We wake at 8 am (2 am in New York, some of you night owls were still up I’m sure). Excited to take on the day, we dress quickly and head downstairs to the cafe next door for our free breakfast. This is breakfast Italian style mind you, meaning it consists of a pastry and coffee. I get something dusted in sugar with a pale yellow cream in the middle. Kevin gets something chocolate filled. We both have cappuccinos. Now I’m not much of a coffee drinker but Italy is a huge coffee country. It was THE best cappuccino I’d ever had. Much better than four bucks. After breakfast we head back to Termini to see about train tickets to the port. On our way, we step over a man (drunk? homeless?) sleeping on the sidewalk. He had on slacks, leather shoes and a leather jacket. “See even the bums are better dressed over here,” he jokes.

After attempting to get tickets form one of the machines (there was more than one station with the correct name so I wanted to ask someone to be sure), we stand on line at the ticket counter instead. I get to the counter and tell the clerk that we want to go to the cruise port. He looks at me like I said something about his mother. I don’t get annoyed. One of the things I’d noticed was that you get to Europe and you don’t have to worry because everyone here speaks English (and smokes which kinda has me jonseing for a cigarette right now *sigh*). Which is funny because if you come to American and don’t speak the language, people are ready to burn you at the stake. I’ve long concluded that Spanish was the new English anyway.

I digress.

I write down the name of the station we want and he smiles before I finish the word. “Ah, Civitavecchia (pronounced chee-veet-ah-VECH-ee-a),” he says robustly. I nod and smile. He gives us a ticket and we pay 18 euro and then chat about how the rail system in Europe far surpasses that of America’s.

We got back to our hotel to check out and say goodbye to Azad. After gathering our stuff we go back to Termini to wait for the train.

Taking the train was weird. We kinda just get on, find our car and our seats and sit there. No one ever checks our tickets. The doors don’t open automatically. The experience was just…different. We get off at Civitavecchia and exit the terminal. I’m not exactly sure how we get to the port so I ask a man who happens to be a taxi and he agrees to take us to the ship for 20 euro. It’s a blatant fucking rip off but I can’t be bothered, so we get in.

Once there, we wait at the front for my mommy to arrive from the airport. Bus after bus pulls in, people get off and we don’t see her. In the meantime, we discuss the similarities between the Romance languages and I vow to learn Italian when I get home. It shouldn’t be heard since I already speak good French and Spanish.

Finally my mom gets off a bus. We go through the check in process and are on the ship in a matter of minutes. I easily find my way around having been on this cruise line, and in particular the grand class ships, five times now. We meet my mom for some lunch and then head back to the room to unpack and take a nap.

There’s a safety drill that honestly I’ve skipped the first four times I’ve been on one of these ships so I decide to be a good passenger and go this time. Boring.

At around 6, we meet up on the outside deck to have a drink ad watch the ship sail away from Rome. I’m sad to be leaving Rome so soon but excited as hell to be headed to Egypt.

We dress and meet my mom for dinner around 8:30. The dining room is lively and the food is wonderful.

We sit by the window and watch the inky black water as it carries us to Alexandria.