Rome alternative?

We'll be docked at Civitavecchia for one day. We've been to Rome several times and would like to visit somewhere different. If you've done tours, either with a company or on your own, please offer suggestions for our day. An earlier post mentioned Tarquinia, and I will check into it. But we're open to lots of suggestions. Thanks in advance! CCers are the best.

Can you tell us if you are limited to public transportation for this day, or if either renting a car or a car and driver is an option? If either of the later are possible, that expands your options greatly.

We hadn't thought about renting a car, but that is definitely a possibility. We should be able to handle driving in the countryside... just not in Rome!! :-)) Using public transportation is fine, or if we need to hire a car, we can do that as well. As long as we're back on that ship before it sails, we are open to all options.

Thanks!

Two suggestions that come immediately to mind are Orvieto and Pitigliano. Each are between 90 minutes - two hours driving time from Civitavecchia.

Orvieto is more well known and there's lots of information on the internet about it. Pitigliano caught me by surprise, I guess I wasn't expecting much but thoroughly enjoyed wandering around there and another (much smaller) nearby town, Sorano. There is some information in English on the comune's web site here: http://www.comune.pitigliano.gr.it/index.php?T1=50000

Thanks for those suggestions. I will look into them.

What about places near Civ. to which we can take the train...and get a train back there before our 8PM departure? Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks in advance!

You might want to consider Tarquinia (walled etruscan era town). About a 20 minute bus ride from Civitavecchia. Train goes there but then you have to wait for, and take a bus to the old town.

Civitavecchia is on the Rome - Grosseto train line, so your basic choices are:

Northbound:

Tarquinia

Montalto di Castro

Capalbio

Orbetello-Monte Argentario

Albinia

Grosseto

Southbound:

S. Marinella

Santa Severa

Marina di Cerveteri

Ladispoli-Cerveteri

Torrre in Pietra - Palidoro

Maccarese - Fregene

Rome (several stops)

It takes about an hour to get to Rome and an hour and a quarter to get to Grosseto. You could go on from there, but that starts getting difficult for a day trip.

As GSPLover says, Tarquinia is reached better by bus than train, because the train doesn't go up the hill.

jalynn, thanks for starting this thread. We also are looking into alternatives for a port day there in May because we just spent five days post-cruise in Rome in June.

So far, Orvieto seems like a very nice possibility for a pleasant day.

However, it would be my first car rental in Italy, although I have driven in France and Greece recently, so I am a little bit leery.

Any rental car company recommendations?

I look forward to reading additional suggestions for day trips from Civitavecchia.

We have done both the bus to Tarquina and rented a car to go to Orvieto & Civita. Tarqunia is pretty easy and can be done in half a day. Orvierto & Civita is a full day. Here are my reviews of both.

. Since we have been to Rome twice and it’s a long ride there we decided to go to the walled town of Tarquinia. We took the local bus to the walled city whose claim to fame is it’s painted Etruscan tombs. We took the free port shuttle to the port exit and crossed the street to the McDonalds. We continued past the McD to the next road where there is a newspaper stand. This is where we purchased our tickets. The bus was 2euros each way. We bought the return ticket also. A little further down the road across the street from the Church of Santa Fransisco is the bus stop. We caught the 10:04 bus which was right on time. It was an enjoyable 30 minute bus ride to the town where we stopped in at the IT just inside the wall to get a map. We first visited the Archaeological Museum which is in an old palace. The museum was 6 euros but in combination with the necropolis it is 8 euros. We then walked up the street to the plaza and turned right to exit the wall to get to the necropolis. About a half mile outside the wall is the Necropolis where there are about 20 tombs open underground to look at. The tombs have paintings on the walls that date back to 500BC. After seeing several of the tombs we walked back to town. We just missed the 1:30 bus so we explored the town a little and caught the 2:50 bus which was 5 minutes early. It was lucky we missed the 1:30 bus because walking around the town was very nice. There was a park on the far side with beautiful views of the valley. Both the museum and the necropolis have clean bathrooms.

Pictures here: http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2675205580101391319SsmPpL

Since we had been to Rome a couple of times we rented a car from Hertz near the train station. We had directions from Mitchlem Maps and headed off to Orvieto. We passed part of a Roman aqueduct along the road and stopped to take pictures. We went from town to town until we reached Overito. We drove to the train station where there is free parking then took the funicular up to the town on top of the mesa. We took the shuttle bus to the Duomo. This was a very beautiful church on the outside. Very ornate in front but had horizontal stripes around the rest of the church. The inside was very pretty too. There were very pretty streets surrounding the church. We walked back to the train station and walked through the very pretty park behind the station which had a clean WC. We took the funicular back down and drove about 20 minutes to Civita. We had to follow the signs to Bagnregio which is where most the people live since Civita is a dying town. We were able to park right at the walkway to Civita. Civita sits on a small mesa in a canyon and a long walkway has been built so people can walk to the town. Unfortunately the town is slowly crumbling into the canyon so only the old people still live there. It is very quaint with beautiful views. It looks like something out of a hobbit movie. When we left we took the road strait to Viterbo instead of going back to the main highway and got lost when we reached Viterbo since we couldn’t get on the bypass road. We landed up driving through farm land trying to get on the bypass road. We finally stopped to ask someone and did find our way to the next town and the right road back to Civitavecchia. We made it back to the boat with little time to spare.

pictures here: http://cid-1e98e90214e77bf9.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Hilltowns

Thank you, Eileen, for those great reviews! And to everyone for taking time to reply.

Civitavecchia is on the Rome - Grosseto train line, so your basic choices are:

 

Northbound:

 

Tarquinia

Montalto di Castro

Capalbio

Orbetello-Monte Argentario

Albinia

Grosseto

 

Southbound:

 

S. Marinella

Santa Severa

Marina di Cerveteri

Ladispoli-Cerveteri

Torrre in Pietra - Palidoro

Maccarese - Fregene

Rome (several stops)

 

It takes about an hour to get to Rome and an hour and a quarter to get to Grosseto. You could go on from there, but that starts getting difficult for a day trip.

 

As GSPLover says, Tarquinia is reached better by bus than train, because the train doesn't go up the hill.

Thanks for that list of stops. That's exactly what I was looking for.

We did Civita and Orvieto on our disembarkation day at Civitavecchia, and then overnighted near the airport in Rome. However, I think it could also be done on long port day. As others have noted, Hertz is just a couple well-marked blocks from the port entrance (take the free shuttle from the ship to the port entrance). I think there are also a few other companies nearby. Make sure you have some good maps and/or print out good directions from Mapquest or Google. The route from Civitavechia to Civita is bit confusing at times. Civita is charming and definitely worth a short visit, though I understand it gets crowded on summer weekends (we were there on a chilly Monday in mid-October and were just about the only people there). Orvieto is also really interesting to visit, in part because it's a real town with people living day to day lives, not just a tourist destination. Parking is either in large garages at the foot of the mountain, with long steps and escalators to the top, or near the train station from which you can take a funicular to one end of the town.

Thank you, Eileen, for those great reviews! And to everyone for taking time to reply.

Orvieto

http://www.orvietoonline.com/

and Civitabagnoreggio

Civita di Bagnoregio is a town of Viterbo province in Central Italy, 42deg;38N 12°06E, a frazione of the comune of Bagnoregio, 2 km (about 1 mile) W. It is about 145 km (90 mi) north of Rome.

It was founded by Etruscans over 2,500 years ago, has seen its population dwindle to just 15 residents over the course of the 20th century, and has only recently been experiencing a tourist revival, due in great measure to the American travel guid Rick Steves who popularized it in the 1990s. The town is noted for its striking position atop a plateau of friable volcanic tufa overlooking the Tiber river valley, in constant danger of destruction as its edges spall off, leaving the buildings built on the plateau to crumble. As of 2004, there are plans to reinforce the plateau with steel rods to prevent further geological damage. The city is also much admired for its architecture, some spanning back several thousand years. Civita di Bagnoregio owes much of its unaltered condition to its relative isolation: the town was able to withstand most intrusions of modernity as well as the destruction wrought by two world wars. :)