Rome Buses or Taxi's?

Wondering about transportation in Rome itself. We are arriving in Civit. on a Saturday and will take the train to Rome. We have been to Rome once before (for 3 days) and have seen most of the sights. This time we hope to have a bit more relaxed pace, yet see some of the sights for a second time. We plan to get off the train at the S. Pietro station and walk to the Vatican. From there we plan to walk to the city center seeing Piazza Novona, Pantenon, Trevi, etc. We would then like to go to the Colosseum and from there get back to one of the train stations going back to Civit. We will have about 5 hours to spend in Rome.

So the questions are: How do the Rome buses work for tourists who don't speak a word of Italian? What routes would work for us in this schedule? Are buses or taxi's a better alternative for us if we don't wish to walk all of this way in the city? What train station will be the best one to use to leave Rome? Is it reasonable to do this in 5 hours (we do not plan to go into the Vatican or the Colosseum, as we have already done that)? Suggestions please.

Your train ticket covers you for Rome's service buses (not ho-ho's) and metro.

Can't help with bus schedules - have to admit that for shortish city centre journeys anywhere, if there's no metro or blatantly obvious bus route we hail a cab. You might consider that a good use of your limited time in Rome if you can't get good full accurate info re buses.

If your last destination in Rome is the Colosseum, take the metro from there (Colosseo) - the blue line (aka B line) direction of Laurentina & get off at the second stop, Piramide. This is linked by a pedestrian subway to Ostiense rail station for your train back to Civi.

The train is likely to already be pretty packed but it'll be more comfortable than for those getting on at San Pietro.

Alternatively, if comfort is paramount & you have time in hand, take that blue line metro from Colosseo in the opposite direction (end-station either Rebibbia or Conca D'Ora) and get off at Termini. This is where the train starts & you'll probably get a seat.

But ....

1) the train of course leaves a little earlier,

2) most important, it's a long walk (at least 10 mins, probably more like 15 min) from the metro to the platform for Civi.

https://www.rome.info/metro/

JB :)

www.civitatours.com is a good option for going to Civitavecchia to Rome. More confortable that the train.You will have 5 hours to explore Rome by your own. The cost is 19 euros per person and the daily train ticket( Birg) 12 euros.Taxis were cheap last year, 10 euros from vatican city to piazza spagna. We will use civitatours( and his sister company tuscanybus in Livorno for going to Florence) in August again.