We are arriving into Rome this Friday June 10th at 7:45am. I am trying to figure out if I can take the chance to pre-purchase train tickets for travel south. Buying the train tickets prior to leaving home will offer a very nice discount but if for any reason flight is delayed or long waits getting through the airport for baggage and customs/immigration and I miss my train, I will be out of luck. I am thinking probably safest to just buy the tickets on the spot. Can anyone who has been into Rome recently say how long it takes to get out of the airport. We would be taking the train to main terminal and then high speed train south to Naples. We are flying United out of Newark, NJ. and will have 2 checked bags.
Posted by
winston salem, nc, usa
1078 posts
Will be flying into FCO next week from Greece, however, based on several trips through that airport I would not book a train before10:30 or 11:00AM. The big issue on my trips has always been when bags will hit the terminal and my experience is to expect 45 minutes to an hour if your lucky. My worst experience was arriving at noon, and it seemed that the entire ground crew at FCO took lunch at the same time and we waited over 90+ minutes.
Also, suggest you check the security mess now going on at EWR-a friend who is a pilot for UA told me just a week ago that the lines now start in the baggage area! Never forget that you are in Italy, so be cool, because time is relative Rome south.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
795 posts
I wouldn't buy tickets ahead of time, but from when I went last year, I believe our flight was supposed to arrive around 9ish, and we didn't get out of the airport to the train station for quite some time.....at least an hour I would say....
We bought tickets on the spot, and we had to change at Roma Termini to get to southern Italy......easy peasy....
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23732 posts
We have been through the Rome airport a numbers of times. The quickest we made it through immigration and customs was 45 minutes and the longest last May was two and half hours on a Saturday morning with only two immigration officers on duty and maybe five hundred folks jammed up trying to feed into two lines. What further delayed the process was one officer doing through the crowd and pushing people with short connection times to the front.
If you want to gamble on a cheap ticket then try for 1pm or later. If early, there are a couple of decent restaurants in Terminal for a lunch.
Posted by
Chicago
8816 posts
Another reminder. Rome airport immigrations agents will on occasion just waive lines of people through without reviewing passports. DO NOT let them do this to you because when you go to leave, particularly if it is not Italy you will not have a stamp that starts your Schengen visa clock running. We were delayed over an hour on departure while we had to prove how long we had been in Schengen; the guy pulled over with us also without an entrance stamp missed his plane as he didn't have the documentation he needed. If I had not allowed extra time at the airport knowing I might have this problem and had not pulled the documentation together (printed tickets, hotel receipts etc) we might have missed ours. (I learned about the problem on TA after it was too late to insist on getting the entrance stamp.)
We always buy our tickets at FCO on arrival and just pay the higher train prices so we don't have to worry about timing. Many planes we have been on over the last decade have come in late, and on one occasion it took us nearly two hours to get luggage (usually the entry time is about an hour to 90 minutes, immigration and luggage). You then have to go by Termini express to Termini to catch the plane south which adds another hour at least. I'd give it a 4 hour gap if you plan to buy the ticket ahead and grab lunch at Termini. Watch your bags especially computer bags and purses.
Posted by
lexington, il
4105 posts
Since you're leaving next week, the discounted fares are gone. Buy your tickets when you arrive.