Getting Around Rome: Metro, Buses, Airports & Fares (2026)

ATAC tickets and fares in 2026

One company, ATAC, runs Rome's Metro, buses and trams, and the same tickets work on all three. Adult fares, from ATAC's own site:

• BIT (single ticket): €1.50. Valid for 100 minutes from validation on buses and trams, but on the Metro for one ride only: you can change lines without leaving the gates, but once you exit, the ticket is done.
• Roma 24H: €8.50 for 24 hours from first validation
• Roma 48H: €15
• Roma 72H: €22
• CIS (weekly): €29, valid until midnight on the seventh day, counting the day you validate it
• Children: up to age 10 ride free with a paying adult

Paper tickets are sold at Metro station machines, tobacconists (look for the T sign) and newsstands. Validate a paper ticket the first time you use it: at the Metro gates, or in the machine on board a bus or tram. Integrated ATAC tickets don't cover the Leonardo Express, the Ciampino Airlink or Cotral's airport bus.

Do the day passes pay? A 24-hour ticket beats singles from the sixth ride in a day, and contactless (below) caps you at the same €8.50 per 24 hours automatically, so for most visitors a day pass only makes sense if you'd rather not pay by card. The 72-hour ticket (€22) is €3.50 cheaper than three 24-hour ones, but only if you'd really ride enough each day. The Roma Pass bundles the same 48 or 72 hours of transport with museum entries.

Tap&go: pay with your card or phone

ATAC's tap&go system takes contactless debit and credit cards, and phones or watches with a card in the wallet. Tap on the reader with the tap&go logo at the Metro gates, on buses and trams, and on the Roma-Lido and Roma-Viterbo railways, and wait for the green light. Each tap buys a €1.50 BIT; taps to change between bus, tram and Metro inside its 100 minutes don't cost more, though on the Metro the 100 minutes still cover only one ride. Over 24 hours, from your first tap, the system charges you no more than a €8.50 Roma 24H ticket.

Two rules, the same as in London. Use the same card or device for every tap, or the system can't link your journeys and cap your fare. And hold only one card to the reader: if it picks up two, the payment fails and the gate stays shut. Check whether your card charges a foreign transaction fee before you go. Tap&go doesn't cover the Leonardo Express, which has its own contactless gates (below).

The Rome Metro: three lines and where they go

Rome's Metro is small for a capital, because almost anywhere you dig in the centre you hit ancient ruins. It reaches the edges of the historic centre (the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum) but not its core around the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The three lines:

• Line A (orange), from Battistini in the west to Anagnina in the south-east. The sightseeing stretch: Ottaviano and Cipro for the Vatican, Lepanto for Castel Sant'Angelo and Prati, Flaminio for Piazza del Popolo, Spagna for the Spanish Steps, Barberini for the Trevi Fountain, Repubblica and Termini, then San Giovanni for the Lateran basilica.
• Line B (blue), from Rebibbia (or Jonio, on the B1 branch) to Laurentina. Termini, Cavour for Monti, Colosseo for the Colosseum, Circo Massimo, Piramide for Testaccio and Ostiense station, and Basilica San Paolo.
• Line C (green), from Pantano in the far east to San Giovanni (change for line A), Porta Metronia and Colosseo-Fori Imperiali, where it links to line B. The last two stations opened in December 2025, and they're worth a look even if you aren't riding: both are designed as museum-stations, with finds from the dig on display.

Lines A and B cross at Termini, A and C at San Giovanni, and B and C at Colosseo.

Hours: first trains at about 5.30am; last departures from the ends of each line at about 11.30pm Sunday to Thursday and 1.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, a few minutes earlier from some ends of line B (Roma Servizi per la Mobilità timetable). After that, night buses take over. Trains are frequent in the daytime and crowded at rush hour; keep your phone and wallet zipped away on busy trains and buses and around Termini.

Buses and trams: for the parts the Metro misses

Buses go where the Metro doesn't, including the middle of the historic centre, on the same €1.50 BIT or tap&go. They're slow in traffic, so check the live times in an app before you wait. Three routes worth knowing:

• Buses 40 and 64 leave from the bus terminal outside Termini and run along Via Nazionale to Piazza Venezia, Largo Argentina and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the quickest public transport from Termini to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona area and on toward the Vatican side.
• Tram 8 runs from Piazza Venezia across the river to Trastevere and on to Casaletto: the easy way to Trastevere from the centre. Some evenings and during works it's replaced by buses; the stops are the same.
• Night buses, numbered with an n (n46, n70 and others), run through the night when the Metro is shut, on the same tickets.

Bus lines change around works and events, so use ATAC's journey planner or a maps app on the day rather than a printed map.

Walking: how most of Rome is seen

Rome's historic centre is the part with no Metro. The Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori, the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere are all off the network, and they're close together. Roughly, on foot:

• Pantheon to Piazza Navona: about 5 minutes
• Piazza Navona to Campo de' Fiori: about 5 minutes
• Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon: about 10 minutes
• Trevi Fountain to the Spanish Steps: about 10 minutes
• Pantheon to the Colosseum: about 25 minutes, past Piazza Venezia and along Via dei Fori Imperiali
• Piazza Navona to St Peter's Square: about 25 minutes, across the river by Castel Sant'Angelo

Wear shoes with grip: the black basalt cobbles (sampietrini) are uneven and slippery in the rain, which falls most from October to January. Cross at the striped crossings, and look both ways even on one-way streets, because scooters don't always keep to them.

Fiumicino airport to central Rome

Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci, FCO) is about 30 km from the centre, and it's where most long-haul flights land. Four ways in:

The Leonardo Express is the non-stop train to Termini: €14, 32 minutes, every 15 minutes at the busiest times and less often otherwise. The first train leaves Termini at 4.50am; the last train from the airport leaves at 11.53pm, except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until 18 November 2026, when it's 11.23pm (Trenitalia timetable valid to 12 December 2026; check it again if you land late). It leaves from dedicated platforms 23 and 24 at Termini. Buy a ticket on the Trenitalia app or site, at the machines, or just tap a contactless card at the gates; keep the ticket until you've left the station at the other end. Children under 4 ride free, and one child aged 4 to 11 goes free with each paying adult. Four adults travelling together can buy a Minigroups ticket for €40. ATAC tickets aren't valid on it.

The FL1 regional train costs €8 to any station inside Rome's rail ring and takes longer, but it stops at Trastevere, Ostiense (for line B at Piramide), Tuscolana and Tiburtina (line B). It runs every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on Sundays and holidays. It does not go to Termini. If your hotel is in Trastevere, Testaccio or near Tiburtina, it saves you a change. A paper ticket is valid for 90 minutes from validation; at the airport, validate it at the gates.

An official taxi costs a fixed €55 to anywhere inside the Aurelian Walls, the old walls around the historic centre (the city's fare boundary, set in 2006, follows the walls round the centre, Trastevere and Testaccio, then runs out along Via Gregorio VII, Via Andrea Doria and Viale delle Milizie to Ponte Matteotti, so the Vatican and most of Prati are inside too; check your hotel's address against the boundary in the city's taxi tariff). That price is for the whole car, includes all supplements, and applies only on a direct trip to one address. Other fixed fares from Fiumicino: €50 to Ostiense station, €60 to Tiburtina station and €55 to Ciampino airport. Anywhere else inside the Grande Raccordo Anulare ring road goes on the meter but is capped at €80. Three people on the Leonardo Express pay €42 and four can share a €40 Minigroups ticket, so the taxi costs a little more, but it goes door to door, which counts with luggage or a hotel far from Termini.

Night buses. Cotral's Air Terminal buses run between the airport and Termini and Tiburtina through the night, when the trains have stopped: €5 in the Cotral app or €7 on board in cash. Daytime private coaches also run to Termini; their prices are on the operators' own sites.

To sleep at the airport before an early flight, see hotels near Rome airport.

Official taxis vs touts

Official Rome taxis are white, with a TAXI sign on the roof and the licence number and the Roma Capitale crest on the front doors. At Fiumicino they wait at the ranks outside arrivals at Terminals 1 and 3. Ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal offering a ride: the airport itself warns that they may not hold a taxi licence and may charge more. Confirm the fixed fare before you set off.

In town, find a taxi at a rank (there are ranks at Termini and on the main piazzas) or book one through ChiamaTaxi, Rome's official taxi number, 060609, or its app. In town they run on the meter, with a higher starting charge from 10pm to 6am; ask for a receipt. For late-night travel and pickpocket advice, see is Rome safe?

Ciampino airport to central Rome

Ciampino (CIA) is Rome's smaller airport, about 15 km south-east of the centre, used mainly by low-cost airlines. It has no train station of its own, but it's cheap to get in:

• Ciampino Airlink, €2.70: a non-stop 10-minute bus from the airport to Ciampino station, then a regional train to Termini, on one Trenitalia ticket. Buy it on the Trenitalia app or site, at the station machines, or at authorised shops; the bus leg isn't sold on its own.
• ATAC city buses, €1.50: the 520 runs to Cinecittà on Metro line A, and the 720 to Laurentina on line B, on a normal BIT or tap&go. Cheapest, but with luggage it's the slowest.
• Official taxi, €40: fixed fare to anywhere inside the Aurelian Walls, also €40 to Ostiense or Tiburtina station, and €55 to Fiumicino.
• Private coaches (Terravision, SIT and Rome Airport Bus) run direct to Termini; tickets on their own sites or at the desks in arrivals.

For a night near either airport, see hotels near Rome airport.

Strikes (sciopero)

Italian transport strikes are frequent but announced in advance, and they usually last a day or part of one, with guaranteed services at set times. Before a travel day, check the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport's strike calendar (scioperi.mit.gov.it) for ATAC, Trenitalia and the airports. On a Metro strike day, plan to walk, and leave extra time for the airport.

Driving in Rome: don't

Don't drive in central Rome. The historic centre is a limited-traffic zone (ZTL) with camera-controlled gates, and a hire car without a permit gets fined automatically, often months later through the rental company. Parking is scarce and the traffic is heavy. Hire a car only for trips out into the countryside, and pick it up on your way out of the city.

How to get around Rome

Walk the historic centre. Tap a contactless card on the Metro for Termini, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the Vatican, and on tram 8 to Trastevere, and you'll never pay more than €8.50 in 24 hours. From Fiumicino, take the Leonardo Express to Termini for €14, or the FL1 for €8 if you're staying in Trastevere or Testaccio, or an official white taxi for €55 if you'd rather go door to door. From Ciampino, the €2.70 Airlink is the bargain.

Once you know where you're staying and which sights you're seeing each day, Tourli, the app that turns travel guides into day-by-day plans, helps you group them by area so you walk more and ride less.