From my best recollection from being in Rome last October, there is an express bus
from Piazza della Republica (No. 45, I think) that is advised because it makes fewer
stops and therefore has fewer pickpockets. It runs all the way to St. Peters. The
other bus, I believe number 64 is the one reputedly abundant with pp's.

But to answer your question, the busses in Rome, depending on time of day, can get
quite crowded especially in the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. On the
other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay. I had tickets but was never
asked for them.

Be sensible and don't carry more cash than you can afford to loose.

It may seem as if no one pays on the buses but if a inspector gets on, and this happens quite often actually, you will be fined on the spot.
Look up:
http://www.italywithus.com/
Transportation in Italy (on the home page)

mw wrote:

    > But to answer your question, the busses in Rome, depending on time of day, can get
    > quite crowded especially in the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. On the
    > other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay. I had tickets but was never
    > asked for them.

You buy your ticket in a tobacco shop and stamp it in the little yellow machine on
the bus the first time you use it. You can't pay on the bus. Once you've bought the
ticket, you can use it repeatedly for 90(?) minutes without stamping it again. (The
first stamp establishes the time.) Also, you can buy a daily ticket good for the
entire day. And many residents of the city have weekly or monthly passes. Thus, the
majority of the people on the bus don't have to pay or buy anything. If you are asked
to show your ticket during one of the periodic checks, and you don't have a valid
stamped ticket, you can get hit with a big fine.

Barbara

mw wrote:
    >
    > On the other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay.

No, you won't see anyone buy a ticket or pay, because the almost universal practice
in Italy is to buy a ticket before getting on the bus. Additionally, many Italian
passengers will hold a monthly or annual season ticket for their journey.

Alan Harrison

Ciao, It seems noone pay ticket as all of us romans buy a Pass which is much more
cheap then buying tickets. Be careful on buses in Rome as you should be careful in
Paris or London. Be "more careful" if you are on the 64 Bus (from Termini Station to
St Peter ) Enjoy your staying in Rome. Ciao da Roma Gianni Teodori

mw <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > From my best recollection from being in Rome last October, there is an express bus
    > from Piazza della Republica (No. 45, I think) that is advised because it makes
    > fewer stops and therefore has fewer pickpockets. It runs all the way to St. Peters.
    > The other bus, I believe number 64 is the one reputedly abundant with pp's.
    >
    > But to answer your question, the busses in Rome, depending on time of day, can get
    > quite crowded especially in the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. On the
    > other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay. I had tickets but was never
    > asked for them.
    >
    > Be sensible and don't carry more cash than you can afford to loose.

On Thu, 07 Mar 2002 15:39:04 -0600, mw <[email protected]> wrote:

    >From my best recollection from being in Rome last October, there is an express bus
    >from Piazza della Republica (No. 45, I think) that is advised because it makes fewer
    >stops and therefore has fewer pickpockets. It runs all the way to St. Peters.

The express bus is no. 40. For some time it had its terminus on Via Einaudi (leading
off Piazza della Repubblica) but it was recently moved back to Piazza dei
Cinquecento, in front of Termini station.

Margaret Coffin InfoRoma - The Rome Experts www.inforoma.it

On Fri, 08 Mar 2002 16:08:18 +0100, Barbara Vaughan
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >You buy your ticket in a tobacco shop

Tickets can also be purchased from many news stands

    >Once you've bought the ticket, you can use it repeatedly for 90(?) minutes without
    >stamping it again.

Currently 75 minutes, but they are talking of raising it to 90 minutes again when the
price goes up to 1 euro (probably in April).

Margaret Coffin InfoRoma - The Rome Experts News and info about Rome and Latium
www.inforoma.it/romepage.htm

mw <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > From my best recollection from being in Rome last October, there is an express bus
    > from Piazza della Republica (No. 45, I think) that is advised because it makes
    > fewer stops and therefore has fewer pickpockets. It runs all the way to St. Peters.
    > The other bus, I believe number 64 is the one reputedly abundant with pp's.

I didn't found pickpockets so much abundant in Rome as some say..., while I stayed
there a total of 6 weeks in the last 10 years. And I took every day the bus or the
metro since I stayed at the youth hostel. I can perfectly remember some of the days
when I took the metro, the journeys I did and even some people I saw. I've got an
excellent visual memory. So IMO, what I read on this newsgroup is excessively
EXAGERATED.

I don't mean that there are no pickpockets of course but frankly I PERSONNALY never
witnessed any problem of that kind there. In fact the only time when I saw
pickpockets in Italy was on via dei Fori Imperiali where I was approached by 3 young
gipsy girls and at the doors of the cathedral of Genova (Genoa) by 3 other ones.
That's all. I've visited more than 40 italian towns. And believed me, not only did I
noticed IMMEDIATELY that they were not italian, because of their accent, but I simply
told them that I had understood what they wanted to do and avoided them.

IMO if some don't take some elementary precautions they partly deserve what occurs to
them. And it's exactly the same for Paris or London metro...

Believe me or not I live in Paris since 10 years and never witnessed or have been the
victim of pickpockets in public transports, while I took the metro or the bus
thousands of times. I just saw once, in 10 years..., some young gypsies sharing the
content of a wallet on the escalators of the main entrance of Chatelet-les-Halles RER
station. That doesn't mean again that there are not pickpockets in Paris public
transports and even that they are all recently immigrated gypsies, which would be
another cliché. In fact I've been only once pickpocketed in my life but it was in a
Paris bar 2 years after my arrival there. And one of my american friend has been
pickpocketed too in a bar because he had put his wallet in the back pocket of his
trouser and... drink a little too much beer. :+) Since then it never came again to my
mind to put my purse somewhere else than in my trouser front pocket. And it worked
perfectly well until now.

didier Meurgues

    > But to answer your question, the busses in Rome, depending on time of day, can get
    > quite crowded especially in the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. On the
    > other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay. I had tickets but was never
    > asked for them.
    >
    > Be sensible and don't carry more cash than you can afford to loose.

[email protected] (meurgues) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > mw <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:<[email protected]>...
    > > From my best recollection from being in Rome last October, there is an express
    > > bus from Piazza della Republica (No. 45, I think) that is advised because it
    > > makes fewer stops and therefore has fewer pickpockets. It runs all the way to
    > > St. Peters. The other bus, I believe number 64 is the one reputedly abundant
    > > with pp's.
    >
    > I didn't found pickpockets so much abundant in Rome as some say..., while I stayed
    > there a total of 6 weeks in the last 10 years. And I took every day the bus or the
    > metro since I stayed at the youth hostel. I can perfectly remember some of the days
    > when I took the metro, the journeys I did and even some people I saw. I've got an
    > excellent visual memory. So IMO, what I read on this newsgroup is excessively
    > EXAGERATED.
    >
    > I don't mean that there are no pickpockets of course but frankly I PERSONNALY
    > never witnessed any problem of that kind there. In fact the only time when I saw
    > pickpockets in Italy was on via dei Fori Imperiali where I was approached by 3
    > young gipsy girls and at the doors of the cathedral of Genova (Genoa) by 3 other
    > ones. That's all. I've visited more than 40 italian towns. And believed me, not
    > only did I noticed IMMEDIATELY that they were not italian, because of their
    > accent, but I simply told them that I had understood what they wanted to do and
    > avoided them.
    >
    > IMO if some don't take some elementary precautions they partly deserve what occurs
    > to them. And it's exactly the same for Paris or London metro...
    >
    > Believe me or not I live in Paris since 10 years and never witnessed or have been
    > the victim of pickpockets in public transports, while I took the metro or the bus
    > thousands of times. I just saw once, in 10 years..., some young gypsies sharing the
    > content of a wallet on the escalators of the main entrance of Chatelet-les-Halles
    > RER station. That doesn't mean again that there are not pickpockets in Paris public
    > transports and even that they are all recently immigrated gypsies, which would be
    > another cliché. In fact I've been only once pickpocketed in my life but it was in a
    > Paris bar 2 years after my arrival there.

I forgot to say that when I was living in province (Châteauroux in Berry France) I
was not really taking care of pickpockets because it is not a problem in the bus or
elsewhere in this provincial town. Nevertheless I never put again my wallet in my
trousers back pocket, after it felt twice from it, while getting up to leave the
train during trips to Tours, where I was following studies. Furthermore, after my
misadventure in this bar 8 years ago in Paris, I decided to put my belongings in 3
different places in order to not loose them all if it happens again.

In the utmost... details... : I put my transport card (carte orange) with, inside, on
the front, my library card and on the back, since january, a very thin Euro
convertissor the size of a credit card (plus generally too, museum, exhibition or
cinema tickets : I collect them to remember the cultural events I saw, or little
papers with adresses etc...)in the pocket of my jacket or coat, my bank smart card (I
need only one), my canteen card and my hairdresser card with a little stamps booklet,
a little calendar of the same size, little papers, etc... in a plastic "étui" (?case)
folded in two, the size of 2 credit cards in my left trousers front pocket, and my
leather purse with a coins side and a bank notes side closed with zips in my right
trousers front pocket. I only bring with me my professional card when I need to visit
a museum or enter a professional restricted area and an ID card (my driving licence,
nevertheless I'm thinking to ask for an ID plastic card, the size of a credit card,
wich are more convenient) to vote, withdraw a "recommandée" letter at the post
office, make an expensive purchase or proove my identity for an administrative or
commercial step (?démarche) since it's not mandatory to have an ID on you. I never
showed an ID to the police.

And one of my american friend has been pickpocketed too
    > in a bar because he had put his wallet in the back pocket of his trouser and...
    > drink a little too much beer. :+)

My US friend Johnny comes every year in Paris for his birthday. It happened at the
end of last year. He was pickpocketed by a young magrhrebin according to him. He was
robbed too (money and camera) in Berlin several weeks later, where he went with our
german friend Roger, by 2 turkish boys according to him. Of course it would be
ridiculous to generalise.

I go regularly to the same bar in Paris where I've found 3 times... some wallets on
the floor. One of them was of an american person. I just look the photo to try to
recognise the person but I didn't asked to everybody to find out who had lost its
wallet. I just brought it to the cloak-room.

Finally, as far as the streets are concerned, I've been the witness of somebody
running with a woman handbag boulevard de Sebastopol, near Chatelet-les-Halles RER
station again, and a junky tried unsucessfully to grab my purse at Stalingrad square
near La Villette basin (but this time it was my fault because I was stupid to try to
give him some few coins while he was already behaving unfriendly).

All these 5 problems in 10 years occured during the evening or at night except those
in Stalingrad and bvd de Sébastopol, where I've nevertheless passed thousands of
times with no problem.

Nevertheless..., personnaly I've never been witness or victim of pickpockets in the
public transports since 10 years I'm living in Paris.

I've asked to 2 of my collegues at work, a boy and a girl, if they have been
pickpocketed or witnessed it. They didn't. They are much more cautious of their
belongings than me and have only a normal wallet. I'm a bit scatter brained... But
they don't particularly like to wander late in the evening or in the night like me.
PS : I'm not a vampire :+)

didier Meurgues

    > Since then it never came again to my mind to put my purse somewhere else than in my
    > trouser front pocket. And it worked perfectly well until now.
    >
    > didier Meurgues
    >
    > > But to answer your question, the busses in Rome, depending on time of day, can
    > > get quite crowded especially in the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.
    > > On the other hand, I never did see anyone buy a ticket or pay. I had tickets but
    > > was never asked for them.
    > >
    > > Be sensible and don't carry more cash than you can afford to loose.