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Rome to Ancona best route?

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I’m travelling through Italy to Croatia with my family in August. We’re booked on the overnight ferry from Ancona to Split on a Friday evening and staying in Rome the night before.

Please could anyone offer advice on the best route from Rome to Ancona? The obvious option is the circa 4 hour direct regional train. But there’s only one direct train that day that gets in in time for the ferry check in. So wondering whether we might be better to go via Bologna. It seems a very long way around but doesn’t take much more time and because there are lots of trains, we’d have options is trains are cancelled or delayed. And we’d bag another city and possibly some lunch in Bologna on the way. Is it sensible to go so far off the direct route though?

We have first class passes so would benefit from Business class on Fercciarossa.

What’s the scenery like on both routes?

Any advice? Many thanks!

Best answer by eurocity101

What is your travel date and when is your ferry leaving from Ancona?

Usually, there are multiple direct trains (regional trains and Intercity) between Rome and Ancona.

I wouldn't travel via Bologna. It's a huge detour and you pay 13€ extra on reservation fees per train.

If you want to take any benefits from your first class pass, I'd take one of the two daily Intercity trains. This way, you only pay 3€ for the mandatory reservations.

 

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    • eurocity101
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    • March 27, 2025

    What is your travel date and when is your ferry leaving from Ancona?

    Usually, there are multiple direct trains (regional trains and Intercity) between Rome and Ancona.

    I wouldn't travel via Bologna. It's a huge detour and you pay 13€ extra on reservation fees per train.

    If you want to take any benefits from your first class pass, I'd take one of the two daily Intercity trains. This way, you only pay 3€ for the mandatory reservations.

     

    I'm NOT working for Interrail/Eurail.
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    • podlalala
    • Author
    • Rail rookie
    • 2 replies
    • March 27, 2025

    Thank you for the advice. We’re travelling on 8th August. Our ferry leaves at 19.30, but check in says 16.30. I assume we could stretch that a bit but definitely don’t want to miss it. So looks like we’d need to get 09.30 Regionale Veloce - the next train is at 11.58 with a change at Foligno which would make us a bit late getting into Ancona.

     

    Or we could get 08.50 from Roma to Bologna, arriving at 10.53, spend a few hours there and get 13.45 to Ancona, arriving 15.31. As you say, it’s a big detour though and we’d need to pay the extra reservation fees.

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    • eurocity101
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    • March 27, 2025

    Note that timetables for August aren’t complete yet. Italy is always late in publishing timetables.

    Check the schedules on a random day next week or so. You can expect that the same number of trains will be running on your travel date too.

    I'm NOT working for Interrail/Eurail.
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    • podlalala
    • Author
    • Rail rookie
    • 2 replies
    • March 27, 2025

    Thanks. Yes, I did try that and it shows intercity services but the only options are very early in the morning or too late in the day for the ferry. Looks like the intercity timetables are currently published until the end of June so I’ll leave it a while and check again in case there are any extra services during August.

    Thanks again for your advice.

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