Our connections for our flight to Palermo are Seattle - Amsterdam - Rome - Palermo with relatively short connection times. Can anyone tell me if we will have to pick up our bags in Amsterdam or Rome to go through customs before going on to Palermo? Is it confusing finding the Alitalia checkin/terminal for an interItaly flight from the International terminal in Rome I'm assuming we'll arrive at? Also, our return flight leaves FCO at 6:15am, has anyone done this lately? I know the checkin counter won't be open at 4am, but should we arrive there that early anyway? Thanks so much for any help you can offer, NW airlines is very unhelpful.

We didn't have to go through customs until we got to Palermo. Once you get to Rome though, you need to go from the International Terminal to the Domestic one. I remember taking a monorail type thing to get there.

You should have your bags checked through to Palermo.

You will go through immigration at Amsterdam as that's your entry point into Schengen

Customs checks may be performed on your luggage without you being present at Amsterdam & Rome but not Palermo as Rome to Palermo is an internal Italian flight

Thank you both. At least that's one less thing to worry about when making the connections.

How short is short?

I haven't travelled to Palermo from Seattle, but just returned from a trip in which the outward leg was Seattle-Amsterdam- Milan. In Amsterdam, I had to pass through passport control and then through security (where almost everyone, including me, was subjected to a full body patdown --including snapping of all bits of underwear. I guess that's necessary for security.) Others who have posted on this board have said that an hour is ample time for a connection in Schiphol, which is probably true. There was a separate line for short connections.

My husband's flight went from Seattle-Amsterdam-Zurich. He had to go through a separate security procedure at the gate, which was also what happened when we returned home. Boarding started an hour and a half before departure. It took us about 45 minutes to get through the security line at the gate.

So, unless some kind and experienced poster can give you more precise information about your particular connection, the moral to the story is: fly like the wind between connections in Schiphol, in case there's a security procedure at your gate.

It had been two years since we had travelled to Europe, and we were amazed and depressed at how cumbersome and gruelling air travel has become. The saddest episode occurred during our arrival in Seattle, when a Japanese tourist took a picture of friends while waiting (endlessly) for luggage. A fellow with large guns around his wait came racing over and yelled at the poor fellow and demanded to see his pictures; big-guns then yelled across the airport and gestured at the other security people about this horrible person who had taken a picture at the luggage carousel. Welcome to America. . .

(P.S. Yes, I know that taking pictures in the luggage area is banned, at least with a camera. The ironic thing is that cell phones were allowed, and dozens of people were talking on cell phones -- with cameras. Maybe taking pictures, who would know.)

Back to the topic at hand: Good luck, and don't worry. There's nothing you can do about it in advance, and you'll cope once there. Anticipation is often much worse than reality.

Thanks for the reassurance! We have 2 hours to make our connection in Amsterdam and one hour to make our connection in Rome. It's the Rome connection I'm worried about.