The last time I visited a Schengen country was in 2009, when I arrived in Geneva in Switzerland for a vacation (one of the most beautiful countries, by the way). I hold a non-EU passport, and the immigration officer asked me a few questions before stamping my passport and waving me through.

I recently visited Italy and landed at their Rome FCO airport. Even as I walked up to the immigration officer, he was engaged in a conversation with the immigration officer next to him, and did not even bother to look up at me, or to even check my identity. He opened the passport up, stamped it randomly, and pushed it back, all this without his eyes ever focusing on me. As far as I'm concerned, with so many countries signing the Schengen Agreement now, wouldn't this be quite a serious breach of security, as one could sneak into dozens of countries through a lax airport such as FCO?

Anyone have any similar stories or thoughts?