We will be leaving from Praiano to Naples airport for our return flight home.
Departure time is an unfortunate 7am.
Travel time by car will take us about 1-1/2 hrs to get to the airport. Technically, following the "arrive 3 hrs prior to departure for international flights", we'd have to leave around 2:30am.
Would really like to make that 3:30, getting us to the airport around 5am.
Any reason not to get an extra hour of sleep?
the "arrive 3 hrs prior to departure for international flights" is bull sh.. that applies to the US only.
You don't say but your flight is almost certainly a intra-European flight (likely the Lufthansa LH337 to Frankfurt), therefore it works like a domestic flight in the US, and 60 to 90 min prior to departure is adequate for those flights.
Flights at NAP cannot take off before 6:30am (noise restrictions), therefore the earliest flights are scheduled to push back from the gate at 6:15am. Because of that, the check-in Hall opens at 5, so if you want to be there and wait in front of the entrance to the airport 2 hours before so that you can be mugged more easily, that is up to you. I wouldn't show up before 5:30am, that's for sure.
