Waiting for the Bus in Rome

When in Rome, don’t expect the bus to follow a regular timetable.  On the ATAC (the company in charge of public transportation in Rome) website, it gives you an indication of how often a bus passes.  Please take this as a very rough guide!

Today a bus which is suppose to pass every 15-20 minutes only came by after 1 hour.  People kept asking but when did the last bus pass because they had waited more than usual.  When the bus finally came, it was packed but fortunately, people were civil enough to make room for every one.  Passengers were complaining to the bus driver as to why it took such a long time but he never gave them an answer.

At one point, the bus was so packed that the bus driver had problems shutting the door and was complaining about this.  One passenger told him, if you pass by often enough you won’t have problems with closing the door.

I guess what made matters more difficult was that this was not the regular size bus. It’s what I call the six-pack bus! Take a look at the picture. Doesn’t it look like a six-pack?  With a bus this size, we were all packed like sardines in a can so that people can get on at each stop. 

At every stop, the people getting on where complaining how long they have waited and were comparing their wait times with one another.  It’s funny to hear people say:

“What, you waited only half an hour?”

“That’s nothing as I waited 45 minutes.”

You can imagine the drama on the bus.

So when in Rome, expect to wait for the bus and if it comes on time, you should consider yourself extremely lucky!