ETAPS 2013: 16-24 March 2013, Rome, Italy

Travels to, from and inside Rome

Getting to Rome

Rome is one of the most important hubs in Italy; so, you will easily reach our city, wherever you live. Rome is served by almost every traditional airline, whose flights are sold by any reasonable travel agent. Rome is also served by several low-cost airlines (Ryanair, Easyjet, Vueling, ...), and these are mostly sold on-line. There are two airports in Rome: Fiumicino "Leonardo Da Vinci" (the main one) and Ciampino "G.B. Pastine" (a smaller one, served by low-cost companies like Ryanair). Take into account that luggage collecting is usually quite slow.

Getting from the airport to the town center

Both airports are outside the city, and quite far from the conference venue. Dependingon the trafic conditions, it can take also one hour by taxi. If you take a taxi of the "3570" company (the main company in Rome), the price is fixed: 48 from Fiumicino and 30 from Ciampino to every place in the city cente. You don't have to reserve a taxi because you'll find plenty of them at both airports at every time.

Notice that, apart from these fixed rates (that are quite convenient), taxi's in Rome are quite expensive. Alternatively, there are regular trains from Fiumicino to Termini station (the main train station in Rome): they take 32', run every half-an-hour (at .08 and .38 of every hour, since 6.38 to 23.38) and cost 14 euros. A cheaper (but slower) solution is with the Terravision buses: they take 50' (in normal trafic conditions), run approx every half-an-hour (see http://www.terravision.eu/inglese/files/2012/06/fiumicino_timetable.pdf), cost 4 euros if bought on-line or 6 euros if bought on the bus. From Ciampino, there are the Terravision buses leading to Termini: they take 40' (in normal trafic conditions), run approx every half-an-hour (see http://www.terravision.eu/inglese/files/2012/06/ciampino_timetable.pdf), cost 4 euros if bought on-line or 6 euros if bought on the bus. There are also other possibilities: http://www.atral-lazio.com/index.php?lang=en or http://www.sitbusshuttle.com/.

Time

Italy (like France, Germany, and Spain, ...) uses GMT+1.

Electricity

The electricity supply is 220 volts AC, 50 Hz. European-style 2-pin plugs are in use.

Money

Italy uses the Euro (EUR). ATMs abound in Rome: every bank has at least one, usually on the road, sometimes in the inner area. All the machines can speak English, as well as other languages. Almost all businesses (but not newsstands, bus drivers, some taxi drivers) accept bank and credit cards (even for the smallest payments).

Phones

The country code for Italy is +39. There area code for Rome is 06. The prefix for international calls is 00.

Emergency numbers: 112 and 113 for police; 115 for fire brigade; 118 for ambulance (for all these numbers, there can be problems if you speak a language different from Italian).

There are 4 mobile providers: TIM, Vodafone, Tre and Wind. The GSM frequency is 900/1800 MHz; for UMTS, 2 GHz, ISN band.

There are very few public payphones left in Rome and usually only accept pre-paid phone cards (very few also accept coins).

Internet

Rome has some WiFi hotspots, but most of them are private and require authentication (and payment). WiFi or wired access to the internet is also offered by most of the hotels; sometimes the service is complimentary.

Getting around

The public city transportation system of Rome, consisting of buses, trams and two underground lines, is usually not very efficient. Some stops, mainly in the center, have timetables (affixed to the stop signpost), give real-time timing of the buses and many also have a part of the transport system on display (in the waiting booth). Tickets are not available from the drivers; you should buy them in newsstands or underground stops. In some bus lines (40 and 60, for example), you can buy the ticket on board from an authomatic ticket machine, working with coins. A ticket is validated with a ticket machine located in the bus or at the gate of every underground station. Buses, trams and undergrounds all operate under one ticket system. You have the following ticket options:

  • BIT: a ticket valid for 100' after the validation, that costs 1.50 EUR. It allows you to take any number of buses and trams, but allows you to have only one underground journey (possibly combined, if you stay within the underground borders) within the 100' time. You must validate the ticket as soon as you enter into the bus/tram/underground, if it has not been validated yet; you must validate it again, if you have validated in a bus/tram and then you take the underground; it mustn't be validated several times, if you only take buses/trams.
  • BIG: a daily ticket (valid until the midnight of the validation day), that includes every journey within the city and costs 6 EUR
  • BTI: a 3 days ticket (valid until the midnight of the third day including the validation day), that includes every journey within the city and costs 16,50 EUR
  • CIS: a 7 days ticket (valid until the midnight of the seventh day including the validation day), that includes every journey within the city and costs 24 EUR

As already said, taxi's are quite expensive in Rome. It is usally safe to take them, also by stopping them in the streets. It is better, however, to reserve a taxi by phoning at 063570 (every hotel provides this service for free).