The specific spots, lines, and metro stations where pickpockets work in Rome — and how to be invisible to them.
Plan your Italy trip →Metro Line A: The worst. Termini (transfer chaos), Spagna (tourist hordes), Ottaviano (Vatican crowds). Pickpocket teams board at Termini and work the train to Ottaviano, hitting tourist-heavy cars. Bus 64 and 40: The "Termini to Vatican" buses. Crowded, tourist-heavy, notorious. Colosseum queue: While you wait, watching the Colosseum, hands explore your bag. Trevi Fountain: The crowd crush at the fountain is pickpocket heaven. Termini station: Distracted travelers managing bags, phones, and tickets. The station concourse and ticket machines are prime zones.
"Helpful" metro strangers: Someone "helps" you with the ticket machine or turnstile while a partner lifts your wallet. Newspaper/cardboard distraction: Someone holds a newspaper or cardboard in front of you (often near ATMs or on buses) while hands work underneath. The "spill": Someone "accidentally" spills something on you, apologizes profusely while cleaning it off — and picks your pocket during the commotion.
Crossbody bag. Front pockets. Alertness on metro. That's it. Rome is a safe city with an annoying pickpocket problem in specific tourist zones. Outside those zones (Trastevere, Testaccio, Pigneto, residential neighborhoods), pickpocketing is essentially nonexistent.
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