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Review: ITA Airways Piazza di Spagna Lounge Rome FCO (Terminal 3)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
ITA Airways has a couple of different lounges here at FCO, and the Piazza di Spagna Lounge is their flagship lounge in the non-Schengen part of Rome Airport. To get to the lounge, once you cross security, you want to stay on the lower level and make your way to the E11-E24 concourse.
Eventually you’ll see a big blue wall that you just cannot miss for ITA Airways.
Access Requirements
To acces this lounge, here are the requirements:
- Complimentary Access
- Passengers traveling in Business / Short-Haul Business Class (excluding Short-Haul Business Class Classic)
- Miles & More HON Circle / Senator members
- Miles & More Frequent Travellers (access granted to Lufthansa Group Business Lounges when departing on an ITA Airways-operated flight)
- Holders of an ITA Airways American Express Platinum Credit Card
- Holders of an ITA Airways American Express Gold Credit Card, with two lounge access vouchers per year.
- Paid Access
- You can pay for access to this lounge specifically, with the cost varying slightly based on low season/high season and day of the week
Seating
The lounge has a nice entrance into the main room with a few porcelain decorations at first.
The main seating area is essentially tables in the immediate proximity to the buffet area, which is the central piece of the lounge, and then off to the sides, you have more couch-like seating, which I kind of liked that concept.
As you get further away from the buffer area, there are fewer people in some of these areas.
Food and Drinks
You just can’t miss the food here. For one, it’s quite literally the centerpiece of the lounge, and everything is made super fresh, restocked regularly, and can’t be missed.
I mean just look at the color on all of that.
The lounge also had a bar with made-to-order items. It wasn’t as fancy as some other lounge bars, but it got the job done.
The bar had all wines from local Italian vineyards that they contract with and the bartenders were super knowlegeable on each of the wines they offered which is a nice touch. Especially when you are in a country like Italy, a country where the people are proud of their food and drinks, I love to appreciate some of their enthusiasm and absorb some of their knowledge.
Bathrooms & Showers
The lounge had your standard bathrooms but they also did have showers within. The rooms are nice and sizable.
Initially when you walk in, it might look like there’s no towels or amenities but they are actually in a little bag hanging off one of the racks. I had mixed feelings on what they provided.
Like in a vacuum, it’s great, but I’d rather the slippers be the linen ones or like the ones they provide on planes, it soaks up water and it’s much easier to walk with. These ones felt cheap and it was easy to slip around. But the biggest issue was the towel. The towel was a packaged pack of 3 towels and it was as thin as a paper napkin. I’m not joking, I used up every square inch of the towel and then the hair dryer on top of that to dry myself. That was definitely the most bizzare towel I’ve used in a lounge shower. This is a flagship lounge for a global carrier based out of this airport. You can do better.
Overall, this is a nice lounge and a great space to quench your thirst and test your appetite prior to your flight. It’s also great the lounge has showers, but I wouldn’t want to rely on them in the future. Italy can be hot and humid in the summer, so if you are coming off a morning of venturing around and need a shower, then absolutely I would use this again, but if I wanted to take one for the sake of taking one which I often do, I wouldn’t try it again at this lounge.