Hello everyone,
The last time I visited my family was late January. The visited me in mid-March so I decided to pay a short trip in Rome the second weekend of April, one week before a big Easter trip I organized.
By the mid of Febraury I checked on ITA Airways website and got my usual tickets for 115 euros
Friday 11st April LIN-FCO 21:00-22:10
Sunday 13rd April FCO-LIN 20:10-21:10
Unfortunately the 8pm flight from LIN was more expensive, so I got the 9pm one
THE FLIGHT
Having the flight scheduled one hour later than my usual I decided to go to Linate by public means of transport.
I left my house in San Pellegrino around 17:30 and left my car in a known spot in Milan around one hour later
Once there I grabbed a shared car and arrived at Milano-Linate airport minutes after 19
The parking spot for shared cars offers a nice view of the tarmac
This ITA Airways A220 was just landing as I get of the car
Milan skyline as sun was setting
CityLife district on the far left, Porta Nuova complex in the middle and Ice Hockey Arena building site on the far right. The latter will be an important venue for 2026 Winter Olympics
Since the online check-in assigned me a central seat (8E, if I remember correctly) I made my way to AZ counters to get a window one
The lady was very kind giving me a window seat (25F)
However she asked me if I could check my hand luggage, claiming the plane was full
I agreed without issues
The security check was quite fast, half of the lanes were opened and the process went hassle-free
The departure hall seemed a bit busy
The apron hosting a few ITA Airways A320 and A220s, a couple of British Airways birds and an easyJet A320 pushing back
The gate was set for boarding
Today's plane:
ITA Airways Airbus A319-100, EI-IMB
First flight on the 7th August 2003 (21.7 years old), delivered to Alitalia and than transferred to ITA
It's equipped with 144 seats in mixed C-Y configuration. The plane is dedicated to cycling legend Gino Bartali.
Fun fact: last time I flew on LIN-FCO route I was carried by EI-DTN, an A320 dedicated to another cyclist, Fausto Coppi. Coppi-Bartali rivalry is among the strongest in the entire italian sport's history
Boarding was called at 20:20, perfectly on time
My seat was at the last row. As I could spot boarding the plane was almost full. Only the first two rows were sold as J
AeroItalia 737 parked in front of the iconic Emporio Armani hangar
As boarding was going on an ITA Airways A320neo pulled into the gate next to ours
The plane carries a sticker "member of Lufthansa Group"
Ten minutes before 21 doors were closed…
…leading to pushback moments later
Lining up to runway 35, as usual
Perfectly on time we started the take off run
Banking south and spotting Milan
The flight happened mostly in the clouds, leaving just a few moments of of "land-spotting"
La Spezia, in Liguria Region
Civitavecchia, the main harbour of Rome, as we started to descent
At 21:50, twenty minutes before scheduled, we smoothly touched down at Rome-Fiumicino Airport
Landing was pure butter
ITA Airways reign
Docking at pier A31-52 a few minutes later
A fellow A320neo parked next to us joinly
The pier we docked too is the closest to baggage reclaim area, which means a very quick walk
Baggages took around 5 minutes to appear on the belt
After getting my suitcase I met my parents and drove straight home
I arrived there around 23
