Originally Posted by ac/elite
That's exactly what I did last year. The long term parking at the airport wasn't expensive and I avoided the hassle of driving in the city. I took the train/taxi combo to get to the hotel, but had a bit of a problem trying to find a taxi who would use the meter to drive the short distance to the hotel from the train station. The first few we tried wanted to charge us 25 Euros if I recall correctly. For the return trip we used one of the airport shuttle services advertised widely in Rome. They picked us up from the hotel in a van and took us to the airport and it actually cost less than the train/taxi combo.
Very good idea! And as others have mentioned- the car jacking is very real. My colleague was physically attacked for the keys to his 3 day old Mercedes- in fact the problem is so acute that Mercedes in Italy will give you a new car if you are car jacked- they had to do this as insurance will not cover you if you can not present the key and they were losing sales rapidly!
Rome is a wonderful city- but not to drive in. As for a taxi driver who wont use the meter- that is a huge frustration! Threaten to call the carabinieri
