Rome to Perugia

I'd take the bus. Makes things easier and reduces the complication of transferring at Termini, particularly if your plane is late. It looks like the low stress option for you.

Also I remembered there's a private rail company that has trains from Perugia out into the local countryside and also to Rome. We took the train to Todi. "train" is a misnomer, its more like a diesel powered streetcar. But it goes right to the top of Perugia. Their website is http://www.fcu.it/ Since its private these trains won't show up on the Trenitalia website.

The bus would be a good option for convenience; I haven't done it personally but have done the Trenitalia method and it is a bit of a hassle since you first need to take the somewhat overpriced Leonardo train to Termini, then wait for the next train, then get to the hilltown from the station. On the other hand you could also decide to make an afternoon of it in Rome and check your bag at Termini, spend a few hours sightseeing, then catch a later train to Perugia. Personally I'd do the latter; by the time you get into Perugia at 4:30pm the day is largely gone and you still need to find your hotel and drop off your bags. I'd rather spend 3-4 hours exploring Rome, have a nice lunch in Campo dei Fiori or some other place, then arrive in Perugia later in the evening. On a trip this past summer to Italy we ended up taking the train to Cortona right from arrival in Rome and ended up feeling like we'd wasted pretty much the whole day.

Thanks Mike. I'll probably just take the bus from FCO to Perugia. I won't have 3-4 to hours to check out Rome (was there last year anyway), more like 1-1.5 hours so i'll probably just chill at the airport maybe do a little more research about my trip.