day 99 – civitavecchia (count chockula), italy

fort in center designed by michaelangelo

pretty port town of civitavecchia

this was the day where we had planned on taking a crew shuttle, one of two, to rome.  the short trip (the one we signed up for) was cancelled due to not enough people, so we opted instead to stay in the port town of civitavecchia.  i don’t really want to try and do a place as fabulous as rome in an hour and a half and have to turn right around to come back (on a train whose workers may or may not go on strike at any second)… if you are part of a tour that is late returning, the ship will wait for you – if you are on your own and are late, the ship will not wait for you and you will lose your job… taking the chance didn’t seem worth it, and who wants to be looking at the time every two seconds and be all stressed when you are trying to have a nice day sightseeing?  not us!

spring has sprung!

the port city was way better than we were told it would be, though, and we ended up having a really great day there… a shuttle took us through the port area to the city’s edge, dropping us off at a big fort that was designed by michaelangelo. we were then on foot through a very lovely city, beautiful buildings, trees in flower, a perfect spring day, upper 50’s lower 60’s… we walked around a bit ‘til we found a nice place for coffee… the perfect coffee, by the way! some of the best either of us have ever had! after caffeine and croissants, we window shopped and strolled ‘til we came to the city marketplace. what a great browse! always one of my favorite places to go! the produce was gorgeous, and we broke down and bought the strawberries, because they are lovely and small and smelled amazing, not like those woody, gargantuan, tasteless, white-at-the-top horrible ones at home… you really have to grow your own or buy the good small ones in season! the meat and fish counters were something to behold! they even had an entire counter of horse meat products… that is so weird to us to think about, like eating dogs or something, but in european and asian countries, friendly or useful animals are no different than cows or sheep or pigs… they can all be cooked and eaten… i didn’t try any horse, though.

perfetto!

purple-y!

gorgeous produce... we bought some berries

johnny, nino, wipe off that drool...

olives galore

cioppino, anyone?

the people watching is awesome here… the older ladies in the market seem to have a uniform… i snapped a few furtive pics… a quilted jacket, a scarf tied around their neck, sensible shoes and a shopping trolley… the men gather in cafes or on park benches and talk, and yes, they do gesture with their hands a lot; it is not an entirely inaccurate stereotype! it was a lot of fun to listen to vendors singsong-ing about their stuff, and we enjoyed all the sights and sounds of the market. we bargained with a guy to get the price reduced by half on an italian flag bandana for gimli… that was about the extent of our bargaining…

uniformed shoppers

"whatta you lookin at?"

old guys solving the world's problems while mamas shop

we kept walking and decided to head back to the waterfront to find a nice restaurant for lunch… we found a perfect spot with a menu in italian and english (no horse) and we went in and had a seat. we enjoyed amazing bruschetta (artichoke for me, mushroom for bob), fresh, tender (not frozen, rubber band-like) calamari, green salad, and pizza with italian sausage, also very fresh… a bottle of asti sparkling wine and some mineral water, and we were very happy. it has been my habit on these port days to take dinner at lunch time, then just sleep through dinner while bob plays his early set… then i can get up and get ready for work at 6, play the gig at 7 without feeling all full, though i still eat very well, just earlier… ‘atsa nice!

after we walked off lunch (no room for gelato today), we took a few pictures in and near some of the beautiful cathedrals… mom is kind of a st. francis fan, so i took a pic of his church here as well as a statue of him in one of the other churches (they won't post here for some reason, so i'll show you when i am home, mom...).  we got back to the ship in time for a siesta for both of us, and we were very glad we decided to stay and relax here instead of rushing through rome, anxiety ridden. i can’t believe we only have 3 more ports after this before heading home! here is the port song, making fun of bob’s and my inability to pronounce correctly today’s port city – people were no help from the ship, with at least 5 variations in pronunciation that i counted… we gave up three days ago and started calling it count chockula…

port song for civitiavecchia, italy
(to the tune of theme song from tv show, “cheers”)

making our way in the port today because we decided not
to stress ourselves out by going to rome when enough time we haven’t got
we’d rather have a carefree day
so we’ll hang around in a town - where we can’t pronounce the name
but we’re mighty glad we came
we’ll just call it count chockula, our day will still be the same
it’s ok if we can’t pronounce the name

went to have a cappuccino and a fresh croissant
there’s little else on a lovely morning that i could really want
and bob and i held hands in the market place
in the middle of the town - where we still can’t pronounce the name
our money spends here just the same
it’s ok if we call it count chockula, we really can’t be blamed
it’s not our fault that we can’t pronounce the name

we went to the market place to shop and i noticed a uniform
to which the older italian ladies without discussing do conform
a quilted coat, a shopping trolley and a scarf
that’s what they all wear here in the town - where we can’t pronounce the name
you all may think that it’s a shame
that we insist on calling it count chockula, but now that moniker remains
and in our hearts it will always remain the same

we shopped awhile and bought strawberries, pencils and oil pastels
a cookbook and a big salami and another coffee as well
then we went to find a restaurant
to have a lunch date in this lovely town where we cannot say it’s name
an italian feast here is our aim
we love it here in count chockula, our appetites were tamed
and if we had the chance we would definitely come back again

we have to stay on in cartegena but we’re both off in cadiz
and the days in between we’ll enjoy our together time out on the seas
but in portugal the same old problem’s in the way
because we don’t know how to say their port where we can’t pronounce the name (funchal!)
maybe we need a port city phonics flash card game
we’ll just call it frankenberry, and handle it just the same
‘cause this is what we do when we don’t know how to say the name