Visiting Rome in May 2017. How is the Public Transportation System.

[douglas]

I am visiting Rome for 10 days in May before going to Germany. I am tenetatively planning on using the public transportation system to get around. Has anyone thoughts on if it is a good idea? If not, what are some other options?

Thanks.

[Flinn]

well you want me to be honest or to be optimistic?

the public servives aren't that bad, if you stay within the city limit, but you have to keep few things in mind:

- some bus/train lines are literally swarmed by people at certain hours of the day (mostly early morning/luch time/late afternoon), so if you plan to move around get them at intermediate hours (9:30 to 11:00 and 14:30 to 16:30 you should be safe).
- Taxis aren't bad and not very expensive and sometimes are the only way to move fast; mind you, not all the taxis are the same, nor all of them are legal, so probably better to use them only after you have got a certain confidence with the city, IMO
- avoid public transport by night, especially if you are not in the city center; too much bad people on them, and even if we are not in the Bronx of old, you can get harassed because you are a foreigner.
- be ready to lose time; even during the best and most lucky day you are not going to move around fast (traffic, too much people on the services, etc)
- Metro, well metro.. errr.. hem.. in theory there's a metro, but the only working line (I mean, continously) is the line A afaik, so apart from the places you can get along this line I wouldn't put my trust on it that much to move around Rome.
- ask people what's better to do, day by day; we are Italians, we like to have interaction with people and we like to help out if you can... and if we can speak english of course

however, here is the official site for the city's public transportation http://www.atac.roma.it/index.asp?lingua=ENG; I'm sure you can find plenty of info in it

[Finlander]

I'm not much of help here but when I was in Rome I only used metro, which was a comfortable way of travelling in otherwise darn hot day. Sure there was only this one line but it went nicely through the inner city where most of the sightseeing locations were. Other than that, the historic inner city is such a small one that mostly everything is within a walk distance. Also, walking around is the best way to experience the city.

[Copperknickers II]

I am visiting Rome for 10 days in May before going to Germany. I am tenetatively planning on using the public transportation system to get around. Has anyone thoughts on if it is a good idea? If not, what are some other options?

Thanks.

Well, how else would you get around? I suppose if you plan on going to a lot of rural areas then it's worth hiring a car, depending on parking options at your accomodation. My family hired a villa in a village way outside Rome, we hired a car for 10 days. It proved to be a terrible idea since my mum just gave up on driving after about a day since Italian drivers are so crazy, and the car was broken into after we left it out of sight for literally 1 minute with no valuables whatsoever on show. But it did allow us to get to some cool places that were a little out of the way. But generally speaking in European cities, cars are just not necessary. Even in Italy where public transport is not as well organised as it is in Northern Europe, it's still better than braving Italian roads, unless you happen to be a very experienced driver from somewhere like New York where you are used to people not giving a if their car looks like it's been in a demolition derby.

The buses aren't so difficult to navigate so long as you know the rules (many countries in Europe have a ticket validation system whereby you have to punch a hole in the ticket on the bus/train/tram after you buy it, and if you don't do it, or don't do it correctly, there can be a hefty fine, but this is easily avoidable with a little online research). The metro is fine. Trains are also fine, albeit buying a ticket isn't always as straightforward as it should be when the guys at the kiosk can't speak very good English and the machines are broken so there's a gigantic queue: on the other hand the trains are double decker, which is awesome, since we don't have those in the UK. That was my favourite thing about Europe tbh .

Walking around is also possible, although be warned, if you are from a cold part of the US then be aware that the sun can be dangerous. This thought had literally never occurred to me as a Scot, when I decided to walk from the Pantheon down to the Lateran Cathedral (i.e. from one side of the city centre to the other) in June in the early afternoon. I genuinely thought I would have to call an ambulance for heatstroke, I didn't even bring a bottle of water with me but luckily they have public water fountains.

well you want me to be honest or to be optimistic?

the public servives aren't that bad, if you stay within the city limit, but you have to keep few things in mind:

- some bus/train lines are literally swarmed by people at certain hours of the day (mostly early morning/luch time/late afternoon), so if you plan to move around get them at intermediate hours (9:30 to 11:00 and 14:30 to 16:30 you should be safe).
- Taxis aren't bad and not very expensive and sometimes are the only way to move fast; mind you, not all the taxis are the same, nor all of them are legal, so probably better to use them only after you have got a certain confidence with the city, IMO
- avoid public transport by night, especially if you are not in the city center; too much bad people on them, and even if we are not in the Bronx of old, you can get harassed because you are a foreigner.
- be ready to lose time; even during the best and most lucky day you are not going to move around fast (traffic, too much people on the services, etc)
- Metro, well metro.. errr.. hem.. in theory there's a metro, but the only working line (I mean, continously) is the line A afaik, so apart from the places you can get along this line I wouldn't put my trust on it that much to move around Rome.
- ask people what's better to do, day by day; we are Italians, we like to have interaction with people and we like to help out if you can... and if we can speak english of course

however, here is the official site for the city's public transportation http://www.atac.roma.it/index.asp?lingua=ENG; I'm sure you can find plenty of info in it

Interesting. I never used taxis and never went on public transport at night. I didn't find it to be very crowded but then I am used to London which is somewhere between Tokyo and Mumbai as regards rush hour crowds. I'm surprised that anyone would be harassed for being a foreigner in Italy? Especially in Rome where there are so many immigrants and tourists. I don't think I've ever seen anyone being harassed for being 'foreign', unless they were obviously non-white, in any European country. Except once just after the Brexit vote, when a Canadian guy started going crazy at a Pakistani shopkeeper for stealing his money (this was in London), and this white, English woman told him to go back to his own country ('him' being the Canadian guy! Very bizarre).

[athanaric]

Buses and trams should be fine as long as you are mindful of your surroundings (i.e. pickpockets), and tolerant of the occasional delay. There's also local trains if you want to get out of the city that way, or to and from the airport.

on the other hand the trains are double decker, which is awesome, since we don't have those in the UK. That was my favourite thing about Europe tbh .

Well, you should have fun then in Germany or Northern Europe. France also has a double decker version of the TGV, by the way.

[Flinn]

Interesting. I never used taxis and never went on public transport at night. I didn't find it to be very crowded but then I am used to London which is somewhere between Tokyo and Mumbai as regards rush hour crowds. I'm surprised that anyone would be harassed for being a foreigner in Italy? Especially in Rome where there are so many immigrants and tourists. I don't think I've ever seen anyone being harassed for being 'foreign', unless they were obviously non-white, in any European country. Except once just after the Brexit vote, when a Canadian guy started going crazy at a Pakistani shopkeeper for stealing his money (this was in London), and this white, English woman told him to go back to his own country ('him' being the Canadian guy! Very bizarre).

I guess that the word "harass" isn't precisely referring to what I mean; basically (as athanaric mentioned) I'm referring to pickpocketing and (mostly) to robbery. When did you come to Rome mate? Last 5-7 years criminality has risen drammatically due to uncontrolled immigration, there actually are areas in the city where you don't see "plain italians" in the roads anymore, and the more the time passes the more those criminals get brazen. If you are inside of the turistic areas, you have to be careful with pickpocketers (mostly children, one of the best trick they use is to get close to you in group, begging for money and while two or three are distracting you, one will pickpocket you), but outside of the turistic areas it is quite common to have people being robbed, even during the day; if you are a tourist (easy to be spotted, at least in Rome ) then you are likely going to be victim of those criminals more than any italian.

If I have to give a good suggestion to the OP, that's how I would visit Rome:

- take an hotel outside of the city; there are plenty of very nice and characteristic places just outside Rome where you can get hotels with a very fair rate; also, food will be much better and cheaper.
- there are usually daily trains to and from Rome from all the surrounding areas, so you can move into the city in the morning and go back in the evenings; when in the center (go off from trains at the Termini Station) you can get almost everywhere by feet. Surprisingly, trains are quite safe with regards to criminality (I guess it's so because they can't go off from the train while it's moving).
- if for some reason you get very tired, you can still resort to Taxis for going around the center or going back to the Station in the evenings
- if you have the patience to ask around, you will see that there are quite a lot of cheap and public transports (mostly big buses) to move around the most common areas ie. from Fiumicino Airport to Termini Station and so on and on.
- all in all, if what you are going to visit in Rome is just "roman stuff", then 2 days are more than enough, IMO; if you want to see other things (such as Fascist buldings, Vatican museums, other less known attractions and the many museums/shows they have there), then probably a week isn't enough

[athanaric]

- all in all, if what you are going to visit in Rome is just "roman stuff", then 2 days are more than enough, IMO;

Depends on just how thorough you are with the Roman stuff, though. You could spend week or even months studying it. Two days would be the estimate for a "casual" visitor.

[Copperknickers II]

I guess that the word "harass" isn't precisely referring to what I mean; basically (as athanaric mentioned) I'm referring to pickpocketing and (mostly) to robbery. When did you come to Rome mate? Last 5-7 years criminality has risen drammatically due to uncontrolled immigration, there actually are areas in the city where you don't see "plain italians" in the roads anymore, and the more the time passes the more those criminals get brazen. If you are inside of the turistic areas, you have to be careful with pickpocketers (mostly children, one of the best trick they use is to get close to you in group, begging for money and while two or three are distracting you, one will pickpocket you), but outside of the turistic areas it is quite common to have people being robbed, even during the day; if you are a tourist (easy to be spotted, at least in Rome ) then you are likely going to be victim of those criminals more than any italian.

I've been to Rome 3 times, the first 2 were more than 5 years ago though. Last time I was staying not far from the city centre just off the urban part of the via appia nuova. Didn't really go into any other suburbs except once, to a southern suburb. It wasn't so bad, got into a conversation with a guy from Egypt who was thinking about moving to Scotland lol. But yes, I think a lot of major European cities these days are full of pickpockets and muggers in the poor suburban areas, but you can usually avoid them with a bit of common sense.

If I have to give a good suggestion to the OP, that's how I would visit Rome:

- take an hotel outside of the city; there are plenty of very nice and characteristic places just outside Rome where you can get hotels with a very fair rate; also, food will be much better and cheaper.
- there are usually daily trains to and from Rome from all the surrounding areas, so you can move into the city in the morning and go back in the evenings; when in the center (go off from trains at the Termini Station) you can get almost everywhere by feet. Surprisingly, trains are quite safe with regards to criminality (I guess it's so because they can't go off from the train while it's moving).
- if for some reason you get very tired, you can still resort to Taxis for going around the center or going back to the Station in the evenings
- if you have the patience to ask around, you will see that there are quite a lot of cheap and public transports (mostly big buses) to move around the most common areas ie. from Fiumicino Airport to Termini Station and so on and on.
- all in all, if what you are going to visit in Rome is just "roman stuff", then 2 days are more than enough, IMO; if you want to see other things (such as Fascist buldings, Vatican museums, other less known attractions and the many museums/shows they have there), then probably a week isn't enough

Depends on the 'Roman stuff' in question of course. Colosseum, forum, pantheon, are the must sees, but I think it's also worth seeing the circus maximus, vatican, various museums, etc etc. Plus there are some good things outside Rome like Tivoli, Ostia Antica, and the various historical sites in the countryside that aren't very well known: I visted the Etruscan catacombs (and Roman amphitheatre) in Sutri in the North of Lazio, that was awesome.