Sailing the Med
Wednesday June 21 arrived and with it the end of our Sardinian holiday. From our bug filled Sardinian home in Baia Sardinia to the ferry port in Olbia, we had about a 45 minute drive. The Grimaldi Europa ferry departed Oblia for Livorno (Tuscany) at 1030am but our instructions were to arrive at least 2 hours early if we were taking our car on the ferry. We were, so we had to arrive by 830am to a port I have never been to, to check in to a ferry I had never ridden, likely using a language I am very poor at speaking. So, we left the house around 715am giving us plenty of time to screw up and still make the departure.
Traffic being what it is at 8am, even in Sardinia, Google maps sent us on a fun but curvy ride over the hills into Olbia rather than down the valley. Fun and scenic. When I am home and I know the roads, fun and scenic is cool. Because as the driver, I have fun driving the roads and I am confident enough to enjoy the view. In Italy/Sardinia fun and scenic means pay the $^#&$^ attention to the road so you don't kill yourself or others while everyone else is going "oooh!" in between holding back car sickness.
Speaking of fun (but not scenic) - we arrived at the well-marked port of Olbia (if you have not driven in Europe, they really make life easy by providing ample road signage complete with drawings to tell you where to go.)
Example:
Ship = port
Airplane = Airport
Bullseye looking thing = City Center
Chemical bottle = meth lab
Train = train station
You see what I mean. I may have made one of those up.
Arrived at the port, in typical Italian fashion you show your paperwork/tickets to at least 3 different guys who in turn each direct you where to head - which is 500 feet away to the next guy who sees you when you leave the prior guy. Here you repeat the paperwork showing and the pointing of a direction to another guy 500 feet away. (don't hate on the Italians, recall in London Heathrow airport they put a person ever 100 ft to tell you that you needed a clear plastic bag) Guy number three pointed to our ticket ("allora!") and said we needed to go to the ticket office so they could add the license plate number of our car on the ticket (did not have that prior since this is a rental car). Go to office, get updated ticket, return to the three traffic directors who actually remembered us and waved us on ("a presto!") and then we parked in queue awaiting our time to board. All by 815am. Perfetto!
We ended up being about the 30th car to board which is really good. They jam those cars in and you have to be really good at not killing anyone on the fun and scenic roads so you can navigate the inside of a ferry ship with your car without cracking a hole in the side of the ship. But I am confident at my fun and scenic driving skills and with the Renault Arkana as my ride, I pulled into the slot to park like I grew up there. Just missing the slicked back black wavy hair to be fully confused with a native Italian guy.
For our journey (a day journey, not an overnight trek) we still opted to get a large room so we could have our own space and bathroom and TV if the lounges and deck were crowded. We got checked into our room and found a nice place, albeit quite warm (they had turned off the a/c in the room, but I figured out how to turn it on and things slowly got better). We had a living room with two pull out beds, a table and a TV stand, we had a full bathroom and shower, and a bedroom with a full-sized bed. The living room and the bedroom each had a full-sized window. Had it not been so warm in there to start, we may not have left.
Looking for cooler hang outs, we ventured on deck to claim our inclusive breakfast and discovered multiple lounges that were neither crowded nor hot - in fact quite cozy. Our inclusive breakfast came with a juice of our choice, a pastry, and coffee or cappuccino. All of that for around $4! Once we had our breakfast, we were all eager to tour the ship and see what fun might be waiting. We found more lounges, a disco, a video game arcade (no casino), a full service "nice" restaurant, another restaurant that was not open, 3-4 shops, a pool deck, a pool bar, and a lot of deck space to just hang out on the rail and watch the sea float by. It was pretty cool!
Eventually we all made our way to wherever we wanted to go. Maria and Alyssa wanted to nap, Jule wanted to hang out in the room for a bit, and I went up on deck to watch us sail out of Olbia. It was a muggy start to the day so there was a bit of a haze in the air which took away from the true beauty of seeing the island from the ship as well as the several smaller islands that are just offshore. There was a fairly decent "crowd" on deck as we pulled away from Olbia, but we were all amused at how quickly the limited chairs and loungers around the tiny pool filled up with really red/brown tanned old people eager to sunbathe for the next 8 hours. The ship had not fully left the port and the pool deck was a septuagenarian leather factory. But likely not Corinthian septuagenarians, so the quality was lower.
I crept to the aft of the ship for more solitude and enjoyed the scenery for about 45 minutes. The cool breeze coming off the bay and eventually the sea was very nice compared to the prior days where the sun was intense and the humidity a factor in overall comfort levels. Slightly after 11am, I ventured onto the 10th deck where the various lounges were and found plenty of great choices for seating. It was becoming quite apparent that the ferry was not very full of passengers which was nice. Those that were on the ship had either immediately joined the skin cancer party on the pool deck or had created a home base in one of the many couches or cushy chairs along the windows of the lounges, That being said, there were plenty of comfortable places to sit inside and still have a nice view out of the large widows. I found my perch and dove into the novel I had brought on the trip.
About an hour later, I figured I should find the family. Repeated announcements over the PA system (mostly in Italian, but often translated into English) mentioned lunch options. Finally an announcement was made regarding the service of the "inclusive" lunch for those whose faire had included it. I went about to trek back to the room assuming the napping and quite time was still ongoing (never underestimate the number of hours a teenager can sleep). Immediately I ran into Maria and we ventured off to find our lunch. A few minutes later we found Alyssa who had apparently just come from finishing lunch with Jule. She showed us to the restaurant that was designated for our "inclusive" lunch and walked us through the process in a very quick manner. Alyssa had apparently NOT been napping the entire time but had gone on a walkabout and found all the cool things that she and the girls determined were the things to do for the journey.
Our inclusive lunch had added about $15 to our ferry ticket cost - probably would have been fine without the pre-ordered lunch as there were a few ala carte bars where you could order a panini and even an "American style hamburger". Nonetheless, we could not have been happier with our selection. For the $15 price, we got a HUGE portion of pasta - aka primi (choices were lasagna, pasta pomodoro, or a curry pasta dish) and a meat dish - secondi (choices included a chicken cordon bleu, an eggplant panini, or a steak looking thing that I could not figure out - never order indistinguishable steak looking things while on a boat... or really ever). The secondi came with several side dish options - fries, roasted potatoes, steamed veggies. Then we got to also choose a beverage - waters, sodas, beer, wine. Maria added on a dessert - dolce - in the form of a chocolate cake (she was starving). It was pretty fancy for $15 to be honest. And a HUGE amount of food.
Maria's lunch choices
My lunch choices
We both opted for the lasagna. I added the chicken but skipped the fries/veggies. Maria asked if she could just get a big pile of fries instead of adding a meat dish. We sat down and enjoyed our meal. It was pretty yummy given the setting and low expectations to begin with, and we were certainly full. Jule and Alyssa caught up to us. They had apparently scoped out the onboard spa and appointments were made for facials and neck massages. Interested in neither, I took a walk back up to the leather tanning facility in order to get more fresh air and watch waves flow by. At this point in our journey, we were sailing past the island of Corsica which is French owned. Corsica is well-known as being the birthplace of Napolean Bonaparte. We were probably 50 miles off shore and with the hazy filtered sunlight, I could not see much more than a silhouette of the island.
Geographically, Olbia is northwest of Napoli. The journey to Livorno is directly north and heads past Corsica and the island of Elba which is west of Grosetto. Or noted prior, the bulk of the journey technically takes place on the Tyrrhenian Sea, but for the sake of generalities, we can call it the Mediterranean Sea. That sounds swankier anyway.
The rest of the journey was similar. I would alternate time between hanging out in a lounge either reading or playing games on my phone or stopping by the room for a bit. The girls took naps or watched something on the TV. Jule came and went between the room and finding me in a lounge to hang out and visit. All three did end up utilizing the onboard spa. I heard words like "facial" or "massage" or "somethingcure" or "exfoliblahbidityblah" and tuned out to the rest of the description. But they were all very happy and rested.
We arrived outside the port of Livorno around 730pm as promised - hovered for about 30 minutes before the ferry was given the green light to proceed to the dock. Once there, they called our disembarkation group (based on what parking level you were at). We were the first group, loaded into our smushed in but trusty Renault Arkana, made the hairpin turn to head down the ramp, and we were off the ship as simple as that.
We agreed to stop at a McDonald's near the port to get something to tide us over before arriving at our AirBnB in Lucca. Ordering here at McDonalds is simple - especially given the 8 self-serve ordering kiosks where menu options are available in English and everything is touch screen and picture oriented. There are a lot of different and interesting options at McDonald's Italia - including a cool Mediterranean style chicken sandwich and fries with bacon and cheese.
From Livorno, it was about a 45-minute drive to our house in Lucca - La Capanna. We arrived and met our host, got settled in, were immediately wowed by this place, and eventually dozed off the sleep. Mediterranean cruise complete. The wonders of the Cinque Terre and Tuscany yet to come.
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