Preliminaries:

We took the 12-day cruise from Rome (Cittivecchia) to Barcelona starting on November 19, 2008. We flew British Air from LAX to Heathrow (Premium Economy class) and British Air economy to Rome. It was our first use of Premium Economy as an alternative to "cattle class" at double the price of coach but will probably do it again as it is an almost affordable alternative to business class. From Da Vinci airport we joined two Canadian girls and hired a van to take us to our hotel. Normally we would have taken the bus but it was late and we splurged on the 40E to get us to the Montecitorio. Hotel was a great location; clean, but quite small, with a flat screen TV that did not work and a broken shower door. Every shower flooded the bathroom and it was the smallest shower we have ever seen, smaller than the bathrooms on any of the 27 cruises we have been on and we have been on some small cruise ships. Of course of the three clerks we dealt with could not fix the shower or get the TV to work. Also, the advertised computer and wifi was in Italian and almost unusable. Do not stay at the Montecitorio, it is poorly run and not worth the stress. In the end we got them to knock 10E off of the 80E price but it took a lot of badgering to even get that concession. We came into Rome a day and a half early and did a few sites in the day we had: Spanish Steps, Trevi, Colleseum, and took the Free Tour to the Vatican along with 3 Polish students and 2 Canadian young women. I tipped Paulo our guide 20E because I knew she would not get much from the students and young women.

We rolled our bags to Silvestre Square, a short-walk from our hotel and caught the bus to the central train station for 1 Euro each. At Stanzia Termini we bought 2nd class seats to Cittivecchia for 9E for the both of us and took the one hour train ride in relative comfort. We joined a German couple and hired a taxi to take us to the ship from the train station for 5E each. Total transportation cost from our hotel in Rome to the ship was 20E for both of us. Read more