✈️ Flight Day — Rome → Calgary

🚐 Book your two rides — tap, check, pay

Both pre-filled with your exact route, people and bags. Real prices (I pulled these live). Cancellation is NOT free: >24h before = 20% fee (or full value as a coupon); <24h = 100% loss. Changing the date/time is free anytime.

On each booking screen: check the pickup time (tap Edit) — arrival ~10:45-11:00, departure 10:45. Tick "Add notes for the driver" and write "7 large suitcases" (arrival) / "6 large suitcases" (departure) so they send a big enough vehicle. On the arrival, also add train IC 501, arriving 10:15.

The one rule: pack before you play. Bags shut by 09:00 turns the whole morning calm. Everything below assumes that.

• 07:45
  Breakfast at the hotel

  Rated "Good" on Booking, which is the lowest of their positive tiers, so: decent, not a destination. Continental and Italian, pastries, cheese, fruit, juice, gluten-free available. Ask reception whether it is included in your rate. If it is, eat it, the convenience is worth more than the marginal quality on a checkout morning. If it is an extra €12-18 a head, skip it: a Roman bar does a cornetto and cappuccino for about €3 standing at the counter, and Lucarelli bakery is 270 m away. Either way eat properly, it is a 10 hour flight.

• 08:30
  Pack everything, bags by the door

  🧊 Empty the minibar/fridge. 🔌 Chargers out of every wall. 🧸 One stuffed animal per girl. 💧 Both water bottles (fill them AFTER security). 🔐 Open the safe and look inside. 🚿 Bathroom, wardrobe, under the beds, balcony. 🔢 Count the bags out loud: 6.

• 09:15
  Villa Torlonia — 10 min walk, park is free

  The one lovely thing near the hotel you never got to. Shaded gardens, room for the girls to run, and the Casina delle Civette (House of the Owls): a fairy-tale house covered in stained-glass owls, Liberty style, small enough to do properly in 40 minutes. Open Tue-Sun 09:00-19:00, so tomorrow it is open. €10.50 adults, ask about the girls at the desk. The park alone is free and needs no ticket, which is the low-commitment version.

• 10:20
  Back, last swim or a shower

  If the girls would rather swim than walk, skip Villa Torlonia entirely and give them the pool from 09:15. That is a perfectly good last morning in Rome and nobody will regret it.

• 10:45
  Final room sweep, then down

  Second look in the safe and behind the bathroom door. Settle any extras at the desk.

• 11:00
  Check out, car to FCO

  Continues in the timeline below.

🚨 FCO advisory (WestJet app, today): the gate shuttle is a BUS

The SkyBridge people-mover to the departure gates is under construction until November 2026, so everyone is bussed to the gates instead. WestJet says this adds 30-40 minutes to your journey inside the terminal, on top of the new biometric border checks. This is the single biggest change to today's plan.

✅ SETTLED: the lounge is BEFORE the bus, and the bus is ONE-WAY. Plaza Premium is Boarding Area E, Extra-Schengen, upper level (Aeroporti di Roma's own listing), after security and after passport control, escalator by gates E1-E4, which are in the main Terminal 3 concourse. Gates E31-E44 are a separate satellite reachable only by the SkyBridge people mover, now running as a bus, and westbound is departing passengers only. You can ride back to T3, but you then have to clear security a second time, so treat it as one-way. There is no lounge on the far side. So: lounge first, in the main concourse, then cross once and stay crossed. Eat and fill the bottles before you leave the lounge. Lounge hours 05:00-22:30 Sun-Fri (Plaza Premium's own listing). Verified against three sources: Aeroporti di Roma's lounge listing, Priority Pass, and the T3 gate map (T3 gates are E1-E8, E11-E24, E31-E44, E51-E61, and the APM serves only E31-E44).

What it changes: leave the hotel 30 minutes earlier (checkout 10:45, not 11:00), and treat the lounge as a bonus rather than a two-hour stay. Clear passport control first, always. At bag drop, ask the WestJet agent two things: your gate number, and how long the bus transfer is running today. They will know, and it turns a guess into a fact.

• 10:45
  Leave the hotel by car (30 min earlier than before)

  Palm Gallery → FCO T3, ~40-50 min. Moved up because of the bus-to-gate advisory above. FL1 train alt: leave ~10:00.

• 11:30
  Arrive FCO Terminal 3 · WestJet check-in + bag drop

  Find the WestJet desks in T3 departures. Drop the checked bags, keep boarding passes handy.

• 11:45
  Security

  Then the duty-free hall. Keep moving toward passport control, do not linger here.

• 12:00
  Passport control (do this promptly)

  Non-Schengen exit. New EES biometric registration can add 30-45 min at peak — knock it out while fresh. Both lounges are on the far side of this.

• 12:45
  Lounge, in the main concourse (Area E, upper level)

  Escalator by gates E1-E4, open till 23:00. This is on the near side of the transfer, so use it properly: eat, charge, fill the water bottles. There is nothing like it beyond the bus.

• 13:20
  Leave the lounge IF your gate is E31-E44

  That is the satellite: bus only, one-way, WestJet says 30-40 min. Leaving at 13:20 puts you at the gate around 14:00 for a 14:20 boarding. If your gate is E1-E30 it is a walk and you can stay in the lounge until about 13:50. The gate number decides your afternoon, so get it at bag drop.

• 14:20
  Boarding

  Be at the gate. (Adjust if the confirmed departure time differs.)

• 15:00
  Wheels up → Calgary

  Arrive YYC 17:30 local.

🛂 What the biometric checks actually are

It is the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES), fully operational since 10 April 2026. It replaces the passport stamp with a digital record of every entry and exit by non-EU travellers on short stays. It is not a Canada thing and not a flag on you: everyone with a non-EU passport goes through it.

• Adults: facial image plus four fingerprints, checked against the record.
• Ophelia and Romee (6 and 7): under-12s give no fingerprints, photo only. They are the fast part.
• You are probably already enrolled. You entered Schengen at Barcelona on 1 July, so your biometrics should already be on file. Records are kept three years, and a re-crossing is a face match rather than a fresh enrolment, which is much quicker than the first time.
• ETIAS is a different thing (a paid travel authorisation, like the US ESTA) and is not in force yet. Do not let anyone sell you one.

Practical: passports out and open, kids facing the camera, and ask for the family lane. It is the one queue today with real variance, which is why it comes before the lounge, not after.

⭐ Plaza Premium Lounge — Terminal 3, Boarding Area E

On your Visa Airport Companion / DragonPass (TD Aeroplan VIP). Airside, after passport control, in the non-Schengen E pier — exactly where your Canada flight departs. Open ~05:00-22:30.

• Why it's the pick: biggest lounge in T3 (~300 seats), full buffet with made-to-order pasta, pizza, and gelato (kid gold), showers, baby-changing.
• Cost: 4 visits (each person counts, kids included — ages 6-8 aren't free). You have 12 across both cards; confirm the free balance.
• Access: register the card in the Visa Airport Companion app → show the QR + 4 boarding passes at the desk. Pre-booking optional but worth it in-app for peak July.
• Backup (same zone): Prima Vista "Portus," near gates E51-E61 — smaller, quieter. Walk to it if Plaza Premium is packed.

• Skyview parking shuttle: text 160183 to 403-978-9445 once you have your bags. Car pickup booked for Jul 28 ~6:30 PM.
• Lot: 5005-144 Ave NE, Calgary T3N 1B2 · Order #172874.