euro cruiser

Some info on Lucca: Lucca | Visit Tuscany

The other issue is whether you can get a taxi to take the short trip to the station. They wait at the port looking for fares into the city and they'll be reluctant to give up their place in line to travel one mile. Expect an exorbitant fare, but you may have to swallow it because you purchased such early train tickets.

No big ships will be back to the Venice Passenger Terminal.

It's possible that you got into a cab from the municipality of Fiumicino, they have their own rates and are not bound by the Rome regulations. Both the city's web site (Rome, link above) and the airport web site still say 50 euro: Taxi - Trasporti - Fiumicino - Adr.it - Aeroporti di Roma

Where did you see this? According to the city's web site, the current fare from the airport to the city is still 50 euro: Tariffario_Taxi_REV.pdf (comune.roma.it)

Yes to all of the above, plus being outdoors in the fresh air (and hopefully, sunshine) will help you adjust to the time change. Sitting in a car for hours just invites you to have a very expensive nap.

This one is inside the station. Deposito KiPoint Genova Principe (kibag.it)

Less than half a mile from the museum, pretty much straight down the street, is Antica Pizzeria Port Alba, from the list provided above by Cruisemom42. Home - Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba (anticapizzeriaportalba.com)

That secondary station is Pisa S. Rossore. It is an easy stop off going to or from Lucca. It's a "Y" station with an underpass to get you from the train stop over to the Field of Miracles side of the tracks.

Another option, if Pisa doesn't do it for you, is the walled town of Lucca. Also an easy train trip, albeit a little longer (about one hour, including a change of trains at Pisa). The fare to Lucca is only 6 euro. Home Page | Turismo Lucca

Well, Livorno has its own "new Venice" area (a bit of a stretch, but that's how they describe it. More about that here: Livorno Experience – Scopri le Terre d'acqua della Toscana – Livorno, Isola di Capraia e Collesalvetti Pisa is not far at all, there are bus tours from Piazza del Municipio, where the port buses drop you off in town. You can also take the train on your own, it takes 15 - 20 minutes and costs just 2,70 euro. From Pisa Centrale station to the Piazza dei Miracoli (the leaning tower, duomo, museum, etc.) is a little over a mile on foot. There are public buses and taxis if you don't want to hoof it.

Walking back is easier than walking there, as coming back it's downhill. It's not steeply uphill going there, but it is noticable. The total walking distance is about a mile and a third from the cruise port (Molo Angioino to Piazza Museo, if you want to make a google map). The metro is the easiest way to go using public transit, as noted above. You can see a map of the metro and regional train lines on the city's web site here: Comune di Napoli - Il trasporto pubblico a Napoli If you look for the yellow line in the middle of the page you'll see the Municipio stop at the bottom. Travel upward along that line and you'll see the Toledo and Dante stops, the next one is Museo, right at the museum.

Although there are some exceptions, the rule in Italy is you buy the ticket before boarding the bus, drivers do not sell them. To buy bus tickets look for a tobacco shop (blue sign with a capital T) or a newsstand. There is one on the corner in front of the cruise terminal where the port bus will drop you off. With your back to the cruise terminal walk across the street, through a park-like area, across Via XXIV Maggio, through a piazza and then across a main street, Via Vittorio Veneto. The Comune bus stop is right there, you can get a bus to the train station. Any one of the following go to La Spezia Centrale station: 6, 9, 17, 23, 28, or C. Line 3 gets you very close, you just have to climb a staircase (outside) up to the station area. If you're okay with that, jump on the 3 because it comes fairly frequently. The stop is called Via Fiume FS. The ticket you need is the BIGLIETTO CORSA SEMPLICE, which is a point-to-point ticket. The fare is 1,50 euro. Home page | ATC Esercizio For perspective, if you just walk from the cruise terminal the distance to La Spezia Centrale is 1.9km/1.2 miles. The distance on foot from the cruise terminal to the Comune bus stop is 280 meters/two-tenths of a mile. So, the bus saves you a mile of walking but probably costs you more than the 15 - 20 minutes it would take you to walk it.

Ah, okay. Yes, you take the train to Rome and change there for the train to Civitavecchia (the change is usually at Roma Trastevere station, which has elevators at every track). Once at Civitavecchia there is a port bus to the Largo della Pace terminal, where you get the free shuttle bus to your ship. On embarkation days there may be a port bus directly from the train station to the ship (for a small fee).

I'll give you easier, it's absolutely easier to use a car service. But "not that more expensive" is a stretch, given that best case for a car service is 120 euro, while the train is 11 euro. That's not a small difference.

Same thing happened to me, but it's all back this morning.

Yes, but what bus are you thinking of using?

You need to look at all of the costs, sometimes getting the cheaper airfare winds up costing you more because of things like hotels and ground transport, as you are discovering. There are very few hotels that offer airport shuttle service in Italy, that's not a common thing as it is in the States. Taxis, even for a short distance, will be expensive. I suspect that the least expensive option will be to take a bus from the airport to central Rome and spend the night there, then the train from Rome to Civitavecchia the next day. The last train from the airport to Rome is probably too early for you (11:27 PM). A bus into Rome will cost a fraction of the taxi fare to an airport area hotel.

There is more than enough in Rome to fill months, so I would start by having each member of the family develop a list of things of interest to them in the city. At the same time, I would have a couple of easy to do, last minute day trips in my back pocket in case you decide you'd like something different. The most obvious day trip is Florence, about an hour and forty minutes away by high speed train. Trenitalia and Italotreno offer high speed service throughout the day.

That is so often the tradeoff, and with the time constraints of a port day every minute lost is expensive. But still, wow. That's nervy of them (the cab drivers).

Wow, that means they're charging 12 euro to go one and a quarter miles to La Spezia Centrale.

From the port, or from the cruise terminal? This was a port that used to require passengers to use a port shuttle bus to get out, has that changed?

The one mile walk is from the station to the Largo della Pace shuttle bus station. From the station to the Fort Michelangelo entrance (Varco Fortezza) is 600 meters/four-tenths of a mile. There has been work going on in the area of Varco Fortezza resulting in temporary closures (see one such announcement here: Varco Fortezza, chiusura temporanea per i lavori di riqualificazione | Port Mobility Civitavecchia) but the entrance is generally open.

There is no point in prebooking the trains into Rome from the airport. They cannot sell out and the price never changes, so just wait and get it at the airport train station.

There are also great views from Villa Comunale (the public gardens), which are free and open all day. Views, of course, depend on the weather and cloud cover.