Santa Marinella (near Rome)
6-12 July 2006
How to get there
By air
Santa Marinella is near Rome,
and particularly near to Fiumicino airport, where "standard" companies
fly.
In Rome there is a second
airport (Ciampino), mostly used by low cost companies.
You might for some strange
reasons (e.g., cheap fares) also like to fly to Pisa.
From Fiumicino airport: If you are lucky, I could pick you up at the airport; otherways, it is possible to arrange transfer service by car or minibus (this should take about 40' at easy pace), see below for costs. By public transportation, the strategy is very easy: use the train from the airport to the station of Roma Trastevere (this runs every 10') -- do NOT go to Termini with the Leonardo express -- and from there catch a train, see below. In this case you can buy a through ticket at the airport station, asking for: "un biglietto per Santa Marinella via Roma Trastevere, con il treno normale".
[Additional infos: The normal (not Leonardo express) train from airport stops at Trastevere, Ostiense, Tuscolana and Tiburtina; in case you want to have a walk in central Rome, consider that from Trastevere you are very fast in the center with tram n.8 (downhill direction), from others you have metro; baggage deposit is only available in Tiburtina. In that case you might also like to go instead to Termini (using the Leonardo express), where there is obviously a baggage deposit.]
From Ciampino airport: It is possible to arrange transfer service by car or minibus (this should take about 1h15' at easy pace), see below for costs. By public transportation, take a bus to either Roma Tuscolana or Roma Termini train stations and from there catch a train, see below.
Transfer costs from Rome airports: This will depend marginally on the size of the car/minibus and on which airport you use; prices will have to be confirmed, but as of now they are around 130 € for a 6-seats from Fiumicino (10€ extra for a 8-seats, 10€ extra on each size if from Ciampino). This will be arranged if you request it, and of course in that case it would be better to group arrivals.
From Pisa airport: take a train (or just walk!) to Pisa train station, and take a train.
By train
Santa Marinella is conveniently
located on the main train line between Roma and Pisa. All regional (R)
and interregional (IR) trains stop in SM. The intercity (IC) and eurostar
(ES) trains do not stop in SM, but stop in the nearby (10km) station of
Civitavecchia; this might be an option if you come by train from the north.
There is a frequent local train service to and from Rome, see below for
schedules:
| (## = ** + 1) | Early trains from
4.36 to 7.40 |
From ** = 08
To ** = 22 |
From ** = 08
To ** = 21 |
Last Train |
| Roma Termini | **.08 | **.38 | 23.20 | |
| Roma Ostiense | **.18 | **.48 | 23.30 | |
| Roma Trastevere | **.23 | **.53 | 23.35 | |
| Roma San Pietro | **.28 | **.58 | 23.40 | |
| Santa Marinella | ##.07 | ##.43 | 00.23 | |
| Civitavecchia | ##.15 | ##.54 | 00.30 |
| First Train | From ** = 06
To ** = 21 |
From ** = 06
To ** = 21 |
Last Train | |
| Civitavecchia | 05.02 | **.04 | **.41 | 22.49 |
| Santa Marinella | 05.10 | **.12 | **.49 | 22.57 |
| Roma San Pietro | ------ | **.58 | ##.28 | 23.33 |
| Roma Trastevere | 06.04 | ##.02 | ##.32 | 23.38 |
| Roma Ostiense | 06.08 | ##.08 | ##.37 | 23.43 |
| Roma Termini | 06.20 | ##.20 | ##.50 | 23.59 (a) |
There is also a service of intercity (IC) trains between Rome and Pisa; these depart at 7.35 and then at xx.46 from Roma Termini (where xx is an odd number between 09 and 19) and stop in Roma Ostiense (ten minutes after departure) and Civitavecchia (56' after departure). In the opposite direction, IC trains stop in Civitavecchia at xx.22 (where xx is odd between 09 and 21) and reach Roma Ostiense after 40' and Termini after 52', From Civitavecchia you reach Santa Marinella either by train again or by bus; I will post the web site of the bus company if you need this.
Train schedules are available on the italian railways website www.trenitalia.it ; they are not wrong, but in case you have connections or nonstandard trips, the system will just give you the more expensive (and not always faster) solutions. For better searches, use (to our scorn) the Deutsche-Bahn european travel website.
[Practical tips: You need a special ticket for the IC and ES trains; as for the others, you can either buy a standard ticket, or also a "kilometric ticket" (this can be bought also at newspaper and tobacco shops in the stations), in which case you will need a 70km ticket from Trastevere, Ostiense or San Pietro; and a 80km ticket from Termini; these cost between 3.20€ and 4.50€. If you want to go back and forth between SM and Rome in the same day, you have a "daily regional ticket" which also gives access to city transport in Rome (bus, metro, etc) for 7€ -- so don't buy more one-way tickets upon arriving in Rome.]
From the train station in SM to the hotel, you can just walk: from the station square walk to the traffic light on the Aurelia, turn left to the main square, and there go right to the other square. This should take no more than 10' if you get lost, and about 3' if you don't. A map will be posted later on.
By car
If you plan to come by car, you are not from far away and can just look on the map to see how to get there. Consider that in summer the village can have heavy traffic at certain (obvious) hours, so try to avoid those. Between Roma and Santa Marinella, better use the motorway; similarly, if coming from the North, avoid crossing Civitavecchia on the Aurelia. Inside the village, there is not much way to get lost: just follow tha Aurelia up to the main square (Piazza Civitavecchia), the hotels are just beside that towards the sea. A map will be posted later on.
What to do there
Well, work of course.... but if you plan not to spend all your time on that, or if you are coming with accompanying persons, maybe some words on what other activities are possible could be in order (see also thye city website).
Daily trips to Rome: these are very easily done by train, see above for schedules and costs.
Beach and sea: there is direct access (walking through a park) from the hotels to the sea; the coast in the area is mainly rocky, or with stone-beaches, and this is what you get by that access. If you have small children, you might prefer a sandy beach: there is one a few hundred meters from the hotel (not far from the train station); bigger ones can be found in Santa Severa (part of the Santa Marinella city territory) and are accessed by city bus.
Sea trips: in 2005 there was a regular (weekly) sea service to Giglio island; this will probably also run in 2006.
Scuba diving: this can be organized (i.e. there are professionals to take you into that), but it would be better to arrange it beforehand: just let me or the BNB manager know a few days before arrival.
Hiking trips: a number of nice hiking trips are possible in the nearby "monti della Tolfa", some of them leading to Etruscan archeological sites. It will probably be very hot at that time of the year, but picnics will always be possible.
Cultural trips: apart from Rome, a number of smaller interesting places are also within easy reach from Santa Marinella (mainly by car; we could organize some minibus excursion to some of these). To quote some, the Etruscan sites of Cerveteri and Tarquinia (both in the UNESCO list); the middle age towns of Tarquinia and Tuscania; and a bit further north the area of Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovana; and in the interior the area of lake Bracciano. Pisa is also not far by fast train.
In july it should be nice... hopefully not too nice (i.e. not too hot) ! Temperature is usually nicer in Santa Marinella than in Rome, the difference being sometimes of 5 degrees, and the area has generally some most welcome wind. The hotter hours of the day can be rather hot, but the solution to this problem has long been known to all people living in hot areas, usually under the name of "siesta"; the vicinity of the sea can also provide alternative solutions. In any case, the place where we will actually be is rather fresh, and all rooms in the hotel have air conditioning (this is not the case in the B&B, albeit it is fresh and for other matters accomodation there can be better; so be sure to explicitly require that if you want).
We will be lodged in a hotel
(Isola) and a Bed and Breakfast (Jia)
which are side to side on a little square; on the same square is also a
restaurant where it will be possible to have dinner at fixed price. I have
reserved all the rooms available there, but it would be nice if you could
then confirm directly to the manager that you are coming. We agreed on
the following prices for the rooms per person and per night:
| Single room (actually, double used by a single person) | 50 € |
| Double room (used by two persons) | 80 € |
| Extra bed in double room | 20 € |
| Children below three years | 00 € |
It will at some point be needed to confirm reservations by the usual down payments.
As for meals, you can get full board adding 30€/day, or half board with 22€/day (reduced rates will apply to children). I understand your option abouth this matter can be communicated more and less at the last moment. Maybe we will have dinner somewhere else on some evenings, depending on the cars we will have there.
They are equipped for small children, and they speak english.
The prices are the same for the B&B and for the hotel, and you can liaise (in italian or english) with the B&B owner who will assign accommodation (tell her if you have any special requirement) and who will also take care of matters concerning the hotel (except for payments); the e-mail is info@bnbjia.com
You can see details on the places on the web, both for the B&B and for the Hotel.