How to get a Cab in Rome Italy

Taking a taxi in Rome without being cheated, second ed.

Well, people, almost 4 years and 78 commentaries later, I can unfortunately affirm that one of my most beloved contributions remains one of the greatest challanges for Rome's visitors: Taking a cab in Rome and not getting robbed. And I think most local people would say that calling a cab is not as common to get a cab in Rome as it could be in other city.

Actually, I don't think I've ever called a cab here, and I've often seen how visitors are disappointed by what they see as impolite Roma cabmen who don't stop when signalled from the kerb. A lot of cabbies in Rome work with a wireless system and are already on their way to meet someone or have them in their cars.

When you have a mobile telephone, this is the simplest way I have found so far to get a licenced wireless cab. Then, the ministry will send you a response when you start searching for the cab, and another text when the cab has been found, stating your name, number and waiting period.

Every wireless cab operator has a number that you can call to call a cab. Make a call and clearly indicate the name of the road and house number where you need the cab, and the computer system will send the call to your nearest cabistop. This is confirmed by the cabbie, and the calling party is informed of the waiting time.

They can be recognized by the yellow "TAXI" label. In theory, the riders are waiting in a row (remember, this is Rome) and the first driver's cab in the row picks up the first rider. If the line is just a mess, sometimes you have to ask the drivers: "Chi è il primo?

On them you will find the municipal emblem "SPQR" and a taxisign. However, I suggest using wireless cabs (those that have clearly identified telephone numbers on the outside doors) because they work with a wireless co-operative, are not independent, and are therefore less likely to exclude you, as their dispatchers know their tariffs and you should take action in case of trouble.

• Do you know the tariffs and tariffs governed by the cities and do not take a cab without a metre? Otherwise there will always be a first ticket price on the counter, as follows: When you drive 12 miles (20 km/h) or more, the taximeter increases by 92 cent for every kilometre (a little over half a mile) inside the GRA ring, or by ?1.52 if you are outside the GRA ring.

The waiting period is calculated before the cab arrives: If you call a cab, you will be told how long to stay. Taximeters start from the moment the cab answers your call, which means that the starting price on the counter is higher when you have summoned a cab than when you get on from a taxis.

Nobody jumps up and down over Rome's cabs. According to a poll by the Italian Automobile Club, Rome, together with Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Madrid, Prague and Vienna, has an "unsatisfactory" assessment of the taxis services due to costs, compliance with speeds, needless diversions, traffic lights and aggression.

Rome even achieved the second-last result in the concluding section, ahead of only Ljubljana in Slovakia. Even more disheartening is that there is an officially available grievance request forms, but from my own experiences, as with many red tape in Rome, it is almost useless. In December 2007, when I was nine months old with my nephew and my boy, I made a really nasty affair with a disloyal taxi rider in Rome and I had to ask the rider to stop where we were supposed to go because he had cheated on us and refused to acknowledge it.

If that weren't already enough worse when I wrote this, I was warned about this post by a Twitter reader who reported from a recent survey that some Roma taxi riders manipulated ticket vendors to help them make up to three times as much as a normally punished ticket price tag would make.

It seems that there are ruthless machinists who "repair" the counter for 500 euros so that it runs much quicker than usual by recording 1 euro per 300 metres instead of the 98 cent per 1 kilometre penalised by the town. I' m having some of my best talks with cabbies.