Civitavecchia is the port of Rome, and we’ve been here numerous times to start or end a cruise. This time, though, it was a stop during a 13 day Mediterranean and Adriatic cruise and we decided to stay in town to get to know the city a bit.
The Port of Civitavecchia is a huge container port, but the cruise ships have a designated area closer to town and a free shuttle is provided to the port gate. The old downtown core is just on the left side of the main drag that runs along the water as you walk out of the port toward the train station.
The shuttle depot attracts lots of tour service providers who aggressively compete for customers, offering a private transportation to Rome for as little as 10 Euros each way per person, or various guided tours. Rome can be reached in 40-80 minutes by train(under 5 euros each way), depending on the kind of train, and the train station is about a 15-20 minute walk from the shuttle depot.
There are rental car companies near the shuttle depot as well. We had taken the trains to Rome at times, and we also had rented cars here. All worked fine and simple.
Exiting the square from an alley at a corner, we reached the next street and turned left to find another interesting church, Saint Mary of the Prayer. It was not a big church but quite ornate and well maintained with care.
Turning left as exiting the church, we were back on the street that seemed to be one of the major streets in the old town area and dotted with shops and eateries. At the end of the street, we turned left and found Civitavecchia Market in full action. Many local people were buying fish and vegetables and fruits. Shopkeepers were friendly and laughing with customers exchanging stories, it seemed.
We walked toward the water a bit, then, turned left to arrive at Piazza Fratti, the square in the center of the Ghetto of Civitavecchia. There were Free WiFi signs around this square, thus, we sat on a bench to get online. The signal seemed strong but we could not connect. The tourist map of the city showed free WiFi signs dotted all over the city, but we were never able to use it. We stopped at the Cathedral, which was good sized and had the look of a serious “cathedral,” on our way back to the port.
The whole walking tour took about an hour, then there was not much else to do. We had originally made a reservation at a restaurant near Piazza Leandra called Quantum that offered 20% discount via thefork.com, but it was only about 10:30 AM by this time. We reluctantly canceled this reservation & found a small cafe near the shuttle depot and sat there to use their WiFi.
Small Wide World 