Has anyone ever driven themselves to the port of Civitavecchia? My husband and I are leaving for a cruise out of this port and would like to spend some time in Montalcino prior to our cruise. We were wondering if anyone has had the experience of doing this on their own. Specifically, is there a car rental return in the port or in the city itself? We were also concerned about how easy or difficult this process would be to do on your own. We have driven in Italy before but are not familiar with this port and don't want to have any snags the day we are to embark.

http://maps.google.com/ will show you the route. Use directions and input the departure and arrival address.

The websites of the car rental companies show the franchise locations.

Allow for the time to call for a taxi from wherever you surrender the car to the jetty where your ship leaves from, that could be substantial.

I recently drove through Civitavecchia, and it wasn't exactly a joy. On the other hand, it's not a huge place, so your chances of getting hopelessly lost are not high. And the roads to there are very straghtforward.

How about posting more details about how you envision this going, like what is the time you want to be at the ship, when do you want to leave Montalcino, and do you know which rental company you're using?

You can drive directly to the port, unload your luggage and have someone there to guard your luggage, then take a very short drive to the rail station, where you will drop off your car. Then you can take the short walk back to your luggage where you had dropped it. Very simple.

Thanks all for the information.

Zeppole, in answer to your questions. . .

1. We plan on leaving Montalcino early in the morning, say between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. to allow as much time as possible to get to the port.

2. We typically rent our car through a company called Europe by Car. They get you a car through any number of car rental agencies that they deal with. I e-mailed them and they did say they had an agency in Civitavecchia, but it was unclear whether it was actually in the port.

Information on the port itself (at least that I have found on the internet) is not very detailed.

jagger,

Waldo surely has the better take on this, since I was not in Civitavecchia to board a cruise ship.

I'm guessing your ship leaves around sunset? Quite late in the day? Once you get on the autostrade it's good roads all the way the port, and the signage for entering into Civitavecchia is very good (with dedicated ramps).

To be truthful, Montalcino is where I got lost in Tuscany, but that's a different story.

I would want to double check the office opening hours of the rental company. My assumption would be that they are closed between 12:30 and 4pm and on Sundays, perhaps Saturdays too. But just double check. Sounds to me like once you hammer out the details with the rental company, you're not going to find yourselves sweating the drop off and boarding your ship. However, I would bring yourselves a nice bottle of wine from Montalcino, bread, cheese etc.

Civitavecchia is not an unpleasant town as far as I'm concerned. It's not Montalcino, but it's loose and Roman in feel. Have a nice trip.