It’s there. You know it’s getting free. You can sense its presence gnawing away at the oubliette in your mind where you locked it away. You built the sturdiest walls you could, you tried to erase the knowledge using ancient magic (alcohol), but for a couple of days before the event you can feel the scratching and thinning of the barrier. You can’t hold it back. Someone even tries to talk about it.
I can’t believe that…
SHUT UP!
It’s no good. The realisation that it’s the last evening on board the cruise ship will break free. You cannot stop it. You cannot prevent its escape into the real world accompanied by the sound of The Ultimate Sadness Sigh™. You’ll look at your travel partner with downturned lips and you’ll both know you lost the battle.
We both knew as soon as we headed back to our cabin at the end of our day docked at Livorno. The visits to San Gimignano, the winery for wine tasting, then Pisa had performed wonders at distracting us and entertaining us but there’s nothing quite like stepping into the corridor leading towards your room and seeing that some people had already placed cases outside their cabins to hammer home that it’s almost time to say goodbye to the cruise ship.
Cruising Out Of Livorno
As it had been a full day’s excursion in Italy we didn’t have too long to wait before Emerald Princess departed. After a couple of quick showers to freshen up we headed out onto the balcony to watch our last sailaway on board.
We weren’t the only ship in port as you’d expect. In addition to numerous cargo transporters there were two other cruise ships as well. We’d passed by a Pullmantur vessel as we’d arrived at the port from our day’s excursion on land though we couldn’t see that from our balcony on the starboard side of our ship, but we could see the MSC Fantasia clearly getting ready to depart from the Italian port behind us too.
The port of Livorno is protected by a couple of breakwaters, the main one of which is shaped a little like a sickle and marked with lighthouses at a few points along its length. The channel for a ship to exit Livorno is fairly narrow so we got a good close view of these harbour-defending walls and the marker buildings as we slowly slipped away to sea. We’re fairly fond of spotting lighthouses when we’re travelling around the world. In my wife’s case it’s because she has a thing for round rooms and has always said she’d love to live in a tower or oast house; for me, maybe it’s just the connection to being on the water that strikes a ship’s bell in my heart.
With our angle changing as we cleared the breakwaters we got a better view back to Livorno from our balcony and a clear sight of Fantasia following in our wake plus the Pullmantur cruise ship still in the dock.
Mediterranean Sunset
An early evening departure from a port timed to coincide with the setting of the sun is hard to beat if you’re looking for a moment of quiet relaxation. Apart from the low thrum of the ship’s engines and the sound of the waves being sliced apart by the prow and the battering of the eardrums by the wind as the vessel picks up speed and the thump-thump-thump from the top deck as the house band play some sailaway tunes and the constant sliding open and slamming shut of doors on balconies all around and the occasional scrape of furniture from a neighbour above, beside, or below it really is one of the most tranquil feelings in the world.
Eating And Drinking On Emerald Princess
It wouldn’t be a day aboard a cruise ship if we weren’t throwing the odd cocktail down our throats and tucking into some fabulous fare from one of the dining venues. The last night aboard Emerald Princess included some cocktails…
… and the last night aboard Emerald Princess included some fabulous fare from the main dining room. In the past this final meal would have felt a little awkward as with cases being put out we would typically be in travelling-home gear (jeans, trainers, souvenir tee-shirt advertising to everyone on the plane or at the airport just how fancy pants we’d been, that sort of thing) and when you’ve been used to dressing at least smart casual for the evening meal then this casual casual acceptable dress code really tended to accentuate that Everyone Is Looking At Me And Judging Me feeling that us terminal introverts carry with us everywhere. However, that was all before The Incident With The Delayed Luggage, since which time we’ve made far more use of hand luggage for clothing and thus now include a smart casual outfit for just such a No Case situation. So, looking the part even if we felt bereft inside we enjoyed a last, lovely dinner.
Generally speaking, my wife zeroes in on meat and seafood when eating while I tend to avoid seafood (I like fish (and probably more so than my wife) but just thinking about someone trying to eat a whelk or mussel is triggering a gag reflex) and am generally more experimental with dishes. As you can see from the menu above we were both going to be well looked-after for the last night’s meal. My wife opted for the Crispy Pork Belly with Orange Glaze while my starter was the Chilled Cucumber and Yoghurt Soup.
My wife’s main course was the Mariner-Style Black Mussels in White Wine Cream Sauce which, I won’t deny, always looks pretty sophisticated. Smells vile and turns my stomach to even consider eating one, naturally. I selected Moroccan-Style Meatballs instead and extraordinarily lovely it all was too.
If you’ve cruised before or read any of my other cruise travelogues recounting the final night aboard any ship then you’ll know that the Baked Alaska Parade is a staple of many lines and certainly Princess can be included amongst them. My wife had a slice, as is traditional, but for a change I just chose some chocolate ice cream. I was just feeling in a chocolate ice cream place. It might have been the impending end of the cruise.
It’s Not Quite Over
That almost brings me to the conclusion of this week in the Mediterranean aboard Emerald Princess but there will be one more post in this cruise diary series. If we get the opportunity then we try to include a disembarkation tour in our travels, especially if we’re finishing somewhere unfamiliar or with a lot to see. As it turned out, the final port for us would be Civitavecchia, the port for Italy’s capital, Rome. While the port was one we’d visited before (albeit briefly and only during embarkation for the last time we were in this part of the world) we’d never been to Rome before so the chance for a quick nose to get a feel for the place before flying back to England was one we couldn’t pass up. You can read about our disembarkation excursion in Rome in the next and final part of this series.