Arriving in Rome by Train

How to get to Rome by train and Rome's Stazione Termini train station

Rome tourist office:
www.turismoroma.it

Italian train info:
www.trenitalia.com
www.grandistazioni.it (drill down to "Roma Termini" for station info)

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Use the automated machines to avoid the long ticket lines at Termini rail station.Trains are the easiest and most popular way to travel in Italy, and chances are the first place you'll see in Rome is Termini train station.

First, though you have to get to Rome.

How long is the train ride to Rome from...

Trains from Fiumicino airport to Rome: Every half hour from 6:36am to 11:36pm (31 min).
Trains from Florence to Rome: At least three trains an hour (1.5–3.5 hr).
Trains from Venice to Rome: 13 direct trains daily (3.5–7 hr).
Trains from Milan to Rome: Hourly (3–6.5 hr).
Trains from Naples to Rome: Two to three trains hourly; at least once an hour on Sundays (1–2.5 hr).

Termini train station in Rome

Rome's main train station is Stazione Termini on the expansive, bus-filled Piazza dei Cinquecento.

It lies on the northeastern edge of the city center, is the main public city bus terminus in town, and sits at the intersection of Rome's two Metro (subway) lines.

History with a side of fries
Look for the McDonald's in the maze-like mall under Termini. Notice that the tables are ranged around a brick wall that slashes oddly right through the space on a diagonal. This is actually part of ancient Rome's city walls built in the AD 3rd century, making this plausibly the "oldest" McDonald's in the world—not that this is an excuse to eat here. Try Italian food instead; I hear it's quite good.The station has become a bustling marketplace, with plenty of eateries and shops, most of them in a new underground mall.

At the end of the tracks is a busy area where people nervously watch the flip boards for track assignments.

Information offices in the Rome train station

The train information and assistance office is located in the by track 1 (to the right as you get to the end of the tracks when arriving).

In their infinite idiocy, the powers of the train station have moved the Rome tourist information office (several times, actually) from former, more prominent locations in the main hall area to a hidden little wing called Ala Termini, located 1/3 of the way down the side of track 24 (arriving at the end of any other track, immediately turn left, then left again at the wall).

This is only convenient to people arriving by plane:

How to find the (hidden) airport express train

Note that, if you are headed to Rome's Fiumicino airport from the Rome train station, the track for the airport express train—Track 25—is kind of hard to find.

Basically: Go all the way down to Track 24 (which looks for all the world like it is the last track in the station,) then turn left to walk up the long paltform along its far side, and eventually you will find Track 25. Details and a map are here.

Luggage storage at Termini, the Rome train station

The deposito bagagli (left luggage) office (tel. +39-06-474-4777) is near the tourist information office alongside track 24.

It's open daily 6am–midnight and charges €4 for the first 5 hours, €0.60 for each hour from 6 to 12 hours, then €0.20 for each hour after 12.

The ticketing hall at Termini

Beyond the tracks, slip through a wide gap between the phalanx of newsstands and little bars to enter the Galleria Centrale, the main hall with train information office and exits at either end leading onto the station's side streets (an area packed with cheap hotels).

Watch out for the hotel touts who will swarm you here (in my experience, any hotel that needs to field these slick salesmen isn't really good enough to get business on a more legitimate and old-fashioned way: being worthy of being passed along by word of mouth or recommended by guidebooks).

Keep walking straight and you'll enter the atrio, or ticketing hall, pictured above with its swooping roof and interminably long ticket lines. (Tip: Unless you need some specific service like getting a Railpass vouched, avoid the lines by using one of the banks of automated ticketing machines.)

Rome's other train stations

Nearly every train to Rome goes to or passes through Termini, but a few long-haul trains stop only at the Roma Tiburtina train station in the eastern part of the city.

There are other secondary stations ranged about town—lined up in a gentle arc that pretty much defines the southern edge of the greater historic center—that most tourists never even see, though they can be convenient if your hotel is in the neighborhood, or for hopping regional rail lines for day trips out of town:

Roma Trastevere train station is in the southwestern edge of the greater historic center, at the end of Viale Trastevere (connected to Largo Argentina downtown by Tram 8 ).
Roma Ostiense train station is at the southern end of the greater historic area.
Roma Tuscolana is at the southeastern edge of the center.

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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