Direct flights to Bilbao from Prague this winter
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Getting around Rome
If you’re staying reasonably close to the city centre, you can explore much of Rome on foot.
Within the city centre and the Vatican, walking was almost always the quickest way for me to get around the city.
The historic centre is much more compact than it might appear on a map. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Vatican and the Trevi Fountain can all be easily linked by foot in a single day.
Find a hotel in Rome by location
How I got around Rome
In a nutshell:
- historic centre + Vatican → on foot or by bus
- longer journeys outside the centre → metro
- Trastevere → tram or on foot
- airport → train or special bus
- late evening → taxi
I used the buses when I was really tired. They aren’t very fast or easy to navigate, but they’re everywhere in the city centre.
Walking is often the quickest option
The underground tends to bypass the historic centre (for now, at least; part of Line C is currently under construction, which will also run through the centre).
Buses get stuck in traffic jams.
And anyway, you usually walk between the sights.
You can walk through the whole city centre in a relatively short time.
I walked through the whole city centre over the course of three days, following these walking routes:
- 1️⃣ Colosseum -> Roman Forum -> Vittorio Emanuele II Monument -> Capitoline Hill-> Piazza Navona
- 2️⃣ The Vatican -> Castel Sant’Angelo -> Gianicolo -> Trastevere
- 3️⃣ Galleria Colonna ->Trevi Fountain-> Spanish Steps -> Villa Borghese
- 👉 Rome in 3 days: my plan for enjoying the city
If you’re visiting Rome for the first time, I’d recommend a hotel near:
- Termini (most convenient transport links)
- the Pantheon
- Piazza Navona
- Trastevere
- The Colosseum
- 👉 Here are my specific hotel recommendations
View hotels in the centre of Rome
Public transport tickets – which ones to buy?
Rome has an integrated transport system.
One ticket is valid for:
- the metro
- trams
- buses
- regional trains within the city
Most common options:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| 100 minutes | 1,50 eur |
| 24 hours | 8,50 eur |
| 48 hours | 15 eur |
| 72 hours | 22 eur |
| 7 days | 29 eur |
💡 My experience: If you’re mainly walking around the city centre, you’ll often spend significantly less on public transport than you might expect.
On one of my visits, I bought a 48-hour ticket straight away and ended up only using public transport three times over two days...
You can find the current ticket prices on the official website atatac.roma.it/tickets-and-passes.
Where can I buy tickets?
There are several ways to buy tickets:
- using a contactless payment card directly at the ticket barrier or the card reader on board
- a paper ticket
- tickets from machines at underground stations or at selected bus stops
- ‘Tabacchi’ tobacconists
- theTicketAppy mobile app
Daily limit for contactless payments
Personally, I only paid using my own contactless payment method.
It’s the easiest option for me – you don’t have to worry about a thing, you just tap and go. Of course, payments via mobile phone or smartwatch also work, and my payments have always gone through without a hitch – I pay with my Revolut card.
With contactless payments, so-called ‘daily caps ’ are normally applied.
So, over a 24-hour period, no more than 7 eur will ever be deducted from your card; over a 48-hour period, no more than 12,50 eur will ever be deducted, and so on.
Roma Pass – is it worth it?
Sometimes yes, but it certainly wouldn’t be worth it for me.
- A 38-hour pass for 38 eur
- 48-hour pass for 62,90 eur
- detailed information atromapass.it
The Roma Pass really starts to make sense if:
- ✅ you’ll be using public transport a lot
- ✅ you plan to visit several paid attractions
- ✅ you’ll be in Rome for at least 3 days
If you’re mainly planning to go for walks and visit a few of the main attractions, it’s often cheaper to buy everything separately.
The metro? Yes. But not always.
The Rome metro isn’t like London or Paris.
The metro is mainly used for travelling from the outskirts of the city to the centre, but it is used primarily by local residents.
It is much less useful for sightseeing than in other major cities.
If you’re mainly planning to visit the historic centre, you’ll often not use the metro at all.
I describe my detailed experiences of the metro and city trains in the article ‘The Metro in Rome’.
Buses – everywhere, but slow
Surprisingly, bus services are the main form of transport, particularly in the city centre.
However, unless you’re really tired or have a disability, I’d recommend walking instead.
Although there are plenty of buses, they are modern and the stops are clearly marked, the service is very slow.
Problems:
- traffic jams
- frequent traffic lights
- frequent road closures and diversions
- unreliable timetables
- overcrowded buses
If you do end up taking the bus, Google Maps works very well in Rome and was the only app I used to plan my journeys around the city.
How does travelling by bus work?
- Getting on and off: you can use any door
- Ticket validator: always located by the doors inside the bus
- There are separate ticket validators for paying the fare with a contactless card and for validating paper tickets
- All stops are on request: you must press the ‘STOP’ button before getting off, and you must wave to the driver before getting on
The buses are generally modern, air-conditioned and often equipped with USB-A charging ports.
Best routes for tourists
I used the following bus routes in Rome:
- 40 or 64 – from Termini station through the historic centre to Castel Sant’Angelo
- 40, 64, 70, 170 – from Termini station to Piazza Venezia
- 118 – from the Colosseum to Via Appia and the Catacombs
Trams: mainly to Trastevere
If you’re staying near a tram line, trams often work better than buses.
This is mainly because they don’t get stuck in traffic for much of the journey.
On the other hand, there are very few trams in Rome, and I really only used them when travelling to and from Trastevere.
Unlike buses, the trams tend to be quite old, poorly maintained and often hot inside.
How does travelling by tram work?
- Getting on and off: you can use any of the doors
- Ticket validator: always located by the doors inside the tram
- There are separate validators for paying the fare with a contactless card and for validating paper tickets
Best routes for tourists
- 3:Trastevere – Piramide/Ostiense – Colosseum
- 8: Trastevere – historic centre (Piazza Venezia)
Taxi or Uber?
In Rome, taxis are literally everywhere. Always – day and night.
Official taxis are white with fares displayed on the doors. You can pay by card or in cash, and the meter is always running.
Taxis in Rome are safe, and dishonest behaviour by taxi drivers is rare.
However, the fares are quite high:
- Starting fare – 3 eur, 5 eur or 7 eur depending on the time (night/day/weekend)
- Minimum fare – 9 eur
- 1 km – 1,14 eur; once the total reaches €11, each additional kilometre costs 1,35 eur, and once the total reaches €13, each additional kilometre costs 1,65 eur
- If the speed is less than 20 km/h, the per-kilometre rate does not apply; instead, 28 eur per hour of travel is automatically added
Uber in Rome works differently to how it does in many other cities.
You won’t find the standard, low-cost UberX here. The service mainly consists of the more expensive Uber Black or Uber Taxi – that is, hailing a standard taxi via the Uber app, but charged at the standard taxi rate as shown on the meter.
No other ride-sharing apps are currently operating in Rome.
Night-time transport
The metro, trams and daytime buses usually run until around 11.30 pm.
Overnight, bus services marked with the letter N take over. However, you should expect longer intervals between services and, particularly at weekends, significantly busier buses.
You can find a map of the night services at this link:atac.roma.it/mappa-linee-notturne.
Journey planner and route maps
Official information on transport in Rome, ticket prices and more: atac.roma.it.
Clear maps of bus, tram and metro routes can be found here:atac.roma.it/maps.
I planned all my journeys on Rome’s public transport using Google Maps.
Transport to the airport
Both of Rome’s airports are located some distance from the city centre. The smaller Ciampino Airport is served by regular public transport bus routes 520 and 720, for which you can use the public transport tickets mentioned above.
The larger Fiumicino Airport is accessible only by train, express buses and Cotral buses, for which special fares apply.
You can find detailed information, not only about transport to the airports, on the relevant websites:
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