Restaurant in Civitavecchia, Italy
Serious dinner before your ferry crossing.
Forma holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025) and a 4.7 Google rating in a city most travellers skip entirely. At €€, the tasting menu offers Italian contemporary cooking — meat and fish, traditional technique with modern personalisation — that outperforms its price point. Easy to book, intimate room, low noise level. The right stop before or after a Civitavecchia ferry crossing.
Forma is the right call if you are spending a night in Civitavecchia before or after a ferry crossing and want a serious dinner rather than a tourist-facing trattoria. It works equally well for a leisurely weekday dinner for two or a low-key special occasion where the priority is creative Italian cooking at a price that does not require a budget conversation. The Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025) tells you the main thing you need to know: this is food that punches above its price tier. For the explorer who wants to eat well in a port city that most travellers dismiss entirely, Forma is the find.
Timing matters here. Civitavecchia is a transit hub, which means the restaurant is more likely to be quietly occupied midweek than on peak cruise-ship days when the surrounding streets fill up. A mid-evening booking on a Tuesday or Wednesday gives you the most relaxed version of the room. If your trip is tied to a weekend sailing schedule, book ahead rather than relying on availability at the door — a 4.7 Google rating across 317 reviews signals consistent demand from locals who know the place well.
The setting is not what you expect from a port-town restaurant. Forma sits at the foot of a medieval district, away from the seafront, and the interior works with that history rather than against it. Dark parquet flooring and industrial-style pipework run through a space that reads as intimate rather than loud. The noise level is contained , this is a room for conversation, not a space where you are competing with a bar soundtrack or a terrace crowd. For a solo traveller or a couple wanting to actually talk over dinner, the atmosphere supports rather than undermines the meal.
The sensory register here is controlled and considered. That same quality of attention carries into how the service operates, which is where Forma either earns its Bib Gourmand or simply holds it on reputation alone.
At a €€ price point with Michelin recognition, Forma sits in a specific category: affordable enough that a service misstep is forgivable, but recognised enough that you arrive with real expectations. The Bib Gourmand designation requires not just good food but good value, and Michelin inspectors weigh the full experience , including how the room is run. A 4.7 average from over 300 Google reviews, the majority of which come from repeat local diners rather than one-off tourists, suggests the service standard holds up over time rather than spiking for reviewers.
Chef Gianluca Formichella's cooking is described as demonstrating the same philosophy as the room: traditional foundations with modern, personalised touches. Meat and fish dishes are treated with equal seriousness. The tasting menu is the format Michelin specifically flagged for value, which is a clearer signal than most that this is where the kitchen is most focused. At €€, even a multi-course tasting sequence should sit comfortably under what you would pay for a comparable format elsewhere in Italy's recognised dining circuit.
The honest answer on service is that the data supports confidence but not certainty. What you can say is this: a restaurant that holds a Bib Gourmand and a near-perfect local rating in a city where serious diners are a smaller audience than in Rome or Florence has to be earning its reputation on repeat visits. That is a stronger signal than a single-season award in a higher-profile city.
The tasting menu is the clearest entry point, specifically flagged by Michelin for excellent value. If you prefer to order à la carte, the kitchen's range across both meat and fish dishes means you are not limited to one direction , the contemporary Italian framing gives chef Formichella room to move between the coast and the interior. Beyond that, specific dish recommendations require current menu data that is not available here; asking the front-of-house team on arrival for what is performing leading that week is the practical move.
See the comparison section below for how Forma sits against Italian fine dining at other price points.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forma | Italian Contemporary | Situated away from the sea at the foot of a medieval district, this intimate restaurant boasts a historic decor dotted with modern details such as black parquet flooring and industrial-style pipes. The cuisine created by chef Gianluca Formichella demonstrates the same blend of traditional style and modern touches in imaginative meat and fish dishes with a personalised twist. The tasting menu offers excellent value for money.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025) | Easy | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Italian, Italian Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Enoteca Pinchiorri | Italian - French, Italian Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Enrico Bartolini | Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Le Calandre | Progressive Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how Forma measures up.
Nothing in the available venue record documents a formal dietary restriction policy. That said, at a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant operating a personalised tasting menu, the kitchen is working at a level where accommodating dietary needs is a reasonable ask. Contact them directly before booking to confirm — phone and website details are not currently listed in Pearl's record.
Yes, within a specific frame. Forma holds a 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand and sits at €€ pricing, which makes it an accessible choice for a meaningful dinner without a significant outlay. The intimate room and tasting menu format suit a birthday or anniversary better than a rowdy group celebration. If you need a grander setting or a longer wine programme, you'll need to look beyond Civitavecchia.
Likely yes. The intimate scale of the restaurant and a tasting menu format both tend to accommodate solo diners comfortably. At €€ pricing with Michelin recognition, solo diners get strong value from a single tasting menu sitting without the cost of a full table. Confirm seat availability when booking, as the room size may limit walk-in options.
Start with the tasting menu — Michelin specifically flagged it for excellent value, and it is the clearest way to see what chef Gianluca Formichella is doing with the kitchen's mix of traditional and contemporary Italian. If you prefer à la carte, the menu spans both meat and fish with a personalised approach, so both directions are credible choices rather than a default fish-port menu.
Yes. Michelin called it out explicitly for excellent value, which at a €€ price point means it is one of the more affordable ways to eat a structured Michelin-recognised meal in Italy. For comparison, most Italian fine dining tasting menus sit at €€€ or above. If you are in Civitavecchia for even one night, the tasting menu here is the obvious call.
Forma is the only Michelin-recognised restaurant currently listed for Civitavecchia in Pearl's database. If you need alternatives at a similar standard, you are looking at driving toward Rome or the broader Lazio region. For a port-town dinner that does not reach Michelin level, the seafront restaurants in Civitavecchia will cover volume and convenience but not the same kitchen ambition.
At €€ with a 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand, yes — this is one of the cleaner value cases in Italian contemporary dining. The Bib Gourmand designation exists precisely to flag restaurants where quality outpaces price, and Forma is on that list for a reason. If you are comparing against spending the same money at a generic port restaurant in Civitavecchia, there is no competition.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
