I will be returning a rental car in Orvieto and would like to make it into Rome by noon to see the Pope's appearance in Vatican City. The schedules I have found for the IC train have departures at either 7:30am (which is not an option) or 10:09, which arrives in Rome after 11:00. I'm not sure this leaves us enough time. Is there a bus or perhaps another train? Any suggestions are welcome!

Trenitalia shows a 7:50 departure, arriving at 8:58.

If you require a more precise option than that, then why not just drive on in to Rome?

And what appearance is there at noon? On a Sunday? Can you really retr a car so early (or on Wednesday, for that matter).

The ordinary Wednesday public audience is more like 10 or 11, I think.

Best wishes,

Rex

There are lots more trains from Orvieto to Rome -- some are "D" or diretto rather than IC. The diretto takes about 15 minutes longer, but there is an 8:59 that gets in at 10:16.
http://www.trenitalia.it/home/en/index.html

Well, this is confusing (and instructional to me)!

On the Trenitalia website, there seems to be an "outer frame" and an "inner frame" - - and the outer frame request box does NOT retrieve this 8:59 departure - - but the innre frme request box DOES.

Anyone have an explanation for this?

There is still the issue of whether arriving at 10:16 would suffice to make it to the audience.

This is really easy to overlook - - the difference is between http://www.trenitalia.it/home/en/index.html and http://www.trenitalia.com/home/en/index.htm

Note: <b>.it</b> versus <b>.com</b> - - I suppose others have know to use the lattr before this example, but I had never noted something like this!

Rex - I didn't know there was a .com version.

Personally I don't even trust the English version of trenitalia.it
- it says timetables valid until 12/2003 - which doesn't exactly inspire you with confidence ...

Steve

I don't especially trust the website schedule either, but I can tell you this. I have been in Orvieto 3 consecutive summers and there are LOTS of trains to Rome. There is one at least every couple of hours, sometimes more frequently. So I think timbermeadows can find out the exact schedule when s/he gets there, but I am 90% confident there will be a train in between 7:30 and 10 in the morning.

I just think that the objective is nearly impossible if it requires actually seeing a car rental agent to turn in a car - - who might or might not show up at the &quot;normal opening hour&quot; (ha! what is that?) of 8 am. And be at the Papal audience on time?

The website http://www.santasusanna.org/popeVati...peVatican.html says that

&quot;The Audience normally begins about 9:30 AM and lasts for about 90 minutes.&quot;

We understood (in 1988) that it started at 11, and made it there about 10:10 and felt like wewere really, really late. They had started to move in the barricades to form the &quot;lane&quot; in which the Pope circled the Piazza in the &quot;Popemobile&quot;.

The only way I can see to stay in Orvieto on a Tuesday night and make it to the audience is to drive INTO Rome, park the car somewhere and then, if it needs to be turned in, do it later that afternoon. If you have to pay another day to do this, then maybe the better option is to stay IN Rome on Tuesday night.