Navigating the Rome Airport

Not sure I understand your questions. What was what like? Are you asking how to exit the airport? The FCO website has maps of both terminals. I'm assuming you are flying there from the US, so you'll likely arrive at terminal 3?. Just follow the signs to Passport control (not Customs- that's only if you are importing goods to Italy), then baggage claim and then follow the exit signs. How are you getting into Rome? Train, bus, or taxi?

What unnerving reports about the departures are you referring to?

I spotted this online: https://www.explore-italian-culture.com/fiumicino-airport.html

A couple of things about the Rome airport...

The last time we arrived at FCO, we only found one of our two bags on the baggage claim carousel. After all of the other bags were picked up and the carousel stopped, we proceeded around the back of baggage claim to look for the "lost bag" office, and there was our other suitcase, just sitting behind a partition wall out of sight of the baggage claim area. Evidently someone had removed it before we got there.

When we arrived at FCO for our flight home, a couple of airport agents at a security checkpoint demanded to see everyone's boarding passes before letting us through to the check-in counters. Since we weren't able to check in online, we obviously needed to get to the check-in counter to get boarding passes, but they didn't seem to care. Even though we were within eyesight of the check-in counter, they wouldn't let us proceed to that point to get a boarding pass. So everyone had to log into an airline app, or produce a paper ticket (who has that any more, or somehow show something that proved we had a ticket to fly out of FCO that day. Very annoying, and it really backed up the line.

Thank you for those insights!

Just in case you'd like to have it, this is the official website for Rome Fiumicino Leonardo Airport.

https://www.adr.it/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en/

Dennise, I would not use the the site you linked as it's outdated. One example:

N.B. This is probably the single most important piece of information
on this page. For passengers to the United States flying with any of
the American airlines, and for all flights to Israel, you will be
ushered to a completely separate terminal building - Terminal 5 - to
go through rigorous and extremely slow security procedures.

Only Terminal 1 and 3 are currently operational; Terminal 5 is not, and no shuttle needed to a "completely different building". Click "Which Terminal" on this page to see which of the two individual airlines are assigned to.

https://www.adr.it/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en/pax-fco-airport-map

If this helps, a VERY recent post from ChristineH... who just flew out of Rome a few days ago! :O)
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/quick-easy-check-in-at-fco

You really don't know how those sites make money? Anyway I am positive the truth about FCO is halfway between that page and these news: https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/italy-romes-fiumicino-wins-best-airport-in-europe-for-third-year-in-a-row.html

We flew out of FCO last Thursday on American. I had completed the VeriFLY app and had done online check-in. There was no line to complete check-on and drop my bag; my traveling companions had not done so but the check-in line went fast and check-in was very efficient. With respect to unnerving reports, they may be due to confusion about first finding the airline’s check-in location (by number) and then locating the correct departure gate (by letter and number). Also, FCO is a large airport — plenty of walking to get to your gate. The day we left, my Fitbit logged 3.54 miles, substantially all walking through three airports.

All great info, folks. Thank you! Any recommendations on how early my friend should get to the airport with a 10:50 am departure time?

Get there at least 3 hours before your flight. If all goes well, you'll have time for a snack and last minute shopping. If lines are long, you should still be OK.

Denise K- we just flew in and out of Rome on United- returned this past Friday.
it was so quick and efficient it put our experience at Dulles to shame.

On arrival it took about 30 min from landing (about 8:45 am) to get to a taxi out front and that included picking up our checked bags. There were dozens of passport control lines open- all automated, scan your passport, lower your mask and off you go.

On departure we got out of taxi at 7:30 and were at our gate by 8:00- again after check in (we had paper copies of test), checking bags, getting boarding passes, going thru security with a slight delay when I was pulled aside, walk thru the duty free mall, tram to gate, etc.

The signage is excellent, just follow the signs.

Our flight out was 10:30 so we allowed 3 hours. In our case we hardly needed that much time but I would still recommend it- who knows how lines formed AFTER we went thru!

Thanks, everyone!

There's a lot of weird stuff on that page. For example, it says that passport control is slow, even if you're coming from another EU country. Um, no. There is NO passport control if you're coming from another Schengen country, which is most of the EU. It's like a domestic flight. It also references the nonexistent Alitalia, which stopped flying last October. Finally, about food--they redid the main terminal and there are lots of non fast food places. There's even a sushi and Japanese food restaurant—sushi is really popular here in Italy, even our local fishmonger and our big supermarket here make it and sell it. In general, I find the tone of the page needlessly alarming and kind of insulting. One caveat: Checked luggage can be slow to appear on the carousels.

Thank you!

And just hope that there isn't a general transportation strike the day you fly home. We experienced that once when leaving out of FCO. After dropping off our bags and leaving the check in counter, the lines at the automated passport control checkpoint were unbelievable, like nothing we've ever seen before at FCO, and some of the passport control machines weren't working, which meant people had to move into other lines to try to get through. What a nightmare that day, needless to say there were massive flight delays.

Yikes! Will keep that in mind!