Taxis versus public transportation in Rome

Vey difficult to hail taxis, since they don't cruise empty. Your hotel can call one for you when you are ready to leave for the day, or walk to the nearest taxi stand (there is one near every major monument or piazza).

I don't know rates, but they are not very high.

Keep in mind that with a centrally located hotel, as you have, almost everything is in the historic center not more than a mile or two away. Easy walking.

Bus stops show the bus number with a list of stops, so you may be able to use buses more than you think.

Find your nearest taxi stand. Have destination written, then show that to the driver if you want him to have clear instructions. I've taken buses a couple of times, and I've taken taxis. I like taxis and don't mind paying for them when I can afford it.

I have used taxis in Rome. Some taxi drivers are more honest than others. I have never been "ripped off" though. The most I was "taken" was for a couple of € and definitely not worth haggling over. For central Rome, plan on €10 - 12 € for anywhere you go. For the airport, it's a 48€ flat rate. There is also the metro for certain sites. Go to a taxi stand or have your hotel call a cab. Near the Pantheon, walk for about 3-5 minutes south to Largo Argentina, there's a big taxi stand there. Also, there's a big taxi stand in front of Termini train station. The RS book tells you which taxis are official and which to avoid. I have also used the buses. Many times, the buses are packed like sardines. The metro is crazy crowded during rush hour, but fine otherwise. Rome is very walkable, unless you have a disability.
I recommend a Rome Streetwise map which you can buy here at any "big box" bookstore. Some hotels provide free maps at the front desk. I really like the streetwise map. You can study it before traveling.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and experiences. I will rely on taxis for early morning tours and try buses towards end of day when timing isn't so critical.

I think we just "missed each other" when I edited my post. Get a Streetwise map. Read the end of my post which I edited.

Just remember that if you have your hotel call for a taxi that the meter starts to run as soon as they are called, not when they get to you. I would ask the hotel where the nearest taxi stand is and get your taxi from there every morning. They will know where all the most popular sites are but if you're going to a lesser known site you should have the address available so they can put it in their GPS.

Have small bills handy for paying and always announce how much you're giving the driver. "Here's 20 euros" or similar. This will prevent the "bill switch" scheme from being pulled on you.

Donna

Also, look at the cab meter when the cab stops. If it says, €8.5 - you can pay that amount or round up just a bit to €9 - 10 €. You really don't have to tip, but sometimes rounding off is just easier. It's harder to get change back if you don't speak Italian, so carry €5, €1, and €10 notes.

We usually rely on public transportation but recently in Rome we used taxis on several occasions and found them to be very convenient and efficient. Our hotel (monastery) front desk called them for us and they were there within 3-5 minutes. Several times we had a very early morning tour so we took the taxi going but then walked back to our lodging when we had more time and it was full daylight. The morning we had an entry time at the Borghese Gallery we took the bus which was fairly simple with directions again from the front desk but the location where we were dropped off was 20-25 minutes walk to the gallery so you have to factor in that time. We are big walkers and are not daunted by walking 7-10 miles per day but sometimes the taxis just make more sense.

A gentle suggestion? I, too, am directionally challenged but have found that Rome is a wonderful city best explored and experienced on foot. From behind the glass of a taxi or bus, you'll miss so many of her charms: tiny alleys; interesting churches to pop into; pretty little piazzas; surprising bits of antiquity scattered here and there; appealing little cafes for a street-side cappuccino and some people watching.

The central historic district is very safe so there's no risk of wandering into questionable places, and getting a little lost (we have) is half the fun as we've run into fascinating things we probably wouldn't have otherwise! So those times when you don't have to be somewhere, take a map, put on your walking shoes and pick a direction; you won't be sorry. :O)

Whenever I hit a town, first thing I do is figure out how to get around. Rome's city buses are fast and very easy to navigate between the popular tourist sites. It sure beats paying big $ for a taxi.
Their subway doesn't go from point A to point B in every situation. It's more of within walking distance of point A to within walking distance of point B. For example, Borghese Gallery is still a pretty long hike from the subway, and the buses are a much shorter walk.

Don't know where you hotel is but we always stay in the Termini area. Termini is a central hub for the bus system and the final location for many buses. So -- it is easy at the end of the day to find a bus headed in the correct direction. If it says, Termini, on the bus sign, jump on. Taxis don't cruise a lot so you need to find the taxis stands. And it is important to note, as Donna says, if the hotel calls the taxis the meter starts when the taxi heads you way so there will be a few Euro on the meter when it arrives - it is not a rip off.

Like others have stated, you can't hail a taxi, must use a taxi stand, which we found all over the place as we were at all the major sites. We used Uber and loved it. I had never used Uber before and did not even have the required app. With Uber you pay up front using your credit card that is on file with the company, so no money exchanged with the driver, the car was always a Mercedes and we saw a picture of the driver and reviews of our driver. We ordered a car and received a pick up time, usually 3-5 min. We used Uber just to get from our apartment to our destination especially if we had a set time we needed to be somewhere, which was usually early in the morning. Otherwise we walked, then found a taxi stand to take us back home. Are you going to be using any kind of GPS for walking? That helped us a lot. You can also look on Google maps to see the walking distance from your Hotel to the site you want to visit, it might be closer than you think?

Vatican and Campidoglio (musei capitolini) are both 15-20 min walk from Campo dei Fiori. Unless you are in a major hurry to get there, I wouldn't bother to take a taxi or bus.
Termini and the Borghese Gallery are a long walk, so if you need to get there early, go to the closest taxi stand. On the way back, when you are not in a hurry, just walk or take any bus/metro that takes you closer into the Centro Storico (where Campo dei Fiori is located). There are many options, including the Metro line A from Termini to Spagna. It will be an opportunity to explore Rome on foot. That's the best part of being in a beautiful city like Rome.

Bus Tips
Buy tickets at a newspaper stand or tobacco (tabacchi) shop. Easy to find.
Tickets are one-way only.
Validate your ticket as soon as you get on the bus!!! Very important!
If you can't reach the little box validation machine due to crowding, just say "per favore" and hand your ticket to a person near the machine. Other folks are good about validating your ticket and handing it back to you. If there is a group of you, one person can validate all the tickets at one time as long as there is one ticket per person. Only validate the ticket that you are currently using for a ride. It expires at the end of the ride.

We are debating the same thing right now for the six nights we'll be spending in Rome in late February at an apartment on Campo de' Fiori. I ordered a Streetwise Rome map from the RS site, and I have no doubt it will prove invaluable logistically as it did when we bought a Streetwise Paris for our trip there last year. But be advised that only the Metro A & B routes are shown on this map. For the bus routes, you need to go to the map shown on the Rome Toolkit site:

http://www.atac.roma.it/files/doc.asp?r=3

We will have friends that winter in Rome every year staying at an apartment over by Porta Pia, and they have told us that there are only a handful of main routes to be concerned with, and apparently the 60 bus will do the trick for us going over to see them, catching the bus not far from Campo de' Fiori. To get other places in Rome, that will take much more scrutiny but I'm up to the task!

Because we are planning on using the bus at least 4 or 5 days that we'll be there, I think upon arrival we will stop at a tabacchi shop and buy 7-day bus passes for 24 Euro each. I believe--let me know if I'm incorrect here--that with the pass all you have to do is validate it the first time and you're good to go.

Hey Jay,
I don't know how much the one week pass costs. It's true with a pass that you only have to validate it once and carry it with you. You can keep the validated pass in your pocket. The buses can be very crowded. RS lists the various buses in his guide book. If you are only going to ride a bus twice a day, it may be cheaper just to buy tickets as needed. The bus tickets and the metro tickets are one and the same. Campo dei Fiori is in a great location to just walk to most places. A one week pass may be more than you need. The #87 bus runs to the Colosseum, but can be a pain because it only runs once an hour. If you can see it and hop on it great - but you could also spend more time waiting for it than just walking. (I learned this the hard way.)

Hey SunBaked!

According to the Rome Toolkit, here are the bus costs:

B.I.T. Standard ticket, valid for one Metro ride or 100 minutes on all buses allowing transfers. € 1.50
24 Hour Ticket - valid for unlimited metro, bus, and train travel within Rome for 24 hours from validation. € 7.00
48 Hour Ticket - valid for unlimited metro, bus, and train travel within Rome for 48 hours from validation. € 12.50
72 Hour Ticket - valid for unlimited metro, bus, and train travel within Rome for 72 hours from validation. € 18.00
C.I.S. €24.00. Weekly ticket - valid for 7 calendar days

So, in a sense you are correct. For two people, you'd each have to take a total of 8 round trips (taking longer than 100 minutes btw validations) to make it worth the cost of a 7-day (€48), unless you say not having to validate your ticket every time is worth something.

If one were to say OK, we're taking the bus only 2 non-consecutive days over a week, than two days worth of 24-hour tickets makes sense, costing a total of €28 for two people. And I'll have to find the schedules as well--don't want to waiting all the time either. I have a feeling we'll be utilizing the Campo de' Fiori to Termini station route a bunch, which I see is the 60 bus.

How about the Metro? Any word on that? Looks kind of gritty, which is not necessarily bad if it's more efficient. The Paris Metro was kinda nasty & smelly at times but that was definitely the best way to get around town, more efficiently on time than you would think. Can we expect timeliness for Roman public transportation?

The metro runs primarily along the east side (Termini) of Rome and the North border.(Santa Maria/Piazza Populo). There is also a metro stop right across the street from the Colosseum (Good for St. Paul outside the walls.). The metro is fine, but try to avoid rush hour. So, you may want to bus over to Termini. Then, walk to Santa Prassede and Santa Maria Maggiore. Then, take the metro to St. John Lateran Complex. Then, walk to San Clemente, Colosseum. Now, you can either bus back to Campo or take a long stroll and hit a few smaller churches like Cosmo and Damian along the way. I would guess that you will use public transportation about 4 times a day at most. Some days, you may not even use public transportation. Try to organize your sightseeing by location. Sights can be in geographic clusters. For example, there's a lot to see around Pantheon and Piazza Navona and you will just walk to these places from Campo dei Fiori. Then, there are multiple sights around the Colosseum and so on. So, you may bus only a couple of times a day.

Have small bills with you in Euro -- 10s, 5s, 1 Euro coins, even some 2 Euro coins are useful;
Be sure to spell your destination correctly when you hand the paper to the driver;
Walk to the taxi stand for a cab, look around for these stands or ask your hotel where they are;
Google www.worldtaximeter.com, I did this for you, using 8:00 AM for the trip:
From Campo dei Fiori to the Vatican, cost is 8.32 Euro for 2.45 KM, 11 minute trip, give 9 Euro to the driver;
From CdF to the Capitoline Museums, cost is 9.69 Euro for 3.45 KM, 16 minute trip, give 10 Euro to driver;
From CdF to the Borghese Gallery, cost is 15.37 Euro for 6.16 KM, 22 minute trip, give 16 Euro to driver;
From CdF to Termini, cost is 10.65 Euro for 3.76 KM, 19 minute trip, give 11 Euro to driver.
True these are estimates but they are very close to the actual fares. If you don't have an idea of actual fares, Rome taxis especially will ask you for double fares. In Rome you simply must have an idea of actual fare cost before you get in the cab! You can say the cost to the driver before you enter the cab or just hand the actual fare cost to the driver as you exit the taxi.

Florence is a different story, but Rome taxi drivers are the most dishonest in Italy, your defense is knowledge, works for me!

Ticket and pass Info from Roma ATAC (the city's public transit website):

http://www.atac.roma.it/page.asp?p=229&i=14

One caution with the buses is that during heavy traffic/commuter periods, it can be faster to walk between some points than to ride. Some of the buses we saw were so jammed with humans that we were glad to be making our journey on foot!

Great tips, all! I'm flagging this link for future reference.

I believe that you have 4 people traveling, so taxis should be a good value for your group. Some maps in Rick's guidebooks mark taxi stands with a T in circle, while tram stops are a T in black square.

I just returned from Rome and had some frustrating experiences with taxis. The taxis are fine if you can get them. We waited 20 minutes at a taxi stand one day behind several other people and no taxi ever came. The owner of the B & B where we were staying said it was likely because there had been rain earlier and that on a day with rain one cannot count on a taxi. In another example, we barely got to the Galleria Borghese on time because after ordering a taxi that was "five minutes" away it actually did not come for 25 minutes. So I am currently not a fan. I do try to walk whenever possible.
Cynthia

My experience is that a map is only useful if you know where you are and have your bearings. I used to carry a compass with my map, but these days I just download the map to googlemap on my smartphone and use that. If you have a smart phone you can try the same.

But I agree with a previous poster that half the joy of cities like Rome (and Venice) is to get lost and see the back alleys. Use the phone when you need to be somewhere fast or when you are tired and want to go home to your hotel :-)

We have used taxis quite a bit during our 3 times in Rome, most recently last month. We found them to be fairly inexpensive and even though we could have walked between destinations, we were often worn out, especially towards the end of the day. There are taxi stands near most touristy areas/sites. A previous poster suggested if you're in the Pantheon area you should walk to Largo Argentina to find a taxi stand. Just want to point out that there is a taxi stand right in the Piazza Della Rotunda (Pantheon square), so no need to walk to Largo Argentina. We stayed right in the Piazza where the Pantheon is and frequently took taxis from the taxi stand there; it's directly on the side of the Pantheon itself and there were always plenty of taxis lined up. Same thing at the far end of Piazza Navona.

We used Uber last month as well but in Rome, it's only Uber Black which was pretty comparable to the cost of a taxi without having to locate a taxi stand. As another poster pointed out, it's very easy to use and the cost was definitely comparable to a taxi (if not less) but with the added bonus of having a nice, clean, air conditioned Mercedes & a nicely dressed driver!

As for being directionally challenged, we successfully used Google Maps walking directions to get around and it worked well. You of course have to have data but we were surprised at how well it worked and used the app A LOT,

Back a digital eternity ago--actually only 2010--we brought a handheld Garmin with us after paying a pretty penny to have Rome & Florence street maps installed on it. Thought we'd solved the dilemma of not looking like tourists consulting a map at every turn. Wrong! Not only were the cartoonish graphics substandard, but in Florence walking down those rabbit-warren streets, the Garmin got more lost than we did! Looked like a bunch of linguine on the screen at times.

So...as stated above, we purchased a laminated Streetwise Rome map for our upcoming trip. Yes, it's static, not zoomable, although there a close-up map of the Historic Central District. But it's there, it doesn't take batteries and it's pretty much indestructible. Old school to be sure.

I have considered trying out GPS on my phone, but I'll have to see what kind of unlimited data deal I can get before the trip. Probably fodder for another thread...!

Yes, it's static, not zoomable, although there a close-up map of the
Historic Central District. But it's there, it doesn't take batteries
and it's pretty much indestructible. Old school to be sure.

You'd be surprised how many tourists find old-fashioned maps to work better for them than those on a small screen. It's so much easier to see the entire picture at once without a lot of moving and zooming around. They somehow put things into context, if that makes any sense? And no one is interested in stealing them, and they work no matter where you are! I'm betting yours will do ya just fine, Jay. :O)

And if you have a magnification app on your phone, you can zoom into the Streetwise (my favorite) map as well.