Border Security at the airport

You'll be one of thousands coming into Rome's airport. You'll just show your passport and chances are they'll shoo you through the line. Border agents may or may not ask you questions about your destination and time you're going to spend there.

It may take 1/2 hour or so to get through the line--depending on the time of day and how many airplanes are coming in at the same time.

You won't need to show cruise tickets or anything other than your passport, assuming that you are arriving as a tourist with US or Canadian passport, not working, staying less than 90 days. They usually don't even ask about that, but simply stamp your passport and waive you through. The time in line just depends on staffing and number of flights arriving. Then for customs, simply walk through the green "nothing to declare" exit. See also http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-documents.

Keep it straight. You are dealing with immigrations/passport control. Customs is walk through the green door - Nothing to Declare. You show your passport to the officer, he/she might ask a couple of question about your plans, etc. Don't be concerned and give short, quick answers. Second, do not plan on taking 30 minutes to clear immigrations. You might do it and you might not. Last time we were in Rome it was two and half hours to clear immigrations. I do think that is unusually long but it can happen so plan accordingly. How to you intend to get the cruise port - Civit...... ?? You should plan on at least three hours by train after clearing immigrations.

We have rarely cleared immigration in less than an hour and it can take longer. BE SURE they stamp your passport. The Rome agents are lazy and often just shoo people through without even looking at their passports. This meant we had to prove to Amsterdam agents at exit 3 mos later that we had not overstayed our Schengen admit which is 90 days for Americans; we were leaving on day 89. They check the entry stamp to determine this. I had anticipated this because I had read about the problem on line after we were already in Europe and so I made sure I had Etickets, hotel receipts etc which I then needed to prove our date of entry and then they stamped our passports retroactively. This took over an hour. The guy pulled over with us did not have the documentation he needed and missed the plane home.

But other than being sure you get stamped, this is all very perfunctory. they don't want to look at anything besides your passport. The time is just the lines and if you arrive as the 4th jumbo jet of the morning and they are poorly staffed, it can be awhile especially in the 'other passports line' which Americans are in.

We were out of the airport 30 minutes after getting off the plane. Coming from Australia I was surprised how little Customs etc there is. Like the above poster said get your passport stamped. The guy on passport control the day we arrived held my passport for 30 sec while talking to the guy next to him but didn't once glance at it. Then we walked out the door. We had a bit of an argument with the French official leaving France (She pretended she didn't speak English) because we didn't have a stamp.