September 22 Rome to Civitavecchia

The plane is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which the flight attendant announced was delivered to WestJet earlier this month. The cruising altitude to Rome was over 37,000 feet, normal cruising altitute is 34,000 to 35,000 feet. The cabin was quieter on the Dreamliner than the Boeing 737 Max’s cabin on which we flew to Calgary. The plane was pushed away from the gate just before 6:30 p.m. which was 2:30 a.m. in Rome. The overnight 7,597 km flight route headed north east from Calgary, then flew over Nunavut, Greenland, Iceland east toward Norway then turned south over the Danish peninsula and flew over Germany, the Alps and into Italy.  Dinner was served about two hours after leaving Calgary. The entrée choice was meatballs or Rotini pasta in mushroom sauce, a bun, a corn and bell pepper salad and a mini chocolate cake.  There was a TV on the back of the seat in front which had a selection of movies, games and the flight route to follow. The news mentioned a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City very early this morning. Yesterday passengers were talking about the renewal of Canadian COVID border restrictions that were extended to September 30 in June. People are hoping for an end to COVID testing before cruises to Canada and ending the electronic ArriveCAN app to enter the country.

  Most passengers tried to sleep between dinner and breakfast. The plane flew into the rising sun which again had an orangey glow on the horizon as we flew over Iceland’s east coast. Breakfast was served about two hours before landing. The plane was about 30 minutes late. It was a very smooth landing and once in the terminal we followed the crowd to the train to get to the main terminal for border control which had electronic kiosks to read the passports and take your picture then, a little further, was a person in a booth who stamped your passport. Next, we followed the signs to baggage claim. There were two other planes assigned to the carousel. In less than ten minutes we had our bags and exited the baggage claim area. From landing to exiting with our luggage took less than 40 minutes. We had logged just 2,070 steps so far. Our driver Alessandro, met us to drive the 65 km to our hotel in the port town of Civitavecchia. It took less than an hour driving on the A12 four lane highway to arrive at our hotel near the waterfront . The farmland looked quite dry as we passed farms, market gardens and small towns.

  In Rome, face masks are required in public indoor places and public transportation such as busses and trains. We did not see many people wearing face masks in Civitavecchia. Civitavecchia is located on the Tyrrhenian Sea on Italy’s west coast. It has been the port for Rome since Roman times. The Tyrrhenian Sea is the part of the Mediterranean Sea along Italy’s east coast.  The town was founded in the 2nd century A.D. by Emperor Trajan. In the middle ages, several Popes had buildings constructed here. 

  Once registered at the Hotel San Giorgio, we were given an actual key like what we had when we stayed in Venice at an old hotel. The hotel, located in the historic city centre was once a late 19th century mansion, which has been renovated. It has elegant iron doors at the street entry overlooking the seafront.  It was close to 3 p.m. and we were tired, so we had a short nap then went out to explore the area near the hotel.

  Near the hotel, at the seaside, is a tall over 5 meter high statue which is a copy of the "Unconditional Surrender" statue, a.k.a. the "The Kissing Statue", in Tuna Harbor Park at the San Diego waterfront. Close by is the cruise port, less than a ten minute walk. Today, there were two cruise ships docked - the Cunard Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas. The  colourful fast cruise ferry, Moby Tommy, was also in port. There is a fishing fleet that docks near the 16th-century Michelangelo Fort. The fort is still being used by Italy’s military and is not open to the public. There were fishermen mending their nets and we saw a partly open air warehouse where many nets were stored.

 We strolled around the cruise port to see the ships then found the main shopping area nearby which is mostly a traffic free street. We had not eaten since breakfast around 10:30 am. There were many restaurants with covered patios. We chose Gambero Rosso restaurant which had plenty of room on its patio to distance the diners. We both enjoyed an entrée of Italian pasta, then returned to the hotel, less than a five minute walk away.

Total steps = 10782 

Hotel San Giorgio





copy of the "Unconditional Surrender" statue, a.k.a. the "The Kissing Statue"

walkway along the 16th-century Michelangelo Fort

open air warehouse where many nets were stored

the Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas

the Cunard Queen Elizabeth 


the colourful fast cruise ferry, Moby Tommy

Gambero Rosso restaurant



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