JP surprised us yesterday by saying the $140pp Rome excursion was fine by her if we didn't feel like planning anything. When we started this I was the one who wanted to throw caution to the winds and spend $280 per couple to tour Rome, but now I've gotten behind the idea of doing it ourselves. I've read several reviewers who've done what we plan to do, and it sounds like it worked for them. I also came across this article, Schedule: an Italian train survival guide, which helped seal the deal.
I suggested buying the train tix ahead of time at Trenitalia, but it turns out as soon as you click on "Buy," the website goes from English to Italian and there's no switching back. With our experience in Spanish we can make out a little bit of the Italian, but it seemed like it would be too much of a hassle to do it in Italian.
The plan then is to take the cruise line provided bus from the ship to the end of the pier, and then if we can't talk the driver into taking us the rest of the way to the train station, we'll either hoof it or take a taxi. From Civitavecchia, there are trains every half-hour or so that cost about €8 for 2nd class or €15 for first class. I've also read that the train fare will cover metro and bus rides in the city, but I'm not counting on it. In any event, for €0,77 we can ride the metro one-way to the Circus Maximus stop and then work our way on foot to the Colosseum, checking out the Roman Forum and the Imperial Forum in addition to those two. After that, depending on how much time is left we'll try to make our way over to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon before taking the train back to the ship. Orient says we'll be in port from 0800-1900, so we're hoping to go between 1000-1700 to give us time for breakfast on the one end and inevitable delays on the other. Subtracting the train ride, we should have a whopping 5 hours in the Eternal City, when we probably need about 5 weeks or more :-) As long as we 1) see the Colosseum and 2) get back to the ship on time, I'll be happy!
