Length of time to transfer from FCO to Termini

I would recommend you buy your train tickets at the airport train station, you can book all the way through to La Spezia.
Buying on-line in advance is the way to score discounted train tickets but if you miss your train due to flight delay, those tickets are worthless.

All train tickets purchased on-line are pre-validated, including regional trains like the Leonardo Express. You receive a PNR code that you show the conductor when they are checking tickets. The code can be on your phone or you can print out the pdf confirmation.

Only paper tickets bought in person and don't have reserved seats must be validated.

have a great trip!

DB schedules show that you must be on the airport train by the 11:08 departure, which gives you 17 minutes to connect at Termini station, and is the last one that makes the connection possible.

Not checking a bag often does save time at the airport, so you can probably get to the airport train within two hours, but your flight arriving on time is the other wild card.

Definitely do NOT check any luggage. You could end up waiting an hour at FCO for a checked bag. Just do carry-on and pray that your flight is on time.

Our flight arrives in Rome at 9:05 am. Will we have enough time to make it to Termini for an 11:57 departure?

Will your flight be on time? If so, 3 hours is enough time.

With trains every 30 minutes to Termini, worst case is you just miss it. The ride itself is about 40 minutes, and you should give yourself 15 minutes to get off the train and board your next one. So that's about 1.5 hours out of your 3 hour window. Add in time to get off the plane and thru customs, then buy a train ticket to Termini (maybe 45-60 minutes total w/ carry on luggage) and the plane doesn't have to be delayed by much to run out of time. You can save some time by taking a taxi to Termini if it looks like you'll have to wait a long time for the LE train; be sure to look up the fixed price in advance so you don't get ripped off by being charged the meter rate.

Will it make much of a difference if we just carry on a bag vs. checking a bag?

You need to collect your luggage before leaving, which can take 20-45 minutes, sometimes more. Also most bags show up but some don't; if yours doesn't then you need to spend time filling out the form to get it forwarded to where you are staying. At the very least carry on a bag with the stuff you really don't want to have lost or delayed.

In the end nobody can tell you what you "should" do. Its a decision you need to make based on your tolerance for risk vs saving some money on train tix. If all goes well, which it often does, no problem. If your flight is delayed you'll need to buy walk-up tickets and will also lose the value of the advance purchase.

Personally I like to stay one nite in my arrival city. That takes the stress completely away, and lets us buy a discount train fare for the following day. If not doing that, then I'd follow the advice Holly gave.

We were on the American Airlines flight (#110 I think) that arrived FCO right about that time. We go to our hotel by van about 11:30 am - which was two or three blocks from Termini. We did not have any delays at the airport and flight was on time, driver was waiting for us.

actually, there are times that the Leonardo Express departs every 15 minutes rather than every 30. Travel time is 32 minutes.

If you do carry-on, you could possibly make the the direct train at 11:57 from Termini, but I would still recommend you buy your tickets in Italy.

from the airport to Termini is €14 and full fare from Termini to La Spezia would be €55.50.
I think Italian train travel is rather reasonable considering you will be going almost 300 miles.

Two years ago, we pre-purchased on-line both Leonardo Express (LE) tickets and Trenitalia tickets from Rome Termini to Florence SMN. I didn't want to deal with buying LE tickets upon landing, and the Rome-->Florence tickets were heavily discounted since I bought them 90 days ahead. So, of course, it is always a gamble when you buy non-refundable/non-transferable tickets. But I felt lucky, and figured 3 hours from landing at FCO was plenty of time to catch the LE. Well, of course, our flight ended up being delayed out of Newark and we missed the LE departure by 5 minutes, so we ate the cost of those tickets. And, since the next LE departure was about 30 minutes later and we wanted to get to Rome Termini asap, we took a cab from the airport (I think about 50 Euros). We made the Rome Termini to Florence SMN train no problem, so all was not lost. The moral to this story is that you will have enough time to catch the LE to Rome IF (1) your flight arrives in Rome on time (or only slightly late); and (2) you can collect any checked bags, clear immigration, and make it to Rome Termini within the 3-hour window. So, the question is (as Dirty Harry once said): Do you feel lucky?

If arriving from the US the big variable is immigration. We have made it through immigration is less than hour on several arrivals. The last time on a Saturday in May took almost two and half hours to clear immigration. Four planes land about the same time with only two immigration officers on duty. Checked bags should not make any difference as you bags should be available when you clear immigration/passport control.

Once you land there is no addition security exiting the airport or entering the train area.

Only Regionale train tickets purchased at a ticket machine or window need to be validated. Your ticket purchased on line will be limited to a certain trains at a specific time. Miss it, and the ticket is dead regardless of the reason.

patty,

Most of us here don't recommend buying advance rail tickets to connect with an inbound flight, as if you miss the train you've booked, the tickets are worthless and you'll have to buy more. While your flight is scheduled to arrive at 09:05, it could be delayed for any number of reasons, there could be longer waits in passport control as Frank described, etc.

The "safer" method is to simply buy tickets at the FCO airport rail station, and use whichever trains are departing next. There are staffed ticket windows there, or you can use the automated Kiosks. As the ticket for the Leonardo Express is purchased locally, you will have to validate it prior to boarding the train.

One important point to mention is that there are two trains servicing the airport, the L.E. and the FM/FR-1. You must be sure to board the correct train. The L.E. takes 32 minutes to Roma Termini, and I doubt that a Taxi would be quicker as that will be subject to traffic.

Is your end destination La Spezia, or are you staying in one of the villages of the Cinque Terre? When you buy tickets, be sure to specify your end destination.

With all due respect to @Ken, the deep discounts offered by Trenitalia, OeBB (Austria), DB (Germany), etc. when pre-purchasing train tickets is, in my opinion, worth the gamble vs. paying full fares when you arrive in country. Admittedly, it is risky when the trip is to occur immediately following an international flight, but in the case I described above, if we had taken off from Newark 6 minutes earlier than we did (despite being greatly delayed), we even would have made the LE train to Termini.

Robert,

"when pre-purchasing train tickets is, in my opinion, worth the gamble vs. paying full fares when you arrive in country."

If one is prepared to absorb the cost of the discounted tickets if they don't make the pre-booked train, then I suppose it's worth the gamble. In that case, the replacement tickets they buy will be at full fare (Base fare). With an inbound flight, there are a number of variables which are impossible to predict, so it really is a gamble. In some cases, where you're seated on the inbound flight and how quickly you're able to deplane is a factor.

Along the same lines as the situation that Frank described, I arrived at FCO on one trip and found that checked luggage from my flight was "lost". Even the airline didn't know where it was. After about 45 minutes or so passengers were informed that luggage had been delivered to another terminal, which required waiting in a queue and going through security to collect it.