PARKING IN ROME

Tips and suggestions on how solving this very
difficult problem in the Eternal City

In the centre of Rome, only permanent (certified) residents are allowed to park in the streets, and they find it too extremely difficult to find a parking place. Even for them, it is harder than winning a prize in a
lottery.
You would be frustated all the time to find a parking place, and the police will most certainly confiscate your car and you will need to go through a lot of paperworks, rounds in various offices, and heavy fines to have it back. Currently, the Municipality made this a big business, so it is next to impossible to get away with it. In addition, you should also consider the security issue, i.e. the possible theft of petty thieves etc.

Only a minority of historical, mannerly palaces (of very wealthy people) and monumental, renaissance palaces (seat of Ministries, Institutions, or Museums etc.) have parking lots or garages. They are consequently out of reach.

There are only two public garages in the centre where you could park your car, but they are situated not in really highly central areas. One is beneath the BORGHESE GARDENS GARAGE (address: Via del Galoppatoio), the other is just in front of Termini, Rome's main train station, and it is run by ACI (Italian Automobile Association).

They are both expensive (no less than 30-35 Euro per day, IE no less than 47-55 US$ currently). It also takes normally a rather long walk or short taxi ride (from all other central quarters), to go back and forth to these garages.

Another solution is parking at the LONG TERM PARKING facility of Rome's Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci's airport, 38 km from town. The cost is 18 Euro per day, but you get discounts for more days (for ex. 70 Euro for one week). It is easy to find when driving to Rome from the all the motorways reaching the town. It is served by the shuttle bus of the airport, passing every 20 minutes, and bringing you to the air terminals, where you could take a taxi or head to the little train station of the airport, bringing you downtown to the main train station Termini (cost appr. 9 Euro per person, time: 35 minutes + cost of subway or bus to your central destination), or you can also use our car service, which you can book beforehand.

However, we don't advise that you park at the long park of the airport.

- it is nothing but a fenced parking area lost in the Roman countryside near the airport, with a gate in and a gate out (with automatic bars, you take a ticket at the entrance, and you pay by credit card when you exit by inserting the same ticket then your credit card).
- we could not see anyone guarding cars or just anything but the gates, a bus shelter, and a shuttle bus passing every 20 minutes to collect the few people who park their cars, adn which brings them to the airport terminals.
- there is not roofing etc., your car will be exposed to weather adversities.
- it costs 18 Euro per day,  the discount is only applied if you stay one week, and you should add the cost of transport to and from downtown Rome.
- it is a bad solution in any case if you arrive or leave late at night (it is a secluded area).

The last, and probably least solution, is parking in your hotel, but only the large Americanized hotels far from the centre have such facility.

Other than the above, there are no other solutions.

We recommend that you forget using a car when visiting Rome. Besides, traffic is chaotic, circulation nightmarish (since the old days, as Ben Hur acknowledged...), and moreover it is allowed only to special license holders in some areas, or subject to circulations restraints. You would be frustated all the time.

Above all, Rome's centre is a gigantic maze, many sights can be reached and appreciated only by walking through little alleys and along a complicated urban layout.

The bottom line: when in Rome... go around on foot and public tranport, as all clever and savvy visitors of Rome do (unless you come to Rome on purpose seeking a nervous breakdown).
If you will stay in the centre, all the sights will be more or less near you, at walking distance, or reachable with short metro/bus/taxi ride (quite well organized in the Eternal City).