Rome Termini to FCO Questions

Once you get to the station in FCO, you have to take a bus or walk to T5. You are a supreme optimist with this kind of time frame. Your only chance is to take a taxi directly to T5 and hope for the best. I always plan on 2 1/2 hours from the time I step into the terminal to the gate. Bon Chance!

EDITED

That's cutting it terribly close. Can you not arrange to spend your last night in Rome or change your flight to the following day? I always spend my last night in Rome, and it is so much less frenetic getting to the airport the next day.

At 8:24 a.m. you will encounter Rome's morning rush hour. I, personally, would not take a taxi from Rome's city center to the airport at that time of day if I were running that short. It's a toss-up as to whether a taxi or the Leonardo Express would be faster even if the Leonardo Express leaves later. You also have to figure in whether or not your trains will depart/arrive on time.

If you take the train, you will have to get to Terminal 5, somehow. I was in Rome the week that Terminal 5 opened and they had a shuttle bus that took people from the main terminal curbside to Terminal 5 to be processed. I don't know if they still provide this service. Once you are there, you will have to wait in line at the ticket counter to check bags, then hit security, and then wait for a shuttle bus to take you back to the main terminal for departure. This can be quite a wait sometimes. Remember, they start to board about 20 minutes before departure time and if you are not there at the gate, they may give your seat away to someone on standby. Plus, if you arrive late to the airport, you run the serious risk of your bags not getting on the plane with you. You really need to be AT the airport 3 hours before departure time.

Thanks to you both. Looks like we'll have to rearrange things and spend the night before our departure in Rome. One other question...there are no departures from Terminal 5? One has to take a shuttle bus to T5, get processed, and then shuttle bus back to another terminal? I was under the impression that flights on US airlines departed directly from T5? Would that change the time factor? Thanks!

Terminal 5 is a special terminal set up for security procedures for flights bound for the U.S. and Israel. It is a separate building from the rest of the airport terminal complex. I departed Rome the week that it opened and had no idea of it's existence until my taxi dropped me off at the main terminal (the wrong place), and I ended up having to take a shuttle bus to T5 for processing. There was a learning curve involved for airport and taxi personnel. You will go through check-in, customs for VAT stamps (if needed), and security at T5 and then you will get on the shuttle back to the main terminal.

Forgot to answer your question...

There are no departures from T5 at all. It is not a terminal in the true sense.

If you arrive by taxi, have the driver drop you off directly at T5 and not at the main terminal. If he knows you are going to the U.S. he will probably drop you off there anyway. Taking the train to the airport will require taking the shuttle to T5. It may be worthwhile to take a taxi to the airport and shave some time off of your check-in time.

Terminal 5 is where you go if your flight is direct to the US, if you stop somewhere else in Europe first on your way back then you would go to the terminal for that airline. For an 11:20 flight direct to the US, you want to be at FCO by 8:20, if you are going to another Europe city first, then 9:20 is usually fine. And a taxi at that hour on a weekday could take an hour to an hour and a half easily, Rome traffic can be horrible!