Our experience at FCO airport in Rome

Thanks to this forum's posts about FCO such as above, we knew to expect the unexpected, and our expectations were met. ;) "Surrender to the chaos" and don't fight it, I think one of Rick Steve's Italian interviews had said, and we find keeping this perspective in mind as we travel really helps.

We flew Vueling to Spain 6/22, and though our check-in emails from Vueling said departing from Terminal 3, from keeping up with this forum and checking Vueling's flights, we suspected they'd be flying out of Terminal 2. They did!

We arrived at airport via Taxi at 11:00AM for 2PM flight. Tons of lost travelers leaving for US and finding out they're at the wrong terminal--all with their jynormous luggages. We managed to check-in after waiting in line 45 minutes. We decided risk it and to have lunch before going through security checks. Glad we did since there's hardly anything to eat once we passed security.

Once we arrive at the 'gate' area, it was even more 'surrender' time. It was so crowded you couldn't find the line to your flight. There was 6 flights leaving within 90 minutes, all delayed because ... who knew whys... There was never any communication to waiting passengers why delay, or when or what... And we think this might be the norm.

You just had to sort of guess and figure out and gamble, along with the mass of people in the room, that you're in the right gate, line and area. At one point two flights were flashing ' boarding' from the SAME gate, one going to Prague and one going to Barcelona, so passengers from both sort of merged together and hoped for the best. You couldn't go to the front of the line to ask because you couldn't physically get up there... and since most of the Europeans seemed to take this sort of uncertainty with a relaxed attitude, we did too. We shrugged and joined the crowd and made friends with people in line- a family from India going to Prague (who spent 1/2 their Rome vacation dealing with lost luggage--next time, they vow to check out RS forum and pack light), an English gentleman going to Spain, and an Italian family going to Palermo.

At last, 2 hours after our scheduled flight was supposed to depart, we got to board... the Tram (which would take us to our airplane,we hoped). People who paid for priority boarding was upset because there was not any priority boarding with that kind of crowd (and I was glad I'd forgo paying the extras). The boarding agent stopped boarding people at one point completely to argue with an American woman who was screaming for an attendant and wheelchair to take her mother to the airplane.

There were signs on the Tram to tell you to board the rear or front depending on where your seats were...but either people didn't see or ignored the signs, so getting to your seats with people going opposite directions was a hilarious dance.

Our Vueling flight on another route and another day from Barcelona to Venice was smooth and uneventful, the kids said they liked that flight the best out of the flights we flew.

Having never flown Inra-European flights before this trip, we weren't sure how it would compare to our domestic flights experience. We have to say despite the chaos and disorganization above, we were very impressed with Vueling planes and flight-crew once we were on board. They were cheerful, patient and very helpful. Seemed happy with their work compared with our American Flight crews on United or Southwest, for example. We would fly Vueling over American domestic airlines any day!

And having had our train travel interrupted in Naples with a strike for one day, making a 1 hour trip turning to 6 hour-trip, we still would prefer the Italian train system to taking a Greyhound bus in US anyday, too.

I would seriously suggest that if you have not bought airline tickets fly to Milan!