FCO time to clear customs

We arrived at FCO on a flight from Frankfurt at noon two weeks ago Sunday. Had our passport checked once, then at baggage it took quite a while to get our checked bags--maybe 45 minutes from the time we got off the plane. Once we did, we walked down a corridor, made a turn towards the final area before going outside. I was looking for the hotel guy that was going to drive us into Rome, and he was right behind a fence but before that, I saw three security choosing the occasional person out of line to ask questions--and they let us go. That was it as far as customs--I was pretty surprised.

So, Julie, if your experience is like ours, you should be fine. But best laid plans...

Jay,

Did you fly from Frankfurt departing from a segregated international terminal? In other words, did you have a passport check both in Germany and Italy? Or was the check at FCO your official entry into the EU?

Just curious. I haven't been to Italy yet this year and I was under the impression that passports were not being routinely checked once already within the EU.

I don't think so. Our passports were checked on arrival from Chicago in Frankfort, but it all seemed to be within Lufthansa, given that's their main hub. But our bags were checked right through from Chicago to FCO.

If you passports were stamp with an entry to the Schengen zone in Germany, then all you do is get your bags and walk through the Green door that says, "Nothing to Declare." That is customs. Just go. With the standard comment. If your plane is on time, you will have plenty of time.

Thanks - sounds like we should be fine if we have no delays - crossing fingers! I'll probably go ahead and buy our tickets ahead of time. If I remember right they're around 20 euros apiece so we won't lose lots of money if something were to go wrong. I'd hate to miss out on the most convenient method of travel for us to get to Siena.

As the baggage handling in FCO may be slow, always have a plan B. Mostly, you won't need, but if the worst comes to the worst you will be glad that you already know what to do.

One of my favorite airport horror stories is the time, about ten years ago, I was traveling as a group with an orchestra on a charter from Klagenfurt, Austria to FCO. We already had troubles on take off as a player was so afraid of flying that he fled the airport after check in (we put him on our black list and was never hired again). But, without us knowing, the charter company that usually fled FCO to various holiday places and viceversa, had reused for our flight the same code that they usually used for their Nairobi-FCO flights. So when we arrived there was considerable confusion with ground control as they did not undestand if we were from Austria or from Africa, we were parked in a distant area till somebody, after half an hour, sent us a bus to rescue us. They supposed we were from Kenya so they sent us to a non-Schengen terminal, actual an high security one as we were supposedly coming from Africa. I remember being the first of the group and asking the immigration officer: "Why are we here? We are from a Schengen flight!" to which he replied me: "Yes, why are you all here?" - Our luggage was correctly sent to a different Schengen terminal, after contacting airport managers it was decided that moving the luggage would be quicker that moving all of us to the correct terminal. It was not true as retrieving the luggage took more than two hours after immigration...

Of course with a scheduled flight such a story would be much more improbable, still do not count on FCO to be very quick.