By air
Rome has two
airports :
Leonardo da Vinci, better known
simply as Fiumicino, which
handles most scheduled flights,
and Ciampino, where you'll
arrive if you're travelling on a
charter, or with Go or one of
the other low-cost European
airlines.
Taxis in from
either airport cost around
L80,000, more at night, and take
30-45 minutes; they're worth
considering if you are in a
group but otherwise the public
transport connections are
reasonable.
Fiumicino is connected
to the centre of Rome by direct
trains, which make the
thirty-minute ride to Termini
for L16,000; services begin at
7.37am, and then leave hourly
from 8.07am until 10.07pm.
Alternatively, there are more
frequent trains to Trastevere,
Ostiense and Tiburtina stations,
each on the edge of the city
centre, roughly every twenty
minutes from 6.27am to 11.27pm;
tickets to these stations cost
L8000, and Tiburtina and
Ostiense are just a short metro
ride from Termini, making it a
much cheaper (and not
necessarily slower) journey; or
you can catch city bus #175 from
Ostiense, or city bus #492 or
#649 from Tiburtina, to the
centre of town. These cheaper
alternatives do inevitably,
however, involve a certain
amount more bag-hauling.
There are no direct
connections between the city
centre and Ciampino .
Hourly buses run from the
airport to the Anagnina metro
station, at the end of line A -
a thirty-minute journey (L2000),
from where it's a twenty-minute
ride into the centre. Failing
that, you can take a bus from
the airport to Ciampino
overground train station, a
ten-minute journey, and then
take a train into Termini, which
is a further twenty minutes. The
BA budget offshoot, Go,
incidentally, lay on their own
bus to Piazza Santa Maria
Maggiore, half an hour after the
arrival of each of their
flights, but it's no quicker and
they charge L18,000 for it.
By train
Travelling by
train from
most places in Italy, or indeed
from other parts of Europe, you
arrive at
Stazione Termini
, centrally placed for all parts
of the city and meeting-point of
the two metro lines and many
city bus routes. There's a
left-luggage
facility here (daily
5:15am-midnight; L5000 per piece
every 12hr), but bear in mind
that they won't accept plastic
bags; note that the Enjoy Rome
office will also look after its
customers' luggage.
Among other rail stations
in Rome, Tiburtina, is a stop
for some north-south intercity
trains; selected routes around
Lazio are handled by the
Regionali platforms of Stazione
Termini (a further five-minute
walk from the regular
platforms); and there's also the
COTRAL urban train station on
Piazzale Flaminio, which runs to
La Giustiniana - the so-called
Roma-Nord line.
By bus
Arriving by bus can leave
you in any one of a number of
places around the city. The main
stations include Ponte Mammolo
(trains from Tivoli and Subiaco);
Lepanto (Cerveteri,
Civitavecchia, Bracciano area);
EUR Fermi (Nettuno, Anzio,
southern Lazio coast); Anagnina
(Castelli Romani); Saxa Rubra (Viterbo
and around). All of these
stations are on a metro line,
except Saxa Rubra, which is on
the Roma-Nord line and connected
by trains every fifteen minutes
with the station at Piazzale
Flaminio, on metro line A.
Eurolines buses from outside
Italy terminate on Piazza della
Repubblica.
By road
Coming into the city by road
can be quite confusing. If you
are on the A1 highway coming
from the north take the exit
"Roma Nord"; from the
south, follow exit "Roma
Est". Both lead you to the
Grande Raccordo Anulare, which
circles the city and is
connected with all of the major
arteries into the city centre -
the Via Cassia from the north,
Via Salaria from the northeast,
Via Tiburtina or Via Nomentana
from the east, Via Appia Nuova
and the Pontina from the south,
Via Prenestina and Via Casilina
or Via Cristoforo Colombo from
the southeast, and Via Aurelia
from the northwest.
