If you’re heading on a Mediterranean cruise, Rome is a perfect home base to start or end your journey! When booking though, you may see that the port that services Rome is actually Civitavecchia, and is located quite a ways outside of central Rome. Fear not! It is actually incredibly easy to get to the Civitavecchia cruise port from Rome. While a taxi or pre-arranged transfers are always an option if you want to get to the Civitavecchia cruise port, using public transportation is very easy and much cheaper! Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get to the Civitavecchia cruise port from Rome (and then back again after your cruise)!
Read More: Full Review: 10 Day NCL Epic Mediterranean Cruise
Roma Termini Train Station
Roma Termini is the largest and most central train station in the city of Rome. It is located on the eastern side of the city, so can be a bit of a ways from hotspots like the Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, or the Pantheon. Since arriving the day before a cruise is always recommended no matter where you’re embarking from, I would highly suggest a hotel near Roma Termini. We stayed at the Hotel Diana, which was only a 5 minute walk from the station. The hotel was beautiful, quiet, safe, and even had a gorgeous rooftop restaurant and bar with sweeping views of the city. Staying close to Roma Termini also means not having to drag your luggage far or in/out of cabs or more trains. You can simply walk out of your hotel with your bags and straight to the station.
Roma Termini is easy to navigate, and you’ll find the majority of signage has both Italian and English. I would recommend arriving at the station about 30 minutes before scheduled departure. You can look up timetables here, searching for Roma Termini and then clicking “Go to the monitor” to get a live status of all the trains.
Buying Train Tickets
Upon arrival, you’ll want to head straight for the red kiosks that say Trenitalia. At the first screen, you have the option on the bottom to select a new language to make it easy to navigate through the next screens. Simply click through indicating that you want to purchase a one-way ticket to Civitavecchia and select the number of tickets to purchase. Available train times will populate and you can select the next available one. Keep in mind that your tickets are only valid on that time train, and if you miss it you will need to re-purchase tickets for the new train!
About 20-30 minutes before departure, the platform number will populate on the main departure board in the terminal. As soon as that information is available, I’d recommend making your way to the train right away. On cruise embarkation days, the trains to Civitavecchia can get pretty full (especially with everyone’s luggage) and if you’d like a seat or a comfortable place to stand, getting onboard early is key. When we boarded, our platform number was 26, which was about the farthest platform away (and after speaking with others, it is very common for the trains to Civitavecchia to leave from this platform). Definitely allow yourself about 10 minutes just for the walk to the platform alone. Especially with luggage, it can take some time to get there!
Note: You need to purchase your tickets from the Trenitalia kiosks, not Italo trains. The machines are both red, look similar, and are often located next to each other. Make sure the machine you purchase from reads Trenitalia on the top.
Train Ride to Civitavecchia
Once you are onboard, you can settle in for the approximate hour ride to Civitavecchia. Some trains will make more stops than others, but they are all fairly quick. Once onboard, each car will display a screen with upcoming stations. Next to each, is also the estimated time of arrival at each. These are really helpful to follow your journey and to ensure you’re running on time.
Make sure to also keep your ticket that you purchased at the kiosk handy. Even though you needed to scan it to get onto the platforms, train employees can still come around and ask to validate them. In my experience on Trenitalia, my tickets were checked about 50% of the time. However, it’s a hefty fine if you don’t have it to present to the employee if they ask to see it so make sure you keep it handy!
Arriving in Civitavecchia
Once you arrive in Civitavecchia, you are almost there! Unless your train is lucky enough to arrive on platform 1, you will need to carry your luggage down a flight of stairs, through a short corridor going under the set of tracks, and then back up a flight of stairs and into the main station. I did not see an elevator to use, so you will need to be able to carry your luggage down and back up yourself. There were a few employees around to help if needed, but with the rush of the crowd it was difficult for them to help many people.
The Civitavecchia train station is very small (especially compared to Roma Termini) and is easy to navigate. Make your way to the main exit and get ready for the next leg of the journey!
Port Shuttle Bus
Immediately after exiting the Civitavecchia train station, turn right and continue down the sidewalk in front of the station. At the end, you will see busses lined up to shuttle cruisers to the pier. The front of the busses will read “Porto – Stazione, Terminal Cruise” which means it is the shuttle between the port and train station. Confirm your ship name with the driver before boarding and they will let you know if that is the correct bus. If there is more than one ship embarking at port on the same day, there will likely be different shuttles for each.
Once you identify the correct bus, you will board and pay the €6 fare. You can pay this in cash directly to the driver or by tapping your card or phone at the machine. The busses are pretty frequent and we were able to walk right on after exiting the station. Once the bus is full, it will head off to the cruise pier. The ride is short, only about 15 minutes, and will take you directly to the terminal for check in.
Note: after arriving in Civitavecchia, some people chose to walk to the cruise port instead of paying €6 for the shuttle. I would not recommend this. The walk is about a mile, and is over cobblestone sidewalks which is not only annoying, but isn’t good for your luggage. Also, when you arrive at the pier, you will need to board a shuttle anyway to take you directly to your ship, as they do not allow pedestrians past the main gates. Save yourself the trouble and get on the shuttle from the get go!
Arriving at Roma Cruise Terminal
The shuttle bus will arrive to the Roma Cruise Terminal and drop you off directly outside. From there, you can start the check-in and boarding processes! First, you will proceed to the left side of the building to check-in your bags. While the entire check-in process was quick and smooth, this was the part that took the longest. Save time for not only yourself but for everyone in line behind you by printing your bag tags ahead of time! It really will speed up the process a lot.
After checking your bags, you will proceed through security. Prior to joining the line, there will be restrooms on your left where you can stop to dump any liquids you may have. The security here is similar to TSA so no bottles of water or other liquids are allowed through. After security is check-in for the ship where you will receive your room key and then proceed to the gangway to board the ship. My experience at the Roma Cruise Terminal was incredibly easy and efficient. I feel like they are used to large crowds and are very good at keeping things moving!
Post Cruise: Getting Back to Rome
After your cruise, getting back to Rome is as simple as reversing the steps above! After disembarking, you will walk through the Roma Cruise Terminal once again. On the right, we noticed a long queue of people who were lined up to go to the airport through the transfers booked through the cruise line. You can walk right past that line and proceed straight out. Turn left and all the way at the end will be the same shuttle busses to take you back to the Civitavecchia train station. Simply pay your fare and you’ll be on your way!
At the Civitavecchia train station, you’ll find the same Trenitalia machines to buy your ticket back to Roma Termini. The platform will be posted on the main departures board as usual, and you can make your way there as soon as it’s announced. Since Civitavecchia isn’t the first stop on the train, it likely will not be waiting for you on the platform to board. It will arrive close to the scheduled departure time for you to board and settle in. Kick back and relax on the hour ride back to Rome!
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