bus & subway passes in rome

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Public transport (buses, trams and the metro) in Rome is so cheap that you probably don't really need a weekly or monthly pass ticket if you're only here for two or three weeks. The 'metrebus' ticket costs only 1 Euro. This is really good value, and the price has stayed the same for about ten years. It is valid for 75 minutes of travel almost anywhere in and around Rome and you can change buses as many times as you want during that time. You are also allowed one subway (underground railway) journey during that period, using the same ticket. The ticket typically looks like this:

You can change trains as often as you need to during your one subway journey of course, but you cannot leave a station and re-enter or enter another station for a fresh journey on the same ticket. There's almost no travel distance limit though - no zones like in London - you can almost travel from one end of Rome to the other on the same ticket. It's a fraction of the cost of London Transport charges right now.

buying your metro ticket

At metro stations in the suburbs there is usually a manned ticket selling window, but if not, and at all or most city center metro stations, there are ticket selling machines in the station entrance hall. The machines give change, but don't count on it. For that matter, don't count on the machines even working. But when they do work, you can even select your language on the machine's touch-screen. Nice. When it's working.
Often though, as we say, the machines are 'out of order' ('guasto' in Italian), and there is no human ticket seller in the station. (sometimes, often in fact, they are on strike) and in this case, there is another place you can buy metro/bus tickets in Italian cities - a tobacconist! (tabaccheria) Yep, to the Italian mind it's convenient to buy bus tickets where you buy your cigarettes... Even if you don't smoke. So go back out into the street and look for a sign just like this:

Usually a large white (or faded off-white) 'T' on a black background, a vertical sign that's about two feet high by one foot wide (60x30cm) and is usually hanging or mounted over the doorway, so look up. It's a government-issued sign that means the shopkeeper within is licensed to sell tobacco. And they also sell metro/bus tickets...
Actually, Romebuddy's local metro station ticket office is usually closed or on strike, so I always buy all my metro tickets from my local tabaccheria. It's a lot easier than buying them from the station (sigh!)

Tabaccherie also sell chocolate bars, candy, lottery tickets and small gifts, and many tabaccherie are incorporated into bars (cafés). I can't believe they make any profit from selling bus and metro tickets, it's more like just a public service, so if you're a tourist or longer term visitor to Italy and you're planning on often buying your tickets in the same local tabaccheria, and even if you're not a smoker, we recommend you buy some chocolate or something in there now and again, as well as just tickets, to keep up goodwill with the shopkeeper.

As a last resort, some newspaper stands also sell tickets.

punching your metro ticket

You MUST remember to punch your tickets in the little punching machines at the entry barriers in stations, on the station platforms, or inside the buses (usually near the rear of the bus, on the left). The punching machines are usually coloured yellow. In fact since 2007, most of the metro stations are being updated with electronic turnstiles that won't open unless you insert your ticket in the slot to be punched, just like London or New York has had for fifty years. Rome has finally caught up to 20th Century fare-fraud busting technology.
Sometimes the buses are so packed that you can't fight your way down the aisle to get to the machine, but do your best, as ticket inspectors are on the prowl, and they know that lots of American students resident in the city try to dodge fares by buying a ticket but never punching it.
The tickets are made of really cheap thin card, so you have to poke it fairly carefully downwards into the slot at the top of the yellow punching machines in the direction of the red arrow, with the ticket facing you just like in the picture above. The machine sucks it in and in about a second and a half, spits it back up out at you, with your platform entry-time and an extra barcode printed on the back, and also, we assume, coded into the magnetic strip, so it's practically fraud proof.

DON'T JUST LEAVE IT THERE! - It's not just an entry token like in New York. You have to pull the ticket out again and KEEP IT WITH YOU for the duration of the journey as proof of payment. Also LOOK then on the back of it to confirm that it has been correctly stamped with the time and date of travel. If it hasn't, you can still be spot-fined or prosecuted for evident fare-dodging.

Remember that in Italy, (conversely unlike the UK or US), you are presumed guilty until proven innocent, so if they catch you without a valid ticket, they will not listen to excuses. For example, EVERY morning down in the subway at Termini station there is a portable desk set up in a niche of one of the pedestrian walkway tunnels for the interchange between the Linea A and the Linea B, and standing around that desk every rush hour are two or three unfortunate fare dodgers who have been caught and are paying out spot fines to the inspectors that sit there.

NOTE - Even if your ticket is a season ticket for All-Day, Three-Day, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly, you still MUST punch it in the turnstile machine, the FIRST time you use it. This validates it for the duration stated on the ticket, but there is no need to punch it again. Just the first time.

There are also some new plastic credit-card sized metro and bus pass cards available now, mostly as long term or annual season passes. These don't have to be inserted in the slot, you instead just wave it across the front of the yellow punching machine in a swiping action and the machine senses it and opens the turnstile barriers for you. However, I've observed a lot of people around town having difficulty getting the machine to sense the chip in the plastic card okay. This is distressing because the plastic card has nothing visible on it to say that it's still current. It has to be periodically electronically topped up with money like a cellphone simcard, but only the machine can sense this, so you should also carry with you the printed paper receipt they gave you when you last paid to top up your plastic metro card. Stupid, huh? - Negates the purpose of the electronic card.

You'll find that the metrebus ticket gives you plenty of cheap flexibility of travel for short stays in Rome. You can buy them at any subway station or bar tabacchi, (but you CANNOT buy them on the bus! ie - You can't pay the driver - You have to have a ticket before you can get on a Rome bus, train, or tram (though some trams now have a new ticket-selling machine inside them, although this can't be relied upon - There's even a sign on it saying you can't rely on it - More time-wasting and intentionally intimidating Italian bureaucratic inefficiency... That sign in essence says - "We are the State, we expect you to be subjugated and dependent on us, but don't expect any obligation of considerate service-efficiency from us in return")

Bottom line - DON'T get on an Italian metro, train, bus or tram, or pass a ticket barrier into a station without having a valid ticket ALREADY in your possession, and STAMP the ticket when you get on the bus or tram, or go through the station entrance barrier, if it hasn't been stamped already. Otherwise you are liable for prosecution or large spot fines by random spot-checking roving ticket inspectors.

There are also ticket selling machines in most metro station entrance lobbies, if the ticket selling window is unmanned. The machines give change, but don't bank on it.

click for more information on monthly, weekly, daily and season passes