Spending Time (and Money) in Rome’s Fiumicino Airport

The vast majority of travelers in Italy arrive and depart via Rome’s busy Fiumicino Airport, more formally known as Leonardo da Vinci International Airport. Although Fiumicino’s been in the news recently for its baggage handler strikes, it’s going to remain Italy’s #1 international gateway for the forseeable future. So, rather than complaining about a long wait for your flight home (or a long layover, if you’re flying domestically), why not take the opportunity to explore Fiumicino’s more interesting shops?

Italy Travel Notes has published a couple of posts about the fun spots to check out at Fiumicino, and they’ve broken it down by the things to see in Area A and the things to see in Areas B & C. Area A is for flights inside Italy, so unless you’re doing some domestic air travel and waiting for a plane to Palermo or some place, it’s likely that you’ll be sticking to Area B (for EU flights) or Area C (all non-EU international flights).

Area A is home to a Zara store selling home accessories (evidently most of them sell clothing), a Bulgari shop (only for the weighty of wallet), a chocolatier called Venchi and a ritzy little wine bar. Areas B & C are where you’ll find a Ferrari store (where you can buy everything from shirts to bathrobes to luggage with the Ferrari logo, but no cars), a Calzedonia shop for your hosiery needs (Italians do seem overly fond of hosiery), Canestro shops (where you can pick up those last-minute Italian food treats to share with your office) and the Good Buy Roma duty-free shop.

If you have any Euro left over at the end of your Italian holiday, Rome’s Fiumicino Airport clearly has lots of ways to relieve you of that money before you fly home. And even if you don’t buy anything, wandering the shopping areas of an Italian airport is bound to be a more interesting way to spend your time than staring out the window.