From Rome to Sicily on the M.C. Splendid

Our ferry is owned by the Grandi Navi company of Genoa. The Splendid is far from that, it must have been 10 years ago or more a very nice ferry but today it looks tired and needs refurbishment or replacement all together, maybe this ferry is coming to the end of its life, in other words it is grotty looking, this is not ferry season yet, it is still considered low winter season. The SNAV ferry company which has much newer ferries does not operate passenger service until end of May. Grimaldi Lines is also another with higher standards.

Our ferry can carry up to 2300 cars and 25 large long haul trucks (18 wheelers). It has or had a casino, a night club, several bars, cafeteria and a dining room plus pool, gymnasium and conference rooms, cinema etc. Though most of the attractions on board are either closed or paired down to the essential. It does the liaison between Rome Civitavechia, Palermo and Tunis.

We do have a fair number of Arab passengers with tons of personal belongings.

I can recognize their Magreb accented Arabic when they speak. Most are poor labourers and their families who are guests workers in Italy, they make about 1000 euros per month or $1300 USD, an average wage. Few people realize that in Italy any salary above 1600 euros per month is considered a good wage, that’s about $1900 dollars. Compared to a North American salary that would appear low but it is not. Did you know that in Italy the Director of any large important museum housing world heritage treasures makes no more than about $2000 dollars per month.

Civitavechia is the Port of Rome, it is about 60 Km from Rome itself and is reached by exiting Rome at Vatican City where the ancient Via Aurelia now the SS1 begins. Because Friday 6 May was apparently a General Strike day, I say apparently because I did not see signs of a strike anywhere and we live right in the centre of Rome at Porta Pia near Piazza Repubblica, I decided to take the G.R.A. which is the great ring road around the city, instead of trying to cross town to get to the Aurelia. From Via Salaria, another ancient road, we slowly made our way to the G.R.A. it took us about 40 minutes a distance of about 10 Km.  Via Salaria is the old salt road built by a Roman Consul about 2700 years and is still a major artery of the City, it has not been widened and in some parts is quite narrow. The Romans built it so 2 ox carts could pass each other, modern cars are wider than an ox cart. It would be difficult to modify or widen the road because of all the ancient sites, monuments, Palaces and catacombs along the way.  Once on the G.R.A. it was a fast drive out.

We had to be at the dock ready to board at 5 p.m. it takes about 2 hours to load the ferry with cars and passengers. We left the port with a 50 minutes delay. It seems we had to follow a giant 10 story cruise ship out of port.

The Port of Rome is in fact small, but most cruise ships make a day stop with little room to move around. Cargo and container ships all use Naples to the south, merchandise comes to Rome by truck on the A-1.

Once on board we went to our cabin on the top deck, the crossing down to Sicily takes about 12 hours. We then walked around exploring the ship, as I said before it needs refurbishing. The bar by the marble pool has a few sandwiches and drinks on offer at steep prices. We had a couple of drinks watching Gerry, a well known Italian TV host on the program Who wants to be a millionaire.

We then went on deck to see the departure and then to the restaurant, which according to the sign on the wall part of the Chaine des rotisseurs, though I find that hard to believe. The food was good I had to start a dish of thinly slices eggplant topped with thinly slices zucchini and lightly covered with melted smoked scamorza cheese and diced tomatoes, it was quite good. I then had a nice steak with fries. W, had a very good quality prosciuto with melon. He had the veal and on second thought he should have had the Orata fish. Our waiter was the old style Italian waiter, you are in his dining room and he makes you feel at home. Talks to everyone, has lots to say about the food and will encourage you, as he did to take the fresh fish. He was right, he had been doing this like all waiters in this country for a long time, it’s a profession, not a job.  The other waiter was in charge of water and wine, so we ordered a bottle of white Feudi San Gregorio which is nice, light and dry. Everyone orders bottled water, not that the water from the tap is not good it’s in the culture. Italy has some of the best spring water in all of Europe. We usually order agua lisha (flat), the table next to us ordered lightly sparkling water ( a few bubbles).

I like to observe diners in a restaurant, the table next to us where too elderly gentlemen, well dressed in a casual way, they were having steak and salad with a half bottle of chianti. You can tell the class of people in Italy, there is a certain formal air about people depending in which social group they belong. The older of the two gentlemen had a canny resemblance to Prince Charles. The other table where 3 gentlemen again nicely dressed in a sporty way. They had the fresh fish, they were involved in a discussion about this and that. There was another gentlemen in his 60’s having dinner on his own, he seemed to know everyone. Very well dressed in a nice suit, maybe a lawyer doing his crosswords during dinner. He too had the fish and a salad.

The large cafeteria down the hall, had all the kids at least 100 of them, must have been a school group, 14-15 years old, a mixture of people, lots of loud German speaking tourists. A group of senior bikers, people mostly in their 50’s but not the sort of bikers you would think, this is the European version, there is a certain air about them, maybe people reliving their youth or just enjoying the motorcycle ride in a vintage 1960 sort of way. The ferry also has a dining hall for truck drivers, sort of a chow line, the food is quite good but basic. The fellows are a bit rough looking, they drive their lorries all around Italy and in this case all around major cities in Sicily. Their companies pay for them to have their own dining room and food service.

We went to bed early, the ferry is very quiet. Tomorrow morning we will be docking in Palermo.

We did dock in Palermo around 8:45 am and were off the boat by 9:45 am. I was glad to get off, I would not recommend Grandi Navi to anyone.