Hop on hop off bus

Joanne, while hoho's work well in some cities, that's not the case in Rome. The buses are too large to travel the narrower streets (which are many) or directly access/go by some of the attractions they advertise so more walking is necessary than some tourists bargain for. Complaints about them range from long waits at stops, long delays in dense Rome traffic (it can be faster to walk between some attractions versus ride), dirty vehicles, broken audio. surly staff, etc.

In short, not recommended.

Great to know .....Thanks so much Kathy :)

While Kathy is generally correct about the hop on/off buses for central Rome. There are other buses and routes. In particular the Architectural Tour bus loops down to the Appian Way and the catacombs, by Baths of Caracalla and other areas in south Rome. So don't automatically reject all hop on/off buses without checking their routes. The ticket offices for the buses are across the plaza in front of Termini. And they can be pushy in trying to "recruit" passengers so have a little sales resistance till you know what you want.

In particular the Architectural Tour bus loops down to the Appian Way
and the catacombs, by Baths of Caracalla and other areas in south
Rome.

Frank is right: a bus for that particular area is probably the exception. This one does that route:

https://www.bigbustours.com/en/rome/purple-route-rome/

There used to be a different outfit (110 Open+Archeobus) that covered that area but it went out of biz some years ago.

I tried to do the hop on hop off bus a few years in Rome and it was a disaster. It never seem to come to the stops I was waiting at. I’ve taken it in other cities and loved it. I would not recommend taking it in Rome.

joanne,

I've used the Hop On / Hop Off buses in Rome and they worked well for me. I didn't use the HO / HO function, but rather used them to get an overview of the main sights. Sitting on the top deck provided a good vantage point for getting pictures. As I recall, I bought tickets and boarded the bus at Termini station.