The night is sultry and warm. The aircon in our room is not very effective and we have a restless nights sleep as a result. Dawn soon creeps through the curtains and we rise and breakfast in the hotel. It's simple continental fare but tasty and filling. As we still have a few hours to spare before our shuttle to the port at 10.30am we decide to take a walk along the seafront. It's busy with joggers, walkers and commuters. It's a beautiful bright morni...

I sleep really well but still awake early. BA have tweeted overnight basically telling us there was a 'glitch' with the baggage system at Heathrow yesterday...no s***? But they will do their best to repatriate our bags as quickly as possible. Our disadvantage is that from today we are effectively moving targets hopping from port to port for the next 8 days. I receive an email to advise my case will be onboard an Alitalia flight from Rome to Naples so hope...

It seems a lot of people have trouble pronouncing our next port of call. Civitavecchia. It is pronounced (chiv-vita-veck-ia), it just rolls off the tongue once you know how. Again as with a lot of these ports it is not that picturesque and is filled with lots of container ships and tankers. That's said it's a beautiful morning although that dogged northerly wind seems intent on hanging around and pegging the temperatures back a few degrees.I emerge out on...