jubilada

We are planning a trip to Puglia next fall and are trying to decide whether to drive or train from the Gargagno on our last morning to catch our 3:30pm flight home.

We will have a car already, so on that level it might make sense to just drive, but we are concerned about driving around Rome . We have driven in Italy , found it fine, but have heard horror stories about this particular area.

We can also take the train.

Those of you who have experience, please give me some guidance.

Dukey1

Gargagno as in Brescia? Lombardy? Driving? I assume to avoid a drop charge is this correct? If that is so you will be more or less going around Rome itself rather than through the city.

Dukey1

Oops, sorry, just re-read your Puglia destination but still...

sandralist

If you are thinking of leaving Puglia on the morning of your flight, it's not a great idea unless you haven't bought air tickets and can put all your flights on the same ticket. That way, if for some reason your flight in Puglia is cancelled, and you miss your transatlantic, the airlines are obliged to solve the problem.

Trains and driving can run into unexpected problems. Rome is a very busy airport these days, so you will need to aim to be there before 1pm -- which is very tight if you are taking the train and dropping off a car before that, and terrible if you encounter serious road delays heading into Rome.

In short, however you get there, you need to be in Rome or much closer to it the night before. You might consider leaving the peninsula (which is very slow going for driving) a day early, puttering your way across Italy and overnighting someplace fun only an hour or so from FCO. Maybe the Castel Gandolfo area?

Or fly and visit Ostia Antica before you leave Italy, or have a nice dinner in Rome.

dwdvagamundo

As long as you stay outside of Rome itself and won't be near it during rush hour (and it looks like you won't) you shouldn't have any problems with the car.

OTOH, a drive--or even a train-trip-- that long on the morning to catch a mid-afternoon flight would worry (make that panic) me. Too much could go wrong.

If it were my vacation (and I know it isn't), I'd drive up the day before, drop the car and stay somewhere around the airport.

jubilada

sandralist, only one flight, direct to Boston from Rome. I am not sure what you mean by my flight in Puglia? We are only taking a flight from Rome, and discussing getting there that day. While we will fly into Bari from Rome inbound I don't like the options from Bari back to Rome so will either fly or drive. This is a 22 day trip so not constrained for time particularly.

Will consider staying nearer the night before. I had been thinking that a five hour drive ( Google says 4.5) wouldn't be bad to arrive by one, but will rethink this. Thank you.

Will explore suggestions about where to stay .
Further thoughts appreciated.

HappyTrvlr

We have stayed at the FCO Hilton many times. We walked there from the car rental drop off in September.There are many other hotels nearby as well. If you go up there a day ahead, consider sropping at Ostica Antica too. We dropped our belongings off at the the hotel, went to see OA, then dropped the car off at FCo and walked to the Hilton.
The beltway around Rome has heavy traffic but it isn't really difficult driving. We were on it twice during our recent trip.

Dukey1

Thanks for the clarification (to me, anyway) regarding your origination point.

I have to agree with the others that I would not do this drive on the day of departure, either. The airport processing is bad enough as it is what with going to one terminal for the screening and then transferring to another terminal for the actual departure.

Drive up in a more leisurely fashion the day before, stay overnight and then leave.

eastave

We have driven from Montepulciano to FCO several times the morning of our flight. It is a shorter distance and I can't remember when our flights typically left. I think it was shortly after noon.

We never had any troubles driving around Rome. Returning a rental car at FCO hasn't been tricky either.

greg

With your plan, I think you are assuming that the only risk is the traffic jam around Rome.

Specifically, you are assuming following things would never happen to you based on past experiences:

- Car troubles. e.g. you would never have a flat tire on the way to the airport.
- Weather related time consuming route detours would not happen.
- You would not be involved in an accident.
- You would not be impacted by delays caused by someone else's accident.
- etc.

You can assume all your days would be halcyon days and probably get away with it. You can also choose to make minimally impactive changes to reduce the pain if the halcyon days might someday escape you.

jubilada

Ok, the plan is now to take the train into Rome the day before
To stay at this hotel
http://www.pantheondimoradeglidei.co...to-gallery.htm
And to explore the places my wife lived as an art student in Rome many years ago.

Thank you for your help.

sandralist

Sorry, I misread your post and thought you were also considering a flight to Rome as one of the options.

But your ultimate plan looks sensible.

jubilada

sandralist, that had actually been our original idea. But to stay with one ticket the times/ layovers were annoying so we moved on.

Now we are excited about a little time in Rome. And dinner

StCirq

One of my cardinal rules of travel is never, ever, to be more than a taxi ride away from the airport on the day of departure, no matter what the time of the flight. There's a reason I have this rule.

jubilada

I have had good luck not following that rule, but it sounds worth adopting.

rbciao47

IMHO, driving from Puglia on the day of your departing flight is not a cogent strategy. Any number of things can go wrong to cause you to miss your flight.Spending your last night in Roma or near the airport significantly reduces your chances of missing the flight. Your can take the Leonardo, a taxi, or a private car to the airport with no muss, no fuss.

Buon viaggio,

sandralist

I've often left Bologna in the morning to catch a 4pm flight out of Malpensa in Milan, and I would do it again. I would even do it from Florence. But that is an excellent Freccia Rossa high-speed train trip to Milan Centrale, and lots of options for getting to Malpensa from there. Starting out on the Gargano peninsula, without a lot of great train options, would make me too nervous (and Rome is a more complicated airport than Malpensa).

jubilada

Ok , I'm convinced.

In fact we have decided to spend 4 nights in Rome at the above mentioned hotel.

annhig

jubi - I was going to suggest perhaps stretching your stay in Rome a tad, but you got there before me.

will you catch the train or get a car to the airport?

jubilada

annhig, I am not sure. They provide rides from the hotel, so will likely do that .