Rome Transportation Tips by breughel Top 5 Page for this destination

Brussels - Rome by Brussels Airlines.

Last winter (2007-08) we have been flying five times from Brussels to Rome and return with Brussels Airlines. On one flight we left late (45 minutes) from Brussels. On another one from Rome we left 20 minutes late. All other flights were on time.
Brussels Airlines is the regular Belgian company. It is NOT a low cost low service company but Brussels Airlines has competitive, all inclusive, prices when booking a few weeks in advance.
With the b.light economy rate one is allowed to take a 20 kg registered luggage (with no extra cost) and 8 kg hand luggage (1 piece).
For Europe the planes are B 737, Airbus A 319 or AVRO RJ85 – AVRO RJ100. All these planes have seats with sufficient space for the legs.
Drinks and food can be bought on the European flights with the b.light economy rate.
Brussels Airlines joins Brussels National to Rome Fiumicino.

I read here a quite enthusiast comment from 2004 on Ryan Air.
Since then travellers have been able to compare the overall and final net prices, the comfort and service between the two companies. Furthermore Brussels National is an all weather airport while Charleroi at 40 km from Brussels, from where Ryan Air operates is closed when there is mist.
Just read (27/02/2009) in various EU papers that Ryanair plans to charge (1 £) for using plane toilets. I first thought it was an early April Fool's day joke!

Mode: TO

Type: Airplane

Website: http://www.brusselsairlines.com

Urban and Regional Railways. Train Review

Two metro lines are insufficient for a city as big as Rome (3 million inhabitants); a third is under construction.
There are many busses but they are usually crowded.

It can therefore be useful to take profit of the urban railways and regional railways who are accessible with the same ticket, for example BIT ticket, as the metro and busses within limits of territorial validity which are rather large. See my pic n° 4 and the maps on www.atac.roma.it

The 3 urban railways "Ferrovie Urbane" are:
Roma - Lido di Ostia;
Roma - Civitacastellana - Viterbo;
Roma - Pantano.

There are 8 "Ferrovie Regionale" regional railways of which the useful ones for moving inside the city are:

FR1 (Orte/Fara Sabina - Fiumicino Aeroporto);
FR2 (Tivoli - Roma Tiburtina);
FR3 (Cesano/Viterbo - Roma Ostiense);
FR4 (Castelli Romani - Roma Termini);
FR5 (Civitavecchia - Roma Termini).

I used to take the FR3 going to the North and deserving the Monte Mario area.
The trains are double deck, comfortable and clean inside but heavily tagged outside as well as the stations who don't look welcoming except the S. Pietro station (correspondence with bus 64) at about 700 m south from the Piazza S.Pietro. This train FR3 gives correspondence with Metro A at Valle Aurelia station and Metro B at his terminal Ostiense station.
All this with the normal BIT ticket at 1 €. In the week a train every 15 minutes, on Sunday every 30 minutes. As the BIT ticket is only valid for 75 minutes, have it validated when the train arrives at your station, not before.
The FR3 trains and stations seemed safe at least when I took them in day time.
Note that rails and platform are called "binario" in Italian

Mode: TO,AROUND

Type: Train

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

Metrebus Roma Tickets - Validation. Metro-Bus-Tram Review

You know that your Metro bus ticket BIT has to be validated when starting the journey. This is a must. But what if the validating machine "obliteratrice" doesn't work?
First try another one, but it can happen that all machines of a station are "fuori servizi" don't work. During all February 2008 the six machines at the urban railway station Gemelli (deserving the major Roman hospital) were out of service!

What to do? Don't think it is not your problem. On your ticket is written, only in Italian, in very small characters, that you have to validate your ticket by writing on it datum, time, station "In caso di malfunzionamento dell'obliteratrice il viaggiatore dovra annulare il titolo di viaggio apponendovi la data, l'ora ed il numero di vettura o la stazione sul retro".
Do that, at Gemelli station (urban train line FM3) I had just hand filled in my BIT ticket that there was a control on the train.

Another thing; when validating your ticket in a machine turn the illustrated side down. The machine prints on the upper side.

Mode: TO,AROUND

Type: Subway/Metro

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