Day 18 - Tuesday, 11/26/24 - Civitavecchia - Day 2

 After a big day yesterday, today was intended to be a much slower paced day.  4 of our group met at the appointed 8:30am meeting place and scanned off the ship.  The other two were lagging so we used the time to find a Siena bank for Alson to get some Euros.  Back at the shuttle drop off point, the others joined us and we headed off to Ostia Antica which is a very old ancient city about an hour away from the port.  Andreas had a bit of difficulty finding the place due to some road closures, but I assisted with my online mapping and routing program on my phone.  


At the site, we purchased tickets and since we had some time to spare before taking the shuttle to the far end of the ruins (I HIGHLY recommend this!), we toured the nearby castle which is currently under renovation.  It was used for the laborers and later prisoners who were used to mine the salt from the nearby salt pools.  Ostia, Antica was active from 600BC and 600AD (1200 years) before being totally destroyed.  There are extensive ruins to explore and one could easily spend days if not weeks exploring them.  After being dropped off at the far end of the ruins, we walked back to about halfway exploring various aspects of the ruins.  At the halfway point we found a cafe and decided to enjoy a lunch there instead of going to a regular sit down restaurant.  This would save us a bunch of time.  





We procured another shuttle to take us back to the parking lot and re-boarded the van.  I found the second stop of the day which was the Italian Airforce Museum which is located on the shores of Lake Bracciano and former Italian seaplane base.  With exit closures, it was a challenge to reach the museum.  But my mapping program definitely helped.  The collection focuses on Italian airplanes but there are a number of US built planes and helicopters in this well curated collection spanning 5-6 buildings.  It's a very worthy stop if you are an airplane aficionado like I am.   The museum closed promptly at 4:30pm and we headed back to the port and took local roads instead of the freeway.  






We said our emotional goodbyes to Andreas and Susanna, and boarded a shuttle back to the ship.  Onboard I retried purchasing tickets (this time on a PC on the ship) for tomorrow's visit to Pompeii, but was once again unsuccessful.  I have been in contact with the tour organizer and he has assured me that I can purchase them in person at the site.  After a LIDO dinner Angela and I attended a terrific juggling show by a Frenchman, Jaz Danion.  


I ended the evening updating my blog up in the Crow's Nest so I could possibly watch the sail away.  Our onboard time was 10:30pm with the ship setting sail shortly thereafter.  In his departure announcement, Captain Paul indicated that we were quite fortunate in being able to use the closest berth to town, but we only have 13cm under our keel.  A very slow departure is required!  A small MSC ship was berthed behind us,  but it departed sometime after 6pm and before 8:15pm.  Around 11pm, the ship came very slowly off the berth and backed the long length of the berthing area (1/2 mile or so) to a turning basin, rotated clockwise 180° and sailed out into a very dark and black night leaving the lights of Civitavecchia in its wake.


Tomorrow is Naples and it will be our 5th port day in a row.  We aren't projected to arrive until 10am and we're headed for Pompeii as we've not been there in a number of years.

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