departure

I recently (late November) stayed at the Hotel Club Isola Sacre, very close to the airport (Fiumicino), and can recommend it unreservedly. It is about 5 minutes from the airport and they will shuttle you there for €6 per person. They also have a shuttle to and from Rome for €12.

Fiumicino is probably the safest choice if your flight out is really early. You can see several other choices for Fiumicino on www.tripadvisor.com. The hoteliers in Fiumicino know why you are there. You a one-nighter with an early departure. You'll see the comments on Trip Advisor. As a popular alternative, many people do spend their last night in Rome and have the hotel arrange to have a taxi there at 3:00am or so. The taxi ride will cost you about 40Eu. If your flight departs much later (i.e. after 10:00am) then Rome isn't a bad choice. A great last dinner, a taxi ride at 5:00am or a bit earlier and its a very good memory and exit from Rome.

I'm sure Norma's choice is excellent. If you'd like to see some other good options, go here: http://tinyurl.com/3jr3b8z

Carolyn, What time in the morning does your flight depart? If it's not too early, I'd suggest staying in Rome and then heading for the airport in the morning via the Leonardo Express. Of course, if you'd like to be right AT the airport, there's always the Rome Airport Hilton. You can walk right into the Terminals via a "moving sidewalk" from the Hotel. From the Hotel Lobby, that requires a short walk and then an Elevator ride to get up to the level of the "bridge" that leads to the Terminal. From there it's about a 5-10 minute walk (depending on which part of the airport you're going to). You may find it helpful to have a look at This Excellent Website. Happy travels!

If flying direct to the US, you will go out of T5 and will need to have a shuttle direct to it from the Hilton because if you go to the main terminal, you will have to join a scrum of several dozen people trying to get on the shuttle from the end on the terminal that goes to T5and it's a mess. Also ,if staying in town, make sure you tell the taxi it's T5 that is your destination .

our flight out of Rome was at about 10 a.m., so we stayed in Rome and got taxi from hotel to airport. Just didn't want to mess with getting to Termini and then walking all the way to where you get the Leonardo Express train. With 2 of us, the taxi was not that much more and worth the extra price. We drove through scenic Rome streets as the sun rose around 7, a beautiful farewell experience.
Do tell the driver you need T5. Although our driver goes to airport all the time and knew we were flying an american airline, he still dropped us in the wrong place and we had to wander around a while before finding where the shuttle was to get to the right terminal. BTW, we spent hours at the gate and found lots of shopping available for expensive purses, jewelry, etc, but no toiletries available. Make sure you have what you need before you get to the airport. My daughter had to borrow items from other passengers.