Trieste to Rome, can I make this work, side by side? (kind of!) Cruising b2b

[cuterlmt]

We have a cruise booked with NCL which ends in Trieste. We are thinking about booking a cruise leaving the day after we disembark Trieste. The cruise leaves from Rome with RCCL. Can we do this? We don't want to rent a car. But also don't want to be incredibly stressed out trying to get to Rome for the cruise the next day. This will be in April 2023. These are CAS cruises, and are fairly flexible, but we also want to use our time well, and not just go to Europe for one week - and want to do two cruises while we're there. If we could spend another extra week there, I'd love to do that, but I don't think I can manage that much time off from work.

 

[euro cruiser]

Yes, you could do it.

 

For example, you could take an Italo train from Trieste to Rome direct, departing Trieste at 8:06 and arriving to Rome Termini at 13:54, followed by either a regional train (crowded, no assigned seats) or a car service to the port.

 

Or you could fly from Trieste to FCO in just over an hour.  Right now ITA (former Alitalia) has a flight at 11:05 that arrives at 12:15.   That timing allows an easy departure from the first cruise and plenty of time to embark for the second one.

[cuterlmt]

We actually have a day in between the two cruises. I actually like the idea of flying. I'm sure we will have a ton of luggage - my husband does not pack light. But maybe the train - we would probably not be able to get off the ship quite that early (8:06) to take the train. Are the trains pretty regular between the two towns so we could take a later train and get to Rome later in the day, and spend the night before the cruise in Rome?

Thank you for answering. I've done some research, but am just not a savvy enough traveler to figure it out myself.

[carlmm]

4 hours ago, cuterlmt said:

. Are the trains pretty regular between the two towns so we could take a later train and get to Rome later in the day, and spend the night before the cruise in Rome?

 

Yes, trains run all day. Check https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

From Trieste to Roma eg. 12.16 to 18:25 on a random day I checked.

Still enough time for a leisurely night in Rome.

[euro cruiser]

Just keep in mind that if you have a lot of luggage, you'll have to deal with that yourself on the train.

 

With the buffer day I would take a direct high speed train to Rome on the first day, then a direct high speed train to Civitavecchia the second day.  This way you'd have assigned seats on both trains and not be dealing with crowds of standing passengers.

 

However, in order to get a direct (no changes) high speed train from Trieste to Rome you'd need to get off the ship early, as the only ones are at 8:06 on Italotreno or 6:42 on Trenitalia.

 

There is also an IC (Intercity) train at 13:27 that does not require a change but you wouldn't arrive to Rome until 21:34 (9:34 PM).  Eight hours is a really, really long time on a train.

 

Every other train solution requires changes en route, a real pain in the you-know-what with a lot of luggage.

 

This little dose of reality should convince your husband of the wisdom of flying (and maybe also the wisdom of packing lighter?).

Edited August 30, 2022 by euro cruiser