getting a taxi in Italy

telephone for one or walk to a taxi rank. Flagging one down (hailing) is not done.

You have to use a taxi stand. In Rome they will not stop for a hail from the street.

This was our experience 3 weeks ago. When we took a taxi from the stand near our apartment in Trastevere to several destinations in Rome the fare was usually between 10-11€. The one time we approached a stopped taxi near the Coliseum he quoted us 25€ so we kept walking uphill to the taxi stand and paid 10€.

One rainy Sunday we went to our usual taxi stand and took a taxi from Trastevere to Eataly in an old train station. The cost was almost 9€. After spending several hours in the 4 story converted train station we asked the help desk if there was a taxi stand nearby. The attendant told us no, it was a bit of a walk and it was too hot. He asked if he could call a taxi for us, we agreed, he printed out a paper with the taxi operator on the paper. In a few minutes she showed up and took the 4 of us back to Trastevere and charged us 11€. I thought that was very reasonable for a called taxi.

Bottom line: Find the nearest taxi stands that you’ll need but don’t be too hesitant to call a taxi if none are nearby. Avoid taxis who aren’t in a stand yet will pick up passengers.

Hailing is not a common practice.

If you see an empty taxi driving by it is likely because that taxi is responding to a radio dispatch and is on its way to pick up a passenger, therefore they won’t stop if you hail them.

Taxi cabs in Italy don’t roam around empty in search of hailing passengers. Fuel is too expensive to roam around empty. When a taxi is empty after dropping off passengers, the taxi driver drives to the closest stand and sits still at the taxi stand and waits to respond to a dispatch, unless someone shows up at the taxi stand.

If you need a taxi either walk to the closest stand, or make a phone call.

This is a tad old but still useful
https://www.livitaly.com/find-taxi-stands-rome/

Thank you for your answers - I expected hailing taxis was not done, but it's good to know before I get there.

I used the MyTaxi IT app to call taxis. It worked well in Florence and Rome, but not so well in smaller cities. It works like Uber, but it seemed to not know exactly where we were at times. We had a couple of interesting phone conversations with taxi drivers by phone, but eventually we got to our destinations.

Siena has a great system. They have a number (which I don't recall) to which one can send an SMS of your city and address. When we used it, a taxi appeared at our door in 5 minutes. We then told the taxi driver our destination.

In Florence, I just go to a taxi stand if near or call a taxi on either number:
055/4390 or 055/4242