I had set an alarm for 4:30, but I was awake about 20 minutes earlier. I got up and decided to make use of the nice rainfall shower. By the time I had showered and dried off, the alarm was about to go off. Graham got up and got ready. I got dressed and packed the few odds and ends that I had unpacked. Then we went downstairs to check out.
Our hotel was just across from terminal 2. As we were flying out of terminal 1, we got some early morning exercise. I was glad that we had checked our luggage in the evening before. The check in desks were not crazy, but still pretty busy.
I had booked Fasttrack tickets and the Fasttrack area was very quiet. I set off the metal detector and for some reason their fancy scanner was refusing to work. I got the full manual treatment. When I was reunited with Graham, I noticed that both of our backpacks had gone for manual screening. Graham’s backpack was checked first and the guy who did this was very thorough. It was his telescope that caused interest. The guy who checked everything was very fascinated by the soft toy bunnies. I am not sure what he thought. Once Graham had his backpack back, there was a shift change. The guy that checked my backpack homed in straight on my bag with door magnets. He swabbed this bag for chemicals and then told me I was free to go.
In the general commotion, Graham had ended up with my printout of the boarding pass and his was nowhere to be found. It did not matter though as I had added the digital versions to my Apple Wallet. He just had to borrow my phone. I was not tempted by shopping that day. We found some seats in the central area. Graham got some eye drops from Boots. Shortly after he got back, our gate was announced. We headed over to the gate.
They started boarding quite early. As we had purchased a large item of cabin luggage, we had speedy boarding. There was no line there at all. The plane was quite empty. It did not take long for boarding to be completed. The airport is very busy that early in the morning and we spent a while parked right to our A380, which I did not mind at all. Eventually we were cleared to proceed to the taxi way and from then, it did not take long until we were airborne.
We were treated to a gorgeous sunrise. I spent the flight reading and working on the trip report. We had breakfast on board. We both had a smoked bacon sourdough roll and an Americano. I was very surprised to be served Costa Coffee. The food and the coffee were gourmet quality by airline standards. At some stage the clouds cleared, and we had gorgeous views over the alps. I was surprised that there were already some snow caps. We also got some great views of Lake Garda. At some stage, Graham abandoned me as he wanted a view as well.
When I checked the EasyJet app before we left Manchester, it looked like we were going to arrive in Naples 10 minutes behind schedule. In the end, we arrived 5 minutes ahead of schedule. We were parked off stand, but everybody fit comfortably on one bus. Immigration was a breeze as well. Luggage collection was downright surreal. The luggage belt started, and Graham’s suitcase was the second one to come out. Mine was not far behind. As I took my suitcase of the belt, it stopped. Luggage delivery was already complete. The whole process had maybe taken 90 seconds.
We headed out of the airport to the bus station. The ticket machine inside the airport was broken, but we figured we could ticket on the bus. There was a bus almost ready to go, but that was pretty full. There were two more buses already lined up behind and we got on the next one. The trip into Naples did not take long. The bus stop was right opposite the station.
We still had over an hour until our train was due to leave. Graham offered to look after the luggage while I had a look around if I could find somewhere where we could get a bite to eat. I did find a nice food court area that had multiple bakery counters as well as outlets offering sandwiches, sushi, toasties and pasta. I went back to get Graham and the luggage. He fancied pasta and I was more than happy with this. He had lasagna and I had spaghetti with meatballs. We both had an iced coffee. I have to say this was rather nice for what was essentially a fast-food outlet.
While we were waiting for our food, we had put our winter coats into Graham’s suitcase. When we had finished lunch, we headed back to the entrance to the platforms. Our platform was listed a minute or so later and our train had already arrived. We got on. Considering that those are long distance trains, there was a shocking absence of luggage space. Fortunately, the carriage was almost empty, and we just parked the luggage next to empty seats. Graham had treated us to first class, which is much more affordable in Italy than this is the case in the UK. We had a very comfortable journey. At some stage we got snack boxes that consisted of a mini cheese and ham roll and a chocolate chip cookie. We also got a bottle of water each. They offered an additional drink. Graham just had the water, and I had some sparkling wine.
We arrived in Rome slightly behind schedule. We also were at the far end of a very long platform. Our connecting train left from a satellite platform where the access was at the opposite end of the station. We had to walk down the full length of that platform, too. We almost made it. The train was still sitting there, but as I pressed the door button, the train pulled out. We had to get new tickets as ours were just valid for the train we had just missed. However, at £4 per person, this was not a hardship. The train arrived shortly afterwards. Again, there was no luggage storage, and the train was very full as there were three ships in port and people were on their way back from Rome. We did snag some seats where the aisle was slightly wider and were able to put our suitcases next to our seats. Graham was asleep for most of the journey. I read and made sure that our luggage did not roll down the length of the train.
When we arrived in Civitavecchia, we noticed that the shortcut between the station and the bed and breakfast had been closed off. Instead, we had to head in the wrong direction first as I did not fancy lumbering the luggage down a rather steep staircase. We walked along the seafront to our accommodation. On the way, Graham spotted a cash point and got some Euros. I decided to do the same when we were heading to dinner later.
We had a message earlier in the day with how to access our room. They now have lockboxes with codes by the gate. It was not entirely straightforward to get in our lockbox, but soon we had our keys. We had the same room again that we had in 2022. Graham had a shower and then took a nap. I went out into the garden to enjoy the sunset. Then I read for a while.
I had set an alarm and when this went off, Graham got changed. We then headed out. I got some cash on the way. We had discovered a cute little restaurant with amazing food in 2022 and we headed back there. I had made a reservation as soon as I could. The restaurant is called Cosamimangiooggi. We overshot slightly and then had some trouble finding it, but eventually we succeeded. We were welcomed with the words we are full. I explained that we had a reservation, and we were seated. We were given the option of eating outside or inside. Graham let me pick. It was a gorgeous mild evening, and I opted to eat outside. We were given menus. I already knew what I wanted. Our server did not speak much English, which made this an interesting experience. Graham wanted gnocchi as a starter and was told this was not available. Shortly afterwards a table nearby got just that dish. Graham was however glad that this not work out as the portion was huge. I asked for the breadbasket and was told they had no such thing. I was surprised as they pride themselves on their artisan bread. There is actually some information on where their bread comes from on the menu. I was a bit disappointed and just ordered the beef meatballs with tomato sauce and salted ricotta flakes. Graham ordered the Italian cod which was baked cod in a tomato sauce with capers and pine nuts. We also had a bottle of Gewürztraminer. Last time we had a Gewürztraminer from the northern part of Italy. This time it was from Hungary. It was really nice.
Pretty much as soon as our server left, I had a lightbulb moment. Back in my late teens and early twenties, I could order a whole meal in Italian without blinking. However, as with so many things, if you don’t use a certain skill, you are going to lose it. I suddenly remembered the Italian word for bread. When our server was next in the vicinity, I called him over. I tried my luck ordering a breadbasket in Italian. He smiled and nodded. He was back with colander of bread shortly afterwards. This was so good. We had to stop ourselves or the bread would have been all gone before our main courses arrived. We both enjoyed our main courses. When we had finished our main courses, our server asked Graham if we wanted to dessert. Graham tried to order tiramisu, but something obviously got lost in translation. We waited forever. When two tables who had ordered dessert after us had theirs and we still did not have ours, we got the hint. Again, this was probably a blessing in disguise. Although the portions for our main courses were not big, the food was incredibly rich, and we had a lot of bread with it. Ordering dessert was a typical case of the eyes being bigger than the stomach. Even without it, I was stuffed. We went inside to pay and then we walked back to the hotel.
It really was a beautiful night. We realised where we had overshot. There were no detours on the way back. At the seafront near to the hotel, there was a beautiful carriage illuminated by an unusual light fixture. I took a photo of this. Then we headed back to our bed and breakfast.
When we got back to our room, we got ready for bed. Graham went to sleep straightaway. I read for a bit, but soon my eyes felt heavy. I set an alarm for 23:00 when I needed to take same medication and I went to sleep, too. Once the alarm went off, I quickly got up to take my medication and within a couple of minutes, I was asleep again.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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