We are wrapping up our 40 day trip(end of May) to Italy in Palermo, Sicily. Our BA flight from Rome FCO departs @ 13.35 to Heathrow and then on to Vancouver. I have looked at budget airline flights from Palermo departing from 06:30, 07:00 and 08.45; plenty of time to get to FCO before our BA flight. Are we pushing it trying to stay in Sicily one more night or should we get to Rome the night before? One of our tickets is non-refundable. Any thoughts or previous experiences? Grazie, Sherry
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
In my opinion it's always best to stay in the city your flight is taking off from instead of risking traveling to that city on the day of departure. There are just too many things that can go wrong to risk it. What if there is a problem with the flight out of Palermo and they end up canceling it or delaying it for hours? There are just too many factors to risk it. The option to stay one last night is always tempting but you must weigh the risk against the temptation. My choice would be to spend the last night in Rome. Donna
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32388 posts
Sherry, Although the flight from Palermo to Rome is fairly short and most likely there wouldn't be any problems, I have to agree with donna. Especially since one of your tickets is non-refundable, my preference would be to stay in Rome the night prior to your outbound flight.
Posted by
OP
Campbell River, Canada
361 posts
Thanks Donna and Ken. That's the way that we were leaning. Just trying to avoid staying near FCO (boring)or travelling back and forth to Roma for 1 night. We'll heed your kind advice and get back to the mainland the day before. Ciao, Sherry
Posted by
Gaston, Oregon, USA
931 posts
We have almost missed connecting flights in FCO, even when we had almost three hours between flights, but in this case you have lots of time, and adding that extra day in Rome with the transportation mess, well, I would fly out of Palermo directly to FCO. For our last "connecting" flight in Rome, we flew into Ciampino four hours before our flight home out of Fiumicino (FCO). We had no problems. You have plenty of time. Enjoy another day in Sicily! We always buy trip insurance (go to Squaremouth.com to compared policies) just is case the worst happens. PS We have flown out of Sicily seveal times and made connecting flights ...as long as we allow at least 4 hours for FCO. Just make sure that you are NOT flying with Alitalia...they can't be trusted.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
10 posts
Hi Sherry, I would strongly suggest to overnight in Rome, you are really not missing much if you take a late evening flight into Rome and stay in a cheap place near the airport; you can then simply sleep in on the morning of the departure (and by staying close to the airport) get easily and in a relaxed state (early enough) to your gate. Keep in mind that the security at FCO is a joke compared to LHR !! Have you looked into the overnight ferry from Palermo to Rome ? (www.gnv.it and www.snav.it/en) The ferry goes to Civitavecchia which is about 50 km north of Rome but has very good train connections to FCO. This would be my preferred choice (make sure it runs on the day you want to leave). Have a good trip home !
Sissi