Thanks for your trip review. I enjoyed reading it. I just booked the 10 night med cruise for July 2017. And we are going over a week early and doing Paris and Barcelona on the front end. I am so overwhelmed with all the planning and trying to fit everything in that I want to do. I think Rome will be the hardest because the underground tour you mentioned sounds perfect but I also want to St. Peter's and the fountain. Do you know if you can leave the St. Peter tours early? Or do they finish early and just allow extra time for looking around? I would like to take the train and need to allow for plenty of time getting back, don't want to miss the boat. Thank you for the different companies, I will definitely look them up and see what I can plan on my own. Im nervous to do Rome on my own but I think it would be cheaper than doing a disney excursion. Your review has given me hope. Thanks again.
Hi there!
I think you will have to really rush if you want to take the train roundtrip to Rome and plan out your times very very carefully. We actually went back to Rome last year via an NCL cruise which also docked in Civitavecchia and did the train route since we were familiar with Rome and felt that we did not have enough time at all. Here is what I'd suggest:
Train to Rome -- Depending on your itinerary, you might want to decide early on which train to take by looking at the schedule. We took a "fast" intercity train into Rome that takes you to Termini station. If you want to go to the Vatican/St Peters first, then you'd want to take a regular (non-fast) train and get off at S. Pietro station. This is the closest station to St. Peters. It might be too far a walk to St. Peters from the station. Cab ride should be around 8 Euro from here.
From St Peters, take a cab to the Colosseum for the underground tour. Cab should be approximately 15 Euro. The underground tour tickets are usually released a few months ahead of time on the ticketing website so keep checking back for it. After the tour, cab to Trevi Fountain (about 8-10 Euro from the Colosseum, if not less).
Train to Civitavecchia -- If you can, I'd catch the train returning to the port at Termini. The train "starts" here so plenty of seats if you get on the train at Termini. Termini is about a 10Euro cab ride from the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain.
From Trevi, cab to Termini central train station. Hopefully you've already prepurchased your tickets that morning from a machine and you don't have to take up extra time here. The train platform WILL NOT BE ANNOUNCED on the board until approx 10-15 minutes prior to the train arrival. So stand in front of the McDonald's along with everyone else and watch the board carefully. When the platfrom is assigned -- run!
When you arrive at Civitavecchia station near the dock -- you'll still have to give yourself at least 15 minutes to walk back to the dock entrance, and you are required to take the port shuttle back to the boat.
It's a pretty extensive trains, planes & automobile type of journey that day if you do it yourself. Good luck!
