The Good:
This cruise vacation started with 3 nights spent in Rome. I highly recommend the Hilton Cavalieri hotel. It's worth every penny spent. The view from the city-view balconies is breathtaking. You can see almost all of the main downtown attractions.
The taxi ride from Rome to Civitavecchia is about an hour. My group used romecabs and it worked out well. We showed up at about 11:00 and embarkation was a breeze. There was no wait.