Airport Limo service and other Rome, Italy Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: I never use white taxis, drivers tend to be rude, cars dirty, fares are a rip-off, credit cards unknown and they even charge you when you are stuck in the traffic.
CoopAirport runs an excellent fixed-price limo service (I think it's 45 euros to the centre but I'm not sure as I live nearer the airport and pay only 35). They accept credit cards, speak hand-English (they move their hands so foreigners understand :o), help you load and unload luggage and you can easily fit four people in one of their larger cars (they also operate 7-seater minivans).
You can book a car on arrival by calling or by just visiting their stand at Terminal A arrival hall (right in front of the luggage hall exit). I think they close at 10 pm so if you arrive later than that you'd be best calling them in advance and they'll have a car waiting for you.

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Phone: +390665079001

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: Sciopero, or strike, is the nightmare of the tourist in Italy, and especially in cities like Rome where people don't find driving too comfortable (I disagree - driving in Rome is an excellent experience, but that's the subject of another tip).
A bit of planning can avoid the inconveniences of a strike. In particular, the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure has a good website where all the planned strikes are listed. The website (in Italian) is continuously updated. And before you say anything, I'll admit: strikes are pretty much the only well-planned thing in Italy.

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Website: http://www.infrastrutturetrasporti.it/page/standard/site.php?p=scioperi

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: Rome has two airports, Fiumicino (the main one), situated west of the city 30 minutes by train from the railway station (direct service), and Ciampino, located east of the city some 25 minutes away by bus.

Fiumicino is served by all major airlines, and is Europe's 5th largest airport as per passenger traffic. Ciampino is the homebase of several low-cost airline, and its traffic is growing steadily with the expansion of the industry.

Both airports are quite efficient, clean and well organized, save for luggage handling which can be really slow at times.

In order to be sure to catch your flight, plan to be at the airport 1h before for domestic and European flights in Fiumicino and for all flights in Ciampino, and around 1h30' before for intercontinental flights in Fiumicino (save for flights to the US and Israel, for which you should arrive up to 4h early).

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Website: http://www.adr.it/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: If you happen to have to drive around Rome, please remember that it's not that big nightmare as people depict it. Millions of drivers negotiate the streets of our capital every day, and very few of them actually die or experience serious damage to either themselves or their cars.

Actually I'll go even further: I hereby claim that Italy (and especially Rome) has the most civilized driving habits on Earth.

Before you start storming VT with angry replies, hear this: among the large countries, Italy has the highest car density in the world. If you decided to put all the cars in Rome on the street at the same time, you'd be disappointed to find out that they would not fit. Yet, you see very few accidents, and most of those are due to scooters, careless pedestrians (usually tourists) and bad road condition.

So you'll want to know how to drive (or walk) around when in Rome. Since VT does not allow me to put them all in a single tip, I'll produce several tips, one for each rule category.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: 1) Don't be stressed by vehicles of lower size, they'll take care of themselves.

2) When negotiating a crossing that looks too messy (such as the one between Via di Decima and Via Colombo, a real masterpiece of demential engineering), go slowly forward and be prapared to brake suddenly in case your neighbours happen to have a different opinions over priorities.

3) if you need to do something stupid (like a U-turn in a jammed road) because you got lost or took the wrong way, make sure you signal your intentions. Roman drivers are very tolerant of stupid manoeuvres (they see hundreds of them every day) and will not honk too much.

4) follow the flow, do as the Romans do.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: A city with 2.3 million cars deserves a walking tip. While most of Rome's centre is pedestrianized, you'll occasionally have to cross a street with lots of traffic. Here's a couple of useful rules.

1) Remember that 90% of traffic deaths and injuries come from pedestrians, and take care.

2) Find the nearest zebras or traffic lights, then start crossing with moderate and constant speed, always looking to the forthcoming driver (there'll be one). Don't wait for drivers to stop, just walk ahead and don't panic: they will.

3) If you don't feel safe crossing at some point, walk ahead or back a few hundred meters, and you'll most probably find zebras or at least a place with better visibility.

4) Follow the flow, do as the Romans do.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: The most dangerous things on the roman roads are scooters. The larger these are, the more treacherous they are, since their drivers tend to consider them as bicycles, but they have the size of a small lorry.

The second most dangerous things are Smart cars (those ugly two-seaters made by Mercedes and Swatch, which tend to be driven by bimbos and teenagers with more gel on the head than brain inside).

The third most dangerous things are pedestrians who don't follow my previous tip on walking rules and do one of the following: suddenly start crossing very fast, then stop two metres away from the pavement; start crossing then back off; start crossing slowly without looking; then start running when they see a car approaching; start crossing outside the zebras (they are indeed very important); start crossing, then answer the mobile phone or (even worse) start texting their friends, looking for their lost mates, search a lipstick in their bag, and so on.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: There's been some negative comments on Rome's airport on the VT forum recently, so I thought I'd post my reply in here as a tip.

I have been flyiing in and out of Fiumicino about once a week since May 2004, on both domestic and international routes. I find the airport one of the best in the world (and faaar better than Milan Malpensa, which stinks big time). I have only seen Amsterdam and Singapore functioning better among the airports of a comparable size. It is definitely way nicer and smoother than London Heathrow, Madrid Barajas, Frankfurt (where they must applied an engineering law that the walk between any two gates must last at least 45 minutes) and not even comparable to disasters like Paris CDG, New York JFK and Dallas FW (my personal favourite, where I once missed a flight arriving three hours before departure).

Consider this: I live about 24 km from the airport When I have to take a domestic flight, I leave home by car exactly 60 minutes before the flight is due to depart, or by train around 1h20 minutes before, and have never missed one (well, I have - when the motorway to the airport caught fire due to some idiot throwing a cigarette in the dry bushes). Hardly something you can do in Paris, London or New York.

The most annoying delays I have experienced are at luggage collection, especially in the domestic terminal (the variance is really high, sometimes you find luggage waiting for you, other times it's you who has to wait, and for long time). The only problems you may have at the departure hall are at security check, but usually that's quite smooth.

Considering that Fiumicino is one of the top-5 European airports in term of passenger traffic (I think I remember that they had around 150 thousand flights in the first 6 months of 2005), some problems and delays here and there are to be expected, as is natural in such a large and complex structure.

I find it to be a real good hub - up to you to judge for yourself!

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Website: http://www.adr.it/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: I thought I'd share a few tips for people that have difficulties in moving, for instance if they are disabled..

Most (but not all) buses are of the new, low-floor, disabled-friendly type, so they shouldn't be a problem. Also, on all buses there will be one or two seats that are reserved for disabled people (and usually the other passengers won't hesitate to help and give up their seats).

The metro is another thing: if you can manage escalators then it's fine, otherwise not all stations have lifts. The stations with easy access for disabled people are marked on underground maps.

Trams can be new or old. The new ones have good access, the old ones I honestly don't remember (they only run on line 3, and I seldom take it).

With trains you will usually have a problem as most stations are built so that you have to climb three steep steps to get on. However, in larger stations you can get the station personnel to help you (e.g. by lifting your wheelchair).

For airports, there is total assistance, so you should be ok wherever you go.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: The VT fora regularly host questions of the "how often does bus line xx run?" or "until what time does tram yy run?". I thought I'd answer once and for all so I created this tip.

First of all, buses run relatively frequently during the day, that is starting around 5 am and until midnight. Between midnight and 5 am only the lines whose number ends with an N (e.g. line 70N) actually run, and usually at intervals going from 20 to 60 minutes.

Secondly, do consider that buses are affected by traffic conditions, so do expect some variance from the posted times, especially at rush hour (which is roughly between 7 am and 10 am, and again between 5 pm to 8 pm). Also, during heavy traffic, buses suffer from a notorious phenomenon (which has been even studied with queuing theory) that sees buses running on the same line pile up (a very full one at the front of the pile, followed by increasingly empty ones right away). This is inevitable so give up to it, and if you see a too full bus it may be worth taking a risk and waiting for the next one.

Going around by bus in Rome may feel frustrating at times, but before raging out you must consider the sheer size of the city. There are 326 bus lines in Rome, and they cover an amazing 2152 kms, employing 2487 buses. Overall, buses and trams travel some 140 MILLION kms every year, transporting close to a billion people. Expecting a bit of delays is just normal.

Since VT does not give me enough space, I'll detail instructions on how to find out bus timetables in another tip.

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Website: http://www.atac.roma.it/