Roman public transport

As you will get to learn very early, Rome is a very chaotic city: private transport, such as car or moped, is Romans' favourite, because public transport can hardly provide a valid alternative.

The consequence of this is a constant and chaotic traffic and a public transport that is not able to satisfy city's needs.

There are several reasons: Rome was built much earlier than the cars were invented, so its structure (that, in some areas, looks like a small town) is not adapt to mass-transport. Attempts to build great infrastructure, such as metro or big parking areas, are continually slown down by the discovery of archaeological founds of great importance.

Another problem is that the area of Rome is really big compared to the number of inhabitants, so it is really expensive to cover the whole city by public transport. Just to give you an idea, the urban area of Rome is 80% of London's, but Rome has only the 36% the number of London inhabitants. The density of population (in hundreds of people over kilometre squared) in Rome is 21, in London 48, in Paris 249, in Madrid 51, in Berlin 38.

The company that manages the Roman public transport is called ATAC (standing for "Azienda Tranvie ed Autobus del Comune di Roma"), managing buses and trams. The metro is managed by a different company called (guess what ;-) "Met.Ro.", standing for "Metropolitana di Roma". Besides those two, there are also the "Ferrovie dello Stato"(State Railways) managing the so called "treni metropolitani" (metropolitan trains), that are trains leading outside Rome, but they can be used to move inside the city with a standard bus ticket.

Bus

The real problem of Roman public transport are the buses, covering long distances and often getting stuck in the traffic, thus not providing a reliable service. Try to avoid the bus any time you can, mainly avoiding peak hours when Romans go to or come back from work: in the morning, from 8:00 to 9:30, in the evening from 17:30 to 19:00. Some buses have reserved lanes so they can avoid the traffic, but it does not guarantee a great improvement since they are not very common and the crossing between streets are still flooded by cars....

The ATAC web-site provides the map of the bus network in the centre of Rome (PDF, PNG) and for the whole city (complete PDF, cropped PNG).
You have to get the bus if you want to go around by night; there is also a map of night buses (complete PDF, cropped PNG ). Besides "normal" buses, there are alseo the electric ones, that are smaller and pass through the centre (PDF, PNG).

Trains

The metro works much better, it is quite reliable and, during peak hours, there is a train about each minute. Moreover, it is not affected by traffic (that's a great thing in Rome!). The only problem is that there are only 2 lines (the third one is being built since ages...), so you can't use it to go everywhere.

The situation is similar for the "treno metropolitano" (metropolitan train), that is not managed by ATAC but by Ferrovie dello Stato: you can use those trains with a normal bus ticket, as long as you remain inside the city.

Most of those lines are indicated by the letters "FR" (e.g. the FR1 line leaves from Fiumicino airport and goes to a small town close to Rome called "Orte", calling at Trastevere, Ostiense and Tiburtina stations). Those lines have the same good points of the metro, the only draw back is that the trains do not pass that often: about each 15 minutes during peak hours, up to one each hour in the most peaceful parts of the days (like the late evening).

ATAC provides a map of train transport, including both metro and metropolitan train(PDF, PNG).

Tram

The tram is a compromise between the but and the metro, in the sense that it follows paths on the street, but it has its own lanes so it is not heavily influenced by the traffic. Moreover, trams pass very often, so they are a valid alternative to the metro, for sure much better than any bus. There is a map of the trams (PDF, PNG).

Anyway, if you really don't want to depend upon Roman public transport, you can go by bicycle! You can see a map of the bicycle lanes (PDF, PNG), for more info, you can see the page on our website "A Bicycle for the Erasmus".

For more info:

• http://atac.roma.it/
• http://www.metroroma.it

Transport outside the city

Trains

If you want to wander around Italy, the cheapest way is by train. The main station of Rome is obviously Termini, but several trains call at Ostiense and Tiburtina as well.

You will find all the info about time-tables and prices on the official web-site: www.trenitalia.it

Coach

Another way to go outside Rome is by coach; most of the lines leave from Tiburtina station, for any kind of info, you can ask directly at the station.

If you want to check or search for coach lines, visit www.italybus.it

Car

If you want to rent a car, you can choose between several companies such as AVIS, Herz etc....

Here is a small but reliable company:

• CAR SERVICE The main office is at via Portuense 564 (Largo La Loggia ) and the telephone number is 06.65741275 www.carservice.rm.itm.it