This is slightly older news, but I didn’t find a thread about it when the news came out in March. FCO has once again won somebody’s award for best airport in Europe. I just wanted to describe my experiences, which confirm this in spades, especially after last year’s airport chaos around the world.
I’ve been through FCO three times this month. As the article says, they have upgraded their security scanners so you don’t need to strip down and take your luggage apart. Leave all your electronics and liquids in your carry-on luggage. Bring a full water bottle. No stress.
Literally, all three times I stepped off my bus or shuttle at the sidewalk outside the terminals. Strolled inside, went straight to security, scanned my boarding pass from my phone, walked through the security line without even stopping. Walked up to the security scanner, dumped my luggage, intact, into the bins. Walked through the human scanner, collected my luggage, stopped at a bathroom, walked to the gate through an extensive shopping mall. 15 minutes. You read that right. 15 minutes from sidewalk to boarding gate. 3 times in a row.
Went through Frankfurt another day, the same exercise from city transit to boarding gate took 1.5 hours. At the Austin TX airport, it was about 30 minutes with TSA pre-check and not pulling stuff out. Longer for those without Pre-Check.
Plus the Rome airport has good food, good signage and lots of clean bathrooms. I highly recommend it for a departure airport from Italy. Won’t help you get to Italy, going through most any other airport, but it makes departure a breeze.
A side note, I had to drive my car to the airport the last trip due to connection issues for when I returned. I am now fully over my fear of driving to the Rome airport from Abruzzo, it was a piece of cake and the extended-stay offsite parking was efficient and reasonably priced.
I don’t have a question, just a report from the field. Hope those of you traveling through Rome have equally good experiences.