Buses in Rome

Getting around Rome by bus (autobus) and tram

Minibus 117 stops at a fermata on Via del Corso in Rome.

Rome's bus and tram system is much more extensive than its subway system (Metro).

Both systems use the same tickets and passes.

Sadly, there is no free official map (at least not a decent one); invest in a mappa degli autobus at a newsstand, or simply scan the list of stops at your fermata (stop) to figure out which line(s) take you where you need to go.

Note: Some lines are express (and labeled as such on the signs) and won’t make all the stops.

Most buses in Rome run daily 5:30am to midnight, with a separate series of night buses whose route numbers are prefaced by an "N."

How to get into Rome's city center from Termini train station

Unless you happen to be heading to the area immediately around the Spanish Steps, the bus is a far better bet than the Metro, as Rome's subway system doesn't really serve the core of the historic center but rather skirts its edges.

• Buses to Rome's center:
  • 40, 64 (to the Tiber Bend, Vatican)
  • 170 (to Ancient Rome, Aventine/Testaccio)
  • 71, 492 (to Tridente, Upper Tiber Bend)
• Metro to Rome's center:
  • A (to Spagna for Tridente, or on into Prati and Otttaviano-San Pietro for St. Peter's or Cipro-Musei Vaticani for the Vatican Museums)
  • B (to Colosseo for Ancient Rome, or Circo Massimo for the Aventine/Testaccio).

Buses no. 64 and 40 - The Tourist Express

The single most useful bus line is probably the 40 (and its slower, local-stops cousin, the 64), which makes a beeline from Stazione Termini to the Vatican, passing Piazza Venezia (for central Rome) and Largo Argentina (for the historic Tiber Bend area) then across the river to Piazza Pia, right next to Castel Sant'Angelo.

Sadly, the bus does not then continue on all to way to a little square tucked behind the wall just outside Piazza San Pietro at St. Peter's. In its infinite idiocy, Rome's public transport board decided a few years ago to stop offering beeline direct bus service to the Vatican area. Piazza Pia is the new "waiting room" stop for visiting St. Peter's, the place where you pick up the "San Pietro express" shuttle bus 62, which just does a loop down the seven long (and exceedingly dull, souvenir-shop-lined) blocks from Piazza Pia to St. Peter's and back.

Old Rome hands might recognize this route as the same one plied by the famous no. 64 bus, nicknamed "The Wallet Eater," or "The Pickpocket Express" since it is always crammed with tourists, a fact that attracts Light-fingered Luigis like flies to the honeypot. It is. The 40 is merely an express version of the 64, which still chugs along the same route but stops more frequently.

Both, of course, remain thick with thieves, so be extra careful.

The minibuses (116, 117, 119) - A DIY bus tour of the historic center

Also terribly useful for tourists are a trio of teensy electric buses that trundle through the streets of the centro storico (historic center).

• Electric bus no. 116 runs roughly east-west across the centro storico, from the Galleria Borghese, through Villa Borghese park, down the Via Veneto past the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon to Piazza Navona , past Campo dei Fiori and along the Tiber, across the river to a stop near Castel Sant' Angelo then another near St. Peter's before turning around and heading back.
  • (The 116T plies much the same route, only it veers off to swing past the opera house and other theaters in the streets just southwest of Termini, and it doesn't run on Sundays.)
• Electric bus no. 117 (Mon–Sat only) runs north-south from Piazza del Popolo, down the Corso, through Piazza Venezia, past all the ancient Roman sights (Forum, Imperial Fori, Colosseum), then up along the Esquiline and Quirinal Hills (passing San Clemente and San Giovanni in Laterano) to return north by a different route past Santa Maria Maggiore, the Trevi Fountain area, and the Spanish Steps.
• Electric bus. no. 119 is essentially a truncated version of the 117, diverting from Via del Corso to head across the river to Piazza Cavour then back, and also swinging west thorugh the Largo Argentina area before returning north past the Spanish Steps to Piazza del Popolo. It does not, however, continue south past all of Ancient Rome, as does the 117.

Trams in Rome

Roman trams work just like buses, but few lines are of use to tourists—though tired feet might want to hop the no. 8 tram to get from its Largo Argentina terminus into Trastevere.

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