The Rome metro: tickets, opening hours and the stations you need

Three lines — and all of tourist Rome

Line A is orange, B is blue (with a B1 branch), C is green. There are only three interchanges and nowhere to get lost. We drew the diagram below ourselves: only the stations you would actually go underground for.

The diagram is wider than the screen — swipe →Open in full

The Rome metro is small for a capital: 73 stations on three lines. The reason is well known — there is archaeology under the city, and every new station turns into an excavation. But what exists works simply.

Which ticket to buy

One ticket covers everything: metro, buses, trams and city trains. It is called Metrebus, and at a kiosk you simply ask for a “BIT”.

The main rule about the BIT. The hundred minutes apply to surface transport: within them you can change buses and trams as often as you like. Into the metro it admits you once. Changing from line to line does not count as a new journey as long as you have not gone out through the gates; at San Giovanni you do have to pass the gates, and that is permitted by a separate clause.

Do the maths rather than buying a day pass out of habit. A day pass pays off from the sixth journey in a day. With children you will not make that many: a child tires of interchanges faster than of walking, and a real day in the centre is two or three journeys. Multi-day passes are worth it only if you are staying far from the centre.

MULTIBIT gives no discount: ten journeys cost exactly the same as ten singles. Its only point is not queueing at the machine every time.

You can skip the ticket altogether: the gates have red readers where you tap a bank card or phone and are charged the same EUR 1.50. Users report a daily cap after which journeys are free, but ATAC does not confirm it officially — so do not count on it.

Children, pushchairs and one rule nobody writes about

Children under ten travel free — on the metro, buses and trams, if they are with an adult who has a ticket. There is no separate child ticket to buy, and the rules set no limit on children per adult.

Two caveats people trip over.

• On Trenitalia trains it is free only under four — including the airport express from Fiumicino. The ticket has the same name, the rule is different.
• A pushchair travels free, and you do not have to fold it in the carriage. Under the operator’s rules you park it where it does not get in other people’s way, hold on to it and lock the wheels. It has to be folded on escalators and stairs, with the child carried or held by the hand. Use the wide gates, and take the lift where there is one.

Hence the practical conclusion: the Rome metro suits a family whose child already walks, or one with a light pushchair that folds quickly at the escalator. At rush hour you simply will not fit into a carriage with an open pushchair. On buses and trams, by contrast, the rules say a pushchair must always be folded.

Opening hours and what to do after closing

The metro runs from 5:30 to 23:30, and on Fridays and Saturdays until 1:30 am. The last train leaves the terminus, not your station, so allow a margin when changing.

After closing, night buses follow the same routes: nMA along line A, nMB and nMB1 along line B, nMC along C. The same ticket applies. It is genuinely worth knowing in advance: working it out at midnight with a child in your arms at a closed station is far worse.

Lifts: why there is no list of stations here

The commonest question from a family with a pushchair is which Rome metro stations have lifts. The honest answer: a list can be made, but it will be of no use. Lifts are constantly breaking and being repaired, and a station that worked yesterday greets you with stairs today.

So the operator keeps a far more useful page — “Accessibility of metro stations”. It lists what is out of service right now. Open it the night before the day you plan to travel.

As an example, here is what was closed on the day we wrote this article, 13 September 2026:

• Spagna — the lift and the inclined lift between Vicolo del Bottino and Trinità dei Monti were out. That is the very climb to the Spanish Steps people take a pushchair there for.
• Termini on line A — the lift towards Laurentina, though there was an accessible route round via the line B platforms.
• Lepanto, Cornelia, Re di Roma, Subaugusta on line A and Ponte Mammolo on line B.

A week later the list will be different — which is exactly the point.

And something few people know: assistance for passengers with reduced mobility can be booked in advance, and the stations offering it include ones a visitor needs — Ottaviano and Flaminio on line A, Colosseo and Circo Massimo on line B.

Two stations now serve the Colosseum

In December 2025 the station Colosseo / Fori Imperiali opened on line C. It is connected underground to the old Colosseo station on line B, so you can change without going out to the street.

For a family that matters more than it sounds. The new station has four underground levels and is more than thirty metres deep, with lifts running from the concourse to the platforms. The station itself is built as a museum: what was found during the excavation is displayed in the passages, and it is the only stop in Rome where a child is interested before reaching the surface.

From 18 September 2026 work is under way at the station: lifts are being extended to the museum level so pushchairs can reach it. During the work line C trains sometimes run only as far as Porta Metronia — check the “Tempo reale” section of the operator’s site before you travel.

If you are heading for the Colosseum, it is worth sorting out the tickets too: we have put together a guide to buying Colosseum tickets and what they include.

What else to know before your first descent

• The ticket has to be validated. In the metro the gates do it; on a bus it is the yellow or red validator by the door. An unvalidated ticket counts as no ticket, and the fine is issued on the spot.
• Line A is packed at rush hour. With a pushchair or a small child, between 8 and 9:30 and from 18 to 19:30, better not to try: it is less dangerous than pointless — you simply will not fit.
• Pickpockets work where it is crowded. Line A between Termini and Ottaviano, and bus 64, are the places any Roman warns you about. Nothing exotic: backpack in front of you, phone not in a back pocket.
• There may be no air conditioning. The old line A trains heat up in summer, and in July fifteen minutes underground is harder than the same fifteen minutes walking in the shade.

We have nothing to sell on the subject of the metro — we run quest tours for children, not travel passes. If you are planning Rome with children, have a look at all our Rome routes or at where to go in Rome with children. And if the Trevi Fountain is on your list, note that since February going down to the basin costs EUR 2.