Heading to Rome in early November and I've been considering purchasing Roma Passes for my wife and I. Given our schedule, we won't be using the metro and/or buses much during the first three days of our trip despite hitting most of the major sites (Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, Borghese, National Museum of Rome, etc). However, for the subsequent 4 days we're likely to spread out and use public transit more extensively. With this schedule in mind, does anyone know whether or not the transit portion of the Rome Pass is validated with your first museum/site entry or is it validated for 3 days subsequent to the first use of public transit? If it's the latter, I'm thinking I could get a lot more value out of the pass by simply using it to enter sites during our first three days and using the transit portion thereafter. Thanks in advance for your help.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
We used to buy transit passes in Rome but finally figured out that it makes much more sense for us to buy a bunch of single-use tickets because we really do lots of walking in the relatively compact historic center. (Rome is not at all like Paris, which is spread out over a huge area.)
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
I used the Roma Pass last year. It is not divided into admissions and transportation portions (unless they've changed the Pass). There is one validation date for the pass, and it is for three days of admission to sights and public transportation; it cannot be extended by not using public trnsportation during the first 3 days. You get the Pass validated at the first sight, or on the first transportation use, and it expires 3 days later. Bus and metro tickets in Rome are pretty cheap - about 1.50 euro per ticket, which includes 60 or 70 minutes of travel and includes transfers but not roundtrips - or you could get a daypass for a few euro if you plan to use buses and metro a lot in one day. Daypasses expire at midnight on the day that you use them, so if you don't use it until the afternoon and then only use it twice, you're better off buying single tickets at 1.50 euro each. I usually buy 10 tickets for a 4 or 5 day stay if I know I'll be using the bus/metro a lot; 10 tickets can last a week if you walk a lot (easy to do as the historic center is pretty compact).
Posted by
OP
College Station, Texas, United States
2 posts
Appreciate the insight, Zoe. You confirmed what I suspected.
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
They have metro passes good for train, bus, tram for purchase that covers 3 days or even 7 days. Ron in Rome has a good article here - http://www.roninrome.com/%20transportation/tickets-for-the-bus-metro-trams-and-metro-trains
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
But before you get a transit pass, figure out how many times a day you would need to use transit to make it worthwhile. Also, figure out just how much money you would lose if you ended up washing a shirt that has one of the weekly transit passes which are made out of paper. Not that that happened to us or anything. :-) From this point forward when we visit Rome, we're just doing the individual tickets.
Posted by
Mpls, MN
1005 posts
Was in Rome this past July on a girl's trip and we purchased the Roma Pass. Per the TI nearest Piazza Navona--if you activate your pass on the metro or a bus say on Monday at 6 p.m. that counts as your first day and it would be valid until midnight on Wednesday. We arrived on a Monday afternoon, purchased the pass at the TI Mon. early evening but did not activate until Tuesday morning sometime and then was good till midnight Thursday. We got a full 3 days transportation out of it. Worked well for us as we wanted to go to the new EATALY on Thurs. and we were leaving Friday morning. Am returning to Rome and Amalfi C. with my husband in 10 days! Can't wait!