Rome Travel Forum

Our cruise line sort of discourages individual touring. They'd rather you used their Tour Excursions. My wife & I want to try on our own but are worrying about the trains to & from Civitavecchia. Are they dependable and/or frequent enough to not miss the ship's departure. How much time should we allow from Rome if we depart Civitavecchia at 19:00? I know it's about 90 minutes so should we leave at 16:00? Does the train go straight to Civitavecchia or is it just a stop? I couldn't find it on the schedule. Would we have enough time to visit the city if we only have 12 hours total? Thanks!

Were you looking at the official rail website at www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html ?

To answer your questions:
1. Yes, they are dependable (barring strikes) and frequent enough (several trains an hour at that time of day).

2. I would aim to arrive in Civitavecchia no later than 18:00. To do so, you can take the regional train at 16:39 (arr at 17:57), or the Eurostar that leaves at 17:00 (arr at 17:45). The Eurostar will be more expensive and require a reservation (which you can get that day if there's room). You can get in the regional trains with a ticket, as long as there is room to stand.
If you miss the regional train at 16:39, there's another one at 17:09 which arrives at 18:15.

3. Civitavecchia is just a stop...probably only a minute or two.

4. Yes, you will have the opportunity to spend at least 6 hours in Rome this way...

Play with the website (use a day in the next week that is the same day of the week as the day you plan to be there), and see how the timings and pricings work out...

NOTE: the regional train stops at several stations in Rome, including Roma San Pietro, meaning that you can take the train to Rome Termini on the east side of the city center, then spend the day working your way west to the Vatican, and leave from Rome San Pietro...

Bill

Yes the Tour Office always wants you to join their tours :-)
The railway station in Civitavecchia is just outside the port - take the port shuttle from your ship to the port gate - walk outside the gate passing the beach front - you will find the station on your left hand side after about 800 meters.
Trains to Rome depart almost every 20 - 40 minutes. If you want to check schedules go and see the German railways web page www.bahn.de - choose the English option and you get full itineraries (The German web page works better then the Italian one :-)) )
Enjoy Rome - From the Tour Manager of "another" ship :-)

Mike,
Thanks so much. We're not opposed to the cruise tours but this one will cost us $200 ea!! We should be able to fit a lot in for less than $400. I looked at the German site & you were right. It's pretty straightforward.

Bill,
Great advice! This is our first trip to Europe so we're sort of Leary about touring on our own. We don't leave till September so I'll do some more research & planning.
Thanks,
Ken

While it's true that the German rail webpage has some features that none of the other national rail websites in Europe have, the Italian rail website is actually better than most of the other countries - the Spanish and French websites are becoming more obtuse with each update ;-) of course, some people may consider this "damning with faint praise" ;-)

However, the Italian site has one huge advantage over the German site - the Italian site will give you pricing and the German site can't (for trains wholly outside of Germany).

And OP ['original poster'], while you're doing your research (a very good thing), take a look at my Civitavecchia page, because I describe in detail how to get from Civitavecchia to the Vatican and back. Most people assume that you have to go all the way to Termini (which is on the eastern edge of the city center, opposite direction from Civitavecchia), but since the regional trains (i.e., NOT the Eurostar or ICPlus) stop at several commuter stations in Rome, you actually have some options that can save you a lot of time, because you don't have to go back to Termini when you want to leave, and you don't have to sit on the train 25 minutes as it crosses from eastern to western Rome.

Make sense?

Bill

Bill,
Makes a whole lotta sense! Since I'm strapped for time, I can start my tour on the East end leave from the West. I think we'll get a "All Day" Metro Pass also as mentioned in some Rick Steves literature. Thanks Again!

Good!

The info on the "BIG" (integrated daily ticket, in Italian) is the ticket you are referring to...see
http://www.atac.roma.it/index.asp?p=1&i=878&o=3&a=3&ci=55&tpg=2&lingua=ENG
for the official website (ATAC is Rome's public transit system).

Note, however, that in your timeframe, that am I not sure that you will need it. Think of this as a rough sample itinerary:
1. arrive at Termini
2. walk down Via Cavour past Santa Maria Maggiore (one of the 4 major basilicas)
3. arrive at Via dei Fori Imperiali across from the Roman Forum
4. See the Forum and the Colosseum (tickets are a separate discussion)
5. From the Colosseum, walk up the west side of the Palatine (see map) through the Circus Maximus into the Foro Boario (2 temples and the "Mouth of Truth")
6. Continue northward in back streets to Campo de' Fiori
7. Continue northward to the Pantheon
8. Continue westward to Piazza Navona
9. Continue north-north-east to Ponte di Sant'Angelo (often called the "bridge of angels" for all the angels on it - pedestrian only).
10. Admire Castel Sant'Angelo (may not have time to go in)
11. Continue westward along Via della Conciliazione or on back streets along the wall that runs to the Vatican (the Pope can run along the top of this wall from the Vatican to Castel Sant'Angelo in case of attack - one actually did so, I think)
12. Enter St. Peter's Square, admire the vista, and go in the Basilica
13. Head south of the Vatican to Roma San Pietro train station, and take a regional train back to Civitavecchia

Of course, there are 45,000,000 permutations - this sample course didn't go to Piazza di Spagna or other places in that direction. The point was that you did this whole trek zigzagging generally east to west, without once getting on public transit. Besides, the Metro doesn't go everywhere, and who would want to see Rome from an underground tube? ;-)

Bill

Hello
We had visited Rome on our own and I have chalked out our itenary in my blog http://traveller1234.blogspot.com.
Bye
Meghana

Meghana,
Thanks for the tip. I did check your Blog and will use it for our other cruise stops (Venice, Florence & Naples).
Ken