Last night in Italy -- crazy early departure from FCO

Wow. That is early!? We just departed Sat from FCO to states. Had a 9:30 am flight. By then tons of people! Maybe so early means less people in the lines!? They have so many lines and they don’t move so well. 2 passport lines…One to stamp…one to scan. They even need to ask your contact person at the check in at main gate. Took extra time to look up our daughters cell number and for the computer to then process. OMGosh! Then security. We ended up running thru terminal to catch flight! Glad we are active seniors!! Sorry….Not sure tho how to help with your early timeframe?

We always stay at the FCO Hilton before an early departure. Shuttle or walk to terminal.

You know yourself and your kids best, but the idea of staying up all night before an international flight sends shivers down my spine! Even if I were able to sleep well on planes, I prefer to be decently well-rested in case I need to actually think on my feet (in the event of a delay, change of terminal, etc. happens).

I can offer you absolutely no advice on staying up all night in Rome :) but we have stayed at the airport Hilton before our flight out of FCO on previous trips, and plan to do it again at the end of the summer when we return to the US. It's not very expensive and is walking distance to the terminal, plus they have family rooms available so you might not need to get two separate rooms.

The airport hotel seems like the best option. You're correct that the Leonardo Express doesn't run early enough for that flight, and when I had a similar one last year, we had trouble finding a taxi at that time of the morning since they were busy taking people home from a night out. Staying near the airport should give you at least a little bit of sleep and keep stress levels relatively low. You can't necessarily rely on getting good sleep on the airplane on the way home--will the seat be comfortable enough? Will there be a crying baby immediately behind you? If you have any kind of drive ahead of you when you get to Seattle, you'll be grateful for whatever sleep you can get before the flight.

I'm also not sure what there is to do if you do stay out all night in Rome. The big tourist sites will be closed in the wee hours, and there's only so much loitering in a bar/restaurant before you start feeling like sleeping would have been a better use of time.

I too like the idea of dropping the car off at FCO on Friday night and staying at a hotel in the airport. OTOH if you have a convenient place to drop off the car closer to Rome (not at the airport), take a taxi or public transportation into Rome on Friday, sleep at a hotel in Rome that night and have them arrange a car to take you to the airport early on Saturday AM. We didn’t have a rental car the year we had an early flight and spent the last night in Rome. Early the next morning our driver sped through the city at dawn and asked us if we wanted to stop for any monument pictures on our traffic free ride to the airport. We said no thanks and got to the airport around 5 for our 6:30 flight just as the counters were opening.

The "Stay up all night" idea sounds fun in June but once they are actually there and are exhausted by the end of the trip the Hotel idea will be welcomed. I think staying up all night in a big major city with two kids sounds like a horrible idea, you are very vulnerable and will be tired especially after a full day of sight seeing. I have heard of families arriving in a foreign city late at night and not being tired due to jet lag and renting bikes to ride through the empty streets at night, but even that gets your body clock all jacked up.

We returned the rental car in Roma and stayed at the Hilton the night before our early morning flight. I don't think I would ever do anything else. The Hilton there is geared towards the traveler. We had a big buffet breakfast there before our flight.

I've had early flights out of Rome and have always stayed in the center of the city the night before departure. There's not much to see around the airport and, as others have noted, the trip from the center of Rome in the early morning hours is easy and fast. I'd much rather spend the previous night in the city soaking up the last bit of Roman culture than at an airport hotel, but that's a personal preference.

Keep in mind that if you stay at the Hilton FCO, they have (or at least used to have) a free shuttle into Rome. We dropped off our rental car, checked in, then took the 3:00pm shuttle into Rome. We then walked around a little, had dinner, then joined our Walks of Italy Evening Stroll tour. It finished in time for us the catch the shuttle back to the hotel.

It seems the turn the car in and stay at the airport Hilton suggestion is the least painful alternative and gives you the time to get your return home test.

My only other suggestion, Fire whomever made these travel plans :-)

stay out all night in Rome and drop car off at airport at 4 am and
sleep all the way home.

Don't know how it works for your flight but when we return to the US from Europe, we've both departed and arrived back in the US on the same day. Neither of us can sleep much on a plane, which is a good thing in this case 'cause once we're home and the hour of normal bedtime rolls around, we're good and ready for it. In other words, staying awake as much as possible on the way home helps us get back onto local US time more quickly. If we'd snoozed all the way back, we'd be up all night!