Getting Around: Your Guide to Traveling in Rome

May 16, 2025
Categories: Uncategorized

By Lauren Wallace, who studied abroad in Rome, Italy in Spring 2025

So you want to travel, that is amazing, and a great opportunity to learn, but always research where you’re going, how you’ll get around, and just about everything you can about this new place. You are not a local, and a lot of what you know about transportation, buying goods, greeting people, and every aspect of your life will be different where you’re going. Some of these differences are smaller and easier to digest, while others could come as a cultural shock, so best to be as prepared as possible before entering any new place! In this guide, I will be giving you information as of 2025 for getting around. Please keep in mind that if you are visiting any country or city, you should always double-check your resources and be up to date with any changes!


Let us get started in Rome, Italy. Here are the key apps or websites you’ll want to pay attention to during your stay, including but never limited to:
● Freenow – This is the best app for taxis and getting around quickly, or to and from the airport.
● Omio – This is the best app for booking train tickets, and finding the best modes of transport to places further away, you can also use it for short distance travel but keep in mind they are not the primary provider, for flights, I like to find the flight on Omio, and then book it through the official provider for the best rates.
● Google Translate – Great for downloading languages, scanning texts to translate, and having conversations with others
● Duolingo – Although some people say it’s a scam, it will encourage you to continuously learn the language and will help
● Komoot – This one is for the hikers out there who plan on doing any hiking or exploring trails while abroad. I personally never used it in Italy, but was planning to if I went down towards Sicily or North by the mountains. I used it while hiking in Switzerland and it was great for finding the best trails and editing them for shorter or longer routes.
● UK ETA- If you are just passing through the UK with a U.S. passport, you won’t need this (double check on their website for up-to-date accuracy,) but if you’re planning on visiting the UK outside of the airport or without a U.S. passport, you’ll need this
● Google Maps – This is your new best friend, if you don’t already have some sort of mapping app I recommend getting googles, it’s not perfect but it will get you to where you need to go and will tell you the times for public transportation.

When you first get to Italy, it’s best to have the Freenow app downloaded with a card already on file, you’ll take a Taxi for about 55 euros to where you’re staying in Rome. Check your routes before departing from where you’re staying, to make sure you know where you’re going, how long it’ll take, and if it’s not a simple route, I recommend downloading it. You can also see if a bus, tram, or metro would be better to take. All lines run through ATAC, so if you want to learn more or are having trouble paying for a ticket to board, go online to their website. Having said that, the bus ticket is roughly 1.50 Euros and lasts 100 minutes, so feel free to jump from bus to bus after your initial tap while within those 100 minutes, same goes for the tram. However, this does not apply to the metro, one ticket is one ticket.


On the metro, there are some areas where you’ll be able to switch from line A to line B without exiting the station. For tickets, the cheapest option is to keep a refillable ATAC card and purchase multiple trips at one time. You cannot, however, tap someone else in with the same card, so even if you have enough funds for 2, you’ll only be able to purchase your own. All buses and trams have a tap to pay if you don’t want to get the card, it’s the same price plus a processing fee, the bus pass is not useful unless you plan to take the bus 3 times a day every day so it’s best to just pay the 1.50 Euro each trip.


For the most part, walking is your friend in Rome, but it was convenient to have such a great public transport system for longer trips, rainy days, and those times when walking sounds more like a marathon due to the lack of sleep.

Walking down alongside the Tiber river, a good way to reorient yourself if you feel lost is to find the river and compare it to the various monuments around. Always take note of your proximity to the river.



Although not quite as useful today, there are plenty of old maps, such as the Nolli map, which will show you how much of the city has changed since 1748.

Take note of the many monuments you’re around while navigating, not only because they are beautiful, but also because they serve as great markers for navigation. For example, the Colosseum.