Hello travelers, it’s been a long while. Alas, the borders of the globe are mostly and officially open (except China lol). Shameless to admit, at last I find the motivation to start writing again. I must say, I highly doubt that people are still into blog these days, but maybe I could be of some help for people who has similar flying schedule like mine or just wanting to enjoy the city with limited time.

Rome, the first thing comes in mind was Colosseum and Cappuccino. Unfortunately, Colosseum will not be in my list today. For friends who have been following my instagram for awhile now, perhaps you reckon that this is not my first time to Rome. On the side note, Rome holds a very special place for my family and I for it was the first European city we’ve travelled to 13 years ago.

Therefore, considering I’ve checked most of the touristy things on the list, I decided this time I am down to search for a good cup of cappuccino in town. (And enjoy the city along the way)

How to Get Around

Fiumicino Airport to Rome

From the airport to the city, there are a few options you could choose from, the easiest way would be taxi/Uber/FreeNow, which cost about €50 (≈$52). However, if you are more budget friendly person like me, let’s opt for the bus or the train.

Bus (SITBusShuttle) is by far the cheapest option I could find, it costs about €7 to the city, and vice versa. You could also book a round trip with them at €13. The bus runs from Fiumicino Airport to Rome Termini train station, via Circonvallazione Aurelia and Vatican. The trip to the city center is about 45 minutes. This is probably the second most convenient way to head to the city without getting any headaches, especially after a long and tiring flight. The only cons of taking the bus to the city is that you have to pre-book the bus tickets online and it operates according to the bus schedule. With that being said, if you land on certain timing, you might need to wait for almost an hour before the bus takes off.

As I was landing at night, bus is technically out of my option. Thus, I have to figure out how to get to the city quick and cheap. There are 2 types of trains running from Fiumicino Airport to Rome.

1st, Leonardo Express (RV) that operated by Trenitalia, exactly as the name suggested, it is an express train that runs from Fiumicino Airport to Rome Termini station and vice versa. The ticket costs about €14 each way. Good news is you could hop onto the express train every 30 minutes, or every 15 minutes during peak hours.

The 2nd way was probably less known to tourist, but it was strongly recommended by a French colleague of mine. It is a Regional Train (FL1) that operates by TrenItalia. The ticket cost about €8 per way, and it takes a slightly long route to the city. The only problem you might find that the train doesn’t stop in Roma Termini station, but I find it quite easy to get around from Roma Ostiense station.

Purchasing the ticket was not much of a hassle, you could easily purchase the train tickets on the red or orangey ticket machine or at the ticket counter. Please keep that in mind that sometimes the ticket counter might not be open, so going with the ticket machine is your best option.

PS: If you are new to Italy, I strongly recommend you keep some small change with you. (I will not tell you how shocked I was when the ticket machine took my €50 without giving back the change. Lesson learned in the hard way 😦 Ever since I will only used credit card to pay for train ticket.)

Rome City Centre

Once you reached Rome, I can rest assure you the most stressful part is over. All metro, trams and buses (exclusion of tourist buses) in Rome City Centre are operated by a company called atac, that simply means that you can use the ticket interchangeably with all public transport in Rome City Centre. As of November 2022, I’ve read atac website stated that they support tap& go system with your contactless credit card. However, I still yet to see all stations support the tap&go system.

Therefore, I strongly recommend everyone stick with the traditional way to roam around Rome. There are different types of transport tickets you could purchase, depending on the number of days you are in Rome or how often would you use the public transport.

1. BIT MetroBus ticket (One-way ticket)

The BIT metro ticket costs about €1.50 and it valid for 100 minutes from your first validation. If you are using the Metro, it is even valid for a single journey, even using different lines. The ticket could be purchase from ATAC ticket offices, authorized shops, ticket vending machines or online. During my whole trip in Rome, I used BIT MetroBus ticket once from Roma Ostiense to the Pantheon.

Roma 24/48/72H ticket

If you are planning to travel a lot with the public transport, I do recommend you purchase the 24/48/72 transport ticket. Same as BIT MetroBus ticket, the ticket will valid for 24/48/72 hours from first validation for unlimited journeys within the territory of Rome.

Roma 24H: €7
Roma 48H: €32 (including 1st Museum/Archaeological site/experience)
Roma 72H: €52 (including 1st & 2d Museum/Archaeological site/ experiences)

Looking for a good cup of Cappuccino? Here’s where I go.

La Casa del Caffe Tazza D’Oro

When I asked my Italian colleagues to recommend the best cup of cappuccino in Rome, at least 3 of them told me I must go to La Casa del Caffe Tazza D’oro.

It’s a cute little shop that serves a great cup of coffee. I overheard the tour leader from South Korea telling the group having a cup of espresso with a pinch of brown sugar is a must in this shop. What blows my mind was the price of the coffee was so reasonable, imagine my cup of cappuccino is less than €3, considering it is literally RIGHT NEXT to the Pantheon.

Gentle reminder: if you are going in the morning, there’s no chair.

You will be having your coffee standing, definitely less guilty after having a guilty pleasure treat. There is a bigger corner at the side, so I’d still say it’s pretty wheelchair friendly. I do see some pictures online in the evening, they do offer a great selection of cocktails and coffee.

La Casa del Caffe Tazza D’Oro

Address: Via degli Orfani , 84, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Phone: +39 06 678 9792
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7AM – 8PM, Sunday 10AM – 7PM

Faro – Luminaries of Coffee

Faro was a little chic coffee shop that very much close to what we known of coffee speciality shop. They have artisanal coffee with sustainable origins, which is something I really enjoy to support.

About Faro, their cappuccino is exquisite. I love the ambient, you are looking for a cute stop by coffee with less tourists, this might be the place for you.

However, if you are planning to look for a work space with good coffee, this might not be your best choice. It’s not a huge cafe, and it gets quite busy during lunch. There are signs in this coffee shop showing that there isn’t any power charges provided, which I think it’s a polite way to discourage people to work on their laptops.

The second thing I really like about this coffee shop, is that it tells you about the beans and their stories. (of course it’s in Italian, but google translate does wonder) As a self-proclaimed coffee enthusiast, I love this idea of showing people where the beans are from and the stories behind.

Faro – Luminaries of Coffee
Address: Via Paive, 55, 00187 Roma, Italy.
Phone: +39 06 4281 5714
Hours: Monday to Friday 8AM – 4PM, Weekends 9AM – 5PM

I’m gonna end this long-winded post here, and a part 2 about tourist attractions will be coming. I decided to write another dedicaded blog post about the architectural wonders in Rome because they are worth to be appreciated and they are much more than just a mere instagram post to make our feed looks interesting.

Thank you for joining and see you on my next post 🙂