I would heartily recommend Tarquinia. It lies to the north of Rome and can easily be reached by train. (There is an additional short bus journey to the town itself). It is a beautiful walled city, whose roots go back to the Etruscans. Given the number of medieval towers it boasts, it could well be called Lazio's answer to San Gimignano!
Well of course I would be suggesting south of Rome by train and hopping off at Formia. You can have a bit of everything there including an easy connection to Ponza (an island off the coast) if it is a nice day for being on the water. Alternatively a walk around the town and its Roman ruins culminating in a trip to the tomb of Cicero. A picnic on the foreshores (and/or a game of Bocci at Vindicio) -- or a swim. Another alternative would be to hop on a bus off the train and head for Gaeta...you could easily spend a day there looking at mausoleums and other interesting ancient stuff. Carole.
A topic that's been discussed very often onboard, but in your defense Hector it's very hard to use the search engine for this particular query! So here's a quick list of suggestions that have come up; with these names to look for, the search engine will then give you miles and miles of everybody's commentary:
Ostia; Viterbo, Civita Castellana, Rignano Flaminio, Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Norchia; Tivoli, Palestrina, Marino, Nemi, Castel Gandolfo, Subiaco; Ardea, Anzio, Nettuno, Terracina, Gaeta, Formia. (Almost all of these are on train lines.)
Some people have suggested ranging as far as Orvieto and Narni; it's doable, but a bit far.
Getting to Viterbo is very easy, and has also been discussed onboard. There's a special train station just outside the Porta Flaminia. (A search for "Viterbo Flaminia" in the advanced search will give you those threads.)
In addition, a day of good weather can be nicely spent with a picnic basket on the Via Appia; and this topic too has come up, so the search engine will again be your pal.
We went to Orvieto for the day a few years back - a great day trip! Had plenty of time to take in the Duomo, a bit of wandering, and a nice lunch with some Orvieto Classico. The trip was good enough for us to consider going back this year for the day, and maybe an overnighter.
Yes, Orvieto is closer to Rome than some of the other places on that list (Gaeta, for example); but is so full of stuff to see -- the Duomo alone takes about 2-3 hours -- that it makes for a bit of a frustrating day.
Ideally, a day trip should leave you with a feeling of "Gee, that was a wonderful day!" rather than "Oboy, there was so much stuff that we didn't see the half of it, although we crammed a lot in."
The gardens of Ninfa are only open one week end a month from May to September/Oct. Rarely it is possible to ask for special permission to vist and it will be granted but you need a car. If you like gardens then Tivoli has the very accessible Villa D'Este as well as Hadrian's Villa to visit.We did this by train and found it made an excellent day trip even in October. Wendy
Posts: 2747 | Location: Lightwater Surrey U K | Registered: 30 March 2003
quote:Originally posted by Bill Thayer: Yes, Orvieto is closer to Rome than some of the other places on that list (Gaeta, for example); but is so full of stuff to see -- the Duomo alone takes about 2-3 hours -- that it makes for a bit of a frustrating day.
Ideally, a day trip should leave you with a feeling of "Gee, that was a wonderful day!" rather than "Oboy, there was so much stuff that we didn't see the half of it, although we crammed a lot in."
Actually, after our day in Orvieto, we DID say "What a great day this has been!" Perhaps at that time we were unaware of all that Orvieto has to offer. I know we didn't see it all, but we spent a good hour at the duomo, lunched, wandered, back to the duomo for another look, walked back down to the funicular ... and happily caught the train back to Rome. Doris
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