Small town named Atri

I haven't been to Atri. But this train schedule website appears to indicate that there's no train service to Atri. But that you could take a train (from Rome) as far as the coastal town of Pineto, or other train stop short of Pineto, if you find one with more bus or car rental services than Pineto.

Next points, for someone to research, would be:Is Pineto the best place to get off the train?Is there a bus from Pineto (or other train stop) to Atri?Is there a car rental pickup location in Pineto?Or, would it be easier to rent a car from Rome (say the airport) and drive from Rome to Atri?

Where will you be coming from?

It looks like there are several busses daily in both directions from Pescara. So you could train there and then take the bus. Depending on where you were starting from, bus all the way could be a reasonable option as well.

If you google Atri Italy. It appears there are a couple of hotels and places to stay.

this is the bus line in Abruzzo. www.arpaonline.it

Thanks.

We were thinking of taking a day trip from Rome to Atri (returning the same day). I'll check into the links you mentioned.

Let me encourage you to stay overnight at least one night if not two. for a couple of reasons;

It's probably going to to take you about 5 hours or so to get there from Rome one way. For the effort, you should dstay more than a couple of hours.

It truly is a wonderful amazing feeling to be in the same spot where your parents or grandparents and beyond came from. don't discount it and don't short change yourself.

Good point, Ron. I actually didn't realize it would take so long to get to Atri from Rome. I thought it would be about a 2 - 3 hour ride. Somehow, I had the idea that Italy was about the same size as Florida; am I way off on that?

Italy's a little more than twice the size of Florida. All peninsulae are not made equal.

Sally: "I had the idea that Italy was about the same size as Florida; am I way off on that?"

Well, it depends. Ed is correct in terms of area. But I'm guessing you're talking about the width of Italy at the part you're interested in, say Rome to Pescara, and in terms of width you're not way off at all. Rome to Pescara is about 110 miles straight line distance; the width of Florida at, say Ft Myers to West Palm Beach, is about the same distance.

[Edited after Ron's subsequent post]. And your travel time of 3 hours probably isn't that far off, if you're driving a rental car. Ron has clarified he was estimating train time. Google Map and Mapquest both give an estimate of driving time of about 2hrs 15 mins Rome to Atri, about 120 road miles. But that time doesn't include any allowance for stops or for picking up the rental car.

No need to speculate about driving times in Europe: several websites, including those mentioned above and also viamichelin.com will give you driving times in return for a couple of minutes of your time.

Well, I was looking at public transportation. It's about 4 hours on the train to Pescara and then about 40 minutes to an hour on a bus to Atri.

However, if you were willing to rent a car, you could probably shave some time off of that. Viamichelin says it takes about 2 and 1/2 hours but I think that's not giving enough delays for traffic in Rome.

But really even if you could make it in three hours, I'd still suggest staying overnight.

Good advice from Ron, about staying overnight, if you can make the time.