Anne Lind: Cruise Days 5-6

On Tuesday we arrived at Naples. Our plan was to take the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour. We were here once before, but didn’t see anything of Naples; we visited the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. In the morning, Dan had a severe nosebleed, plus he is suffering from a cold. So he decided not to go anywhere. I left the ship and caught the shuttle bus to the main port area. There were two other cruise ships in port, plus numerous ferries, so it was a bustling area. It was quite a long walk from there out to the main street. I was told the bus stop was at the castle. What I didn’t realize was that the castle is huge and the bus stop is in the front; the port is at the back. After wandering a bit and finding my way, I arrived at the HOHO stop just in time to buy a ticket and get the last seat available on the top level. I sat with a tourist from Vienna until some people hopped off and I was able to get a solo seat right by a window. The tour went along the coast and up into a residential area. The views of the water and the buildings (mostly apartment houses) were stunning. It was about an hour and a quarter until we returned to the original stop. (I did NOT hop off!) Another bus was waiting for a different route. When I saw the map, I realized it was just going around the city center. I’m sure there were many beautiful piazzas and buildings to see, but because of the amount of traffic and how tired I was, I decided against taking it. On my way back to the ship, I passed a pharmacy and was able to get a few things to help with Dan’s symptoms.

The front of the castle

A view of Naples

View from the highest point of the ride

Civitavecchia is the port for visiting Rome. Many buses took tourists into the city for the day. We hoped to walk along the shoreline, where there are parks and cafes, but the transit buses took us into the city center, nowhere near the water. After a look around, we headed back for a quiet day on the ship.

At dinner in the cafe at the top of the ship, we watched two enormous Grimaldi line ferries come into port. Grimaldi ferries run from Spain to Greece, with many locations in between. There were already two other ferries and four cruise ships besides ours in port. After dinner, we watched two of the cruise ships leave; we were third. Just in front of us was a small Italian navy aircraft carrier. We saw three helicopters and one airplane.