You spent years living and working in Italy and never experienced a strike? There was one last weekend.
"Protesters in Rome carry balloons featuring Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as Pinocchio. Published: 12 Dec 2014 12:07 GMT+01:00
Italy comes to standstill amid boisterous protests. Dozens of flights were cancelled or rescheduled and
there was only a minimum or partial service on most forms of public transport."
And a month before that.
"Clashes erupt at Italy's anti-reform protests
Published: 14 Nov 2014 05:40
UPDATED: Clashes erupted between protesters and police in Milan and elsewhere in Italy on Friday, as demonstrators marched against government reforms and
a nationwide strike shut down public transport."
And two weeks before that.
"Italian Transportation Strike
23 October, 2014 Italian General Strike
Black Friday, 24 October 2014 - 24 hours
Be prepared for the worst case scenario.
Blocked roads to your airport, no trains to and from your airport, shortage of taxi's, extra traffic on the roads and Traffic jams."
That's three nationwide strikes in less than two months. Paralyzing traffic also happens.
Originally Posted by
Joanna2360
Mainly, though, the issue is not just traffic (once I waited in traffic on the way to FCO because of an accident on the divided highway, and the wait was almost an hour). The issue also is what's happening in the terminal, whether or not it is crowded with lots of passengers.
Yesterday, there was some kind of slow-down at FCO, intentional or not (I think it was intentional) at Passport Control. A delay of 45 minutes while the line did not move and just got longer. Then just one guy showed up to check passports. Really. And then you still aren't near the departure gate. (In T5, you aren't even at the departure terminal once you get through Passport Control.) So I would leave nothing less that 2 hours to go through all the steps and get to the gate, especially if you are hoping for some lounge time. Tried to leave 3 hours yesterday at FCO and T5, and ended up with a half hour of lounge time before making the move to the gate.
The above was probably stressful, but manageable because Joanna2360 took the appropriate step of leaving very early, which is all that I'm suggesting. For an 8:50 departure I mentioned that if I was the OP I'd leave in a cab at 5:45, giving myself 3 hours, about what Joanna2360 did, which still left her only 30 minutes to spare. And I'm an Italian citizen traveling on an Italian passport, and get to use different passport lines.
Originally Posted by
upgradeluvr
"Train system strike, paralyzingly crash".... In all my years living and working in Italy, I have yet to experience such a thing in the city of Rome. It's 20 miles from centro storico Roma to FCO. Stop lights and basic city traffic in the AM...unless it's 4AM, I seriously doubt one can get to FCO in a cab/private car in 30 minutes....who's driving, Mario Andretti?
Unless it's an Intercontinental flight, I wouldn't stress about getting to the airport. With careful planning, one doesn't have to wait around 30 minutes for the LEonardo express.
There are many ways to get to FCO. One doesn't need to hire a car and waste $$ on such things.
It's only 17 miles from the Colosseum to FCO. When you leave early when there is no traffic you can make it in 25 minutes, less than the 31 minutes it takes the train. There is no problem with lights because most of the trip is on a highway. The Pantheon is only 18 miles from the airport but a little further from the highway, so it takes a little longer.
At the hour of the OP's flight it doesn't make sense to waste time taking a cab to the train station to wait for a train. Saving a few euros is the only possible reason. If OP is traveling with someone else and adds the cost of the cab to Termini from his hotel (10-15 euros) to the cost of the train (14 euros X 2) the difference is only a few euros compared to a cab (48 euros).
For me at that hour, after a late night dinner and getting up on little sleep, not having to take a cab and wait for a train is worth a couple of euros. I might feel differently if I had a later flight that would put me in traffic, but that's not the OP's case.