I have made no secret of the fact that I really do not enjoy taking taxis when I travel. One of the nicest things about the rise of ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft is that it gives you an upfront cost and minimizes the chance that you’ll get taken advantage of by corrupt or dishonest taxi drivers. I took an incredibly cheap Uber in Cairo and went out of my way to take Marrakech Airport Bus 19 rather than risk getting ripped off by an aggressive horde of Moroccan taxi drivers.

Heading From Rome To Rome Airport (FCO)

In October 2024, I was visiting Rome with my dad and my sister. After a few days seeing the sights in Rome, we were ready to head back out from Rome to the Rome airport (FCO).

(SEE ALSO: How To Beat The Lines To Visit The Colosseum, Forum And Palatine Hill (Ancient Rome Hack))

Because the main airport in Rome (FCO) is actually in the town of Fiumicino, about 30 kilometers from downtown Rome, we had booked an Airbnb closer to the airport on our final night. Originally, our Airbnb host had offered to recommend us a driver that “he has worked with” (aka gets a kickback from, I’m sure), but after waiting for around an hour, we eventually gave up on him.

Getting Scammed?

So we walked around the corner from our Airbnb to the Stazione Taxi San Pietro. I had seen all of the taxis around town offer a flat 55 Euro charge to Fiumicino.

But when we got to the taxi stand and showed the driver our Airbnb address, he wanted to charge us 130 Euros! What he was saying (I think – there was a bit of a language barrier) was that the 55 Euro price is only to go to the Fiumicino airport and we were going to the town of Fiumicino instead. He also was saying that because he is a Rome taxi driver, he would not be able to pick up a passenger on the way back, so we had to pay for both rides.

This didn’t seem right to me – my scam-o-meter was definitely going off. So I said “well, we’ll just go to the airport for 55 then.” To which he responded that the 55 Euro price was only for central Rome and that we were in the Vatican, so it was 75 Euros. Again, this didn’t seem right to me but I wasn’t sure how I could get any better of a deal.

Once we agreed, he decided that HE didn’t want to take me and instead pawned us off on the next taxi in line. I don’t get the weird taxi stand driver hierarchy but we loaded our bags and I confirmed the 75 euro price to Fiumicino airport. I figured I could get a taxi from FCO to our Airbnb for less than the 55 euro markup this guy was giving me.

Of course, it’s hard to know exactly what is true or not in the moment, but after the fact, I did some research and this helpful reddit post shared a PDF from an official source and also translated it. So, if you are in central Rome (inside the Aurelian walls, which we were, despite what our taxi driver tried to say), it should be 55 Euros flat rate, with no supplements (meaning no extra charges for additional people, luggage, time of day or traffic).

What We Ended Up Doing

So after we got into the second taxi and confirmed the price, we headed out to the airport. It was around 430pm or so, so traffic was heavy, but it actually wasn’t too bad. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the airport. When we got there, he charged us only the (correct, as far as I could tell) 55 Euro price. I don’t know if he had been noticing that I had taken pictures of his taxi license number and the sign that said 55 Euro flat rate to the airport, or if he just had a twinge of compassion, but that was a pleasant surprise.

We talked with our incoming Airbnb host and he arranged for a taxi to pick us from the airport and take us to our Airbnb for 30 Euros. Another option was to take public transit from the airport, but it looked like it would require 2 buses and a transfer, and none of us were super excited about that.

So instead of the 130 Euro price that the Rome taxi scammer was trying to charge us, it ended up costing us 85 Euros to get from Rome to our Airbnb in Fiumicino – a nice 45 Euro savings.

The Bottom Line

I think that a Roman taxi driver tried to scam me by charging an inflated price to go from Rome to Fiumicino airport. Based on online reviews of taxi drivers in Rome, that seems pretty par for the course. In the end, I turned him down and ended up taking 2 taxis to save 45 Euros, which was probably worth it. Just one more reason that I loathe taking taxis and highly prefer Uber / Lyft or public transportation when traveling.

What do you think? Was this Rome taxi driver trying to scam me? What would you have done in this situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments below

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