Handpicked experience · Rome
Rome, Italy
An open-top bus pass for Rome, useful for covering the long distances between the major sites and largely beside the point in the old centre, which buses cannot enter.
Start your Italy adventure with a light transfer aboard the iconic Big Bus double-decker.
Enjoy gorgeous views of the city from the top deck.
Enrich your history knowledge with an insightful visit to the Roman Colosseum.
Your Roman journey wouldn't be complete with an essential tour around Vatican.
A choice of Classic, Premium or Deluxe pass levels
Pre-recorded commentary in nine languages
Stops serving major landmarks including the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain area
Free digital walking tours included with the pass
The RED route currently operating Monday to Friday
Rome divides into two problems. There are the great sites spread far apart — the Vatican at one end, the Colosseum at the other, with a couple of kilometres of city in between — and there is the tangle of lanes in the middle where everything famous stands within ten minutes of everything else. A hop-on hop-off pass solves the first problem well and the second one not at all, and knowing which half of Rome you are dealing with on a given morning is what makes this ticket worth having.
You board at any stop on the route with your pass, take a seat upstairs in the open or below in the shade, and collect a set of headphones for the recorded commentary. The bus works a circuit through the wider centre, calling at the places a full-size vehicle can actually reach, and you get off wherever you want to spend time. There is no fixed departure to catch and no group to keep up with — you rejoin a later bus at the same stop when you are ready.
This is the thing to understand before buying. Rome's historic core is a restricted traffic zone of narrow lanes, and coaches are not permitted into it. The Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps all sit inside that zone, which means the nearest stop puts you on a main road and you walk the last five or ten minutes over cobbles. Nobody is dropped at a fountain. If your plan for the day is those four sights, you will spend more time walking than riding, and the pass earns very little.
Operations here are not always the full published network. At present only one of the routes runs, and it runs on weekdays rather than every day, so a pass bought for a Saturday may not deliver what the marketing pictures suggest. The value of this ticket depends entirely on what runs on your date.
Crossing between the Vatican and the Colosseum, reaching the basilicas out on the eastern side, or getting back to your starting point at the end of a long day on your feet. Those are real distances in a hot city, and doing them on foot eats an afternoon. Used for the long hops and abandoned for the centre, the pass makes sense.
Rome moves slowly. A full circuit takes considerably longer than the map implies, and in the middle of the day the bus can be slower than walking the same line. Ride it early, ride it late, and treat the loop time as scenery rather than transport when the streets are full.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Not at it. The fountain sits inside a restricted zone of narrow lanes that coaches cannot enter, so the nearest stop is on a main road and you walk the last five to ten minutes. The same applies to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps.
Not currently. One route is in operation and it runs on weekdays rather than daily, so a weekend date may have nothing running at all.
Between distant points, yes. Within the centre, often not: Rome's traffic is heavy and a bus following the roads can lose to someone walking a straight line through the lanes.
Long hops — the Vatican to the Colosseum, out to the eastern basilicas, or the return to your starting point after a day on foot. Those distances are punishing in the heat and the bus removes them.
No. It is transport with commentary. The Vatican Museums stop gives access to the location, not to the collection, and every site charges its own admission.
Early and late. Rome regularly passes thirty-five degrees in July and August and there is no shade up there at all, so the lower saloon is the sensible choice in the middle of the day.