Wondering Where the Bathrooms in Rome are? How to Use Them? Read This to Find Out!

Are you wondering about the bathrooms in Rome?

Where to find them?

How they work?

If they cost money?

And...why they don't have toilet seats??

You've come to the right place.

Allow me to enlighten you!

Bathrooms in Rome - Everything you need to know

Yeah I realize this is not as much fun as reading about the Sistine Chapel or the Trevi Fountain, but I also know this is just the kind of stuff visitors to Rome want to know (and sometimes are afraid to ask!)

So here goes.

In a nutshell, these are the questions I hear most about the toilets in Rome:

• How easy is it to find a toilet when I am sight-seeing in Rome? Are there toilets inside the Vatican?
• Are there toilets inside the Coliseum?
• Is it true I can use the bathroom at any bar?
• Why do I have to pay to use the bathroom in Rome?
• Why are there no toilet seats in so many Rome bathrooms?
• Finally, find out all about how to ask for the bathroom/toilet in Rome.
  
• How to Flush Toilets in Rome?
  
• How to get water out of the faucet in the sink From Rome toilet!

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Bathrooms in Rome - where to find them while touring

I spend much of my time in Rome walking around: meeting friends, shopping, and endless sight-seeing.

So even if I live here, I behave sort of like a tourist and am often out all day.

And I am one of those people who has to "go" all the time.

So believe me when I tell you, I know what it feels like to be inside a monument and all of a sudden stop paying attention to the beauty around me, because I am wondering where the toilets are.

Or enjoying a shopping expedition only to start suddenly thinking desperately about where the closest public bathroom to me is.

This page is about how to find and use bathrooms in Rome, and what to expect and what not to expect when you do use them.

Bathrooms in Rome - walking around sight-seeing

There are some new service spots around Rome called p-stop (Yes you read that right, like pee-stop. Ahem.)

These spots are meant to provide tourists with some services they might need while walking around Rome, including wi-fi, fresh drinking water, a baby-changing area, and a few more services.

From what I can tell, the services differ throughout the city.

Here is what they look like more or less:

These p-stops are sprinkled (no pun intended!) throughout the city, but obviously they are not everywhere.

The cost is 1€ but it's free with the Roma Pass or other Rome City Pass.

The above mentioned p-stops are not going to be everywhere you are, and you may find them closed or not operating when you get there.

They are supposed to be open daily 10 am - 6 pm but you never know!

So for the purposes of helping you find the nearest toilet in Rome, let's leave these p-stops out of the equation for the moment.

So what to do if you need to find the closest place to use the bathroom when you are out and about in Rome?

Yes, you could walk into a hotel and try to anonymously use the bathrooms located somewhere in the lobby.

This works pretty well if it's a semi-fancy hotel.

You just walk in as if you are staying there, or meeting someone in the bar/restaurant, and nobody will bat an eye.

However, you may not be in an area with a hotel that fits the bill.

You will, on the other hand, nearly always be within reach of a bar.

By bar I mean a cafe. 

A bar/cafe in Italy is a place where you can get a coffee, drink, sandwich or snack.

All bars have a counter where you can consume these things standing up, and sometimes you will also see tables outside, for sitting down.

**Don't forget the rule that if you sit down, it will cost more than if you stand at the bar - although that is the topic for other pages.**

Bars in Rome and all over Italy are just a standard of city life.

So as you walk around Rome, just about anywhere, you will see a bar.

Often you will even see several in one block.

Of course bars have bathrooms, and there has been some talk online that "bars are obliged" to let you use their bathroom if you ask.

Hmmmm.

This particular statement is not true, and if it were true, it would be hard to enforce.

It's very easy for a bar manager to tell you the bathroom is out of order.

And I do often see signs, especially in the historic center and near tourist attractions in Rome, that the bathroom is for customer use only.

I always err on the side of caution and simply buy something when I go into a bar to use the bathroom in Rome.

A coffee standing at the bar is somewhere around 1€ and for me, it's worth it to pay that small fee to use a clean, private bathroom. 

Bathrooms in Rome - at the Vatican

A visit to the Vatican can take at least 3 hours, if not much more.

There are plenty of toilets in the Vatican Museums, but the bathroom situation in St. Peter's Basilica is a bit more sparse.

There are two toilets around St. Peter's Square, that you can use without going through security and inside the basilica:

• Along the Charlemagne Wing. This is the left side of Saint Peter's Square as you face the church. There is a huge bathroom and baby-changing area there, as well as a gift shop. If you do go inside the basilica, this is where you exit it at the end, so you will spot it as soon as you come out on your right. 
• As you face the basilica, on the right-hand side at the end of the Constantine Colonnade, near the Post Office.

There are two toilets inside of Saint Peter's i.e. once you go through security and are making a commitment to go inside the basilica:

• In the bag check area on the lower right side of the façade of the basilica as you face it. These restrooms are the newest and most modern at St. Peters. And by the way, this is where you can get an audio-guide for the basilica too.
• If you climb the dome, you will find toilets (and even a baby-changing facility) up there. 

So using a toilet inside St. Peter's Basilica is not actually that easy: there is only one right as you enter, and for the other one, it's up on the roof. 

You can check the Vatican website to see the locations of the toilets in the Vatican Museums along with handicapped access and baby-changing facilities.

Here is a complete list of bathrooms in the Vatican Museums:

• On the far left hand side of the entrance hall, down a flight of stairs. You will see these almost immediately after you go through security and before you go up into the museums.
• Near the Post Office at the entrance/exit of the Museums. They are at the top of the escalator you use to enter the museums, and before the galleries.
• Near the downstairs cafeteria. After you take the escalator up into the museums, head right towards the Pinacoteca. Just before the Pinacoteca you will see stairs going down to where the restrooms and cafeteria are.
• In the area after the Cortile della Pigna. It can be hard to spot these - they are on the left hand side of the staircase you use to go up to the Octagonal Courtyard.
• In the Raphael Rooms.
• At the bottom of the stairs that lead to the entrance of the Sistine Chapel. Baby-changing facilities are available in the women's toilet. 

When visiting the Vatican Museums, you may take the short-cut from the Sistine Chapel into Saint Peter's basilica if you are on a guided tour.

This is a great way to save time, but if you will need a bathroom in the basilica, there are fewer options (one downstairs more or less below the shortcut, and one other facility on the roof, which you can only access if you decide to climb St. Peter's dome, which you could do once your tour ends.)

As I mentioned above, there are also toilets just to the right of the exit of Saint Peter's basilica, so you will be able to use them as soon as you come out. 

Bathrooms in Rome - at the Colosseum/Roman Forum/Palatine Hill

There are bathrooms inside of the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill:

• As soon as you enter the Colosseum, just past the internal ticket booths, you will see the toilets. They are actually pretty clean. They are the only toilets in the Colosseum, and there is usually a line, but since there are quite a few stalls, the line moves fairly quickly.
• Inside the Roman Forum, you will find toilets in several areas. Look for the "WC" signs.
• At the Palatine Hill, which is pretty vast, you have them right when you enter on via di San Gregorio, on the left, and again at several places on the top: one near the Palatine Museum, another near the Farnese Rose Gardens, and another next to Domitian's Hippodrome.

Every monument and tourist site (which you pay to enter) DOES have at least one bathroom inside.

This includes the Caracalla Baths, Ostia Antica, Castel Sant'Angelo, etc.

Bathrooms in Rome - at the Trevi Fountain

It's funny but it seems to me any time I am with people at the Trevi Fountain, someone needs to use the toilet.

Could it be all that rushing water?

Well, the Trevi Fountain may be one of the most difficult places to locate a bathroom in Rome.

But on just about each of the little streets leading in every direction from the fountain, you can find a bar.

And all you have to do is go in, and ask where the bathroom is.

As I've said before, be prepared to purchase something!

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Bathrooms in Rome - Do you have to pay to use them?

The answer is yes.

Sort of.

I'd plan for this to be the case most of the time when you are sightseeing in Rome (as opposed to patronizing a restaurant, large department store or hotel):

• If you use a bathroom in a bar in Rome, you will likely have to consume something.
• If you use the toilets at Rome Termini train station, you have to pay (and they are clean!)
• If you find any of the public toilets around Rome, there will be an attendant, who expects a tip.
• The same is true at some museums - there are clean, accessible bathrooms, and to keep them clean, there are attendants. And they expect a tip.

I find most museums have unattended bathrooms, so you don't need to pay extra, but of course you pay to get into the museum.

And certainly if you are in a restaurant dining, you can use the facilities but again, you do pay for that meal/drink.

The only really easy-to-find free public bathrooms in Rome are in large shopping centers, and we don't have too many of those in the historic center.

For example, Galleria Alberto Sordi is one such center, right on the via del Corso.

And guess what?

There are two stalls in the women's bathroom.

Yep.

Two.

So I leave to your imagination the waiting time.

You are better off going to a bar!

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Bathrooms in Rome - What to expect

Bathrooms in Rome are different than what many people find back home.

First of all, they are usually called "Toilette" or "W.C." (pronounced in Italian voo chee.)

You may also see the words "Bagno" or "Servizi."

Bathrooms in Rome tend to be in small spaces.

Also they fully close, i.e. we don't have doors that are open at the bottom for seeing feet.

Instead, to know if a bathroom stall is occupied, you will either just see the door closed, or you might see a little red sign, with the word occupato (occupied.)

You will often find that bathrooms in Rome don't have any toilet paper.

In general, when sight-seeing in Rome, I'd suggest always carrying pocket kleenex packets, some cleansing wipes, and hand-sanitizer.

All of these items are easy to buy here at a pharmacy or grocery store.

Bathrooms in Rome - how to ask for them

Your first attempt should always be simple and in English - just say clearly "Where is the toilet?"

I say to use the word toilet, because it's much more universally understood than "bathroom."

If the person does not understand, you can use the Italian phrase "Dov'è il bagno?".

But you can also leave out the "Dov'è" part and just say in a questioning tone, one of the Italian words for bathroom:

• toilet? (pronounced twa-lette)
• bagno? (pronounced bah-nio)
• servizi? (pronounced ser-vee-tsee)

Bathrooms in Rome - Why there are (usually) no toilet seats

For a long time after moving here, it baffled me to find so many toilets in Rome without toilet seats.

I finally figured it out:

One of the biggest reasons for the lack of toilet seats is the difficulty in replacing the original. 

Italians love nice designs and bathrooms are no exception.

When we ran our B&B in Rome, every time we created or redesigned a bathroom, we went to a specialty store that sells "bathrooms", including tiles, ceramics, and all accessories.

And every time, we purchased a "backup" toilet seat because there are endless designs and no two toilets or toilet seats are alike.

So there is not a "standard" toilet seat such as you'd find at say, Home Depot.

Yes, you can buy generic toilet seats in Rome, but often they don't fit well on the designer toilet you have.

If it's your home, you figure it out, but if you are the bar manager, you might just leave the whole thing alone.

Another reason for the lack of toilet seats in Rome, I think, is that they break easily because people stand on them (yep!), or worse.

So either the bar manager does not put the seat on in the first place, or, if/when it breaks, s/he does not replace it.

And, back to reason one, it's just another expense and headache easily avoided so perhaps they just don't do it at all.

Bathrooms in Rome - How to flush them

Another thing you may find that is different from what you know is the flushing mechanism.

There are several ways to flush toilets in Italy:

• Look for a panel in the wall literally above the back of the toilet, with two large buttons to push. The larger one is for a heavier water flow, and the smaller one is for a lighter water flow. This is called a "Geberit."
• Look for a small round button in the wall somewhere above the toilet. This is called a "Catis" and you have to push it hard several times to get water flowing.
• Sometimes there will be a large white button just to the side of where you sit. This is particularly the case in handicap bathrooms. It is meant as an easy way to flush, especially from a sitting position.
• Look for a chain above you - never on the wall. If there is a chain above you, it should be attached to a tank. You pull that and it will flush. On the other hand, a chain hanging down the side of the wall is usually for emergencies and you should not pull it if it is not attached to a tank. Someone will come running to see if you are ok. (Frankly I am seeing these less often than I used to, making me think perhaps the law requiring them is no longer in effect. Also, I am pretty sure many of these chains were never actually attached to anything and would have been useless in an actual emergency.)
• A few models have a little tank behind where you sit, as we have in the US. The flusher is built into this tank, on the top. You will either pull it up, and hold it long enough for the flush, or, you push it down, sometimes having to lightly pump it a little. It will be self-evident which is which.

Bathrooms in Rome - How to wash your hands

Finally, washing your hands can be a little alarming . . . you put soap on your hands and look for where to turn on the faucet . . . and find nothing.

Do you have to leave the bathroom with soap all over your hands?

Nope.

Look on the floor. 

Most sinks in bathrooms in Rome have a floor pedal.

This actually makes a lot of sense to me, as I find it a lot more sanitary than everyone touching the faucet handle!

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