Finally there, Civitavecchia Italy April 13, 2014

Sunday, April 13, 2014 

 

 

    I think Stevie was the only one who slept well last night. I was up since 4 AM, Hannah got up at 6 AM and Steve tossed and turned all night. We ordered room service breakfast for 7:30 AM and we were scheduled to disembark the ship at 8:30 AM. We left our room when our number was called and made our way to luggage pick up. After that we walked to a shuttle bus stop to take us to the port exit. There we went into McDonalds to wait for our transport to the hotel.

 

Off the ship for good, we are waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the McDonalds in town where the hotel owners will pick us up

 

   After the shuttle to McDonalds,  I went to a little information center across the street to call our hotel. Domenico (the owner) came to pick us up a little while later. He and his wife Irina run the Bed & Breakfast. They have two boys Luca (5) and Alesio (4) and are expecting boy/girl twins. They are very nice and the kids played together. It is so neat to see kids play together even though they cannot speak each other’s language.

 

Hannah and Stevie playing with Luca

 

 

View from our room, Hannah is talking with the non-English speaking maid, in English

 

Idea 1 from Stevie for the blog: Make sure you do the best you can.

Idea 2 from Stevie: Make sure your blog is good.

Idea 3 from Stevie: Try to get to the Czech Republic quick.

    Also, while I was at the information center, the woman there told everyone that there were no trains that the railroad workers were on a strike. Domenico and Irina have not heard about this. They checked online and it seems that the strike is scheduled for May 3. We will walk to the train station later to be sure but hopefully it was a false alarm and we will be able to take a train tomorrow.  Our plan is to stay in Civitavecchia today and relax, arrange for accommodations for Monday night and go to Rome tomorrow.

 

Strikes are common in Europe,  the day we landed in Italy the trains were on strike.  After a two day break, they went on strike again.  At some point while we were there, the people who service the ATM machines went on strike.  At the first available train, we bolted out of Italy before the people who make the air went on strike.  Arrivederci, we will take our money elsewhere.

    We relaxed at the hotel a little bit and then walked into town. We went by the train station that was deserted except for stranded tourists who were trying to figure out how to get around. After the train station we looked for a restaurant. Steve and I ordered spaghetti and Stevie had steak.  The meat sauce that we ordered with the spaghetti has maybe a tablespoon of ground meat.  I hate the fact that we have been relying on McDonalds and Burger King a lot but it is so hard to order a gluten & dairy free meal for Stevie in a place where hardly anyone speaks English. Also, to get a steak, it costs close to $20 without any sides. Drinks (including water) are also pretty expensive. So it is challenging to get a decent meal with the kids in a restaurant that does not make you go broke. 

American made Italian Food = 1         Italian Food = 0

After lunch we walked back to the shore near the port. There was a little playground and a carnival. The kids got to ride 3 little rides.

Statue known as "Unconditional Surrender"

 

 

Those are the biggest panties in the world

 

    We stayed in town until dinner time but instead of a restaurant meal, we found a small grocery store. We bought some tuna cans, fruit, chips and pop-corn for dinner. It was actually nice to have regular food instead of eating in a restaurant.  Hannah fell asleep a few minutes before we got back to the hotel. We carried her back to our room and put her straight to bed. Stevie insisted on sleeping with Dad so I ended up on the other single bed in the room. We took showers and got some sleep.