Rome is home to a fairly expansive public transport system, allowing you to easily get to anywhere you need to go, while on your vacation. On top of this, public transport tickets in Rome are extremely affordable, making public transport a very appealing choice for travelling around and exploring the city.
How to get around Rome by public transport
One very cheap fare or transport card allows you to use almost all means of public transport in Rome, with the exception of taxis and airport transport. This includes buses, subway trains, trams (streetcars), and the light rail, which are operated by the same company called ATAC.
Because of this, you can hop on any of their transport that you can find around Rome using the same public transport ticket.
What Kind of Public Transport Ticket in Rome Should I Get?
There are numerous kinds of public transport tickets available to buy in Rome. The best public transport ticket for you will depend on how much travelling you will be doing, and for what period of time you will be travelling.
One-Way 100 Minutes Ticket
When it comes to public transport tickets in Rome, the 100-minute “BIT” ticket is probably the best value for money for individual trips. The BIT ticket gives you just over 1 and a half hours to use ANY means of the public transport options overseen by ATAC as much as you would like.
It is worth noting that the only exception to this is that the BIT ticket only allows one ride on the Metro, meaning you can’t return on the same ticket.
A BIT ticket’s 100-minutes only start when first validated, so if you know you have a few days of light travelling ahead of you, you can stock up ahead of time, saving you multiple trips to buy tickets.
The price of a BIT ticket is only €1.50, making it a very affordable option for those who are maybe only travelling a couple of times throughout the day. The BIT ticket is the standard tickets available from the tabaccaio.
Day Ticket
While getting a day ticket for public transport is possible in Rome, it isn’t typically a method we would recommend. This is because it costs €7 and expires at midnight of the day you buy it.
While it does provide unlimited travel all day, we find that with how most people use public transport tickets in Rome, you are getting much better value for money using the BIT ticket. The day ticket is only good value if you take at least five journeys more than 100 minutes apart, which is probably unlikely.
The only other additional benefit of opting for a day ticket, as opposed to BIT ticket, is if you expect to be making a lot of return trips via the same metro stations.
48-Hour Ticket
Opting to buy a 48-hour ticket will allow you to use Rome’s public transport as much as you’d like over a 48-hour period, starting from when you first validate your ticket. It costs €12.50, and suffers from the same issues as buying a day – it is just outclassed by the value of the BIT ticket.
The only added benefit of choosing this form of public transport ticket is that you only need to carry and look after a single ticket, as opposed to multiple if you were to make use of BIT tickets.
72-Hour Ticket
Like with the day ticket and 48-hour ticket, there is again a false economy for the 72-hour ticket, making it have much less value for money as some of the other public transport tickets in Rome.
If you need transport for three days and are sightseeing too, then it’s probably worth considering a Roma Pass instead.
Weekly Ticket
Like with the 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day public transport tickets for Rome, the weekly ticket allows for unlimited travel using any form of public transport, but over a 7-day period.
However, like with the other day-based tickets, the weekly ticket also doesn’t offer the best value for money. The price of €24 means you need to make 16 journeys in seven days to break even. This is by no means impossible but would make for a very travel-heavy and busy week on vacation.
Also, something to bear in mind is that the weekly ticket expires at midnight on the seventh day, so unless you buy one early in the morning, you are automatically cheated out of half a day.
In all of the above ‘daily’ cases, unless you’re going far and wide with many journeys, it’s probably far more cost-effective to fill your wallet with a small stack of 100-minute BIT tickets since they don’t expire and can be rolled over to the next day.
Monthly Ticket
The Tessera Mensile is amazingly good value at only €35 for unlimited travel on Rome’s public transport. If you’re staying for a long period of time, it’s definitely worth considering, and probably the best public transport for Rome you can get.
However, the monthly tickets only run from the first day of the calendar month to the last, so if you arrive mid-month you can still buy one, but will be wasting a lot of it, so you should probably consider other options, such as Roma Cards, or BIT tickets.
The monthly public transport tickets are available from the ticket offices in all the major stations.
Roma Pass
If you’re touring Rome for three days or so, the Roma Pass is fairly good value. It provides public transport for two or three days, as well as free entrance to two museums, but not including the Vatican.
The Roma Pass starts from €35, so assuming you travel daily and visit the 2 attractions that are included on the card, you’ll save yourself a bit of money.
Read our guide to the Roma Pass, to find out more about what attractions are included, and how to buy one.
Where Can I Buy Single Tickets For The Rome Public Transport System?
Public transport tickets in Rome are available from machines at all Metro stations. These machines allow you to select an English Language interface, shown by the British flag.
They take euro bills and coins, but not credit cards, even though many of them have a credit card slot.
Some things to bear in mind when buying your tickets:
- The ticket machines never dispense more than €6 in change! The machine will happily eat your €20 bill but won’t give any of it back until you’ve bought €14 worth of tickets.
- Recently, many of the machines won’t accept bills of more than €10.
- Keep an eye out for the depressingly common “fuori servizio” or “guasto” signs on the ticket machines, which both mean ‘out of order’.
All is not lost, though: you can also buy these tickets in most tabacchi – tobacco stores, distinguished by the “T” sign outside. Go to the cash register and ask for: “un biglietto” (oon beel-YET-oh) or “X biglieti” ([number] beel-YET-ee”) to get the standard 100-minute ticket.
Things are changing though, new orange ticket machines are being rolled out slowly throughout the Metro network that take credit cards and dispense all types of tickets.
Can I Use Contactless Payments For Public Transport Tickets in Rome?
You can use contactless payment methods to buy public transport tickets in Rome, but right now, only on the Metro. All of the Metro turnstiles are fitted with a contactless payment tab that will accept contactless credit and debit cards, as well as NFC-enabled phone payment systems, such as G-Pay and Apple Pay.
Tapping your payment method will automatically debit your account by €1.50, granting you 100 minutes’ use of the transport system, including one Metro ride, just like if you bought a physical BIT ticket.
ATAC claims it will roll out the same “tap-and-go” system throughout the entire system, including trams and buses. But until then, you will still need to buy a ticket to board public transport, unless you’ve already tapped into the system in a Metro station.
Is there an app that I can use to buy tickets?
The “MyCicero” app allows you to buy tickets for the Rome transport system.
How to buy a ticket using MyCicero…
Can I Get a City Card That Includes My Rome Public Transport Tickets?
The most famous city card is the Roma Pass. This gives unlimited access to the city’s public transportation system for 2-3 days, two free entries to major sights, and discounts to museums, though not to the Vatican. However this option does not include airport transfers, the card has to be physically picked up from an office, and some visits still have to be booked in advance. Read more…
Using the Metro in Rome
How do I use the metro in Rome?
Rome’s Metro is simple. It’s just a big X that meets in Termini. There are two fully viable lines: Linea A (red) and Linea B (blue). Linea B splits at Bologna and either goes to Rebbibia or Jonio. Both lines are rather superannuated. The third line, Linea C (green) is partially constructed.
Modern, efficient, clean driverless Linea C runs from Montecompatri way outside the city to join the rest of the network at San Giovanni where you currently have to leave one part of the station and enter another part. Even though you’ll need to transfer, be reassured that your single-use Rome metro ticket will allow you to do this, and will let you eventually cross the entire city.
Locals’ tip: the new part of San Giovanni station has a fantastic display of some of the thousands of artefacts that were dug out of the ground during its construction.
What Lines Can I Use My Rome Metro Ticket or Card On?
The lines shown above can all be accessed with the ATAC tickets mentioned previously in this guide. This includes all the way to the beachside town of Ostia Lido – you can honestly get there for €1.50 each way!
Note for the gray lines on the map, which are commuter rail lines, stations in red indicate the furthest extent of ticket validity. This means you can’t use a standard Rome metro ticket to travel beyond the station in red. After that, you would need a train ticket purchased at the originating station.
You can also use your Rome metro ticket on the “FL” main train lines that cross the city, but again only within city limits.
How reliable is public transport in Rome?
It’s not always reliable, but public transport in Rome is cheap and there’s a lot of it. The bad news is it can be slow and subject to delays and strikes.
How early/late does Rome’s Metro run?
The first train from each end of the metro lines (see map) is 5:30am every day. The last train leaves from the ends of the metro at 11:30 pm on weeknights, and 1:30am on Friday and Saturday nights. That means if you’re in the center, and it’s just after 11:30/1:30 you may still be able to catch your metro.
Get a Rome Transport Pass Today
One of the most convenient ways to explore Rome without having to stock up and carry around a wad of Rome public transport tickets, is to use one of the transport passes you can get. Not only will this cover you for public transport, it will often include entry to several attractions throughout Rome too.
Public Transport Tickets in Rome FAQs
How do I validate my ticket?
When you board the Metro or commuter train, you pass through a turnstile that will automatically validate your ticket for you (it prints the expiry time and date on the back of the ticket using the word “scadenza”).
However, if you take a bus or a tram, you have to do the validation yourself – if it is the first time you have used your ticket during its allotted time period. If you’ve already validated it once, and it’s still valid, you don’t need to do this, and nor do you need to validate a travel pass such as the Roma Pass.
Note that travelling without a validated ticket can get you up to a €150 fine. Once you have figured out which bus or tram to take, board the bus, and you will note a little blobby machine attached to a pillar at the front and back of the vehicle. Insert your ticket, and it will be stamped with the expiry on the back, and you’re good to go.
If the bus is particularly crowded, and you wave your ticket and indicate the machine, the friendly Roman crowd will usually pass it to the machine for validation, then pass it back to you!
Does Rome’s public transport go to the airports?
Unfortunately, the network does not extend to the main Fiumicino Airport. To get to FCO, you must take a train or private transport. Read more here…
Ciampino Airport is, in fact, served by the public transport network, but it is a slow and tricky journey involving bus and Metro. Read more here…
