"Docking at Civitavecchia port for Rome " a Civitavecchia Travel Page by haiamisa

Civitavecchia - the port of Rome - was the third stop on
the two week Mediterranean cruise with the cruise ship the Iris :
Haifa - Chania (Crete) - Napoli - Rome (Civitavecchia) - Livorno - Nice - Monaco - Palermo - Santorini - Haifa.

Civitavecchia is about 70km away from Rome and this makes it time consuming and exhausting to visit Rome even though it is 'only' an hour and a quarter away by train. It takes time to get to the railway station from the port. Only in the port you will walk over 1km in case you don't catch a shuttle to the port gate. From the port gate it is another 10 minutes walk to the railway station (all the way by taxi is 15 EUR and far too much), then you need to wait for the train if one isn't waiting for you. At Rome, if you get off at Termini, the railway station is huge and it takes alot of time to get out from there - the train from Civitavecchia stops far away from the entrance.... and of course on the way back (after you have managed to see some of Rome which is chaotic, full of people and very hot in summer) you will have to be back on the train in time not to miss your cruise ship and again it is exhausting getting back to the ship. To tell you the truth I would have prefered not to have Civitavecchia as a cruise port... or just to have spent the whole day in cafes and eating pizza at Civitavecchia would have been a better choice...
Fellow passengers who took excursions from the ship - very expensive! (149 US $ per person!) - complained about the whole thing as well. They were really exhausted and had spent all day in queue to every place.
It was a relief when we safely sailed off at night.
Funny fact: Some crew members missed the train from Rome and missed the ship as well!!! They took a train to Livorno and joined the ship there on the following day! A bit embarrassing...
I am glad we didn't miss the ship!
Civitavecchia itself is a nice town (the impression I got while walking to the railway station and back) with cafes, restaurants, maritime shops etc.