Fri Sept 27, 2024
Hi Folks! You know what they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” And the Mediterranean is far from broken! Yes, Kathy and I were just there in August but this trip will stop at new ports, some of which we’ve never been to. And one of the coolest aspects is we’ll spend 4 days in one of the greatest cities in the world, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople)!
We’ll be doing two 12 night back to back cruises for a total of 24 nights. The first leg, called “Hidden Gems and Turkish Shores”, goes from Rome to Athens. The second leg, called “Aegean Antiquities & Chic Shores” goes from Athens to Barcelona. During this trip we’ll visit Greece, Turkey, Sicily, Malta, Italy and Spain. Not a bad line up!
We got out of Charlotte right before Hurricane Helene hit and made it to Rome and our hotel with no luggage issues! For those following along closely, last trip my large suitcase got its zipper ripped off and had to be taped to stay shut. Luckily the luggage gods were kind this trip! And sending prayers to all our friends and family in the path of the hurricane. Stay safe!
When we arrived in Rome we got a driver to take us to the port city of Civitavecchia where we’ll board our ship tomorrow. We’re staying in the same hotel, in the same room, and will have dinner at the same pizza place (our favorite) and tomorrow walk the same 5 minutes to get to the ship like last time! Like I said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”! Lol
We’ll be on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator which was the first Regent ship we went on back in June of 2023. We love that little ship. Only 490 passengers (a far cry from the almost 8,000 on Royal’s new Icon of the Seas Yikes!) And since it’s Regent and they offer lobster every night for dinner I may have to indulge my shellfish addiction! And no, I’m not on the keto, paleo or whole30 diets! (Though I probably should be! Lol)
After we got settled into the hotel and took a quick nap, we walked around the town and had our delicious pizza dinner. Civitavecchia is a cute little port town with a boardwalk, a fort and lots and lots of shops! We found a cool side street with lots of restaurants with outdoor seating as well as the Cathedral which we had not seen before. We even saw them setting up an outdoor boxing ring for a fight tonight!
There are already a bunch of cruise ships in port and I’m sure many more tomorrow (hopefully including ours)! Being the port city for Rome it gets lots of cruise traffic. We’ll actually stop back this way in about 3 weeks on our way to Barcelona.
That’s all for now. Here are a few pics including the routes of our two itineraries. Hope everyone is well!
The Wandering Italian 