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| Mom loved this picture of her from the Epic cruise. It was by the on board photographer and when we went to buy it yesterday they had already closed the system out so we had to take a picture of the picture and that's why it says image all over it. But it is a great picture of her. |
We enjoyed walking around the beautiful, quiet and charming city of Civitavecchia where, like so many small Italian cities in the south, siesta is still observed. The cafes were still open as well as a few small shops so we kept busy.
We even got to visit the marcato (open air food/clothing/home wares market) and amazingly was able to find a few pairs of leggings made in Italy for only about 7 dollars and a sweet black and white sun dress. It's fun to get bargains and for the locals to get fresh veggies, meats, cheeses and fruits for incredible prices.
The waterfront has been updated since our last visit here over 5 years ago and is perfect for strolling or getting some sun or playing on the rocky beach. There is an enormous statue, "Unconditional Surrender" by Seward Johnson depicting the famously photographed kiss captured in in Times Square during World War II.
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| Dad and sons playing soccer on the promenade |
We checked in at the Costa cruise around 3:30pm. The young Italian lady who checked us in was very sweet and chatting with us about our past Costa cruises and we of course told her how much we loved our first cruise on the Costa Concordia and how incredible that ship was and she smiled and pulled out a little wallet and next to her current Costa ID card she is still holding the last card she had for the Concordia before it met it's awful fate off the coast of Northern Italy. She had gotten off the Concordia on December 27 after having finished the Christmas cruise and was then on her two month mandatory vacation when only two weeks after disembarking her beautiful ship hit those fateful rocks. We also found out later from our very sweet British officer who is responsible for all English speaking guests that many of the Costa Concordia staff are on this ship and also spread out among the others in the fleet. They tried to find homes/jobs for them all within the company and Laura said that one of her friends had a panic attack when he first returned to work on another ship but he, like many others, worked through it to continue the cruising career.
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| "Unconditional Surrender" by Seward Johnson We saw lots of his sculptures in the "Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey |
The Costa Classic that we are now on is our third Costa and it's very small compared to all the other ships we've been on and it was built in the early 90's so it's over 20 years old and like it's name is really a classic. I has large passages with marble floors and mostly large leather furniture and simple art work and wood paneled walls. It's not fancy or fashionable but clean, spacious and comfortable. Lots of places to sit and relax.
The ship holds around 1600 guests and just over 600 crew and over 1100 of the guests are French the majority after that are Italian. There are a handful of Germans, British, Russians and a few or us Americans. We are absolutely the minority but that's fine, mom speaks Italian so we kind of fit in.
Laura or English manager had a hour meeting with the 9 English speaking guests who boarded in Civitavecchia including us while the 4 or 5 Germans who got on were in the card room next door. Apparently card playing is a big thing on this ship. It is the first time we've been on a cruise where they do the introduction and safety meeting in separate language groups but I would imagine if you are one of the 1100 French and had to sit through all the other languages for only a few hundred people you'd get annoyed.
Overall it's going to be a relaxing cruise versus the constant go, go, go on the larger ships where there is just so much to do you get dizzy thinking of it.
We did go to the show last night which was great with an Italian baritone and pianist. And dinner was very tasty and thankfully they serve smaller portions and have no additional food outlets. You dine for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the appointed times and that's pretty much it. There is a pizza restaurant open most other hours but none of that all night eating thing which is perfect, we really needed to get back on to a healthy eating track after the Norwegian Epic.