Rome Flights

We flew with the air company named air europa. The flight was not direct, first we flew from Málaga to Madrid airport and from madrid to rome. The service was very good and the crew were vey nice. From Roma to Madrid we flew on business class, we did not believe it, we dont know why we were seated on first class but we had a very good flight. After seat they gave us a orange juice, during the flight we had lunch conssist in a salad, main course, dessert and coffee and finally before landing they gave us a sweet. The service was superb and crew was very nice.

Volamos a Roma con air europa. El vuelo no fue directo, tuvimos que cambiar en el aeropuerto de barajas en Madrid, por suerte no fuimos a la terminal nueva la bién famosa T4. El vuelo fue muy bién y el personal muy amable, es mas el vuelo de Roma a Madrid lo hicimos en primera clase, no se porque motivo pero nos pusieron en primera clase, nos dieron un zumo de bienvenida antes de despegar, durante el vuelo nos dieron una toallita caliete para lavarte las manos, nos dieron una comida y 1 caramelo antes de aterrizar.

There's been some negative comments on Rome's airport on the VT forum recently, so I thought I'd post my reply in here as a tip.

I have been flyiing in and out of Fiumicino about once a week since May 2004, on both domestic and international routes. I find the airport one of the best in the world (and faaar better than Milan Malpensa, which stinks big time). I have only seen Amsterdam and Singapore functioning better among the airports of a comparable size. It is definitely way nicer and smoother than London Heathrow, Madrid Barajas, Frankfurt (where they must applied an engineering law that the walk between any two gates must last at least 45 minutes) and not even comparable to disasters like Paris CDG, New York JFK and Dallas FW (my personal favourite, where I once missed a flight arriving three hours before departure).

Consider this: I live about 24 km from the airport When I have to take a domestic flight, I leave home by car exactly 60 minutes before the flight is due to depart, or by train around 1h20 minutes before, and have never missed one (well, I have - when the motorway to the airport caught fire due to some idiot throwing a cigarette in the dry bushes). Hardly something you can do in Paris, London or New York.

The most annoying delays I have experienced are at luggage collection, especially in the domestic terminal (the variance is really high, sometimes you find luggage waiting for you, other times it's you who has to wait, and for long time). The only problems you may have at the departure hall are at security check, but usually that's quite smooth.

Considering that Fiumicino is one of the top-5 European airports in term of passenger traffic (I think I remember that they had around 150 thousand flights in the first 6 months of 2005), some problems and delays here and there are to be expected, as is natural in such a large and complex structure.

I find it to be a real good hub - up to you to judge for yourself!

The most obvious way to arrive is by plane, mostly to Leonardo da Vinci Airport (formerly called Fiumicino Airport), some 50km north of Rome. From there the best option is to take the direct train "Leonardo da Vinci" to Rome's Termini Station (main train station) - 9,5eur/person. This train is pretty slow and it takes 30 minutes to reach Rome. The good thing is that it also arrives at the airport every half an hour.

We flew over to Rome. We had Air Canada from Montreal to Frankfurt, then Alitalia from there to Rome. The flight is a few hours and on the way over, we saw the Alps out the plane window while we were flying over the mountains.

Rome has two airports, Fiumicino (the main one), situated west of the city 30 minutes by train from the railway station (direct service), and Ciampino, located east of the city some 25 minutes away by bus.

Fiumicino is served by all major airlines, and is Europe's 5th largest airport as per passenger traffic. Ciampino is the homebase of several low-cost airline, and its traffic is growing steadily with the expansion of the industry.

Both airports are quite efficient, clean and well organized, save for luggage handling which can be really slow at times.

In order to be sure to catch your flight, plan to be at the airport 1h before for domestic and European flights in Fiumicino and for all flights in Ciampino, and around 1h30' before for intercontinental flights in Fiumicino (save for flights to the US and Israel, for which you should arrive up to 4h early).

When we were staying in Gaeta, Italy, for two months, Allan's sister Jayne came to visit us for about ten days, and she flew from Chicago to Rome. We drove from Gaeta to Rome's (Fiumicino) Leonardo Da Vinci Airport. It and Milan's Malpensa are Italy's two most important hubs of transportation for "long haul" flights.

We had it all planned to meet her at the gate, and I was to take the photo. The airport is about 18 miles from Rome's center, and if you had to take a taxi, it would cost about $35-40 and would take around 40 minutes.

The big moment came, her plane was announced, and we stood waiting. As she came out, looking around helplessly, Allan ran up and kissed her on the cheek...I snapped the picture and was able to capture all the emotion.

A note of warning: Don't be alarmed if you see military people armed in the airport. It is part of the security there. The first time that I saw it, I was somewhat frightened.

Ok, there are two main airports. Ciampino airport is a little bit out the town, but there's a bus leaving at least once in an hour to the center of Rome (right to the main Termini station from where you can take all the metro lines and busses). The bus stands in front of the airport, the ticket you can buy inside the airport. it costs about 6 euros, if my memory isn't cheating on me. It's also not a regular bus ticket that you'd be buying for other buses in Rome, so ask the ticket exacly for that bus.

Wanting to come back from Rome to Ciampino imagine that you go out the Termini station, you are facing the bus station, bus to Ciampino does not stand in the main bus station. go towards right, pass the street, bus to Ciampino stops there, the tickets you can buy in a hotel next to that bus stop.

Airport of Leonardo Da Vinci a.k.a fiulmicino isn't difficult to reach with a public transport. From termini metro/train/bus station you should take a train that goes to Fiulmicino airport, train departs often every 20-30 minutes. it's an ordinary train, buy tickets for the train to Fiulmicino and hop in (don't forget to stamp the the ticket BEFORE going on the train, else it won't be valid). Train brings you right into the ..airport! airport is huge, so follow the signs. The same stuff from the airport to Rome , inside the airport follow the directions "ai treni" (to the trains) and you'll find yourself in the train station , buy a ticket to "Termini" and hop on the train.

If you need to do a trip Ciampino-Fiulmicino by public transport, then you'll have to take bus from ciampino to Termini, then train from Termini to Fiulmicino and vice versa. the full trip takes around 1.5 hour, maybe a little bit more, depends on the coincidences of the transport. Bus to Ciampino from Termini takes around 40 minutes and train from Termini to fiulmicino around 30mins.