine vending machine
We decided to go to the seaside promenade, Terrazza Mascagni, and went to a news stand to get the bus tickets(1.50 Euros for a ticket good for 70 minutes). The ticket seller told us to get on LAN bus Red, and we did. After 20 minutes of turns and stops in narrow city streets without seeing any evidence of water, we began to wonder whether we were on the right bus.
Turned out, we were supposed to be on the Blue route, not the Red. We had to walk 20-25 minutes to get to where we wanted to go. If people don’t understand you when you attempt to say “Terrazza Mascagni,” then ask about the aquarium(acquario), which is right next to the promenade.
Terrazza Mascagni is a wonderful sunset watching spot, we were told. But we were there in the morning, and there wasn’t a lot to do. So we headed back to the ship.
We ran into a crew member at the shuttle stop, and she was carrying a bagful of snacks and things. Pat jokeed, “don’t they feed you on the ship?” She said she missed non-ship foods after being on the ship for a while.
We were glad we did have a chance to explore this port city and peak into the local scene. Now that we have done it, we will try to venture out to a different place if we came here again as a cruise stop.
We rented a car from Bergamo Airport(BGY), one of the 3 airports serving Milan. We had never heard of this airport prior to this trip, but it apparently serves over 12 million people annually making it the third busiest in Italy. The airport still retained the feel of a relatively small airport, and we were able to get out of it quickly.
The problem started when we tried to buy a local SIM card. We found exactly one counter, a money exchanger, that sold SIM cards in the entire airport arrival hall. Naturally, there was a long long line. We were supposed to get in touch with our Airbnb host, thus we really needed wifi or a working phone. We found the path across the freeway & reached the big shopping center called Orio Center next door to the airport. There were two mobile phone vendors, but both had a long line. We were supposed to pick up a friend from Stresa Railway Station, and we did not have enough time to wait. So we went our way, and, pretty soon, we ran into the traffic surrounding Milan area.
From BGY to the station in Stresa was supposed to be a 2 hour drive, but it took us more than 3 hours. Not knowing where to get off the freeway to get to downtown Stresa did not help, either. It was dark, and the offline map on Pat’s tablet refused to work. There was nothing, no village or gas station, in this part of Italy. We just had to trust our instinct & hoped for the best. We, somehow, found the train station 90 minutes later than planned. Not knowing what else to do, our friend was still waiting there for us.
We were all starving. We parked the car & walked around to find a restaurant. We stumbled into a place called Pizza something, and our fortune turned around right at that moment! They served much more than pizza, and all were so wonderful. Too bad that I can’t find that restaurant on any of the eatery lists for Stresa.
We asked to borrow their phone to call the Airbnb host, but the lady said, “Eat first! Think about food, don’t think about calling!” We had to eat quickly so that we could make the call finally. Understandably, our Airbnb host was quite anxious to hear from us, and, even though she did not sound happy, everything worked out and we found our beds for the night. And the house was just wonderful! The view from the house is in the pictures above.
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Next morning we embarked on a leisurely drive along the lake on SS34 stopping in various towns. In late October, the road was not crowded except for occasional biker packs. I couldn’t help wondering, though, how it would be in the summertime to fight with all the traffic on a rather narrow road. One can park the car & use the ferries to visit different towns, including the ones in Switzerland. Cafes and restaurants in this area were not too overly priced considering overwhelming presence of tourists.
We took the cable car from Stresa to the upper town of Mottarone. Yes, the idea sounded wonderful & you got the view. No, we did not think it was worth 19 Euros per person roud trip. The location of the station in Stresa was not well marked, and we had to ask around several times to find it. Granted we did not have a nice clear day to visit, the ride was mildly interesting at best. Once you are at the top, there really was not much to do or see except for one small church up the hill.
Two restuarnts we enjoyed in Stresa: Lo Stornello in downtown and La Rampolina near our Airbnb uptown. The quality of food is excellent but you can get a decent main dish for under 20 Euros, and wine is cheap in Italy.
In summer, most visitors to this area do an island hopping to see the villas or even a train + boat excursion. But we were there off-season, and we were a bit wary of seeing more big, beautiful houses. We were happy to look at them from a distance.
Small Wide World 