Amy and I have often talked about taking a cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean, but by the time airfare was included and needing to book early enough to even be able to get there, it always seemed WAY too expensive. That brings us to this year, living a short 45 minute drive to Civitavecchia, the “Port of Rome”. I put that in quotes since it isn’t like Amsterdam where the cruise terminal is a 5 minute walk from the central railway station. Rome is a good hour plus away by public transportation no matter how you slice it. Civitavecchia has taken over as a major cruise port from Naples, and there are often half a dozen or more big ships in port on any given day. So, Amy stalked the web looking for steals and deals on cruises leaving from Rome until she stumbled across a 10-day trip leaving on July 17 on Holland America Lines, appropriately titled “The Roman Empire”. She booked the smallest possible inside cabin for $600 apiece plus port taxes. Less than a week later they had upgraded us to the largest verandah cabin for an extra $150 each. The brochure price for our accommodations was $4500 each, not a bad bargain.
Our first port of call after a day at sea was Dubrovnik, Croatia. The ship’s berth was approximately 5 km from the historic centro. For $15 per person you could get on a ship-provided transfer bus and be whisked into town. However, when you disembarked there was also a row of taxis willing to take a carload in for 10 euros or $12.50. Undeterred by the climbing mercury, Amy and I eschewed the transport and set off to make our way in. We made it as far as the port gates where a fortuitous stop at a tourist information center provided information that a local bus ran the route every 15 minutes or so and cost the equivalent of $2 per person. Now we were talking something realistic, so we purchased our tickets and squished in amongst the sweating press of humanity.
The ancient city of Dubrovnik is a classic, European, fortified city.
You can walk the entire perimeter of the defensive walls if you are so inclined. We chose to rent an audio-guided walking tour. We wound our way past fountains and narrow alleys through the white marble streets of town.
Dubrovnik is on the water, and there is a classic waterfront complete with daily fishmarket which had already closed up shop by the time we got there. The heat was but a small taste of what we would experience the rest of the trip.
Here we have Amy looking “drunk, dazed and hot” and me filling up a water bottle at the local fountain for the umpteenth time.
One amazing piece of Croatian history is the recent war. It is hard to believe that people were bombing each other and fighting street to street in a major European city just 20 years ago. You can still find the bullet holes and still hear the hatred of the two sides for each other echoing in the plaques and signs.
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