Nice town about an hour from Rome FCO airport?

Becky, Have you considered Orvieto? It's a wonderful smaller Umbrian town, and not too far from Rome. You could also drop your car there and take the train, as it's only about an hour from Termini.

Orvieto immediately came to my mind as well. It's a wonderful little town & I wish we could have spent more time there. Have a great trip!

Definitely Orvieto. We stayed there this past May and loved it. Here are some photos and video clips from our trip, in case you're curious. Happy travels.

Becky, just to be aware, May 1 is a huge holiday. Trains, gas stations, and even some rental car vendors will be impacted. Not sure what time your flight departs from Rome, but I'd give myself plenty of time if I was coming from out-of-town. The trains, buses, etc. will all be operating on the more-limited holiday schedule. Travel time from Orvieto to the FCO Train Station could easily take 2 – 2.5 hours. Trains depart Orvieto on May 1 at 05:54, 06:51, 07:31, 07:50, 08:59, 10:40, and 11:25. These trains take anywhere from 53 minutes to 1:41 to get to Rome. The Regionale trains do stop at Roma Tiburtina which would allow you to get on the FR1 Metropolitan. From Roma Tiburtina, it's about 45 minutes to the FCO airport on the FR1. Unfortunately, the FR1 will be operating on a holiday schedule so they will probably be running every 30 minutes. Thus, if you take a Regionale train from Orvieto, it would be about 1:15 to Tiburtina, wait for the next FR1, and then 45 minutes to the FCO train station. Minimum trip time perhaps 2.25 hours? Your other train option, the faster, more direct IC trains (the 5:05 and 07:31 trains above) take about an hour and drop you at the Roma Termini Station. From there you can catch the Leonardo Express , which also leaves about every 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the 07:31 train arrives at 08:24 and the LE departs at :22 and :52 after the hour... So unless your Orvieto train was early (on a holiday?), you'd not get to the airport until 9:23 or so.

Again, not sure what time your flight is... but these are options to consider when departing from Orvieto. If you keep the car, you will be filling up with gas near the airport most likely at "unmanned" gas stations on May 1. If you're headed back to the States direct from FCO, then you'll have to depart from Terminal 5. If so, you'll have to add a few more minutes to your "travel time." This link of Car Rental Locations in Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Civitavecchia, and Chiusi may help you. Make sure you have your International Driving Permit.

Folks, they are coming in from Puglia, so I would think that Orvieto would be too far north to really fit into their plans.

We stayed in Ostia (the modern town of Ostia Antica) before an FCO flight a couple of years ago. Should have made a reservation, because we missed all the nice B&B places with the weird traffic patterns, but it was very close to FCO and an easy drive in the next day. Thank goodness for Ron's warning about the holiday!

Thanks to you all for responding. Think we'll stay near Ostia where we can gas up the night before. Happy travels, Becky