How to's of train travel in Italy! Including Rome to CIV and FCO

[candacew]

force 5 - this is exactly what we want to do. I was planning on taking one of the HOHO buses, but have heard we can walk it just as easily. Did you walk this route? If so, can you give any tips? Thanks!

[Dinotoll]

Here is the Bus Stop at Civitiavecchia Cruise Port. Its the last Bus in the row:


So the bus looks like :



When you leave the bus just folow the sign and walk straight on to the railway station.



Pictures shot in May 08 by our Carnival Freedom Cruise.
Regards
Dieter

[ftroute]

Link to Italian Trains
Just came back home after brief trip to find the link at the top of the thread was dead. I moved site and was told everything would go smoothly - LOL.

Link should be back within 12 hours. Any specific questions, email to ftroute at bellsouth.net

[Hank]

I should add a couple of more things. When you get to the Civitavecchia train station you now have several options. You can buy a ticket to Rome as described above (I do not think there is a savings for round trip,,,but good to buy both ways to avoid the line and delay in Rome). But, there are two other tickets available at the train station. You can buy a ticket for about 12 Euros that includes the train plus a full days use of the buses and subways throughout Rome with the exception of the HOHO bus (hop on hop off) which I believe is bus # 110. There is also a ticket for about 22 Euros that includes the round trip train plus use of that HOHO bus (I am not positive about the #110 designation). You can ask about these tickets at the Civitavecchia train station.

Hank

[Jim C.]

Note- I updated the link in the first post to a new webpage from ftroute. It now covers Italy train travel in general and is broken into the popular train travel destinations.

Thank you ftroute! Excellent job!

[jezabell]

This is the help I have been looking for. I really am not used to big bus tours, yet I am tempted only because of the time factor-concerned about getting back to the ship in time if my husband and I choose to do outings on our own. I still have questions, however. For example: I know that the same train from Naples to Pompeii also stops at Herculaneum. Does one merely buy a r/t to Pompeii? Or are these separate tickets, if we get off and on either going to or coming from Pompeii? Same question: if we go to Pisa from Livorno and then on to Lucca? Except, if I remember, that IS a train change so it is not exactly the same. What if we go to Pompeii but aren't sure if we'll have time to stop at Herculaneum?!! (only one day in port! What was I thinking?) Must times be reserved on the tickets? Also when I looked at the on-line booking site for trenitalia (Livorno-Pisa, for example) early trains were not available from port. (no little shopping cart symbol) Does this mean that NO seats are available on those trains or does it mean that no on-line advance purchase tickets are available for those trains? This makes a big difference. I wouldn't want to BEGIN my day's outing at mid-day! When I traveled years ago, I had a pass and I never remember a train being full. We sail on Norwegian Gem on 8/3 so I'd really like to know if using trains will work out for me before we go! Thanks. Jezzabell

[Jim C.]

Wow, that is a lot of questions. I'll do my best but maybe the others that have done this more than one time can chime in as well-

The train line we took (The Circumvesuviana line) didn't run all the way to Pompeii early in the morning. The ticket office told us we could ride to Ercolano (The Herculaneum stop) and then be able to get down to Pompeii from there. So we ended up buying two tickets one to Ercolano and one to Pompeii. You can certainly ask if you can buy the ticket "all at once", but its a commuter line so it may not make much if any difference in cost. We ended up buying a ticket from Pompeii to Sorrento also and then one in Sorrento to take us all the way back. We probably could have saved money and bought the full two way fare ticket, but we did not know if we would ahve time to do all of it, so we eneded up buying it in pieces.
Note there there are no reserved seats on the commuter lines so you don't have to worry about times. You can just get on the next available train when you are done seeing Pompeii or the Herculaneum.

I don't know why you couldn't see trains early in Livorno to Pisa. We got off the ship as early as possible and took a cab to the station and we got right on a train. This was as soon as you possibly could have gotten there from the ship. It was again a commuter line. The trip is only about 10 mins to Pisa, its not worth getting an 1st class ticket even if you could. I wouldn't worry about getting your tickets now for Pisa. Go to the station and talk with the ticket office, every one of them had someone that spoke enough english to help.

[ftroute]

First of all - you do not need to buy tickets in adavance. Livorno, Pisa, Lucca and Firenze are mostly commuter type trains (very little 1CL, if any) and there is no advance purchase available. Buy your tickets at the station or from a vending machine (English instructions available.)

If you click on the link in the very first post in this thread, there is a link to train schedules. Schedules include all trains that apply cruise ship passengers.

[Amymiami]

This information is great! I am going on a cruise at the end of August, arriving in Livorno and plan on visiting Florence and Pisa on a Saturday and then the following day (Sunday)arriving into Civitavecchia and wish to visit Rome. What is your opinion on purchasing the days train tickets prior to the port arrival? Do you think purchasing the tickets at the train station the day of travel is okay for travel during high season and during peak hours?

[ftroute]

Livorno-Pisa-Firenze are mostly served by regional (commuter) trains and most are 2 class only. In either case, no advance tickets. Civitavecchia to Rome is again mostly regional (commuter) trains with very little other than 2 class. Thus, no advance tickets.

If it's crowded, so be it. Regional trains are never sold out - a ticket buys you the 'right-of-passage' and does not guarantee a seat. I had stood the entire 3-4 hour trip from Pisa/Rome because there were no seats. Relax, smile, enjoy it, and make some new friends from Italy.