A Planner's Guide to 10 Nights in the Western Mediterranean w/kids ages 5 & 8 | COMPLETED July 2019

[JulieODC]

Are you still on that 12-night Med this summer in July? I only ask because we decided to book that one also.

Sadly, we canceled because we were too nervous - and switched to an Alaska cruise instead.

 

[DianaMB333]

Thank you so much! We are booked for Europe cruise on 2023 and your report is very insightful!

 

[PhiSigKris]

Thank you so much for writing such a detailed report! This is super helpful for our 2023 trip. Do you know what happened to your Day 3 Amalfi Coast post and the first half of your Rome post? They're not showing up anymore.

 

[gstdog]

Thank you so much for writing such a detailed report! This is super helpful for our 2023 trip. Do you know what happened to your Day 3 Amalfi Coast post and the first half of your Rome post? They're not showing up anymore.

Bizarre--not sure why. If I look in my profile and review all the posts I've ever made, I can see both of those posts in the search results (i.e., Day 3 is post #7 and Day 4 Part 1 is post #9 in the thread). However, if I open the thread, they are not there.

 

[gstdog]

Thank you so much for writing such a detailed report! This is super helpful for our 2023 trip. Do you know what happened to your Day 3 Amalfi Coast post and the first half of your Rome post? They're not showing up anymore.

Not a perfect solution, but Google has the original thread in it's cache:

https://webcache.googleusercontent....d-july-2019.3759435/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Here it is again:

DAY 3 - NAPLES & AMALFI COAST: DW really wanted to see the Amalfi coast, perhaps more than any other excursion on the whole cruise. I looked at all the options, and it seemed like getting a private driver was the best choice to try to see everything we wanted. We used Tours of Amalfi Coast to book a private driver for an 8-hour tour. I picked them because they had great reviews and were less expensive than some of the standard 'limo tours' offered in the port of Naples...and I'm so glad I did! THey were perfect. Our driver, John Lucca was great, and the front office was easy to communicate with via email.

The all ashore in Naples was 7:30 am, so I booked our driver to pick us up at 8:00 am. I mentioned that I wanted to tour the Amalfi Coast and try to see Pompeii as well, and they tour office recommended that we do Amalfi first, and then Pompeii on the way back to the ship. They offered to provide car seats for 20€ each, but we opted to bring our booster seats instead.

That morning, since we weren't meeting the driver until 8 am, I decided we could have a leisurely breakfast and walk off the ship right before 8 am to meet our driver. What I didn't plan on was that Disney closed the gangway from 7:45 to 8:15 to fix the gangway and relocate buses and taxis. Apparently there was a big sporting event, the Napoli 2019 Summer Universiade, which meant that the Disney Magic had to dock in a more industrial area. Whether it was Disney or the Port Authority, I don't know, but someone made the decision that the port wasn't safe to walk around, so they made all the private drivers and taxis leave, and the only option was to take the shuttle to the terminal area of the port.

Good news for me is that I had downloaded WhatsApp and was able to send a message to our driver that we were delayed in getting off the ship. We finally made it off at 8:15 am and met our driver after the shuttle ride at 8:25 am. John Lucca was standing there with a sign for our family and led us to his car. It was a very nice Mercedes sedan, although it meant that DW had a somewhat tight fit in-between the two car seats in the back seat. So, we were off...just almost 30 minutes late.

We drove through Naples and up into the mountains that lead to the Amalfi coast. We asked John Lucca for recommendations, and he was happy to adjust our tour based on preferences and take us to see farms, vineyards, towns, etc. We really wanted to see the coast, so he said it was best to start at the far end of the Amalfi coast and work our way back. Along the way, we stopped at the top of the mountain to get a gorgeous view of Mt. Vesuvius and modern Pompeii. Here you can see our driver, John Lucca with DD and DS.

We reached the town of Ravello at 9:45am. For those counting, the drive took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, which included the five-minute stop for pictures along the way. Our driver recommended spending 45 minutes in the town before we left to go explore the next town. Ravello was amazing...and nearly empty! By starting at the far side of the coast, we beat all the tourists there. We had a wonderful breakfast at the the cafe in the town square (see below), and the only other customers at the time were locals.

Ravello is a mountain village situated above the Amalfi coast, so it had great views. We spent some time in the cathedral in the town square, and then it was time to go meet our driver. Honestly, I wish we had spent an hour and half there rather than just 45 minutes. There was a garden there, Villa Rufolo, that I would have loved to have toured, plus spending times looking through all the shops. This is going to be a common complaint on this day--not enough time! We really wanted to see the full coast AND Pompeii in one day, which meant everything was going to be rushed. If we had to do it over again, I think I would have saved Pompeii for the future and spend more time enjoying the towns along the coast.

We met our driver at 10:30am, and then started the drive along the Amalfi coast. Our goal was to do lunch in Positano, and the drive from Ravello to Positano would take about an hour and 15 minutes. We decided to just drive through the town of Amalfi to make sure we had enough time to spend in Positano. The drive itself was amazing--great views of the coast, but it is a narrow road with a lot of winding turns. If you ever get motion sickness from a car ride, this ride could do it to you.

We reached Positano at 11:45 am, and our driver dropped us off at the town of the town. We originally said that we'd meet him back at the drop-off point at 1 pm, but we ended up messaging him through Wi-Fi from our restaurant later to delay until 1:45pm. This is definitely a 'postcard' town that you'll never really tire of taking pictures. We took a few of the town before we started our walk down into the town. There is no way to get down to the beach except a 20-minute walk down some very steep steps. Remember that when you are planning your trip back--it takes time to walk back up.

Positano from Above

The walk through narrow streets down to the beach

We decided to have lunch at The Covo Restaurant, which was attached to a hotel and had a wonderful view of the beach from the terrace. The kids got some Napoli pizza (which they loved), DW got the sea bass (which she loved), and I got the seafood risotto (which I loved).

Now, this is where DW and I differed on opinion. Lunch was took a leisurely 1-hour and 15 minutes, and I loved every minute of it. We had an amazing view, great food, (good Wi-Fi to upload some pictures and check email) and the opportunity to just relax. DW on the other hand had wanted to just grab a quick bite for 30-45 minutes and then explore the town more. Honestly, we were both right! If we weren't trying to force a visit to Pompeii that afternoon, we would have been able to enjoy a long lunch and explore the town. Unfortunately, we really only had about 15 minutes to spend taking pictures on the beach, and then walking back up to meet our driver. My recommendation is to spend at least 2.5 to 3 hours in Positano to not feel rushed.

We left Positano around 1:45 pm and made it to Pompeii at 3:00 pm. Again, for those counting, it took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive from Naples to Ravello, another 1 hour and 15 minutes from Ravello to Positano, and another 1 hour and 15 minutes from Positano to Pompeii. Make sure you factor in all the driving time to get around Amalfi and Naples.

Tickets were 15€ each for adults, and kids were free. We grabbed a frozen lemon drink for 5€ and hit the public restrooms for 1€ before we went inside. We asked our driver to meet us back at 4:15 pm which would give us a little over an hour to tour the ruins. Honestly, for our family, that was enough time to 'check the box' for Pompeii. We were able to explore, see some ruins and then head back to the car before everyone was completely exhausted. It would probably take 2-3 hours to see everything. I am really good with directions, and I constantly felt lost inside Pompeii. We watched some documentaries with the kids before we visited, so we were okay going on our own, but you probably should book a guide if you really want to know the history.

We made it back to the ship around 4:45 pm, which gave us time to take showers and get dressed before dinner. Amazing day for sure, but we definitely tried to do too much.

Tomorrow will be our day in Rome!

DAY 4 PART 1 - CIVITAVECCHIA & ROME: Of all the days in port, this was the one I was most nervous about. You really cannot do Rome in just a single day, especially when you are coming from a port that is almost 50 miles away...but I was going to try!

We started by making a list of everything we wanted to see, and then paring it down to something realistic for a single day. The main attraction we decided to skip was the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. While both DW and I would love it, we figured the the kids would probably get bored looking at fresco paintings on ceilings for two hours. The other attraction that we decided to mark as tentative would be the Colosseum. While we definitely wanted to see the Colosseum from the outside, we agreed that we could skip seeing the inside if necessary.

Once we settled on that, I spent a lot of time working on a travel plan that made sense to tour the city. I broke our tour into four different parts. Part 1 - St. Peter's Basilica, Part 2 - getting across town, Part 3 - a walking tour of the city center, and Part 4 - a walking tour of the Roman Forum and Colosseum. I set our day to end at the Colosseum so we could skip going inside if we ran out of time. All together, that worked out to be about 5-6 hours in Rome, especially if you include time for lunch.

Here are the Google Maps I made (and printed) to I could keep track of our day while in Rome. All together there would be about 3 miles of walking, but I felt like the kids could handle that given our experience on other hiking trips.

I felt comfortable touring some of the city on my own, but I really wanted to book a local guide to help make the history of Rome come alive for our family, plus keep the kids engaged. I looked at a lot of options, but ultimately settled on the site WithLocals, which is basically an Uber for local tour guides. There are different types of tours to choose from, and for each one, you can pick the tour guide you want. You can see from the site that prices tend to run at 20-35€ per person per hour, plus kids are free! I loved this service and used it twice--both in Rome and in Florence. For Rome, we picked Yanira, since it looked liked she would do great with the kids. I shared with Yanira the sites I wanted to see, so she created a custom 2.5 hour tour that started at the Spanish Steps and ended at the Cat Sanctuary (more on that later--her recommendation). The total cost for our tour was only 168€.

The only downside of booking the tour is that Yanira's only availability was at 11:00 am. That means I had to get to Rome, tour St. Peter's Basilica, and then get to the Spanish Steps in time to meet Yanira...which means I needed to get to St. Peter's Basilica by 9:15 am at the latest. My biggest challenge in all this was going to be travel time. All my research suggested that driving to Rome from Civitavecchia would take 90 minutes or more, regardless if you booked a private driver or through the cruise line. That means we'd have to leave by 7:30am, and the only options that left that early were very expensive limo services.

The solution? TIme to brave the trains! Trains from Civitavecchia to Roma San Pietro (the station closest to St. Peter's Basilica) take only 40-50 minutes. 80 minutes round trip relaxing on a train vs. 180 minutes round trip in a car sitting in traffic? Sign me up! Spoiler--the trains were great. I found it easy, but I've traveled on trains and subways in other cities, so I had a certain level of familiarity with them. Whatever you do, don't trust any guide books or outdated information that say trains leave every 30 minutes. Look up the actual train times. You can do it at the Trenitalia Website. Just enter in Civitavecchia in the From field, Roma S. Pietro in the To field, and select your dates at times. Here were the options for me the morning we were in port:

• 7:44am train - arrive in Rome at 8:25am - plenty of time
• 7:58am train - arrive in Rome at 8:54am - plenty of time
• 8:42am train - arrive in Rome at 9:24am - PANIC!

I cannot stress enough--write these down! It was helpful to know exactly when the next train left or what train you were looking for at the station. Given that our ashore time was 7:00 am, I was worried because you had to take a shuttle from the ship to the port terminal, and then either find a taxi or do a 15-minute walk to the train station. I *really* wanted to make the 7:44 am departure, so I got the family up super early and was in line to debark the ship at 6:50 am. There were about 10-15 people ahead of us in line at that time, including the family ahead of us trying to make the exact same 7:44am train.

We got off the ship exactly at 7 am, and what did I find? Four taxis waiting right off the gangway. This is something that Disney could never promise (and sometimes insisted wouldn't be there), but I often found was there. If you ask a Cast Member, they will tell you that taxis are not allowed next to the ship, but usually there were a handful there. I don't blame the Cast, since there is no way they can guarantee it, but it was a pleasant surprise. The taxi drivers are generally looking to take people all the way to Rome (very expensive), but were were able to find a taxi that would take us directly to the Civitavecchia train station for 5€ per person. We ended up sharing a big taxi with the family in front of us and made it to the train station at 7:15am. Note--there were only four taxis, so not sure if there would be any left after those four were gone.

I went inside to buy tickets at the train station counter. I ended up buying two BIRG tickets for me and DW for 12€ each. These allow unlimited use of the trains between Civitavecchia and Rome for a single day, plus all of the buses and metro stations within Rome. Children are free to use the buses and metro in Rome with a paying adult, but still have to buy tickets for the roundtrip between Civitavecchia and Rome. The train tickets for the kids were 2.30€ each, for a total of 9.20€. All in, the total cost of the tickets was 33.20€. See below are the pictures of the tickets--the two BIRG tickets, and the four train tickets for the kids (2 from Civitavecchia to Rome, and 2 for the return trip).

On the BIRG tickets, you need to write your name and birthdate on the card, plus have some type of photo ID with you. This is designed so you can't use the BIRG and then sell it to someone else later. It's yours for the day. You'll also see the yellow arrows that I added. That faint printed string of letters and numbers is the validation. After you buy your ticket, you MUST put your tickets in the green little machine mounted on the wall. You insert the ticket, and then you'll here a small typewriter noise. Pull the ticket out, and now it's should have that text written on it. If you don't validate your ticket, then you will pay a hefty fine if a conductor checks your ticket while on the train. Just remember to put the kids' return tickets away for safe keeping and don't forget to validate them later (...but not the BIRG--just one time in the morning is enough).

Honestly, I don't recommend buying tickets ahead of time because there are a lot of details around the type of tickets you want. There is no way I would have known to buy the kids tickets separately from the website. That said, now that you know what I did, maybe you can figure it out online. Note--there is an EXPRESS train from Civitavecchia to Rome that doesn't stop at the local stations and makes the trip in 35 minutes. However, it is more expensive and the BIRG tickets are not valid for it. The express train didn't leave until after 10 am, so it wasn't an option for us. Plus, I planned on using the Metro in Rome to get around, so I really wanted to get the BIRG tickets.

You'll want to look at the monitors, and they will let you know what platform your train will be on. As a reminder, platforms are abbreviated as BIN in Italian. The 7:44 train arrived on time, and there were some seats available, but not a lot. We were able to sit together, but we didn't have a ton of choices. Note--some people will take this train all the way to Roma Termini station for the center of Rome and the airport, so there will be some people with luggage. You'll also have locals on the train as well making their commute into the city.

We arrived at Roma S. Pietro station exactly at 8:25 am after a pleasant train ride. It was an easy walk to St. Peter's Square, plus there were signs pointing the way. It took us about 10-15 minutes to walk there, and it was a nice, safe neighborhood to walk through. We arrived at St. Peter's Square at 8:40 am, and it was empty...like really empty. Check out the picture below:

Getting there before 9 am meant very little crowds from tourists. It took us only five minutes to make it through the security check line to get into St. Peter's Basilica. As a reminder, you do NOT have to pay any money to get into St. Peter's Basilica, so ignore all the vendors telling you that you need a ticket. If you are in the square facing the church, the line is along the right side of the square. Also, gentlemen cannot wear shorts and ladies need to cover their shoulders and knees. DW brought a long shaw to wrap around her shoulders while inside.

Pictures cannot do St. Peter's justice. We spent about an hour inside and loved it. It was not crowded at all early in the morning, so it was easy to get around. We brought Rick Steve's book with us, as he wrote a great 6-page mini-guide of the church. It outlines a walking tour within the church and provides history and background on the different alters, sculptures, and paintings, which lets you appreciate it all the more. We'd walk to a spot, and then I'd read that section for the family in a whispered voice (...it is a church, so most people are very quiet inside).

We left St. Peter's at 9:40 am and walked north to the Ottaviano Metro station. We bought a Powerade for the kids for 3.5€ from one of the street vendors, which felt expensive. There was a McDonalds on the 10-minute walk to the Metro station, and my guess is that would have been cheaper.

Once at the Ottaviano Metro station, for those that have been on a subway before, it should feel very familiar. You scan your BIRG ticket in the turnstile machine, and it will open the gate to let you pass through. Note--each paying adult can bring ONE child with them for free. Have them stand right in front of you, scan the ticket, gates open, push them through and you follow behind. The gate is open long enough to push them through with me, but there's a chance they could get left behind if you are not quick about it. I should note that if you are 2 adults and 3+ kids, that means you'll have to buy a metro ticket for one of the kids too, otherwise you cannot get them all in with you.

Once inside the Metro station, were were planning to ride two stops over to the Spagna metro station. There won't be any signs for Spagna. The metro line connects Anagnina on one end and Batitstini on the other. From the Ottaviano station, you are heading towards Anagnina, so follow the signs to that platform. We arrived at the Spagna at 10:25 am, and made it to the Spanish Steps at 10:30 am -- a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule! We got to hang out and relax on the steps until we met our guide at 11 am.

Next update, I'll share the second half of Rome and the train ride back to Civitavecchia.

 

[PhiSigKris]

THANK YOU!!!! I really appreciate it!!!