Rome Travel Forum

Please help! I have rented an apartment in central Rome with my family for 5 days in August. We are doing a driving tour of Italy and will be arriving in Rome from Tuscany.
1. Will we able to drive into central Rome?
2. If yes, how easy will it be to park?
3. Should we park outside Rome and take the metro? If so, can we leave our cars for 5 days securely? Where should we do this?

Please help, we are really looking forward to Rome but worry about the cars and what to do with them.

Sean

It's amazing how the traffic works in Rome. You don't write, where are you from, but I'm sure the traffic in Rome is nothing like in your country. Drivers seem to totally jam all the crossings, but it all works out perfectly. If you haven't driven in Italy before, you probably don't wanna do it now. Besides, there are traffic restrictions in the historic centre, so you couldn't drive everywhere, anyway. There are several Park & Ride car parks in the metro stations, but I'm not exactly sure, where they are and if you can leave your car for the night, when the metro is closed. Rome has a good city transport system - the two metro lines, 6 tram lines and extensive bus network take you everywhere in the city. Electric minibuses are a good way to get around in the historic centre if your feet get tired. And all this for just 16 euros a week. I'm gonna write more about the transport on my Rome travel pages soon.

P.S. Transport strikes are very common in Italy - another one started today, as I read in the news.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0770025120080707
There are, however, certain weeks of the year when strikes are not allowed, luckily for me, last week was one of them.

Enjoy Rome!

And more - if you gave us the address or area where your apartment's located, we could give you more precise information how to get there by public transport. There are good maps and route schemes on Rome's Transport Agency's homepage, you should print them out - I used those maps a lot. Just click the Union Jack for English, then choose "Routes and maps: bus, metro" and you get a choice of PDF-files there.

Sean, as the previous poster noted, Rome has a number of ZTLs (limited traffic zones) which means that much of the center is off-limits to non-residents for much of the day.

So, first, please tell us where this apartment is.
Second, does it have its own parking?
Third, if you're in a ZTL, will the apartment owner contact ATAC (the public transit system) to get you on the OK-to-drive-in-the-ZTL list (big hotels will do it, I don't know if your temporary landlord will want to bother)?
Fourth, have you driven in cities like Rome (central London and central Boston come to mind)?
Fifth, what do you mean by "cars"? You have more than one?

Bill

thanks for all your help so far. I have 2 possible apartments, one is on Via 24, maggio 51. The other is on Via Merluna. Are these within the ZTL's. We are a group of 6 and will be travelling into Rome in 2 cars. Once we get to Rome we have no plan to use them again until we leave (5 days later). Any suggestions on what we should do with the cars? Should we leave them centrally in a car park or take a metro and find a park and ride option?

Thanks again,

Sena

1. Via 24 Maggio, 51 is definitely within the ZTL in the city center. Even without the ZTL problem, this is the heart of the city, with terrible traffic and nowhere to park.

2. Via Merulana (I assume that this is the street you meant) is NOT in a ZTL. However, it is close to various ZTLs. The only safe way for someone not familiar with the city is to approach this street is to come from the south. That is, take the ringroad around the city to the far south, and take the Via Appia Nuova exit north. About where St. John Lateran is, you zig-zag onto Via Merulana (look at a map, like at www.viamichelin.com, and you'll see what I mean). As for parking, I strongly encourage you to contact the apartment owner on the off chance that they have something.

3. To see the ZTL maps (Italian only), go to www.atac.roma.it and click on "ZTL: zone a traffico limitato" on the left hand menu. This will show you a page that has a photo of the automatic cameras that take the picture of your license plate as you go by (aha! when I was there last, they still had police watching manually ;-) ).
Click on the first link: "Mappe e orari dei settori dei ZTL" (maps and hours of the ZTL sectors). This will show you a page with 2 links: "Le ZTL diurne" (daytime ZTLs) and "Le ZTL notturne" (nighttime ZTLs).

4. I take it that the cars are not rent cars? That is, you can't just turn them in and rent new ones later?

5. There are various municipal parking garages, but I don't know how many of them will let you keep cars there overnight...let me see...

Bill

Both streets are centrally located. Via Merulana is about 500 metres from metro stations and also near Termini. Via 24 Maggio is not much further from the metro either and I'm sure buses are running on both streets anyway. So the best option would be leaving your car in a car park for all 5 days. Unfortunately I don't know, where such car parks are.

Definitely do not drive in Rome! Yes strikes do happen - there was one in May at very short notice.

Thanks for all your help everyone, especially Bill. It has been greatly appreciated. I'm still looking for a 24 hour car park in Rome as we are not driving hire cars, alas they are our own cars!! Any help with this would be briiliant and gratefully received.

Thanks again

Sean

Hi! This should suit you - 24 h parking in a quite convenient location in Via Michele Carcani for 1 euro per hour.
http://www.romaparking.it/e_index.html
Note that the map on their homepage is upside down, so check the location on Google map or whatever map you're using.