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Rome advice for January 2023

Hello guys!
I’m landing in Rome on 15th Jan 23 at 2pm (immigrations and customs might delay actually arrival) and I need to board my cruise ship on 16th Jan 23 by 12 noon. Considering the limited time I have in the city and the winter weather, Is there any possibility of exploring rome on 15th? If yes, please suggest something. If not, please suggest a suitable hotel location which would make my travel between FCO and Civitaveccia convenient.
Thanks in advance.

Posted by
351 posts

An evening night walk is really the only thing you will have time for, the details are in RS book. I love Italy in Jan. usually very cold but not much rain. Scotchgard your shoes, bottom of your pants from the knees down and the shoulders-back of your coat. Concider gloves, bennie hat and long johns. J

Posted by
4324 posts

you can easily find suggested one-day tours on most travel sites, you just have to decide if it will be worth it

Posted by
23178 posts

NO !!!! You don't have much time. You will be lucky to be in Rome before 4 pm and it will be nearly dark by that time. By the time you check-in to your hotel it will be dark. I would look for a good restaurant with some wine. Our preferred hotel in the Termini area is Hotel Sonya across from the Opera house - about three block from Termini. Nice restaurant on the north side of the Opera house. A closer hotel -- one block south of the station - is Hotel Contilla. A little more spartan but we use it one night quick stays like yours. I would allow two hours to get from Rome to Civit..... and your ship. Personally I would buy my ticket in Termini at a machine the night before. Run to Civit is basically a commuter run with 2 to 4 trains an hour taking between 45 mins and an hour 15 depending on train. I would catch a 9, maybe 9.30 train and get you to Civit about 11. When you get off the train you probably can see your ship and you will have lots of company. It is about a half hour walk to the port entrance and a shuttle bus to your ship check-in area. It is easy to do.

Posted by
12 posts

Thanks for the reply, can you suggest between termini and trastevere? Which location will be more convenient to travel from airport and to the cruise port? Also, I read that termini can be very crowded and requires a lot of walking.
Is it convenient to stay around trastevere and travel to pantheon/spanish steps/colosseum from there in the evening?

Posted by
2281 posts

hey hey maynigam
as frank says, NO!! to exploring after your arrival. your arrival to hotel may be after 4pm and be dark. stay at hotel near roma termini, check in, find a restaurant to have dinner and back to hotel. factor in jet-lag, it's real, seeing you have to go thru immigration/customs. you've come off a long flight. how many people are traveling? no fooling around next morning, pack, shower, you gonna have breakfast, check out hotel, get to train station (roma termini), buy ticket before boarding or night before. make sure you validate before boarding, validation box before entering platform (if need be). pack light, unless you have help to put on train.
the cruise port is further away than you think, about an hour to hour half. if going by train, the civitavecchia train station is a stop with you either walking to ship (about 1/2 hour, is their a shuttle from station to ship boarding & how much?, does cruise have shuttle transportation from rome to ship? expect it all goes well but always except when an unexpected "oops" happens, have Plan B.
years ago we were on a transatlantic cruise, had shuttle booked near our apartment at piazza navona. had a student protest with thousands and thousands of protestors, cops in tanks and vans with their guns/uzis letting no cars in, roads all blocked, total chaos!!!
got so lucky to find a lone taxi cab couple blocks down to main street and he was willing to take us to port for 140E. not his route but we paid him, took about 70-80 minutes right to ramp to board. thank god for miracles.
many people missed the cruise because of this disaster of roads closed, came on board 2 days later in barcelona and they were not happy.
look at trenitalia.com for routes/ times/ cost, if a shuttle available at station or thru ship, pay a taxi. your decision. have fun
aloha

Posted by
295 posts

In your position, I would stay in an airbnb with self check-in in Trastevere (take a cab) and walk to a lovely local spot for dinner, then turn in at a reasonable hour and get on top of the jet lag.

You can sneak out for an espresso and cornetto before checkout and take the bus or a cab to Termini to head to the port. If you really crave a moment of Rome sightseeing, it will be quite chilly, but you should have the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain to yourself at 6/7am in January, maybe even later. You could get from Trastevere to the steps & fountain, get some pretty photos, have a coffee and pastry, and back to your place to pick up luggage in 90 minutes at a reasonably leisurely pace or if your budget allows for a driver, they can get you through that circuit and directly to your ship (or to Termini toward ship) even faster.

If you want a balance of Rome neighborhood feel and big sights/sites/city, the Navona/Pantheon area is extremely accessible to anything you might want to see and you can stroll through the beautiful Piazza Navona, which is quiet late on weekday nights in cold weather and completely still early in the morning. You should have a pleasant amount of fellow travelers and a few locals for dinner there in the earlier part of the evening and plenty of cozy places for dinner and/or a drink.

I adore Rome, but if my first taste had been a single night in Termini then straight back to the train station, I might not have wanted to return. I rather like "gritty" cities and there are plenty of cool places near Termini if you do a little research, but it's as one would expect around an extremely busy international train station.

Posted by
12 posts

Thanks for the reply, This was exactly the kind of information I was looking for!
Termini seems like a better neighbourhood as we can directly put our luggage in the hotel and take a stroll in the evening and early morning. Travelling from trastevere will take more time (which we dont have much of). And a direct train from termini to civitavecchia will also be convenient I guess.
Shall I pre book my tickets from FCO to termini and from termini to civitavecchia? PLease guide me how to do that.
Also, after the cruise, I have to go to Venice. So is there a direct train from civitavecchia to venice?
Thanks!

Posted by
23178 posts

Your assessment is accurate. Trastevere is a great neighborhood except it is not close to central Rome. Just look at a map. If you take the Leonard Express from the airport to Termini, there is a ticket office at the airport station so buy your ticket to Civit... at the same time. You will have a chose of trains depending on the time of departure. There are two to four trains an hour. The Regionale trains will be the cheapest and slowest -- around an hour, 15 cause it makes many stops. No reserved seats, just get on and go. The Intercity trains will be more expensive, faster because they are making few stops and all seats are reserved. And the ticket will be for a specific train at a specific time -- don't miss it. If you miss it, you cannot take the next train because you don't a reserved seat. With a Regionale train ticket you can get on any Regional train headed to Civit.... at any time. That ticket needs to be validated (time stamped). The other tickets do not need validation because the ticket is restricted to a specific train, date, and time. We normally do the Regional train since it is more flexible.

To get to Venice you most likely will need to return to a Rome station and change to a train to Venice. I will check the schedule and see if anything else is available.

There are no seat reservations on the LE tickets to Termini from the airport so buy them after you arrive at the train station. No savings for advance purchase. Follow the signs to the train. It is easy.

Posted by
2281 posts

hey hey maynigam
what day does your ship arrive back in rome (civitavecchia) and the earliest you can get off the ship. how many are traveling?
use trenitalia.com or trainline.com (may charge a fee) and use italian train station names
rome: roma termini
florence: firenze santa maria novella
venice: venezia santa lucia
you will have to give yourself time to get from the port (shuttle) to civitavecchia train station. decide if you go to rome change train to venice or to florence, change in florence to venice. your dates/ times/ how many stops and do you change and get on another train. it can be confusing, what kind of ticket do you buy, if you miss train do need new ticket at that day's rate or did you get ticket with free changes?
i know others here will help you go about this. just to let you know it will be a long ride, 3 1/2 to 6 hours, depending on times and stops. don't know if you have to be in venice at a certain time, just have patient, many others will be traveling.
do you pick up snacks/drink in train station or buy in food car onboard.
are you on cruisecritic.com
register for free, go to boards/forums, find your ship. people ask questions there, share tours instead of ship excursions, maybe someone wants to share taxi to roma termini and catch venice train there. book a taxi ahead of time or i'm sure there is many at the port. that saves time. good luck with whatever you do and of course enjoy
aloha

Posted by
12 posts

@frank. That clears a lot!!
So I need regionale tickets for FCO to Termini, Termini to Civitavecchia and Civitavecchia to Termini.
And an intercity ticket from Termini to Venice!
How do these regionale tickets work? Do I buy them for a particular date and route and then I'm free to take any regionale train as per my schedule? If so, which website can I use to book these tickets? I would be more comfortable pre booking them! Treitalia is only showing tickets for particular times!
I will confirm with my cruise agent about the timing of disembarkation so that I can book a reserved ticket from Termini to Venice? I hope I'm right

Posted by
12 posts

@princess pupule. I understand that I need regionale tickets for FCO to Termini, Termini to Civitavecchia and Civitavecchia to Termini. Waiting for help on where to pre book them!
I'd prefer a faster train from Termini to Venice since it's a long journey! Waiting for an update from cruise agent regarding disembarkation timings so that I can estimate my timings from Termini to Venice. Would like to reach venice as soon as possible, have only 3 days to explore venice.

Posted by
23178 posts

Not knowing the specifics of your cruise ship -- they all have slightly different debarking procedures, hard to judge your timing. We have only traveled on Holland America with carry-on luggage. We can disembark at anytime because we just walk off when we are ready. The cruise ship is eager to you to get off as early as possible because they need to clean your room and get ready for the new passengers that afternoon. The cruise ship will use some form of a staggered departure to controlled by color or zone numbers. When you get off in Civit... you will go through immigration but it is fairly quick.

The trains between Civit/Rome and reverse will be a mix of Regionale, Regionale Veloce, and Intercity trains. Most of the trains between Venice and Rome are high speed - Frecciarossa. Basically one per hour mid-day so lots of trains. I would buy in advance a Regional ticket from Civit.. to Rome in the station so that all you have to do is get to the station, validate the ticket and get on the first Regional train headed to Rome. The train station in Civit absolutely will be jammed packed with folks trying to buy tickets especially if more than one ship has docked. You want to avoid that mob scene. When you get to Termini you will have plenty of ticket machines or ticket windows to buy the tickets to Venice.

Posted by
12 posts

@frank.
My ship is MSC Grandiosa that docks at 7 am. I have emailed them to let me know about my disembarkation schedule and will book Rome to Venice accordingly.
Please tell me if it is possible to book the regionale tickets online in advance or will I be able to buy them only at the station at Termini?
Thanks

Posted by
5955 posts

You can book in advance or buy day of- your choice. I don't believe the full Jan schedule is out yet but schedules you see now will likely be same as Jan.

For the trip to Venice take a fast train- Freccia. If you book in advance you can take advantage of discounts, but do read the restrictions.

https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html
Or on their easy to use app. Register online then use the app.
You can print the tix at home if you prefer or use your phone to show the QR code to conductor. Helpful to take a screenshot of tix as well in case your phone konks out.
Regional Tickets purchased in advance do not need validation, regional tickets purchased at station do need validation.

Hotel Sonya is very nice, not too expensive usually and close to Termini.

(Edited to clarify)

Posted by
23178 posts

Booking a Regional ticket in advance on the internet requires a starting/boarding time and date and then the ticket is only good for four hours. No discount for buying on-line. Personally I would never buy a Regional ticket on-line. I would wait till I was in Termini to buy your ticket to Venice since there are so many time variables that you can control or anticipate. Granted you will have to pay the higher, walk up price, but train tickets in Italy are reasonably cheap. If you buy a discounted ticket on-line and miss the train, it is a worthless ticket. And then you have to buy a full fare ticket. It is not worth the risk. This way you have no pressure -- get off the ship, get to the station, pass the mob with your Regionale ticket in hand --- VALIDATE -- and get on the next R train to Rome. Final a ticket machine or a window and get on the next train to Venice. At least one an hour. For this trip you are looking for flexibility and convenience and not the cheapest. Sometimes you have pay a little extra for flexibility.

PS There are a couple of misstatements upthread ---- Only Regionale train tickets purchased at a machine or the ticket window require validation (time stamp). The ticket only has a four hour life and that starts it's life. All other ticket regardless of where purchased, are specific to a date, time, and train seat and only good for that train.

Taking the train is easy to do. We have board four cruises out of Civit... and once stopped in Rome on another cruise.

Posted by
12 posts

@frank
Thanks for clearing that up. I shall take the regional tickets from the counter and also the Rome to Venice ticket on the same day to avoid missing my pre booked train. Flexibility becomes a necessity rather than a privilege on a holiday!
Cheers!

Posted by
467 posts

If you stay near Termini it is not that far to see some sites. We actually walked from the Termini station to our B&B in Trastavere a few weeks ago. It was a day trip from Naples so no bags. It was a lovely walk.

I would stay near Termini then go out exploring.

You can look at prebooking your fast train to Venice. There is an option with a higher fee to be able to change your tickets. My sister did that to Florence a few weeks ago. The trains are easy to take once you figure it out. Luggage is the only hard part. Suggest packing as light as possible.
Are you flying home from Venice?

Posted by
1929 posts

Right across the street from Termini are the Baths of Diocletian and the Roman Museum. Both world-class attractions that, with so many other attractions in Rome, often get lost in the shuffle.

Posted by
891 posts

I would recommend the Hotel Napoleon Roma near Termini. We stayed there for two nights before taking a train to Civitavecchia. It is about 4 blocks from Termini and very easy to get to the station the next morning. By the time you arrive at FCO and clear passport control expect it to be about 5:00 PM. Check in and go down to the bar / restaurant, have a glass of wine or two with a good meal and get ready to go Termini the next morning.