Civitavecchia to Rome

November 14, 2023

Tourist day in Rome

We had a comfy and quiet ferry ride. Once again, I was impressed by the cabin and the excellent shower. After arrival on time at 6:45 am-ish, we made the relatively long walk to the Civitavecchia train station. It is so interesting there are no shuttle buses. Good thing it was a nice morning for a walk.

Despite having plotted out the seaside route a long while ago, I didn’t bike today - I decided it would be more fun to join Sue for a final day of being tourists together.

We caught a 7:44 train towards Rome, with the bike riding for free on the spiffy new train because it wouldn’t sell me a bike ticket. There were three cars marked for bikes- but we saw more battery powered scooters than bikes. They even had chargers for e-bikes. No problem with space for my unticketed bike. Maybe they don’t sell bike spots during rush hour?

We arrived at our airport hotel before 9 am, expecting to leave my bike and our luggage for the day. But they let us check in, and we even had breakfast. Amazing! A high point of breakfast was recognizing the strange contraption near the pastries. It was a cornetto injector 😀. I immediately pumped some nutella into a baby cornetto. Can’t do that at home.

The B&B Hotel Rome Fiumicino is highly recommended to anyone who needs an airport hotel in Rome. It’s right across from the first train stop past the airport. Rather than taking a taxi, we could’ve taken a train here on the day we arrived.

After sorting out a few things, we hopped onto a train for a tourist day in Rome.

Our early morning walk in Civitavecchia took us past the marina.

It’s a personal nutella injector for cornetti!

How close is our Rome airport hotel to a train station? Very. We didn’t hear any noise though.

We walked for many hours, and hit lots of highlights. We saw the lovely gardens of the Villa Borghese - we even tried to get into the gallery, but it was sold out.

We also walked by the Vatican, past too many ancient churches and monuments to count (lots of obelisks), parliament, the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain, which was absolutely packed with tourists on a Tuesday in November. The summer must be insane. There must’ve been something going on at the Vatican earlier today - when we arrived they were dismantling the seating in St. Peter’s Square. There were also big screens on either side of the chair setup. Maybe these screens are always there? I’m not a Vatican expert, for sure. We didn’t see any obvious chimney where the puffs of smoke signal then a new pope has been elected.

A monument on the grounds of Villa Borghese.

How many scooters are there in Rome? Lots!

Also lots of tiny cars. I’m not sure this one would move in snow, but it makes sense for here.

Old stuff everywhere. I won’t try to identify most of it. But we did have fun remembering our Roman numerals. Do kids still learn that?

St. Peter’s from closer up, with lots of chairs for an event.

One fun Rome game to play when walking through the crowds: from the rear, try to guess if a woman is a nun, or if she’s wearing a hijab. It’s tough! Sometimes the nuns sometimes have slightly racier hemlines.

We stopped for a gelato each, of course, and also for Aperol spritz’s before heading back to the Termini train station to grab some pre-made dinner items at the fabulous food market attached to the station. It was a quick meal, partly because I wanted to get back to do some trip planning, and also because a fellow near us had some sort of seizure, and required medical attention that we couldn’t provide. The market staff seemed well/trained in first aid, and ambulance attendants arrived relatively quickly, aided by a woman we assumed was a doctor who happened to be nearby. We didn’t want to be part of the large crowd of gawkers.

We were back to the hotel by 7 pm. I did some planning - I think I have a nice loop of Puglia planned. Like Sardinia, I’ll plan to bike as far as possible in the weather that I’m given and then be near a train line at the end. Accommodations look easy to find and inexpensive.

I booked my train ticket all the way to Bari, but I’ll start in Molfetta instead, one train stop north of Bari. I decided to get off the train there because it’ll be easier to escape the town by bike. It is going to be a long day on the trains.

An update - this virus we picked up has some staying power. Our coughs and snotty noses are still hanging on, but are gradually fading away. Fortunately, our energy levels have been fine.

Fun Italian fact of the day: we’ve seen two types of police officers, polizia and carabinieri. Apparently the former are civilian police force, and the carabinieri are police who are members of the military. Italy also has a financial crimes/smuggling/drug police force called Guardia di Finanza Some towns in Sardinia had signs with the phone numbers for all three.

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Rachael AndersonIsn’t Rome great to explore! Also, if you ever go back they have a great bike trail along the Tiber River.
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