getting to Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome at night

This will give you a great rundown of hotel choices near the airport: http://tinyurl.com/3pdqf9x Note that the ONLY hotel in walking distance of the terminal is the Hilton Airport Rome.

Seems like I take a lot of 6am flights out of Rome, However, I don't sleep at the airport. Everyone who does sleeps on the upper deck near the food area, however, they are a lot younger then you or I(me, 69).They seem to fit better on the seats or not be bothered by sleeping on the floor. It does appear to be reasonably safe and secure with security upstairs and down and only 1 entrance to the teminal open before 6.
I do the Hilton if it is about the same as a downtown hotel-if you book prepaid, you can sometimes get pretty good rates-I've done as low as 90E and usually can book at +/-130E. I think the gates for inter-EU flights normally open around 0430, and the Hilton does have a shuttle which is faster than walking through the Gerbil tubes to the terminal. Finally, I am planning to still be traveling like your when I reach her maturity!

As a fellow senior, I'd advise staying at an airport hotel. We stayed at the Hilton there, which is actually attached to the airport so it's only a short stroll through a corridor. Then you can relax and not worry about taxis and trains. There are probably other (maybe less pricey) hotels right there too; search venere.com to find one. They probably have shuttles or other ways to get you to your flight. Have a great trip!

For my 6am I stayed at the Best Western in Fiumicino and used their shuttle service. (If you're the only ones leaving that early, they may recommend a taxi for you instead). I have AAA and got a pretty good price, was happy with the room. As far as getting to the airport: the last Leonardo Express (train from Termini to Fiumicino) leaves at 22:52.

Wanted to correct a small detail in Miguel's post, the train from Termini to the airport is 14 euro, not 18.

6:00am flight time? OUCH!!! Why not just stay at the hotel you're at? Ask the hotel what car service they can recommend and order it for you, go to Fiumicino airport site, look under transportation or taxi service and schedule a car pick up or go to the site bellow and schedule with them. Pack the night before. Leave out the clothes that you're going to wear for the flight and get up early enough to get to the airport and not miss your flight. I'm 51 and you can have that sleeping in the airport c@#& or lugging my luggage to another hotel. I'm on vacation still, so why kill myself, I'll leave that for others. Besides I want to take advantage of all the time I'm there. If I ever go back to Rome or the EU I'm going to get a car or taxi to take me to the hotel and bring me back to the airport. If you split the cost between the travelers, the cost and the hassle of doing it any other way is not worth it. We used CS Limousine Service. They didn't speak English when I called them in Rome, but with caller ID about 15 minutes later an Egyptian that spoke English called me back and we scheduled a pick up for 5:00am that Sunday morning from the Termini area to the airport (there was no traffic at all that Sunday morning). Our flight was for 7:00am with Alitalia and we made it with plenty of time to spare (I think we had to wait for the Alitalia personnel to open the counter). He was there about 20 minutes early waiting for us outside the hotel. We paid 60.00 Euros for four people. The light rail was 18.00 Euros per head (72,00 euros total) from the Termini to the airport and vise a versa. So what did we save. No more aggravation for me again!!! I know what I'm doing!!! http://www.cslimousine.com/?gclid=CP3clZGvq6sCFYHs7QodcS2v7Q

Thanks for advice. Need to explore those options. My sister is the founding member of the NOSFL (Northern Ohio Society for Frugal Living) and I also belong.

Devon we read in the RS's book that it was 14.00 Euros or something like that. We passed on a bus to take us to the Termini area that was 15.00 Euros. We were kind of surprised when the person ahead of me paid 18.00 Euros and we did also. I hope that maybe it's because we rode on a special train, it was a special tax or whatever... You're probably right, but I will never forget the look everyone gave me in our group when they found out it was 18 vs. 14.