The Best Way to Travel to Rome

We used to think the way we entered a city was important. Coming to New York from Europe, you sailed into the grand New York harbor, passed the Statue of Liberty, and docked next to the towers of midtown, where you could hail a cab as soon as you stepped off the boat.

Most continental travelers came in through Pennsylvania Station, where McKim, Mead & White built a majestic interpretation of Rome's Baths of Caracalla. After the station was replaced by a particularly mundane low–ceilinged International Style station, Vincent Scully wrote, "You used to enter the city like a god, now you creep in like a rat."

We still have Grand Central Terminal, but that's primarily a commuter destination (as implied by the name). Most people now drive to New York, passing through mile after mile of sprawl en route, or fly in to JFK or LaGuardia and then suffer while their taxi sits in the bumper to bumper traffic jams on the auto sewers leading to Manhattan: SNAFU, as they say in the Marines.

When the Popes returned to Rome from Avignon, they realized the importance of the impression made by the entrance to the city (sort of like curb appeal), and over the years, the Piazza del Popolo was built at the northern entrance used by most of the religious pilgrims, new roads were cut through the medieval maze to ease the pilgrims' way to St. Peter's and S. Giovanni, and Michelangelo and Bernini were hired to rebuild the gate itself.

Today, Rome is surrounded by sprawl like everywhere else, the main airport is as boring as everyone else's airport, and the train station is a weak work of Fascist modernism behind a boring Fascist parade ground. But there is a good way to travel to Rome.

The trick is to fly into the old (also Fascist?) airport, Ciampino. Less than 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the historic center (Centro Storico), Ciampino is at the end of the Appian Way, which means that your taxi goes into the center via one of the oldest and most picturesque Roman roads.

Nearing the center, you leave the Via Appia Antica and turn onto the green Viale degli Terme di Caracalla, the best of the Fascist-built boulevards, and drive by the Coliseum and alongside the Roman Forum on the broad Via dei Fori Imperiali before plunging into the Centro Storico. It's a wonderful way to arrive.

The first time I flew to Ciampino, I had been in England for 5 days in December, where there had been a single 30 minute period when you could actually tell there might be a sun somewhere in the sky. When we landed in Rome, we walked down the stairs from the plane onto a runway with palm trees, a strong sun and a comparatively balmy 65 degrees, and then into a small baggage claim room (not "area") with windows all around and the door open to a distinctively Italian smelling breeze from a sunny piazza. The airport has been enlarged since then, but you still "deplane" onto the runway before going into the terminal, and the piazza is still visible from the luggage carousel. And then you're on the Appian Way.

More Good News: Most of the flights to Ciampino are on the discount airlines popping up across Europe. I've flown to England to Ciampino on Debonaire, GO and easyJet.

Good news / Bad news: easyJet, in style and comfort the Greyhound of European airlines, bought both Debonaire and GO, apparently. GO was an elegant, low-cost airline started by British Air. But easyJet fares a low (a good thing), and it flies out of the convenient and semi-elegant Stansted Airport, designed by Sir Norman Foster.

RyanAir fares are even lower than easyJet's, and they also fly from Stansted to Rome, but they have a low baggage allowance to match their fares, so you can pay a lot in surplus charges, if you're not traveling light. easyJet isn't generous with their luggage allowance, but the difference between their higher allowance and RyanAir's can make up for easyJet's higher but still low fares ($600 lower than American Airlines wanted to charge me to add the London to Rome leg to a New York to London / Rome to New York ticket!).

Travelocity and Expedia won't tell you about these flights. But you can find a list of all the airlines that fly out of Stansted at this page on their website, and many of the small European airports have similar lists.

PS — a classic Italian entrance: In Summertime, Katherine Hepburn excitedly films Venice as her train crosses the long causeway leading to Venice. In Top Hat, Fred Astaire walks out of the Venetian train station to find synchronized swimming in the canal in front of him. Even without the swimmers, the canal immediately outside the entrance to the Venetian station is a wonderful introduction to the city.