Tickets, Please!

The biglietti (tickets) you'll need to use Rome's public transportation system (on the Metro/subway, bus, or tram)

All city transport uses the same

biglietto (ticket),

which costs €1 and gives you 75 minutes during which you can transfer as often as you'd like (including one ride on the Metro). Tickets on buses and trams work on the honor system (backed up by a hefty fine should the freqeunt random bus checks reveal you didn't play by the rules).

Stamp one end of the ticket

on the first bus, tram, or Metro turnstile and the other end when you board the final one.

Note that there are

two types of tickets,

both equally valid (they're slowly changing the system), and two little metal boxes on each bus/tram into which you must stick them. The older, narrow tickets you stamp in the boxier, orange ticket stamper; the wider tickets (printed with a bar code) you need to stick into the more streamlined yellow boxes.

There are also

daily (€4), three-day (€11), and weekly (€16) passes,

but I find myself walking much more than taking the bus, so I don't think they're all that useful, and likely not a savings, since you'd have to take at least four or five rides per day to make them more cost-effective than individual tickets.

You can

buy tickets and passes

from tabacchi (tobacconists), most newsstands, Metro stations, or machines at major bus stops. Just ask for "un biglietto d'autobus, per favore" for one ticket (for other Italian numbers to insert into that phrase, see my handy-dandy phrase sheet.) The ticket should say "BIT" (stands for "integrated timed ticket") and "75 Min."

For more info on Rome's public transportation system (buses, trams, and the Metro) visit www.atac.roma.it.

For more on Rome's general layout—its major streets, squares, and neighborhoods—click here.

Hold on to your ticket until you're off the bus or out of the Metro station to avoid paying that huge fine.

(Interesting side-note: Romans can now buy virtual tickets on the fly via their cell phones with an SMS message; you have to sign up for the service with your Italian service provider, so it's of no use to tourists, but still: pretty cool.)

Getting around: subway | bus | taxi | bike/scooter | car | foot

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