HELP: EASTER IN ITALY (Grandeur of Rome)

[cbb]

In planning our next O cruise I realize that we will be in Florence on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Rome on Saturday, and Sorrento on Easter Sunday (April 24). I have tried researching what happens Holy Week but am not finding much. Here are my questions:

Are most of the shops and restaurants closed then or do they remain open because of the processions and events surrounding the Week?

Do the trains and buses run on different, or shortened schedules? I have never visited Italy during Easter and don't know what to expect.

Thanks for all the expert help I've come to rely on. c

[YoHoHo]

Easter in Italy - wow! Should be great. However you make a good point about trains. Being as you will be travelling from a long distance port to Florence and Rome it could be a hassle. I did see on an tourist Italy type website a recommendation of limiting travel between cities during Easter because all of Italy is on vacation that week and it is crowded. This may be a good time to take a ship's bus / excursion.

Also while I am sure there are those on Oceania's board that will have visited these ports during Easter and can answer your questions more direclty than I can, as it is not a ship specific thing you may get a good response from the Port of Call section - especially train info.

[JimandStan]

In planning our next O cruise I realize that we will be in Florence on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Rome on Saturday, and Sorrento on Easter Sunday (April 24). I have tried researching what happens Holy Week but am not finding much. Here are my questions:

Are most of the shops and restaurants closed then or do they remain open because of the processions and events surrounding the Week?

Do the trains and buses run on different, or shortened schedules? I have never visited Italy during Easter and don't know what to expect.

Thanks for all the expert help I've come to rely on. c

 

You really need to use the advice/services of a good local ROME guide who can get that type of information from the horses mouth.

 

You're not only going to run into additional traffic and restaurant closings during Easter week, but MANY of the attractions in Rome are still active houses of worship and will not allow tourist traffic during services

[Paulchili]

We will be facing the same dilemma ourselves on the Marina.

Portofino on Good Friday, Florence Saturday and Amalfi Sunday afternoon.

Fortunately we have visited these places before on several occasions and will play it "safe". O shorex may be a good idea - especially with far away port like Florence.

[Benita]

We have been in the Caribbean on both Easter and the day after Easter, which is also a holiday there. Everything was closed and private guides and boat charterers were not working.

[cbb]

We were thinking of taking the train from Livorno to Lucca since we will be in port overnight but now I'm thinking we will be taking shorex. JimandStan have added an excellent point that I had failed to consider which are the schedules of the cathedrals. I know our churches here add services for Holy Week and that will be the case in those glorious Italian cathedrals expecting the faithful. Like Paul, we have visited those great cities before so I think we'll take some of the shorex to some of the other villages. I have posted in Ports so we'll see what some of those contributors have to say. Thanks O people; you are truly the best! (I envy Paul taking this trip on the Marina!)

[CintiPam]

Lucca is an easy day trip from Livorno by train; we did this on our port day in May, having gone there and Pisa on a daytrip once from Florence a few years ago. I fell in love with the walled town and wanted to have more time to explore there at a leisurely pace, and we did! We used a Rick Steves' guidebook for our Lucca touring; he provides excellent walking and sight tours for a nice visit.

 

BTW, Livorno port rans a shuttle to a central bus area/open station, and from there you can catch a bus to the train station, all very fast and efficient. What a contrast to Civitavecchia, which provides zero/zip.

[pondnana]

We were thinking of taking the train from Livorno to Lucca since we will be in port overnight but now I'm thinking we will be taking shorex. JimandStan have added an excellent point that I had failed to consider which are the schedules of the cathedrals. I know our churches here add services for Holy Week and that will be the case in those glorious Italian cathedrals expecting the faithful. Like Paul, we have visited those great cities before so I think we'll take some of the shorex to some of the other villages. I have posted in Ports so we'll see what some of those contributors have to say. Thanks O people; you are truly the best! (I envy Paul taking this trip on the Marina!)

 

We rented a car in Livorno a couple of years back and drove to Lucca. It was very easy and relatively inexpensive. There were car rental booths on the pier where we docked and we were able to get the car there and return it to the pier.