Rome public transportation

From the airport and to Termini you should take a taxi, regardless of where you stay, because you will have luggage and it is more convenient to take a taxi.
To Ostia Antica you need to take the Metro subway to Piramide, then the train to Ostia.
The Vatican is a long walk from wherever you are, so a bus works. The metro works to get you to the Vatican Museum but from the St. Peter Basilica it's a long walk to the Metro.

Monti or Centro Storico is your choice, both are fine, but I tend to prefer the Centro Storico between the two, but some areas of Monti are pretty close to the Centro Storico.

Thank you for the insight!

We have found Google maps on our phones is very helpful for taking buses in Rome --- you can see where the bus stops are, which buses stop there, and when the next buses are coming. In early January the buses were very full and the six of us were often standing up and it was trickier to get our tickets validated in the machines. But on other trips to Rome that were not during people's vacation time, the buses were fine. Buy a few bus tickets before you need them, not right when you are heading somewhere. And another good idea is to use Google maps to follow along as you ride so that you can see where to get off --- the bus stop signs may or may not be called by the name of the site you want to see, and also you want to get ready to get off and move towards the exit door.

Thank you for that input! Along those lines, do the buses have tap and pay? Would prefer that rather than worrying about buying a physical ticket and validating prior if possible

Yes, they did. We discovered that each of the four adults had to use their own credit card --- it makes sense, but it was a bit of a scramble to get all four cards to the machine on a crowded bus since we were widely separated.

Last year in mid October while visiting a friend in Rome, we took the bus in the late afternoon despite her advice against doing so. She had warned us that public transport, especially the bus, was very slow at that time of day....and she was right! She has lived in Rome for 20 years. We traveled from Piazza Navona to the Piramide stop that evening and it took a really long time....over an hour. So you might want to take this into consideration.

Thank you for the insight. Okay so you’re basically confirming my initial suspicions that relying on buses is NOT exactly the way to go. I’m coming from NYC so metro travel is my comfort. I think I’ll stick with that and likely stay in the Monti neighborhood. (Literally have been flip flopping almost daily for the past few weeks on where I should stay haha)

Also thanks - it’s only two of us traveling and we each have our own credit cards, so hopefully that shouldn’t be an issue anywhere for us. I can see that becoming more difficult for bigger families.

Have things changed that much in just a few short years?!

We stayed for a week near Campo de' Fiori in late February 2017. Upon our arrival--with advice from folks on this very forum--we walked to the nearest tabacchi shop and each bought a weekly bus/Metro pass, for 24 Euro apiece.

We were hell-bent on getting our money's worth and we sure did, taking no less than 15 trips here, there & everywhere. It was great. Occasionally during the day, the bus that would pick us up on the main drag Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle was very crowded, but otherwise it was fine. Sometimes on the bus the 'validation' machine, or whatever it was called, was in the middle of the bus and we'd have to pass our passes over for someone nearer the machine to run it through. No problem really but it did happen a couple of times.

We'll be back in Rome for 4 nights in April, about two weeks before Easter. I expect it to be borderline crazy. Already have booked an AirBnB but really don't want to have to take taxis everywhere. I do like the statement upthread that Google Maps has the bus lines on there--seven years ago I bought this laminated bus/Metro line map at Termini station that was great but unfolded it was huge!

So...refresh my memory if someone would. Would I tap my credit card for each usage on a city bus? Or am I better off purchasing in advance a bunch of single ride tickets? And...in this age of technology...is there a Rome taxi app?!

Thanks in advance!

Yes, tap to pay has been implemented on buses and trams in Rome. However, you should keep in mind that it isn't 100% straightforward - from a post earlier this year:

In terms of where the validators are, things may have changed with the implementation of the red credit card terminals.

See this recent post: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/rome-is-contactless-payment-working-on-buses-yet

I can confirm from when we were there in November that the red credit card reader was at the front of the bus on red buses, and the yellow validator at the middle or rear; opposite on silver buses.

On two occasions the credit card reader simply didn't work - I tried multiple cards and then someone told me that it wasn't working. On a third occasion we boarded an overloaded bus in Trastevere [tram wasn't running for some reason] and there was NO way to get to either machine.

ATAC has also implemented a number of electronic cards:

https://www.atac.roma.it/en/tickets-and-passes

Knowing what I know now, I would try to get a paper 72 hr ticket, validate it, and then hopefully good for 3 days.

FreeNow and itTaxi apps are both used in Rome - we had FreeNow and it worked fine on several occasions, although we weren't successful summoning a cab outside the Vatican Museums on a rainy Friday evening - ended up taking the bus back to Trastevere.

The other challenge with the buses is figuring out which bus goes where - there are basic tourist routes described in the RS Rome guidebook; Google Maps and City Mapper may also be helpful. The ATAC route map isn't that easy to read.

Knowing what I know now, I would try to get a paper 72 hr ticket,
validate it, and then hopefully good for 3 days.

FreeNow and itTaxi apps are both used in Rome - we had FreeNow and it
worked fine on several occasions

Thanks, Mark.

Of course, there is the ease of the ATAC e-ticket but the stories of them sometime not working would not be good. I looked on the Rome Transport site and a 3-day pass--totally electronic-- was 27 Euro, which I thought was high. In 2017 a week's pass was 24 Euro! I think what we're going to do is at Termini upon our arrival from Florence, buy--like you say--a 72-hour paper ticket, where the clock won't start until the first time it's validated.

I want to take one day with my group and just wander, stopping at places along the way, utilizing our bus/Metro passes. Kind of our own Hop On Hop Off. We did that a few years ago and it was great fun, but even then in late February the main bus routes were very crowded.

Also, friends of ours have used the WeTaxi app that works like Uber and has done well for them.