Transfer time at Munich airport

I've been through Munich airport several times and found it easy to get around.

German airports are my preferred location for transfer, but it can be a slog if you don't luck out with gate location and an on-time arrival. That is a legal connection time, and since there is likely no shortage of flights to Rome I would personally risk it.

I took that SFO to Munich flight last summer and had a very short connection time (around 45 minutes) between that flight and my connecting flight. I worried about it but just accepted that there was a chance I would not make my next flight. Several people at SFO assured me that I would not have a problem.

Turns out, Munich is absolutely the easiest airport I have ever transferred at! You walk down the hallway to passport control, go through quickly, turn left and you are practically at the gate for the next flight. I actually had to sit and wait at the gate for my connecting flight for boarding to open. The total transfer time was about 15-20 minutes. I was sitting near the front of economy on the United Flight from SFO.

Could flight delays cause an issue? Probably, but that can be true no matter how long your connection time is. I would feel pretty comfortable with that connection tat Munich.

From what you say, I am assuming that you are on a single ticket from SFO to Rome. so if your trans-Atlantic flight is late geting into Munich, and you miss the scheduled Rome flight, Lufthansa will put you on the next flight to Rome.

Assuming your flight from San Francisco arrives in time, you should have plenty of time to make the change in Munich. You will have to go through immigration at Munich, because there you will be entering the Schengen zone there, but you won't go through customs until you finally retrieve your luggage in Rome.