Petalz

My husband and I are leaving Rome on Saturday (May 1) from the Fiumicino Airport (Rome), staying at the Seccy hotel in Fiumicino tomorrow night after spending tomorrow afternoon visiting Ostia Antica. We are arriving in Fiumicino via the San Paola Train. What are our transportation options? Can we walk from or to the train station to/from our hotel? Hotel to Ostia Antica? We prefer to use public transportation when we can.
I expect the hotel arrange a taxi to the airport early Saturday morning.
Thanks for any advice you can offer. BTW, our trip has been awesome thanks to all the assistance from the Fodorite

ekscrunchy

I wish I could help. On a related note, is there anyone here who has stayed at the hotel? comments? How easy is it to get there by taxi from FCO? (I've read a few reports of tourists being ripped off, and taxi drivers refusing to take people to the town of Fiumicino, because they are waiting for fares to Rome city)

(I am looking for a place to stay near the airport that is, hopefully, within walking distance of a good restaurant for dinner)

Petalz

Read about the hotel on tripadvisor.
I hated Fiumicino. The Hotel Seccy is lovely however, I had problems with it. They have a flat fee of 15 Euros from the airport to the Hotel Seccy. I hired a taxi at the airport for 12 Euros.
1. It was hot and muggy in Fiumicino and we didn't have a pool in our hotel. For $185 I would have liked a pool.
2. in the morning, we didn't have hot water. There was no one who knew what to do about it. We had to shower prior to our 17 hour travel day in cold water. Major frustration.
3. Price of breakfast included but we were unable to partake and others have mentioned that the "service" was so good at this hotel they would send breakfast roll and juice with their early risers. no. Nothing was offered... but I was asked to pay the 2 euros for the water we used from the fridge as we were walking out of the door...
cold shower and all...?
I obviously wouldn't have stayed here if I could do it over. Would much rather have a hotel with a pool or another day in Rome.
We did not get good instructions from the hotel to Ostia Antica, and the "bar" where we were supposed to buy bus tickets said the bus didn't go anymore today. Obviously, someones wires were crossed.
The room is nice and clean with air conditioning. But this was not a 4 star hotel, or even close.
We had problems with our remote which was promptly handled. The corridor light was out so we couldn't easily use our key.
I ate at the restaurant next door and hated it.
I would certainly suggest that you reconsider staying in this barren, worst of Italy town. Stay somewhere close to the Termini and take the 30 minute train in the morning.

ekscrunchy

Thanks you, Petalz.

Can you explain why you hated the restaurant, and why the town itself was not very nice? I had read that there were many good seafood restaurants there......

Petalz

yes, I can. The restaurant next door was crowded and appeared understaffed. we were ignored for nearly 20 minutes completely.. no menu after being seated. The food was unseasoned pasta. No bread was brought to the table, no water offered, we weren't asked if we wanted anything else or if we neeoded anything. We had to flag down a different waiter to ask for ur bill and waited another 20 minutes for that to come and on it we were overchanged for a beer we did not order... etc. there were no apologies or concern about our comfort. would have done better in a sandwich shop. My pizza was burnt on the edges and soggy and watery in the middle. It included thin sliced ham which in other pizzarias was lovely, but this was very dark in color and tasted like it had turned and I could not get the flavor off my pizza. It was supposed to include artichokes. There was 1 piece of veggie that looked like it could hav been an artichoke.
My husband's pasta was a tomato sauce with meat and cheese. There was NO meat anywhere to be found in his sauce and was simply sprinkled with a small amount of parmesan before left at our table. It tasted like a can of hunts tomato sauce was poured over his pasta.
The restaurant we wanted to go to was called "Restaurante De Ville" or something like that. We walked 20 minutes there and it was closed (on a friday night, go figure). If I were stuck in that town I would go to that restaurant. There are other seafood restaurants. Mybe we just had bad luck in an ugly, muggy town, at a hotel that was supposed to be warm and friendly that wasn't.
The town was barren, hot and and smelled of fish. Not my preference for charming seaside towns. The fishing pier was also
barren and ugly cement with no outlet to the beach that we could find after walking 15 minutes to the end of it.
I advise you to stay away from this town. It was a very disappointing ending to our lovely stay in Italy.

ekscrunchy

Petalz, many thanks for the comments. I am sorry that you had a rather bad ending to the trip. I had thought that the town would offer a good alternative to spending the last night in Rome. There is apparently, one very good restaurant there (Pascucci) but it is probably rather expensive. I appreciate your candid comments. (As it turns out, I will not need to spend a night in Rome on an upcoming trip but will keep your comments in mind for another time)

Better luck next time!