Getting Around Rome: Metro, Buses, Taxis & Ticket Guide (2026)

The cheapest option is a single BIT ticket at €1.50, valid for 100 minutes from the moment you stamp it. In that window, you can take unlimited buses and trams plus one metro ride. For any visit longer than 48 hours, the €7 Roma 24H daily pass or the €24 CIS 7-day pass beat single tickets on a cost-per-ride basis.

Most of the historic centre is walkable in 20 to 30 minutes edge to edge. From Termini Station to the Colosseum is 15 minutes on foot. From the Pantheon to Piazza di Spagna is 8 minutes. If you are staying in Centro Storico or nearby, you may genuinely only need transport for airport runs and longer trips to places like Appia Antica or EUR.

That said, Rome in August is 35°C and the cobblestones punish bad shoes. Budget for roughly 2 to 3 rides a day even as a walker, which works out to €3 to €4.50 a day in single tickets.

Rome has only 3 metro lines and a 4th (D) permanently shelved. The network carries about 900,000 riders a day and is the second largest in Italy after Milan. Operating hours are 5:30 am to 11:30 pm daily, extended to 1:30 am on Fridays and Saturdays. A single ride uses one BIT ticket (€1.50).

Line A (Orange): Battistini to Anagnina, running east to west. This is the tourist line. Key stops include Ottaviano for the Vatican, Spagna for the Spanish Steps, Barberini, and Termini for the main station. Trains every 3 to 4 minutes in peak hours.

Line B (Blue): Rebibbia/Jonio to Laurentina, running northeast to south. The only line that drops you at Colosseo station for the Colosseum and Circo Massimo. Piramide on Line B also connects to trains down to Ostia and the beach. Trains every 4 to 6 minutes.

Line C (Green): The long-running construction saga. As of 2026, C runs from Monte Compatri outside the ring road to San Giovanni, where it interchanges with Line A. The central section through Fori Imperiali and Colosseo is still under construction, now targeting completion in 2027 to 2028 after repeated delays. For now, most visitors will not use Line C.

Stations are clearly signed in Italian and English, ticket gates accept both paper BIT tickets and contactless debit/credit cards (tap the yellow reader), and announcements are bilingual. For a deeper single-line walkthrough with carriage etiquette and common mistakes, see Is it easy to use the Rome Metro?

The bus network is the system Romans actually live on. 338 routes, about 2,200 vehicles, and coverage that reaches where the metro cannot (which, given there are only 3 lines, is most of the city). Trams are a smaller parallel network: 6 lines, mostly serving outer districts and a handful of central routes worth knowing.

Bus routes you will actually use: The 64 from Termini to St Peter's Square is the famous tourist bus (also the famous pickpocket bus, so stay alert). The 40 Express runs a similar route faster. The 30 cuts across from Piazza Clodio to the south, useful for Trastevere to Testaccio. Night buses (route numbers starting with an N) replace the metro between 11:30 pm and 5:30 am and run every 15 to 30 minutes.

Trams to know: Tram 8 connects Trastevere to Piazza Venezia, the single most useful tourist tram line. Tram 3 runs a long loop from Trastevere through Testaccio and past the Colosseum up to Villa Borghese, which is a genuinely scenic way to cross the city if you are not in a rush.

Buses and trams share the same BIT ticket as the metro. You board any door on buses (not just the front), and you must stamp or tap your ticket at the yellow validator inside the vehicle within 100 minutes of first use.

Pay with a paper BIT ticket (€1.50) bought from an ATAC vending machine, metro kiosk, or tabacchi shop, or tap a contactless debit/credit card directly at the yellow metro gate reader (same €1.50 fare, auto-capped at €7 per day). For 3+ day visits, buy a CIS weekly pass (€24) or a Roma 24H/48H/72H pass.

The full ticket ladder:

• BIT (Biglietto Integrato a Tempo): €1.50, 100 minutes, one metro ride plus unlimited bus/tram transfers
• Roma 24H: €7, 24 hours unlimited from first stamp
• Roma 48H: €12.50, 48 hours unlimited
• Roma 72H: €18, 72 hours unlimited
• CIS (weekly): €24, 7 consecutive days from first stamp, no photo ID required
• Monthly: €35, calendar month, photo ID required for residents' version

Children under 10 ride free with a paying adult: no ticket, no registration, just walk through with them. Over-10s pay adult fare. Dogs on leads travel free outside peak hours.

Where to buy: Every metro station has vending machines (English menu, cards accepted). Most newsagents and tabacchi shops sell tickets too, which is often faster than queueing at the machine. You cannot buy BIT tickets on buses.

The Roma Pass is worth it only if you plan to visit at least 2 major paid attractions and use public transport 4+ times a day. The 48H pass costs €33 and includes 1 free museum entry plus unlimited transport. The 72H costs €53 with 2 free entries. Do the math against your actual itinerary before buying.

The Roma Pass covers discounted entry (after the first free one or two) at most major sites including the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palazzo Barberini, Capitoline Museums, Baths of Caracalla, and Castel Sant'Angelo. It does not cover the Vatican Museums (they are a separate state). If the Vatican is your priority, the Roma Pass is not useful for that visit.

The main competitor is the Omnia Card, which bundles the Roma Pass with Vatican access but costs €149 for 3 days. It only breaks even if you would have paid separately for all the included attractions. For a head-to-head breakdown of both passes and when each one pays off, see Roma Pass vs Omnia Card 2026.

A cheaper alternative most visitors miss: buy individual skip-the-line tickets for the Colosseum and Vatican online (which you would do anyway to avoid 90-minute queues), then buy a €24 CIS weekly for transport. Total is usually €60 to €70 versus €149, with the same end result.

Rome's official taxis are white with a "TAXI" sign on the roof. Base fare is €3 daytime, €5 at night (10 pm to 7 am), €7 on Sundays and holidays. The meter runs at €1.10 per km in the city. Flat rates apply between the centre and the two airports: €50 to/from Fiumicino and €31 to/from Ciampino, within the Aurelian Walls.

Hail taxis at marked white-striped ranks (near Termini, Piazza Venezia, the Pantheon, Piazza di Spagna, and most major piazzas) or book via phone/app. Street-hailing a moving taxi is less common than in New York or London. Apps that work in Rome include FREENOW (Europe's largest taxi aggregator), IT Taxi, and AppTaxi: all three connect you to licensed white taxis with metered fares.

Uber exists in Rome but only as Uber Black (higher-tier service, roughly 50 to 80 percent more expensive than a white taxi). Uber X and UberPool are not operating. For details on when Uber beats a standard taxi in Rome, see Is there Uber in Rome?

Hop-on-hop-off buses are useful for a single first-day orientation loop if mobility is an issue, but they are poor value for actually getting around. Typical pricing is €26 (1 day), €33 (2 days), and €39 (3 days) from operators like Big Bus, City Sightseeing, and I Love Rome. A CIS weekly at €24 covers more days, more routes, and more frequent service.

The main loops pass the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, Piazza Navona, the Vatican, and Villa Borghese, with commentary in 8 to 12 languages via headphones. Buses run roughly every 10 to 20 minutes between 9 am and 6 pm, depending on the operator and season.

The problem: Rome's historic centre is largely pedestrianised or set within one-way cobblestone streets the double-deckers cannot enter. So you get dropped off up to 10 minutes' walk from most sights anyway. For a first-day overview from an open top, fine. For real mobility, the regular ATAC bus and tram system is cheaper, more frequent, and goes closer to everything.

Three apps cover 99 percent of what visitors need:

• Moovit (free, iOS and Android): Best real-time bus, tram, and metro arrivals. Works offline once you have downloaded Rome data. This is what locals use.
• Google Maps: Solid for walking directions and multi-modal journey planning. Slightly slower to update live bus delays than Moovit, but integrates better with restaurant and sight navigation.
• FREENOW (free, iOS and Android): The main taxi-hailing app in Rome and most of Europe. Licensed white taxis, metered fares, cashless payment.

The official ATAC app exists but is noticeably less reliable than Moovit for real-time data. MyCicero and Tabnet are alternative ticket-buying apps that let you purchase a BIT or daily pass directly on your phone without queueing at machines, useful if you are caught out at a stop with no vending machine nearby.

Validate every paper ticket on first use. Insert it into the yellow stamping box on buses and trams, or tap it at the metro gate. An unstamped ticket is treated as fare evasion even if you paid: fines are €100 on the spot or €500 if you ignore the fine. Enforcement is patchy in summer and relentless in winter.

Pickpocket hotspots are bus routes 64 and 40 (tourist buses to the Vatican), Line A metro between Termini and Spagna, and crowded platforms at Termini itself. Phones in back pockets and open bags are targets. Nothing dramatic, just professional thieves working crowded spaces.

ZTL zones (Zona a Traffico Limitato) cover most of Centro Storico. Licensed taxis and residents can enter; tour buses, rental cars, and most vehicles cannot. If you rent a car for day trips outside Rome, park outside the ZTL (Villa Borghese underground, Termini, or any outer-ring metro station with a Park & Ride).

Luggage rules tightened in 2026: large bags are now restricted on metro and buses at Termini and Fiumicino during peak hours, with a maximum size of 55 x 40 x 20 cm for carry-on sized bags on public transport. For the full rule set and how it affects airport transfers, see our news piece on new luggage rules in Rome.

Rome's metro is smaller and less comprehensive than Milan's (4 lines, 111 stations) or Paris's (16 lines, 308 stations), but its bus and tram coverage is dense enough that most visitors rarely notice. Rome's BIT ticket at €1.50 is cheaper than Paris (€2.15) and the same as Milan. Taxi base fares are higher in Rome than both.

The practical difference: in Paris or Milan, the metro can get you within 300 metres of almost anywhere central. In Rome, you often walk 5 to 15 minutes from the nearest metro to your actual destination. This is why locals rely on the bus network so heavily, and why visitors who only learn the metro feel Rome is somehow broken.

Rome wins on one thing: the walkability of the centre itself. Centro Storico is smaller and flatter than central Paris, and most major sights sit within a 25-minute walking radius of each other. If you are staying near Piazza Navona, Termini, or Prati, you will walk more than you ride.