Getting around: train stations

TERMINI Station

It is the most important and large train station in Rome, and also the centre of Rome's transport system. It is a rather efficient place although it is a little crowded, like all train stations. It is the largest European train station, it was renovated in the past couple of years, and presently it is also perhaps the nicest and most complete European station, as you can find here nearly everything. On the other hand, watch out as Rome's pickpockets and petty thieves have their base here because needless to say this is where their "customers" (i.e. the travellers to be robbed) can be found. So be alert all the time..
Most inter-city trains and all the very fast Eurostars trains (also called "Pendolino" or ETR) arrive here, while fewer trains, particularly the night time ones, arrive and leave from the TIBURTINA and OSTIENSE stations (please read below).

In the Termini station there are several facilities:

- Left luggage (near platform 22, it is open from 5 AM to midnight, the fare is 5,000 Ital. lira per item every 12 hours. You pay at the cashier when you leave the luggage and you will be given a receipt ("scontrino"). Do not lose it or you will not be able to retrieve your luggage.
- Tourist information service, near platform 3.
- Train to the airport, near platform 22, leaving every 30 min. appr. You can buy tickets in the office nearby.
- Train information service (in the main hall, at the left if you come from the train tracks, presently the structure is renovated so check well).
- WASTEELS AGENCY, in front of platform n. 1, where you can buy cheap train and airplane fares to other European destinations. The three persons working in this little office are Carmine, Adriano and Mr. Enrico Paparelli (manager). They are kind and professional people who will do anything they can to help you. We consider this as Rome's best agency, and we turn to them when we have a travel problem which seemingly cannot be solved. We highly recommended it to everydoby.
Their phone number is 064825537, fax. 4828268. The internet site of the company is http://www.wasteels.it
- Office for car rental (or ride to the airport if you want to go there by car and not by train) just next to it.
- Exchange Office, in the middle of the same corridor.
- Police Office, just next to it ("Carabinieri")
- the "Drugstore", a 24 hours non stop shopping centre including a supermarket, in the underground hall on the way to the subway stations.
- the shopping centre in the underground hall includes 200 shops of all sorts. The area is very clean, the shops are very well stocked. They are also open from early in the morning until 10 PM. This shopping centre is the largest and best you can find in a European train station presently.
- the 2 subway lines of Rome ("A"-red and "B" blu). To get there, look for the flights of stairs going down with a big "M" sign. Take the blu line (with direction Rebibbia if you have to go to Tiburtina station or EUR for the Colosseum), and the red one with direction "Ottaviano" if you have to the Vatican (last stop), or to the Spanish Steps ("Spagna" stop).
- in front of the station there is a very large square (Piazza Dei Cinquecento), with the taxi station and many bus lines originating or stopping here (64 to Piazza Venezia, Piazza Navona and the Vatican, 170 to Largo Argentina and Trastevere, 492 to Via Veneto, the Vatican on one side and the Tiburtina station on the othere side, etc.).

The STAZIONE TIBURTINA is in the East side of town, near the University "La Sapienza", the S. Lorenzo quarter and the Verano monumental cemetery (both Catholic and Jewish).
This station is adjacent to Rome's most important interregional bus station. From here you can make daily excursions to Pompeii, Assisi, Orvieto, Siena, Perugia. Please look also this page: day trips (click on the link to go to the page).
The Tiburtina station was completely renewed in the last two years, and presently it competes with Termini to be the most important station in town. It is very efficient and also clean.
In the Tiburtina station you will find:

- Left luggage, at the left in the middle of the central hall. It has the same timeble, regulations and timetable of the one in Termini. Moreover in Tiburtina there is also a locker service. The lockers are on the right side of the hall, after a corner continuing with a corridor bringing to the trains.
- Western Union Quick Pay service, near the main entrance. Although we do not recommend Western Union services for money transfers to travel agencies, as they proved to be cumbersome, not working nor reliable, when the service is used to send money from person-to-person it works well, although the exchange rate plus fee is not convenient at all. The young Italian owner of the kiosk is very courteous and will do anything to help you.
- Exchange office: still near the entrance.
- apart from the counters where you can buy train tickets, there is also a kiosk where you can buy the tickets for urban and province bus service (including to the Villa D'Este in Tivoli and the Adrian Villa on the way to it). You will find it at the end of the large shop called "Tiburshop", at the left of hall when you enter.
- the "Drugstore", just like the one in Termini (please read above).
- the offices of the bus companies to purchase tickets for regional and interregional bus tickets (Pompeii, Siena, Assisi etc.). You will find the "Marozzi" office on the left side of the station building, if you look at it from  the entrance. The "Arpa" office is at the ground floor of the buiding one the other side of the street bordering the station.
- the subway line "B" (take it with direction EUR if you have to go to the Colosseum or to Termini), and also the train going to the airport. This originates from FARA SABINA or ORTE, it is very frequent (app. one every 20 minutes during working days), comfortable and especially cheap (only 7,000 Ital. lira and not 15,000 Ital. Lira). It usually leaves from platform 3, but you better check in the information monitors before. The train has in-between stops also at the Ostiense and Trastevere stations.
- a square in front of the station with many important bus lines:(492 to Stazione Termini, all the historical sights of the centre, it ends at the Vatican, 71 to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, 490 and 495 to the Villa Borgese park and to the Museum Borghese).

If you want to reach the TIBURTINA station from Termini (or viceversa): Metro line B stop TIBURTINA - TERMINI or bus 492 (or 9).  While these buses originate in the square in front of the Tiburtina station, they pass by the very large square in front of Termini, without entering the large square itself. So be preapared to get off without waiting that the buses arrive directly at the station entrance.
At night you should take bus 42N, which is very frequent (every 24 minutes), running all night as the shuttle bus (in fact while Termini closes at 1 PM, Tiburtina remains open). the bus originates at Termini froma platform in the middle of the square, while in Tiburtina is has the same platform of bus 492.

From TRASTEVERE station - to TERMINI: the best way is bus 170. As this bus lately seems not very frequent, then you can catch also the very frequent new tram 8 in front of  Statione Trastevere (the stop is in the avenue at the left just after the parking place), and then when you arrive at Largo Argentina (end of the line) you should take from there another very frequent bus of Rome, n. 64. Of course you can take the same means the other way around.

TIBURTINA- OSTIENSE-TRASTEVERE and viceversa. The best way is to take the train going to the airport evey 20 minutes, which has all these stations as in-between stops. When in town, this train costs like any other city metro, with the same cost (Ital. Lira 1,500 - app. 85 US cents). Between Tiburtina and Ostiense there is also the Metro. The stop for Ostiense is called "Piramide".

To reach TERMINI from OSTIENSE (and viceversa): you can take the Metro line B, and stop at Piramide, or take bus 27.