Italy - Will I get a stamp in my passport....
 

when I fly from London to Rome (Campino or Fuimicino), or Milan?

I am planning a trip to Italy.
I am thinking of adding London to the trip since the transatlantic airfare to the UK, plus a London to Milan/Rome ticket is cheaper than a transatlantic flight to Rome.

As strange as this may sound; i would like an immigration stamp in my passport from Italy.

I am little confused about when EU states stamp passports, I like stamps from different countries, I was dissapointed a few years ago when Spain didn't stamp my passport when I arrived from Morocco, which is not part of the EU. (I did ask the immigraation officer for a stamp).

I will probably never get a chance to go back to Italy and I would like to get a stamp in my passport.

What experiences have fodorites had.

Any help/advice/suggestions woulld be appreciated. Thanks.

I have been through some passport controls who did not stamp my passport. So I ask them to stamp it. They have never refused to do so.

When we arrived in Paris from USA, my passport got stamped, but my mom's did not. When we flew from Paris to Rome, nobody (other than a quick glance from the airline staff) even looked at our passports. It was the same on the way back. In fact, we didn't even get stamps when we got back to Miami.

I assume the Paris-Rome-Paris nonchalance was due to Schengen regulations, no?

We got stamps in our passports at Rome's FCO when we travelled there from Canada last February--

You do go through official passport checks when arriving in Rome or Milan from London, as UK isn't in Schengen. Whether you get a stamp or not is a matter of luck - sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Your passport is likely to be scanned against Schengen database of persona non grata.

I would ask for one particularly if you are leaving from a different airport or nation.

Here is why. Sometimes the person doing an exit check of passports looks to see when you came into the "zone."

I know it was an extreme set of circumstances, but in the infamous year of 9/11 we entered through Paris and exited through Munich about a week after the disaster. The Germans were checking everything very thoroughly.

I had received no stamp in Paris.
The German official asked me, in English, how I got into Europe. When I told him that we had entered at CDG, he mumbled something to the effect of Ach, die Franzosen. Immer fahrlässig. (I think he was saying the French were careless.) Fortunately I had stuck my old boarding pass in my passport case, and that evidence convinced him.

I hope nothing like that ever happens again, but I think a stamp is nice because I don't always remember dates. I am now on my 4rd passport, spanning 4 dozen years, and they are good keepsakes.