New sites for me in Rome

Glad you found new things! After 30+ years, Roma always has some surprise for me.

Our bed and breakfast host in Zagarolo introduced us to the Roman suburbs. There's about as much to see around Rome as within Rome.
We spent Easter 2 years ago walking down foot trails from the top of a 2,470 foot mountain to the pagan temple, Palestrina. It's a very interesting place. Palestrina (800 BC) had been built over and forgotten about until Allied bombers at the end of WWII bombed the town. Out of the rubble was an incredible temple underneath.
This is just one of many sights that are overlooked by the vast percentage of those visiting Rome.

Pleased to hear that you uncovered some buried treasures! There are so many of those in Rome - so many I've yet to see - that I can't imagine ever running out of new things to discover!

Left Rome three days ago, our 2nd trip there, in Sorrento now. Had friends from a previous trip that were spending two months up near Porta Pia, so up that way we saw Mussolini's wartime residence at Villa Torlonia, and the 4th century St. Costanza church. Also saw the ancient Baths of Diocletian, adjacent to Termini station.

There is SO much here. We stayed at a cheap apartment overlooking the Campo de' Fiori market, shopped there for fruit each morning and then at the Roscioli bakery. Took the bus and Metro everywhere over six days--got the weekly pass for 24€, but I suspect a lot of people don't pay. Great fun, though.

We will be back.

Jay, many people who seem not to pay have daily tickets, weekly passes, or monthly transit cards. Students have annual passes and flash them at the driver. And yes, you are right, there are freeloaders as well.

I bet there aren't very many freeloaders on the buses in Rome. As pointed out, most residents have monthly passes that only have to be validated once, at the beginning of the month. Spot checks happen often enough on the buses that it keeps it under control, plus I think most people are fundamentally honest.

Certainly didn't want to disparage the Roman working class, as I am part Roman myself.

Granted, many of the riders on the absolutely packed 40, 62 or 64 buses probably have monthly passes, thus only requiring validation the first time on the bus to 'start the clock'. But being so crowded so much of the time, there's simply no way to GET to the machine to validate as people were shoehorning on and off from any one of three doors. I rarely saw any validating taking place on the 15+ rides I took over a week's time.

And although I had my weekly pass and receipt on my person, no one checked while I was there and friends of ours who ride the bus many times a week all over Rome for two months at a time each winter have only been checked once in the past six years.

Just observations, I loved Rome and its residents.

On crowded buses people just hand their tickets down to someone near the machine, someone validates the ticket, it makes a return trip to its owner. I've seen it many times, and have participated in the validation conga line. People are basically honest. On very crowded buses, however, it's harder for agents to board and move through the bus to check tickets.

I was in Rome until Jay arrived, then I left ☺ I also got a one-week pass, which was a godsend more than once. When I didn't know where I was, I'd just walk till I found a bus or tram stop. I did see a number of people validating tickets. I assumed that most, like me, had some kind of pass. Tickets are not expensive so maybe that's why most people buy tickets and there isn't much checking.

I was in Venice earlier in the month, and on a super-crowded vaporetto, there were agents checking everyone's ticket. Since most Venetians probably have passes, and there are a lot more tourists than locals, I can only guess who they think may be freeloading, and with individual rides at a whopping €7.50, there's more temptation to be less than honest.