I always thought the scheme to jump the 82nd into Rome was a bad idea. The Italian units either wouldn’t fight or would fight poorly and the Germans had two many divisions available. And there was no way Clark could fight his way up to the peninsula in time to effect a rescue.
They cooked up a lot of hare-brained schemes for the airborne. Only a few of them came to pass. To my knowledge, Ridgeway never scotched one. He was a very gung-ho guy.
I agree about the drop on Rome. It might have won the allies the city before the fall rains. But kesselring would have found a solid line north of Rome just as strong as the Gustav Line. And it would have wrecked our only experienced airborne division. We would have had only 101st for D-Day.