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Five easy day trips to make from Rome by train

Looking for a brief escape from the crowds? Here are five day trips you can easily make from Rome by train.

You can visit a number of places just a short train ride away from Rome
There are several places you can visit just a short train journey from Rome. Photo: lucianomandolina/Flickr

Rome has so much culture, art and history packed into its city walls, as a tourist you may feel that you could happily spend a lifetime within their confines.

But for residents and repeat visitors, there comes a time when you might want to go venture afield – and while there are plenty of destinations that are easily accessible from the Italian capital, many of them can’t be reached without a car.

For those looking to escape without the need to arrange private transport, here are five easy day trips you can make from Rome by train.

READ ALSO: Six delightful day trips within easy reach of Milan

An Italian train station.

An Italian train station. Photo: Alex/Flickr.

Explore the ancient city of Ostia Antica

If Naples has Pompeii, Rome has Ostia Antica: the ruins of an ancient port city that was once located at the mouth of the River Tiber.

The archaeological site boasts intact mosaics, an amphitheatre, ancient thermal baths complete with 2,000-year-old public toilets, and even the two-storey remnants of an ancient apartment block across the street from what was once a restaurant.

It may not be as large and well-preserved as Pompeii, but you don’t have to battle your way through hordes of other visitors, and you have unrestricted access to almost every part of the site.

READ ALSO: Six breathtaking Roman ruins that you’ve never heard of

What’s more, you can get all the way there on a metro ticket (€1.50).

Trains along the Roma-Lido depart regularly from the station in Piramide/Porta San Paolo, and the journey time is approximately 40 minutes.

As of 2023, tickets cost €18 full price or €2 reduced price (for EU citizens aged 18-25). Under-18s from the EU can enter for free.

The ancient Roman city of Ostia Antica.

The ancient Roman city of Ostia Antica. Photo: isafmt, Flickr

Relax at Lake Bracciano

Just €3.60 and a 75 minute train journey north of Rome lies the lake of Bracciano, an oasis in the Lazio countryside.

The lake’s shores are home to the picturesque towns of Bracciano, Anguillara Sabazia, and Trevignano Romano; the first two of which are accessible by train, while the latter can be reached from either of the others via a short taxi ride or a bus journey.

READ ALSO: 14 reasons why Lazio should be your next Italian holiday destination

In warmer months you can bathe and sail in the lake, but a year-round attraction is the 15th century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, which costs €10 full price or €8 reduced price to enter. 6-12-year-olds cost €7, and under-6s go free.

Each of the towns has scenic lake views, historic centres with cobbled streets, and restaurants serving up fresh lake fish.

Lake Bracciano as seen from above.

Lake Bracciano as seen from above. Photo: altotemi/Flickr

Wander the famous Tivoli gardens

Just a short train ride away from Italy’s capital lies the 16th-century Villa d’Este, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its spectacular terraced Italian Renaissance garden with elaborate fountains.

The villa is a 15 minute walk from Tivoli train station and costs €10.00 to enter, or €13.00 if the site is hosting an exhibition.

READ ALSO: Ten must-see places within reach of Rome

If you have the stamina to do both in one day, Villa Adriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian, is just a few miles away from Tivoli and can be reached by bus or taxi.

A standard train journey from Rome can take anywhere between 35 minutes to an hour and costs around €3 euros each way.

The gardens at Villa d'Este in Tivoli.

The gardens at Villa d’Este in Tivoli. Photo: William Warby, Flickr

Visit Orvieto’s golden Duomo

Perched high on an Umbrian clifftop formed of volcanic tuff rock, Orvieto is a jewel in the crown of central Italy.

It dates back to the Pre-Roman Etruscan period, and it’s had a storied history ever since.

The main attraction its distinctive black-and-white striped travertine-and-basalt Duomo bearing a façade inlaid with golden mosaics that can be seen glittering all the way in the valley down below.

READ ALSO: 13 places in Italy that look like they belong in a fairy tale

You can walk the picturesque streets, eat delicious food and drink locally-produced wine, and if you want, take a guided tour of its network of more than 1,200 underground caves bearing traces of Etruscan and medieval history.

A standard train will get you there from Rome in under 90 minutes and set you back just over €9 each way.

Visitors coming by train will likely want to pay the €1.30 it costs to take the funicular cable car from the station up to the town.

Orvieto's golden Duomo.

Orvieto’s golden Duomo. Photo: Carlo Raso/Flickr

Dip your toes in the sea at Santa Marinella and Santa Severa

It’s easy for tourists to underestimate how hot Rome gets at the height of summer.

If you find yourself wandering the city in mid-August, drenched in sweat and wondering whether throwing yourself into the fountains might just be worth the €450 fine, relief is at hand in the form of multiple swimming beaches just a short train-ride away from the city.

READ ALSO: TRAVEL: Nine overlooked Italian towns you should visit

There are a range of options for beaches within reach of Rome, but the best compromise in terms of travel time and beach attractiveness is probably Santa Marinella and nearby Santa Severa. 

The two beaches take approximately one hour and cost just under €5 each way to reach from Rome by train, and both boast golden sand and clear waters. Santa Severa has a castle that can be explored for €8.00 (full price) or €6.00 (reduced price).

Santa Marinella beach with Santa Severa castle in the distance.

Santa Marinella beach with Santa Severa castle in the distance. Photo: Alessandro Canepa/Flickr

Bonus day trips: Florence and Naples

We hesitate to promote either Florence or Naples as a day trip, since both cities deserve at least a couple of days to be explored.

But you can technically visit either from Rome in the course of a day, as each can be accessed via a fast train that takes less than 75 minutes (in the case of Naples) or just over 90 minutes (in the case of Florence) each way.

READ ALSO: Seven reasons autumn is the best time to visit Italy

These tickets are expensive (around €50 each way), but will get you quickly and smoothly to your destination, and give you time to spend a good day exploring some of the main attractions of each city. 

The Ponte Vecchio and River Arno in Florence.

The Ponte Vecchio and River Arno in Florence. Photo: Giuseppe Mondì/Unsplash

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ITALIAN HISTORY

Five pre-Roman sites to visit in Italy

From the mountains of Lombardy to the shores of Sicily, there are traces of pre-Roman civilisations scattered across Italy - if you know where to look.

Five pre-Roman sites to visit in Italy

The Romans may be Italy’s best-known ancient civilisation, but with Rome tracing its foundations back to 753 BC, they were far from the first to get here.

From the Etruscans to the Greeks, a suprising number of early human societies left their mark on the Italian peninsula, with temples, fortifications, theatres and graveyards.

Here are five historic sites you can visit in Italy that pre-date the Romans.

Etruscan necropoli of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

The Etruscan civilisation, with its heartlands in modern-day Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria, at one time dominated Italy until it was wiped out in the Roman-Etruscan wars in the 4th century BC.

These days not much remains of the Etruscans beyond earthenware and sarcophagi, but we do have some impressive necropolises or ‘cities of the dead’ that served as graveyards.

READ ALSO: Four civilizations in Italy that pre-date the Roman Empire

One of the best preserved is in Tarquinia, where not far outside the medieval city walls you’ll find a complex with hundreds of painted tombs depicting ancient life.

Another is the Necropoli della Banditaccia in nearby Cerveteri, a sprawling cemetery containing thousands of large domed tombs in a city-like plan designed to mimic an actual living city.

A 7th century painted Etruscan tomb discovered outside Rome in June 2006. Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP.

Matera’s Neolithic caves

Used as a filming location for Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew or The Passion of the Christ thanks to its strong resemblance to ancient Jerusalem, Matera in southern Italy is believed to be Europe’s oldest continually-habited settlement.

Outside of the cave dwellings carved into the rock which form the residences and hotels you’ll find in the old town’s Sassi districts today, the city is surrounded by caves that have been dated as far back as 7000 BC, to the Neolithic and even the Paleolothic eras.

You can see traces of prehistoric settlements and and Neolithic graveyards and villages in the Murgia Materana regional park surrounding the city.

Caves dating back to the Neolithic area surround the ancient city of Matera. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

Sardinia’s nuraghi

Sardinia’s Nuragic civilisation lasted from around 1,800 BC in the Bronze Age to Roman invasion and colonisation in around the first century BC, but today few traces of it remain beyond the stone structures – nuraghes or nuraghi in Italian – from which it takes its name.

READ ALSO: Five surprising facts you didn’t know about Rome

Around 7,000 nuraghi, truncated cone-like edifices made from stacked stones and boulders, dot the island’s landscape. Historians debate their function: they might have served as fortresses, residences, temples, astronomical observatories, or a combination of any of these.

The Su Nuraxi di Barumini nuraghe complex in the south of the island is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site, and is considered one of the best examples of the architecture.

An aerial view of Nuraghe Arrabiu, one of the largest nuraghi on Sardinia. Photo by Joran Quinten on Unsplash

Valcamonica’s pre-historic stone carvings

In Italy’s mountainous northern Lombardy region you can find one of the world’s largest collections of petroglyphs, or rock carvings, spanning eight millennia and dating as far back as the Epipaleolithic era, around 10,000 years ago.

The 300,000-odd carvings, found in multiple locations across the 90km-long valley, were Italy’s first recognised World Heritage site, coming under UNESCO protection in 1979.

Today, there are eight archeological parks you can visit to see the engravings in person, with the 140 rocks in the Naquane National Park of Rock Engravings considered some of the best preserved.

A British Museum employee dusts a carved stone dated 2,500 BC, from Capo di Ponte, Valcamonica, for a 2022 exhibition. Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP.

Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples

From architecture to military strategy, the Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks – which is no surprise considering that large parts of southern Italy were once part of ancient Greece.

‘Magna Grecia’, ‘Great[er] Greece’ as the Romans called it, started being settled by the Greeks from around the eighth century BC, and at its height stretched across modern-day Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Campania and Basilicata.

READ ALSO: Did you know…? These parts of Italy were once part of ancient Greece

Scattered across southern Italy are the remains of Greek settlements, including soaring temples and ancient theatres.

One of the most renowned and impressive examples of these is the Sicilian city of Agrigento’s ‘Valley of Temples’, where you’ll find seven temples within just a few miles of each other.

The Greek Temple of Concordia in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples was built in the 5th century BC. Photo by ludovic MARIN / AFP.

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