Good Transfer Service for Late at Night?

Try Rome Cabs. Or just take a white legal taxi from FCO. They should be plentiful.

We use Suntransfers - suntransfers.com in many European cities - including Rome and find them to be excellent.

We can not say enough good things about Rome Cabs. It is a private car service and not a cab company despite the name. We always use them and have always been very pleased. Go to romecabs.com and see what you think. We just send an email and they answer us with a quote within 24 hours. You do have to pay cash (Euros) and the end of the journey but not in advance.

No use looking for Rome Cabs or Sun Transfers when you arrive at Rome airport. They don’t hang around the airport looking for passengers. You need to book them online, sooner rather than later.

The drivers of booked transfers track the arrival times of flights so as not to have to wait around at airports. You could, of course, just take the train from the airport to Termini and walk from there to your hostel, but I expect you are too fearful to do that.

Your Transfer Ettore was a cowboy.

Pre-booked services are exactly that. They are not allowed to solicit for fares. Pre-arranged only.

If I had somebody come up to me that way, nothing would persuade me to get in the car.

Please see your post on the transfer topic from 07/26/17:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/late-night-bus-train-from-rome-airport-to-termini-in-december

As Laurel stated in that thread, you can take a cab from the official taxi stand for €48.

I do not see any mention of a 2:15 AM train. It's the 2:15 Cotral BUS that was mentioned in that thread. As discussed, the last run of the Leonardo Express leaves at 23.27 p.m (11:27 pm) and you can't make it if your plane arrives at 11:10 PM.

But I would take a cab.

There is no late night Leonard Express -- the last run from the airport is 2336. There is bus service every 30 minutes with the last bus at 0120 to Termini. The fare is 6 euro and buy the ticket on the bus. It is sitbusshuttle.it . SIT Bus Shuttle. At that time of night the service is quick.

Gracialynne,

You appear to be somewhat apprehensive so consider this. You'll have a long flight, probably not sleep well on the plane, and probably have some jet lag. Under those circumstances, you will find there is nothing better than having your private driver meet you inside the terminal and whisk you to your hotel. No fending off the "cowboys" as Nigel called them, waiting in the regular taxi line, or just having a "lost" feeling. Spending a few Euros more for the convenience is, in my opinion, money well spent. Even on a budget -- just consider it a small splurge

I would plan on cash -- 12 euro for the two of you will not break the bank. And you should be carrying that much pocket money, anyway. The bus should take about 45 min at that time of with no traffic. Second, you indicated in another posting you were staying in a youth hostel -- Most hostels do not have 24 hr check in and some lock their doors fairly early. Have you make arrangements with the hostel for a very late arrival?

I was going to mention the hostel check-in issue but Frank beat me to it.

OK -- I think we are all being played. People try very hard to be helpful even when the person being help is not completely forth coming. I just reviewed your original posting of 7/26 that asked basically the same question and had excellent responses with lot of information. A lot of posters spent a lot of time answering you 7/26 question.

Now four months later you come back with exact the same question and mostly the same responses. Did you forget that you asked that question in July? You are waste a lot of people's time. Go back to your original question. Or are you just having fun with the board?

You are bordering on being a troll but we try hard not to accuse posters of doing that. But this whole exchange is getting smelly so I done. If others what to continue to play the game, then do so.

This is the response I got from the hostel several months ago. I am pleased that I was pretty close in my memory of what they wrote, but I forgot about the nearby hotel with big flags on it. They wrote: "It's not the safest walk in plane night, but is short and quite bright.
Go out from the station in Via Giolitti. Keep the left side of Via Cavour, the number 44 is on the wall (we are in front of a hotel with big flags on the entrance). Then just ring the buzzer on the door (a night attendant will open you and will take you passports till the morning after).
We are here for any kind of other request
Kind Regards

Are you back from your trip? How did everything go?

Yes, Kathy, we are back. Thanks for asking. Unfortunately, after spending all that money on expensive Christmastime air fare, with the main purpose of attending Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, we were in for a big disappointment. I didn't realize that there were truly lousy seats... I thought we'd be able to watch the celebration from anywhere in the Basilica... I knew if we were at the back, we couldn't see as well, so we got in line early. But what I didn't realize is that there are horrible seats where you can't see anything at all. We got pushed over to the right-hand security gate, and it wasn't moving. I heard a young man behind me on the phone, talking to his family, asking them to save him a seat inside. He was so frustrated and disgusted. I inquired as to what had happened, and he said he was in line with them, but he got pushed to the right, like we did, and they were already in the Basilica, while we were still waiting for our line to move. When we did get ushered in, finally, we got these awful seats to the side of the altar, and we couldn't see a thing except the side view of the altar posts. We could hear the service, but they didn't even have a video screen up. We'd have seen more standing outside on the Square, watching the televised version on the screen. The following day I talked to a couple from the U.S. who had gone to Midnight Mass. They said they had gotten in line much later than we did and were appalled when they found themselves in the no-view wing, having spent all that air fare to go to Rome at Christmastime. So they took a gamble on leaving the No-View Wing, going outside the Basilica and entering the main area where one could see everything. They had to stand on the Back Wall the whole time, but the guards let them, along with about 50 other people. They saw the Pope walk by, only 10 feet in front of them, carrying the Baby Jesus to put in the Nativity, and they even saw themselves on TV, taking pictures of him. This is what I had really wanted to see-- the Pope carrying the Baby Jesus, but we saw nothing. I wish we had known it was possible to move. Security was tight, and I would have thought had we left our seats we had been ushered into and gone outside, we could not have gotten back in, and I was surprised they'd let people stand on the back wall like that. We also had an interesting experience one rainy day, when we hopped the 64 Bus back to Termini. I was in my rain poncho and thought I felt my jacket pocket moving. So I moved closer to hubby. When we got off, hubby yelled, "He got it! He got my camera!" A nice Italian man and his son came to our rescue, chasing down the pickpocket and recovering our camera. The camera was cheap, but we would have hated to have lost the photos on it, so that ended well. I'm just sad that we didn't get to see anything at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass.

But, Kathy, I did watch Christmas Eve Mass on YouTube, after we got home, to see what we missed. LOL. It would have been beautiful in person, if one were sitting in one of those good seats facing the altar with the Popel

This may seem harsh, but it's not intended. Did you not know in advance that St Peters is the largest church in Christendom? Did you really think that every seat would have a perfect (or any) view of the high altar? Have you ever been inside a cathedral before?
You were attending a holy mass in the greatest Christian pilgrimage center in the world and you were surprised at the crowd? People go to mass for the mass, not to get a glimpse of the Pope. It's one of the most important services of the religious calendar, not a Broadway musical where the view is of prime importance. It is a RELIGIOUS event, not a tourist one. I'm sorry that you feel your experience was disappointing, but given your expectations, and your reason for attending, I'm not surprised.

But at least you didn't get blown up by those terrorists you were so worried about.

Yes, CJ, I knew it was the largest church in Christendom, and I have been in Cathedrals before. The other people I mentioned to you who were disappointed at the lack of view were Catholics, unlike me. They had been to this Cathedral before, just never for Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. They thought it was silly to sit in a place with no view, so I don't think I'm alone in my thinking on this. I met another woman, in the Vatican Museums café, who had gone to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 3 years in a row. She's not Catholic, but because of her previous experiences, she knew how to orchestrate the experience to get a perfect view. She was first in line. She explained to me, though, that most of it depends on which Security Gate you have the fortune or misfortune to get into. Also, there weren't as many people there as I expected. There were several empty seats in the section we were in. I recall when we arrived a bunch of people sat to our right and suddenly got up and disappeared. I think they must have also known to go into the area with the view and stand on the back wall. I don't think Christmas Eve Midnight Mass is as popular as it once was, given the number of empty seats we saw. Or people just didn't want to sit in that section and knew how not to have to do so.

And this is interesting, CJ. We did visit the actual Cathedral of Rome, San Giovanni of Laterano. www.nytimes.com/1993/01/11/opinion/l-yes-st-john-the-divine-is-the-largest-cathedral-270493.html

I think you have missed or choose to ignore the main point of CJean's post, which is that the Christmas midnight mass, whether at St. Peter's or at a neighbourhood church, is a Catholic service of worship, an important one, and not a show. No doubt many others were there for the same reasons as you, as curious tourists and not as worshipful Catholics taking part in an important Christian ritual. I am a total atheist so I don't have a dog in this "fight" but I do hope that the majority of the attendees with the "good seats" and the "good view" took part in the mass and left happy.

Norma, I do know that the folks in front of us were not Catholic. They had gotten their tickets to Midnight Mass in September. The wife said she had put puppy stickers on her fax in order to catch attention, as it was late in the game and was happy to have received the tickets at such a late date. She and her husband had attended the Free Day at the Vatican Museums on Christmas Eve Day and said it did not seem crowded to them at all. I thought that was interesting. We chose to tour the Vatican Museums on December 28. Had considered going on the free day, but we thought it would be overly crowded and decided to tour many of the other churches in Rome that morning, instead. If I had it to do over again, we would go to the Vatican Museums on the Free Day. She and her husband kept managing to move forward in the No-View wing, finding us seats beside them, but we still couldn't see anything. At one point, the gate to the Reserved Section in front of us was removed, due to so many empty seats in it, and people in the back like us were allowed to move forward, but as soon as we got up to the front of that line, we were told all the seats were taken and had to move back again. However, I really don't think we would have seen any more in those seats that were closer to the altar. Maybe a bit of a side view of the procession, but I doubt it. I majored in Religion in College and am interested in all Religions. I am a pastor's wife and Sunday School teacher, and I have taken the RCIA Catholic Instruction Classes, although I am not a Catholic. Nonetheless, it was a very interesting experience to me,even if it was a disappointing one. My husband could have cared less. LOL.

Again and as usual, you have missed the point.

Norma, we did stop in several other churches which were conducting Mass at the time of our visits. What we found highly interesting is that even though these big old churches are huge and beautiful, there were very few people worshipping... usually only 4 or 5, in addition to the Priest. We had thought they'd be full, but I guess there has been a falling away from the churches in Rome, just like here in the United States. Gesu had a lot of folks worshipping, but that was the only one.

I am sorry that your experience at St. Peter's wasn't all that you wished it to be but it's simply impossible for everyone to have a "view" of the service or the Pope. You still had the spiritual experience of Christmas midnight mass in Rome's largest basilica. I do hope that the most of the devote Catholics in attendance found it a prayerful, peaceful event regardless of where they were able to sit (or stand); that's what it's all about.

As far as attendance at other churches for mass, I'm sure that depends on the church, the day and the time. Some of them have multiple masses a day, and some of those may be more heavily attended than others. Same with Sunday or holiday services versus those during the week.

But what was fun about your trip? What did you do that you enjoyed?

Kathy, I enjoyed learning about the cats who live in the Colosseum from our tour guide there. She took us on a tour of the new Belvedere level and told us about some cats who call the Colosseum their home, including one particular black cat, named "Nero," which means black. Although we didn't get to see the cats while we were there (they tend to come out only in the warm afternoons, she said), it was fun learning about them. We also enjoyed meeting a friendly cat of Rome who followed us all around in the Roman Forum, as well as several along our walk down the Old Appian Way, and a great number in the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, where the kind gattare gave us a tour and introduced us to the many disabled cats in their care. Many of these rescued cats were born on the streets of Rome and susceptible to eye diseases as kittens, which leave them blind. I had fun buying some souvenirs there to help support their work. We got some good pictures of the cats posing on the ruins there. My sister and I had hoped to spot some of the cats of Rome on our trip to Rome last April, but we saw nary a one at that time, so this trip helped make up for that. I have both pet cats and chickens and miss them and worry about their well-being while I am away from them, traveling. I was pleased that they all seemed happy and healthy when we got home. I hire a caretaker for them and pay him well. I also enjoyed the elaborate animated Nativity Scene in St. Peter's Basilica. It had chickens with chicks on top of the manger, and they flapped their wings and moved around. I thought that was really cute. I'm sure the kids loved it. Thanks for asking. We also enjoyed finding the Madonna-and-Cat Madonelle on Via Gatta, north of Piazza Grazioli. It is faded and difficult to photograph, but, still, it was fun to find. I am sorry we missed seeing this, as we arrived for the Urbi pronouncement at 10 a.m., 2 hours early. This must have happened shortly before we got there? http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/12/25/topless-female-activist-tries-to-swipe-baby-jesus-statue-from-vatican-nativity-scene.html One bright spot was that I managed to secure a seat dead center, front row under the window of the Basilica from which the Pope gave his Christmas Day Urbi Speech. There was no reserved seating in front of me. That helped make up for the sadness of the Midnight Mass fiasco. I didn't know they were going to open the gate to let us in, thinking the seats were reserved seating, and when they did, everyone made a mad dash to the front. It was quite colorful with the military parades, the Swiss guard marching in their bright uniforms, etc. Lots of pomp and ceremony and glitz, and the weather was perfect. Everyone wanted to borrow my binoculars. I was glad I had planned for plenty of opportunities to see the Pope. Our Papal Audience with the Pope tickets turned out to be a bust, as we didn't get to sit nearly as close as the company promised, but at least we now know how and where to get in line for free (by 7:30 a.m. in winter and 6 am in summer) should we go back some day. At least I was close enough, standing on a seat, to see the Pope kiss the cutest little Black Baby as he came up the aisle of the room the Papal Audience was held in, probably about 10 feet from me. That was a highlight. The woman I met in the Vatican Museums got to the Papal Audience line on her own early enough to get an aisle seat and touch the Pope as he walked past her. She's not Catholic, but she grew up with an Italian family next door who more or less "adopted her," she said, and who taught her a lot about Catholicism and fostered an interest in the religion in her. I learned a lot of good tips from her about how to plan our next Christmastime visit.