Orvieto to Civitavecchia

Still refining my plans for next June...

The Saturday prior to my cruise embarking on Sunday, we'll be waking up in Orvieto...Saturday night, we have reservations in Civitavecchia...

I've pretty much decided to avoid renting cars this time...But, most of my transportation segments seem fairly easy...

From FCO to Orvieto, we'll just take the train (change at Tiburtina, about 2:15, between €30 and €50 for two, depending on time) ...I assume there must be taxis at the train station in Orvieto that can take us up to our hotel in the old city?

After the cruise, we'll take the train into Rome (€10 for two), then a taxi up to Tivoli (approx. €50) from there...From Tivoli, we'll take the train directly back to FCO (change at Tiburtina, under 2 hours, €11 pp).

That leaves that Orvieto to Civitavecchia leg...

Here's the key:

If we get in to Civitavecchia early enough, we can check into our hotel and catch a bus or train up to Tarquinia for the afternoon. If we take most of the day getting there, we can see Tarquinia on our transition day between the back-to-back cruises...

Trains from Orvieto to Civitavecchia can be a bit problematic...First, you need to get out of the hotel and get transportation down to the train station to get on an 8:02 am train to get to Civitavecchia by 11:04 with only one stop in Rome for €44 for two...or else we're not leaving until 11:20 am and arriving in Civitavecchia at 2:19 pm...for €23.70 (prices, BTW, are current and might be different for our dates next June)...

So, I am looking for alternatives...

The drive from Orvieto to Civitavecchia, direct, bypassing Rome, is only 99 km...from what I can tell, the taxi fares, at least what one finds over the internet, are fairly standard--€173...So, we'd be paying an extra €125-150 for the convenience of getting there earlier and on our schedule...with, I'd assume, door-to-door service and fewer hassles (and, actually, less than that €125-150 because we'd also avoid hotel to station and station to hotel taxi rides on either end). BTW: Renting a car in Orvieto and dropping it off in Civitavecchia for just the one day would cost between $75 and $100 plus the cost of gas and some consideration of risk of accidents, traffic tickets and getting lost...Of course, renting a car means we could stop in Tarquinia on the way from Orvieto to Civitavecchia.

Any other ideas on how to do this leg? Is there, perchance, a direct regularly scheduled bus service? Or companies other than the standard taxi companies?

Thanks...

By bus would require at least two legs but more likely three, it's cumbersome and time consuming. There are huge parts of Italy where it is damn near impossible to travel east-west by public transit, you wind up having to go far north or south and then coming back at a different angle.

As counterintuitive as it seems, looking at a map, the fastest route is to take a non-stop train to Rome and then a train from there to Civitavecchia.

On Saturday mornings you can get a train from Orvieto at 7:30 AM that gets you to Civitavecchia by 10 AM, or another at 8 that makes it there a few minutes after 11.

When would you have arrived in Orvieto?

When would you have arrived in Orvieto?

Arriving at FCO Wednesday evening...spending the night there and heading to Orvieto first thing Thursday morning...two nights in Orvieto.

Ok 2 nights is good. You'll have a good chance to see Orvieto. If it was me, id probably think about renting a car and driving from Orvieto to the port but stopping off along the way. You're spoilt for choice at places to stop off at along the way - it depends what kind of things you like.

Tuscania or Viterbo and/or Lago di Bolsena (driving around the lake - have lunch in Montefiascone high on the lip of the crater overlooking the lake) and finishing off in Tarquinia before heading to the port.

This is deep into magical Etruscan territory.

Public transport visiting these places is difficult which is why car hire is good option.

Yes, around 75$ US for car hire.

You'd probably need a taxi to pick the car up and of course it wld be great if you could drop car off next to ship. But this cld be difficult perhaps.

Driving conditions, parking etc along this route or inside those towns/cities is relatively easy and stress free.

Good discussion of just about all the issues. From his posts, we know the OP is a regular traveler and has a good handle on the options. As a big fan of rental cars (we know that the OP does not want to use this option), Civitavecchia does present problems since you cannot arrange to drop the car inside the port. So this still leaves the issue of getting from the rental car agency to the ship...which has its own options (and issues). We agree with Eurocruiser that using a train from Orvieto to Rome and then change to the regionale train to Civitavecchia.

We would only add that Bruin Steve has actually laid out many of the reasons why we are big rental car fans. We have also never enjoyed dragging our luggage on/off trains, through stations, onto buses, etc. Our problem is we have never discovered the joys of packing light :). At the very least we normally have at least 2 large 50 pound suitcases and 2 overpacked carry-ons. And lately, we seem to multiple to a 3 rd medium suitcase. ARGH!

Hank

Well, to finally update this...

After many months of wrestling with several ideas, I've finally decided on this:

I am renting a car for one day from Hertz...A Lancia Y--manual transmission, air conditioning, allegedly 38 mpg or better, supposed to hold 5 passengers plus one large suitcase, one small suitcase--so, I am assuming it shouldn't be a problem for just the two of us with two large suitcases plus assorted other items. I haven't driven a stick in several years, but assume it should come back to me quickly (I've owned two manual transmission vehicles at one time or another)...

The total cost--with fees and taxes is only 63.66 Euros.

We'll still likely have to take a taxi from our hotel in Orvieto to the RR Station down the hill--which is where Hertz is located...and either a taxi or long walk to our hotel in Civitavecchia.

From what I can tell, Hertz in Civitavecchia close at 1:00 pm on Saturday...and we'll likely return well after that, but, I understand there's a drop box...

The plan now is to get up in Orvieto, have breakfast and check out, get a cab (or bus plus funicular) to the Hertz office, pick up the car...and then we have a lot of time to see some things on the way...Since it's maybe only an hour and a half drive direct to Civitavecchia via Viterbo

Tarquinia is one stop I want to make. Anyone know the parking situation near the ruins in Tarquinia? Is it worth detouring via either Castiglione del Lago or Tuscania?

Anyway, for the trip TO Orvieto, we're still planning on taking the train...Car rental for that leg would actually end up a bit more expensive (maybe something to do with pick-up at FCO) and we really just want to get to Orvieto that morning, not to make stops.

 

Tarquinia is one stop I want to make. Anyone know the parking situation near the ruins in Tarquinia? Is it worth detouring via either Castiglione del Lago or Tuscania?

 

I do not recall a dedicated parking area at the necropolis at Tarquinia. Zooming in on the map on the page below seems to confirm there is only street parking nearby:

http://www.tarquinia-cerveteri.it/en

It's also worth a visit to the museum in Tarquinia itself, if you have the time.

By the way, I looked online at the Lancia Y. Looks like you'd have to put the rear seat down to fit much luggage -- would you have concerns about having it be that visible if you're making stops between Orvieto and the port? (I think I would...)

I was looking at the rear storage and think we may get lucky there...If we had two traditional pieces of hard-side luggage, we'd definitely have to put one in the rear seat...but we'll be traveling with two 30 inch hybrid rolling duffels. I'm thinking we can fit both in the back, one on top of the other. Since most of the bags are moldable soft nylon, we can possibly squeeze them to fit the space.

I'm always concerned about having a rental car broken into..it happened to us several years ago while visiting the Roman ruins in St. Remy de Provence. Someone broke the windows on about 25 cars in the parking lot...was probably lurking around until the lot was empty. From our car, the thieves stole my wife's purse--containing her wallet with credit cards and passport...and my old college back pack...which had my spare toothbrush and a half-used tube of toothpaste, a pack of gum and an old sweatshirt. We had to backtrack to Hertz in Avignon to replace the car, then, when we got to our hotel in St. Raphael, the hotel clerk helped us make all the calls to cancel her credit cards and the bank next door got all the travelers checks (common in those days) replaced. Luckily, I always carry one credit card my wife doesn't. When we got to Milan, we spent most of our time getting my wife's passport replaced. In that case, it didn't matter whether anything was visible in your car...the thieves just broke a window out of every car and sorted it out later...