Rome Fiumicino Airport

We waited in a queue to be stamped at customs for over 3 hours on October 6 .2013. There were over a thousand upset and angry people bewildered by the apparent disregard for flight timetables. There was no one organising queues and a crowd mentality developed. We were lucky Emirates delayed our flight and we were two hours late taking off. Other people missed flights. It was absolutely disgraceful and I will never depart from Rome airport again.

We flew through Rome Fiumicino on 10/6/13. There was a lineup for Passport Control unlike anything I have ever seen. It must have been thousands of people queued for maybe 4-5 officers. The line stretched the entire length of the airport area allocated for this purpose then looped backwards almost the same length. The lineup was several hours long. There was no explanation or communication. People were missing planes and connections left and right. Passport control officers were taking several minutes for each passenger to simply review and stamp. At one point an officer came over to a booth and was chit-chatting for several minutes smiling and laughing. When people asked the officers they said that "Sundays were always busy". I will never fly out of this airport again and suggest all future passengers be very cautious and allow themselves several hours (3-4hrs) in advance when departing Italy as apparently this kind of action is not abnormal. The bathrooms at this airport are also disgusting. Future passengers beware!

What a big mess even if we were only here in transit. Airport is dirty dark and poorly organised. Duty free shopping available plenty of it and some food outlets. Alitalia lounge is the worse I have visited. Security check at gate can go from annoying to nothing and mostly rude. If you get lucky your flight will be connected directly to terminal if not you are in for a long bus ride. Old fashioned airport meaning not user friendly surely not for people visiting airports such as Hong Kong or and Singapore.

The airport is functional and not difficult to navigate security screening is more efficient than it used to be and the shopping and dining options have improved over the last few years but the terminal interior is still dark noisy and dirty and the restrooms are still poorly maintained and foul smelling.

We arrived at the airport for a Finnair flight to Helsinki. The Finnair check in had 3 counters allotted to it. A tour group of tourists was also on the same flight. The women at the counter were refusing to accept any passengers from the tour and were causing a huge wait. It took over an hour just to pass check in while the tourists were fighting with her. Security check took another half hour to pass. Overall very rude staff. The terminal also had broken tiles and washrooms smelled as if they had never been cleaned.

BOS-FCO flight arrived on time. When we arrived in the airport it took around 10-15 minutes to get our luggage. Bathrooms were not clean at all in the airport. Not many facilities on the arrivals level either except for a coffee shop and a book store. On the return flight (FCO-BOS) check in and security was very fast and service the best I've seen at the airport. It was very busy at Terminal 3 and i think that the airport could be more organized instead of having International Alitalia operations with every other International airline. Got to Section G easy and to the gate. Overall a decent airport.

Rome Fiumicino is a dump both inside and outside. Incredibly dirty. Most toilets out of order and not maintained properly nor cleaned. No seats to wait for a flight. Air conditioning inadequate. Insufficient contact gates and instead bussing people in overcrowded and non-air-conditioned busses in 40 degrees Celsius to a plane on the tarmac. Bad public address system which makes it impossible to hear what is being said. Staff are surly and prefer to talk to each other instead of helping passengers. Being used to Hong Kong international airport at home I was shocked to witness this is the airport of Italy's capital. That is until I used the Rome metro which is much worse still. I would say avoid at all costs as a transit point and avoid also Alitalia. The third world in Europe.

Rome (FCO) - July 2013/August 2013. We flew into Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport (aka Fiumicino) in July 2013 and were appalled at the state of the airport upon arrival. We found the building to be quite dirty and in need of a good cleaning. Most alarming was the consistent amount of bird faeces observed high above on the vents and on the floor throughout the building particularly in the food court area. It was almost amusing to see an airport boasting about having big name stores to shop in such as Gucci Prada etc. however the airport which houses these establishments is quite frankly a dump this of course includes the state of the bathrooms which were disgusting. Again how is it that this building can have high end stores to shop in but has no toilet rims in the ladies bathroom. As well all of the interaction we had with several airport staff both upon our arrival and the day of our departure was anything but pleasant. We found the staff to be extremely rude and completely un-interested in lending any assistance to passengers. A simple "hello" or even a smile would have sufficed instead they seemed more interested in socializing with each other. We won't be in any rush to visit this airport any time soon!

Having read a number of unfavourable reviews of FCO I was satisfied by the experience. Arriving at Terminal 3 the only problem as the gate which due to technical problems had to be exchanged by stairs after 20 minutes. Luggage deliverance quick many food stores with medium-prized items and close admittance to fast-trains for Roma Termini. Similar good experience of the return trip. Check-in friendly and helpful no queues at security-check (despite rush hours) it was even quicker than at Scandinavian airports. A main problem is the lack of proper air- conditioning anywhere it was very hot these days. During rush hours somewhat crowded in gates area but good numbers of seats available.

There is only one entry to the security checks in Terminal 3. We arrived 2.5 hours before departure to Frankfurt the queue was completely full. It took 90 minutes from the entry to pass the security checks. Only four checkpoints were open with nobody was able to change this situation.