This is the highest point of the area.

On these little hills, especially on the ones over there, in the beginning of the 2 century after christ we had
the emperor palace of emperor trajan, the greatest roman emperor under who we had the maximum
extension of the roman empire.
Trajan lived here in Civitavecchia, in addition to the palace we have ruins of his thermal bath complex (it
was very popular on the time of the romance / his time, because it was a place in where you could study,
letting, get clean) but the biggest ruin we can consider belonging to the history of Civitavecchia is the port
itself.
The port of Civitavecchia was built at the beginning of the second century a.d. by the will of the emperor
Trajan. before building the port here in Civitavecchia we had another port for the roman empire, the port
was in ostia I don’t know if you have ever heard about the harbour of the ancient ostia. The port was then
removed from ostia because it was the place where the river of rome flows into the sea so the deciding to
have a port by the river make the sea level not deep enough to have big boat, so Trajan decided to enlarge
the commerce of rome giving to the empire a bigger port, a port in where we can have big boat as we are
having today.
this area here of the coast is a rocky cost, so we don’t have problems with sand or sediments. Here in the
middle of
emperor Trajan is welcoming you to Civitavecchia: his statue is here. We are going to exit the port and
behind us there is the ancient port, that today is pretty closed because we have the president of the Italian
republic coming here to Civitavecchia because of the parade navy / celebrating the navy.
we are lcky because we are in the newest part of the port and it will be easier to get out and get in. there
you can see the other cruises, we have a maximum of nine cruises per day. We have many ferries, many
different companies: we have domestic ferries going to the main Italian island: to sicily and Sardinia. But we
also have international ferries going to Barcelona, going to Tunisia, to france to malta. So we are very busy
for a big number of passengers crossing the port daily. The cargo and the commercial area. Today it is the
third port in Italy, so we have to thank emperor Trajan to had this wonderful idea. A lot of people working
at the port today. The port was pretty important when Civitavecchia was under the dominion of different
popes. Civitavecchia was part of the pope’s state. Before the unification of italy thah happened in 1861,
Italy was divided in many little states and many little kingdoms. one of the most important / biggest state
was the pope’s state. it had a politician importance: it was very rich and so the port of Civitavecchia was
used to enter the possessions of the pope, we also had pirate attacks. So we had pirates arriving to the
church’s state through the port of Civitavecchia. So for all his history Civitavecchia was very important for
this area and for Italy in general.
we should be arriving if traffic allows us, to be in rome in one hour and fifteen minutes. It is the nine of
june, it is almost the end of school here in Italy, so it will be a little be crowded but we will see on the way. I
am not talking for all the drive. I want you to have some rest because you will have the guide talking to you
all day and I don’t want to be boring.
have some materials for you. Bottles of water first of all, then I have whisper radio guides: when we are
off the bus the guide will speak to you through the microphone and you will all hear the explanations, a
little peace of paper in where you have the name of the restaurant where we are going to have lunch. The
most important thing of this piece of paper is the rectangular box on the bottom. There you have four
different emergency numbers. So what happens: while we are in rome walking in there I will be the last
one or I will be in the middle of the group. Try to make sure that nobody that is not part of our group is
getting too close to us. I will have my lollipop so I will be your point of reference today but our guide
vincenzo he will be the first one leading the group and giving directions through the microphone so you can
easily follow the tour and so on. What happens in case you get lost because you stay behind or maybe want
to take more pictures or something or you have to check your shoes, you can’t find your point of reference
number nine, you have this piece of paper that you should have with you all day on your pocket and you
can call one of these numbers. By calling one of these numbers you will call the agency operating the tour,
they will call me and I will come and pick you up and bring you back to the group.
so it’s very important that you have one of this little piece of paper on your pocket during all the day, it is
very very important.
and then something else that I need from you and this will be the really last thing that I will ask you: I will
need to have on this list one line each name and surname and your cabin number. As we are having lunch
together at the restaurant I will also need to know if there are between you some vegetarians, vegan son
board, someone that cannot eat lactose or gluten and someone who cannot eat nuts. In any case if you
have any/ other allergies that I need to know please tell me so I can tell the restaurant so when we will
arrive everything will be ready for us.
so I will pass the list please write your name, last name and you can write V if vegetarian, W if vegan, L if
you need a lactose free meal, G if need a gluten free meal and N if you need no nuts. No seafood is served
today, just to be 100% sure write on the list if you have any problem with seafood. It will be very very
helpful.
so we are going to see on the highway some small brush with nice flowers, these flowers could be purple
light pink, white and those are oleander flowers. We have oleander brushes everywhere, even on the other
sense of direction, they are the best plants to air pollution, so we have them everywhere. Something else
that we are going to see everywhere is a kind of pine tree. It is called maritime pine or mediterranean pine
typical of the Mediterranean area. the quick name is umbrella pine because of the shape, the round shape
of the top. They are not shaved in a round way but they just grow naturally like this and from these trees
we have the pine nuts that we use to make the pesto sauce, in liguria region.
Then what else we are going to see along the way looking on the left or looking on the right: we are going
to see some olive groves, as I said we are in the south part of the maremma plane, this plane if famous for
olive groves and for the vineyards so we do not have the quality that we have in Tuscany but we have some
cultivations. The best wine that is produced on this area is produced in a town called cerveteri they
produce both red and white wine. Cerveteri is 15 miles from the port of Civitavecchia and the best olive oil
we have in these regions is produce in this province. Let’s say general information in case you want to buy
olive oil while you are in holyday in Italy.
the olive oil on the maremma plane has a very strong flavor, compared for example to the one that they
make in liguria region that is very light, depends especially on the typical dish, for exemple in the maremma
plane they eat a lot of meat so they need a strong olive oil so you can easily put it on the meat. While in
liguria they eat a lot of fish and so the olive oil has to be light, because it doesn’t have to cover the taste of
the fish. So now looking on your right side we can see some nice views of the ancient part of the port of
Civitavecchia, the city is all developed by the waterfront, also for his history. Actually on the left part we
only have farm houses, we don’t have supermarket or stores or anything. Everything is close to the port
and to the waterfront. Michele is driving safe and sound to our destination I am going to give you the radios
the pieces of paper and the paper in where you can write your name, your last name, your cabin number
and your food diety requirements. Of course if you have any questions you can ask me at any time.
Radio.
you can leave on board what you think you don’t need. Let’s say, optimistically speaking, that we will
spend a couple of hours in the area of the basilica of san peter. I know that you’ve already been informed
on board that in case the line is too long we cannot enter the basilica, if the line is too long to keep us away
from doing the rest of the tour , we will decide with the guide when we arrive. When we will arrive in line I
will take few groups of five people to the restrooms if you need it. We will check in any case.
the basilica requires a dress code, we should have our shoulder and knees covered. If your skirts or your
trousers arrives above the knee is fine. In case you need to buy a scarf please tell me. Remember to cover
your knew and shoulder, it will be after the security check, you don’t’ have to cover upwhile standing in
line.
I was saying that you can leave something on board, we are going to pass security, we will have metal
detector and big backpacks are not allowed. You can’t leave valuables things on board, because our driver
may need to use restrooms so please do not leave valuables on board.
we are going to test the radios. So to turn on the radio you have the little switch button on the top, here
and when you turn it one you will see a red light and on the screen you will have CH08. It is the channel we
are going to use today, so it is not a recording voice but it is the guide speaking through this little
microphone here. So you can check the volume from this little wheel that you have close to the switch
button. If you have your own earphones it is completely fine and now I am turning on the microphone of
the guide just to be sure / check that the radios are working properly. Can you hear me? Yes, everyone?
Wonderful. If you have problems during the day with these headset please tell me because I will have some
more radios and earphones with me and we can easily change it. It is very important to always keep the
radios on because the guide is going to tell also the directions so even if you can’t find the other keeping
the radios on is very helpful.
we can turn the radios off right now thanks.
right now little suggestions for rome: in the area of the basilica of san peter you will see is quite crowded,
you will see Italian policemen, swiss gards, Italian military. It’s not allowded to take pictres of the army
especially of their vehicoles. So you will see a lot of army in rome today, they have their guns but it is for
our safety, for our security. So it’s for us, nothing to be scared.
we have also little ladies sometimes they have clever long fingers so be careful if you have your backpack,
have it in front of you and gentlemen do not have your wallet in your backpocket, give it to your partner
so,, it’s not your responsibility.
and then of course while travelling in group we have to remind that we have to be on time and everytime I
give you a meeting point we must respect the time, especially when we have to meet our driver,because
here in rome we have a special system of paring for big buses and they are allowed to stay in one point and
wait for the group only for 15 minutes. If we are late he risk a penal of 300 euros. So it is very important to
always be in time. But I am sure that we are not goint to have problems today. Right?
What else? If I have somebody that has metal implancts or somebody with peacemakes please tell me
because I have to inform the security gards.
riepilogo della giornata.