Leaving Sardegna ... and a sad welcome to the mainland

On the Ferry from Olbia to Civitavecchia

We woke up early to grab a bite to eat (or in my case a cup of coffee) before catching our ferry. We were smarter this time and had only packed our overnight things in one small bag, thereby avoiding the unloading of the entire contents of our car as we had done when we first arrived in Olbia. Therefore, packing up took only moments. We took the two-minute drive down to the port, and boarded the ferry which left right on time at 9am. I was so engrossed in my book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that I hardly left our cabin. The kids watched a movie and then did some exploring around the ferry. While it was not the same ferry, it was set up in the same way with all the accoutrements, but it all seemed less novel this time around.

We arrived in Civitavecchia around 2:30pm and disembarked. Everything had gone smoothly up until this point. Now, we drove south 12km to Santa Marinella where we’d be spending the night. When we arrived at our hotel, Josh discovered that the rooms did not have air-conditioning, (he’d made the reservation here based upon a recommendation). He then unequivocally decided we were not staying.

Thus, our quest for alternate accommodations began. In retrospect, we should have just driven back to Civitavecchia where we would likely have found far more to choose fromc. Santa Marinella, which turned out to be a huge disappointment as far as the town is concerned, has only four small hotels: the one we’d reserved without air-conditioning; an overpriced one; a cute new place that was full; and our last stop -- the place we chose, in our desperation, to spend the night. We’d been off the boat now for over an hour and a half, driving around. We were hot! The kids were stir-crazy. They had two rooms available. We said “okay.” The word “skanky” does not begin to describe the place. It was other-worldly bizarre with a strange variety of people. Could it have been that it functioned in part as an old-age home?

Even the sea, and the “beach” which was set up on wooden scaffolding was skanky. Granted, we’d just come from Sardegna – home of the most beautiful beaches and seas, but still… The whole experience was negative. Charlotte asked if people actually come here on vacation? When we asked the lifeguard, a local, where to eat in Santa Marinella, he said “nowhere.”

We’d intended to drive to a pizza place in Civitavecchia, but everyone was too pooped to make the 15 min. drive, so we settled on the one place in town the lifeguard said was “not bad.” Compared to the hotel, he was right -- it was not bad.

The ironic thing was that in the end, the air-conditioning in the girls’ room was not working, so they offered to move them to two single rooms instead. As such, we had to restructure the sleeping arrangements so that Olivia, Avery and I shared the triple room, Charlotte was down the hall in a single, and Josh was on the floor below in another single. In our triple, I opened the window to hear the sound of the sea and turned the air conditioning off. – ironic since it was the air-conditioning that put us in this sh-t hole to begin with. But, Josh locked himself away in his cool cave with the air on high.