HasteFlier

Hi,

I will be taking an EZE-FCO-NCE itinerary with Alitalia in a few months, and I was wondering what I should do lounge-wise when transferring: is there a significant difference between international and schengen AZ lounges, and, if yes, is the international lounge accessible when arriving on international and departing on schengen ? Or, is there another good option such as arrival lounge (i read from an old thread there wasn't any, but that was a few years ago) ?

Thanks !

FCO36

No arrivals lounge. Stay airside, pass security and immigration and head to the D gates area where the airside schengen lounge is 2 floors up. There are 2 showers there. NCE flights leave from B gates 10mn walk from D gates. No food and beverages difference between international and schengen airside lounges. Not much food. They sometimes have sandwiches. The only different lounge is the dolce vita which is landside at T1. There a thread about it.

HasteFlier

Thank you for the detailed answer FCO36 !

fasteddie1971

I'm not a massive fan of any of the airside lounges at FCO, for various different reasons.

Depending on how long your connection is, I'd say it might be worth you going landside in order to use the Dolce Vita lounge (more spacious, better food, and a flight simulator too, if that floats your boat).

Bear in mind that, if you arrive during the morning or evening "rush hour", the international transfer security check queues can be huge (and chaotic)....it can be quicker to enter the Rome arrivals area and then go through departures again (particularly if you are entitled to use fast track) anyway. By doing this, you could use Dolce Vita.

HasteFlier

Great, thanks for the info! After reading a bit about the Dolce Vita lounge, it seems it's the way to go then especially if there's less queue! (I should have fasttrack with skypriority indeed)

FCO36

Keep in mind that the Dolce Vita lounge is at T1 and you'll arrive at T3. Connecting airside is rather easy. Connecting landside means you'll need to exit T3 and walk outside to T1 arrival hall then go up to departure hall to find the lounge. With a 3 hours connection it is doable. The Dolce Vita can be pretty crowded and unpleasant early morning on weekdays though.

For a speedy and hassle free connection, AZ use to have a special service called "Welcome" you can book. There will be a travel assistant waiting for you at the end of the air bridge, speeding security using a special lane, walking you to the lounge, checking if your bags are loaded, walking you to departure gate and taking care of everything. In case your EZE flight is park on a remote stand you'll have a private car transferring you to the terminal. I have used the service already and loved it. Can't find it on AZ website anymore though.Price was 230€ return. Their email is [email protected]. Just in case

raistlin

Service is not there anymore AFAIK.

HasteFlier

Hi! To report after the trip, my EZE-FCO flight was finally delayed two hours, which ate most of my three-hour connection.
I thus didnt have the chance to go out and try the Dolce Vita lounge, and just went to the schengen lounge for a few minutes - indeed, it was far from fantastic (and a long way from most of the schengen gates Alitalia uses !).

On a side note, I was surprised to see that Alitalia does three meal services on the 13-hour EZE-FCO flight, with the second service in the middle of the night... I'd far prefer two good meals instead of the three mediocre ones (and being awoken in the middle of the flight !)

bgriff

I have an upcoming connection PMO->FCO->JFK, in business class on the long-haul (and with SkyTeam Elite Plus status). PMO flight arrives at FCO at 8:10am on Saturday morning, and JFK flight departs at 10:25am.

Any thoughts on whether I have time to try for the Dolce Vita lounge, and whether it would likely be faster to go through customs by going landside? It sounds like I have to go through security either via a landside or airside connection so no incremental advantage to staying airside in that respect?

Appreciate any help.

bungler

If you stay airside there is no extra security check, only a passport check. Two hours connection time is ample but probably not ample enough to check out the landside lounge.

bgriff

Thanks for the advice -- think I will plan to go straight through to the airside lounge then.

ok986

Guys, I'll be flying AMS-FCO-PSA, with 3:30hr layover in FCO. I'd really love to check out the Dolce Vita lounge, if only for the B737 simulator.

Two questions:
1) can I enter the lounge from the airside? If not, how much time do I need to get from the lounge airside to board my plane to PSA?
2) is the food/drink offer from the Dolce Vita offered in other lounges as well? I've been to Borromini about year and half ago, and there was grumpy staff serving lukewarm coffee, and no food (admittedly, I was there on Saturday morning...). Did this improve?

Thanks!

powerful pete

Lukewarm coffee in the Borromini? They did not make you a fresh espresso?

ok986

The temperature of my espresso (asked for double) is not the most defining feature. There was no food, no self-service bar (for anything but packaged water), and the service was extremely unfriendly. My question was whether I can make a meaningful visit to Dolce Vita lounge in 3:30 hrs and whether Borromini's offer of food/drinks improved over the past year and a bit.

bungler

No worries! Three and a half hours is absolutely plenty.

I heard rumours of food improvement in lounges starting this month, but I don't know if it's confirmed.