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The ticket is not valid until you stamp it
An Italian transport ticket is inert until you validate it. On a bus or tram you put it into the small machine by the door, which prints the time; on the metro it goes through the turnstile. A ticket in your pocket that has never been stamped counts as no ticket at all, and inspectors — who board in plain clothes, in pairs, and often at the least convenient moment — will issue a fine of around fifty euros on the spot. This catches visitors constantly, because the buying and the validating feel like one act and are two. Rome's ticket, the BIT, costs one euro fifty and is valid for a hundred minutes across buses and trams with one metro entry, which makes it better value than it first appears. Buy them at a tabaccheria, a newsstand, or a machine in the station — bus drivers do not sell them. Two further things. Strikes are frequent and announced in advance, with a protected window in the middle of the day when service runs regardless; look up sciopero before traveling. And Rome's buses are famously approximate, which is why Romans check an app rather than the timetable at the stop.