1. Arrival in Civitavecchia
2. Ancient Rome
3. Palatine Hill
4. Colosseum
   1. The Underground
5. The Forum
6. Change of Plans
7. Back in Civitavecchia
8. Final Thoughts

If there is one city that is particularly difficult to visit on a cruise port stop, it is Rome. The city is a full 1.5 hours away from the port by train or vehicle from the port city of Civitavecchia. Still, there are few cities in the world with more to see and do and more centuries of history to explore.

I had decided in advance that we would make our own way to Rome and not take one of the very expensive cruise excursions on offer. There were two main reasons for this: 1) The sheer cost which was around $300/person for breeze-through visits to a few sites 2) I wanted at least one day to take the trains and metros like I had done when I was a much younger backpacker.

Norwegian Cruise Lines did give us a longer stop in Rome, docking at 6:46 AM and departing at 7:00 PM. But the logistics of the stop are daunting. As I mentioned the train ride is 1.5 hours each direction (slightly shorter if you stop at the San Pietro station nearer the Vatican). You have to also take a bus from the port to the train station. And then you have to take metros, buses or taxis to points of interest in Rome. Sites aren’t all nearby each other either, so expect a lot of walking too.

My plan for the day was to focus on ancient Rome since I knew it was simply not logistically possible to see both the Vatican and the ancient sites in one cruise stop day. We would take the 8:00 train from Civitavecchia to the Roma Termini station. At 9:30ish we would arrive and take the metro to the Colosseo stop (about 10 minutes away). We would visit Palatine Hill first, followed by the Colosseum (at designated times of 11:15 and 11:45 (I’ll explain below the two different times), and then walk through the Forum.

Afterward we would walk over Capitoline Hill, have lunch and visit Trevi Fountain before visiting the Pantheon at 3:00 PM (when we had entrance tickets). Finally we would taxi across the Tiber to visit Castel Sant Angelo and then return to Civitavecchia on the 5PM train (cutting it a tad close).

What ended up happening was more limited and is a reflection of the time and logistical constraints of visiting Rome on a cruise stop.

Arrival in Civitavecchia

We arrived in Rome at 6:45 and since we had pre-purchased our train tickets for a 8:00AM train on the TrenItalia site, we had a relatively easy time making it to the train station on time. We could have taken a slightly earlier train but we didn’t know how busy the cruise port buses would be (very busy) and wanted to avoid risking missing the train.

Once aboard the train we realized that the scheduled time for the arrival in Roma Termini (the station closest to the Colosseum and other sites in central Rome) was a bit longer than the posted time. Instead of the 1 hour and 15 minutes that was posted on the app, the arrival time was closer to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Also, upon arrival you realize that Roma Termini is a huge station and just getting from the platforms to the metro can take quite a while and be quite a distance (we really found this out on the way back). Finally, when we arrived we needed to make a bathroom stop and went to a cafe outside to do so (buying a cappuccino to get entrance to the bathroom), not realizing there was a convenient bathroom inside the station.

So by the time we actually arrived outside the Colosseum from Metro Line B, it was already close to 10:30 AM. We also saw crowds that dwarfed even those we encountered in Pisa the day before. The area outside the Colosseum was a mass of humanity and the lines to enter the sites were very long with more security than anywhere else we went on the trip.

Ancient Rome

First let me state the obvious to anyone that is coming to visit Rome in the height of tourist season: you can’t just show up at the Colosseum and other sites and just walk in. You have to buy tickets in advance and if you want to see special sites or take particular tours, you will need to buy them days in advance (and the minute the sales begin for certain tours like the Colosseum Underground). The ticketing site is colosseo.it. Note also the site is down at hours in which the sites aren’t open in Italy time.

I had pre-purchased tickets for everything on the trip, but the most challenging by far was the tickets I needed for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Forum. My initial plan was to buy four Colosseum Underground tours (under 18 is free) as soon as the tickets were available online. The same tickets give you access to all the sites on Palatine Hill (including the SUPER sites which I’ll mention below), and the Forum, as well as the arena floor and 2nd and 3rd levels of the Colosseum).

What ended up happening was at 1:00 AM, 30 days before our arrival day in Rome, I ended up somehow only buying 2 adult tickets to the Colosseum Underground tour. I emailed their customer support to try to add our two kids and received no response until only a couple days before we left. And that response was of no use whatsoever.

Since we had only two full access tickets to the Underground Tour I ended up buying additional tickets to the SUPER sites (which also provide access the the Colosseum and the Forum, but not the Underground or the Arena) and 2 tickets for the Colosseum Arena (which only allows access the the arena).

Confusing? Yeah, but still less expensive than the hundreds of dollars we would have spent going through a third-party and we knew exactly what we were getting. A lot of times the third-party tour vendors sell tickets they don’t even have and cancel if they can’t get the tickets.

We had to make a decision, though. Who goes to the Underground and who goes to the Arena and spends more time on Palatine Hill at the SUPER sites? I had heard the Underground Tour was the most sought after tour in all of Rome (seriously). The reason I didn’t have 4 tickets was they were gone instantly and the system didn’t give me the chance to update the request. We had two tickets and we didn’t want to lose them.

But we couldn’t leave the two kids and go on the tour as two adults. Eventually I made a decsion to give the tickets to Shelley and our youngest son Evan. I decided Daniel and I would find the Palatine sites more interesting than Evan would, and Evan would benefit more from a tour that explained the history of the Colosseum.

On arriving, we found the entrance and security lines were so long (the security process was only a step below that of an airport) just to get into the Palatine Hill/Forum area that once we entered we had to separate. Shelley and Evan had to go check in at the Colosseum for their tour at 11:15 (where even longer lines awaited). Daniel and I set about quickly locating the Palatine Hill SUPER sites.

Palatine Hill

There are seven SUPER sites on Palatine Hill and you need special entrance tickets to visit the SUPER sites.

SUPER stands for Seven Unique Places to Experience in Rome. Of the seven sites Daniel and I were able to visit the House of Augustus, The Palatine Museum, and the Aula Isiaca and Loggia Mattei. We would have visited them all but needed to leave Palatine Hill to visit the Colosseum at our timed entry time of 12:00.

Our first stop was the House of Augustus (which is displayed above as the rooms with red frescos and geometric floors). Even though we had passes to enter the house, we still had to join a tour to see the rooms. Since we were time constrained we joined a tour in Italian and though we had no idea what was being said, we found it a very interesting site.

Our next stop was the Palatine Museum. The Palatine Museum provides a more in depth look at the full history of Rome, starting with the earliest settlements. There are some interesting artifacts and exhibits to peruse, although the museum itself is rather small. We only went through one of two wings, due to time.

Finally we went to the Aula Isiaca and the Loggia Mattei. The Aula Isiaca was an underground room of the House of Augustus. The ceiling of the adjoining Loggia Mattei is really impressive (the white ceiling fresco above).

All of these sites appear in the video that I made which I linked above.

Colosseum

I just finished watching The Gladiator. It such a great movie and one of my favorites. Interesting fact: the last time I was in the Colosseum was the year 2000, when the original was released (I was 24). 24 years later, the sequel is coming out in 2024. And here I am again.

Daniel and I were not on the Underground tour. I have to admit I made another booking error, which is easy on that stressful ticketing site. I booked our Colosseum entrance time for the arena at the exact same time as our entrance to the main tourist areas. The gate manager at the arena told us to go into the main area first and then when we finished he’d let us into the arena.

The unfortunate reality of the Colosseum is that on a typical summer day it has simply too many people to enjoy. It’s very hard to find any free space and it was simply not very enjoyable being in a moving herd of people. The Colosseum is an awe inspiring site, but there is really such a thing as overcrowded. I know they tried to alleviate that with the timed-entry, but it’s just better to try to go when the crowds are lighter (evenings or off-season).

We also noticed just how many concurrent, and lame, tours are being led through the building at the same time. And many of these tour guides are clearly not qualified to lead a tour. I heard a woman point to some artifacts and say “And over here there are these things”.

Once we were sufficiently done with our attempt to find a place to take photographs, and done shaking our heads at the less-than-educated tour guides who tourists overpaid to listen to, we were ready to go to the arena. We walked back over and the security guard let us in as promised.

The arena was less crowded, though the video shows it was hardly empty. It was also nice to be able to look at the Colosseum from the viewpoint of the gladiators of two millennium past.

Interestingly we saw and waved to Shelley who was still in the Underground Tour just below us.

The Underground

I mentioned earlier that the Underground tickets are some of the most sought after and hard to get tickets in Rome. People will pay hundreds of dollars to get into the Underground of the Colosseum.

We were surprised that Shelley and Evan were still in the Underground, however. And even after Daniel and I were in the Forum for a half hour, they were still in the Underground. The tour was just a lot longer than they or we expected even though there really wasn’t that much to see. The tour guide apparently just repeated herself over and over to the point where they were eager to be done.

The Underground was interesting and the exhibits and views were something the average visitor can’t enjoy. There is a lift to demonstrate how animals were elevated to the arena. There were helmets and the labyrinth of passageways. But when they finally met us in the Forum a while later, they were clearly disappointed to have missed out on many sites on Palatine Hill. They also do get to see the arena floor and the rest of the Colosseum.

I think if you have limited time I would NOT do the Underground tour. It’s interesting, but eats up a lot of time and there’s just not that much more to see there than in the other areas. It is more intimate with far fewer people and you do get a tour (although they repeat the same information over and over). But I think with a limited time window you’re better off getting the arena ticket and the SUPER pass for the rest of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum.

I think everyone should see the Colosseum at least once, but truthfully, I don’t think I will go there the next time I am in Rome. There’s just too much else to see and do and the crowds are a lot to manage.

The Forum

While the Colosseum was hard to enjoy due to the crowds, the Forum was more relaxed and enjoyable. We first went to view the Arch of Titus which stands at the entrance (look closely at the engravings on the inner surfaces of the arch – one depicts the sacking of Jerusalem and the other a four horse chariot), then made our way to the Temple of the Vestal Virgins.

I somehow missed the Temple of the Vestals when I was younger, and like much of this trip, everything was new to me. It’s clear that Rome has spent time improving the layout of the exhibits in the past 24 years and I found it much easier to find specific sites within the Forum.

I next went to two of the better preserved buildings: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Temple of Romulus. In both cases (especially the Temple of Romulus) it’s clear that a conversion to a church saved the building from destruction. Much of the glory of Rome is best found in ancient buildings that were for a time a church (even the Colosseum).

When we exited the Temple of Romulus we received a text that Shelley and Evan were finally in the Forum and we walked back up to meet them at the Arch of Titus. They were tired and we were all hungry and it was now 2:00 PM.

How were we going to get to the Pantheon by 3:00 PM. The plan was unraveling quickly.

Change of Plans

We were quickly realizing that Rome was too big and our time too limited to stick to the original schedule. To get to the Pantheon we would need to either hail a taxi, or return to Termini Station to get to the other metro line. Getting a taxi amid the mass of humanity near the Colosseum was going to be impossible so we started back to Termini Station.

Once we got to Termini Station it was already 2:15 PM. We were never going to make it to the Pantheon at 3:00 PM. Now what?

I had booked train tickets from the San Pietro station which was not even directly accessible from Termini. You had to get off at the Ottaviano stop on the A line (near the Vatican) then walk about 3km to the station.

I was also now realizing that leaving that station at 5PM would be perilously close to the cutoff for returning to the ship, depending on how how slow the train was (expecting at least 1 hour 15 minutes from that station plus another 20 minutes for the bus ride).

The hard reality was that not only were we going to miss the Pantheon but we really ought to just start back to the ship now. We had seen the central core of Ancient Rome and that would have to be enough. You can’t expect to see more than a limited area on a cruise ship stop.

I went onto the Tren Italia phone application (be sure to install it before coming to Italy), and bought us four new tickets to Civitavecchia for 2:45 PM. Once I finished purchasing them we strated off toward the train gate.

If there is one thing to 100% know about the Roma Termini station in advance is that it is HUGE. We were already at the station but to walk to the gate was a long, long walk. We ended up having to run to make it to the train on time. Once aboard we breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly remembered we hadn’t eaten lunch.

Back in Civitavecchia

I felt good about our day in Rome even if it didn’t include many sites I had wanted to see. We still got special access to the Palatine and Colosseum sites and enjoyed the Forum. We rode the train into the city (as a true traveler to Europe should – at least once) and then rode the metro. But we had no time to even get a cool gelato.

The train station in Civitavecchia had some desserts in an adjoining cafe so we got some cannoli and other desserts. I ate my cannoli too fast for it to be photographed. It was on my must-eat list for Italy.

Final Thoughts

I think Rome has so much to see and do that even if you had multiple days it’s really hard to see more than just the surface. Even when I came to Rome in my 20s I had three days and could devote whole days to places like the Vatican, and still felt rushed. Coming on a cruise ship…forget about it.]

You have to have limited expectations for a visit to Rome on a cruise ship. Pick a small area and just see the sites there. And see them well. Don’t let the crowds usher you in and out. Don’t take a whirlwind tour and try to see it all.

Rome is 2700 years old. It’s the Eternal City. Plan on coming back and seeing more.

The next post will take us to Naples to visit Mount Vesuvius and the archaeological site of Pompeii.