Transportation from Rome airport to Cortona

If it were me, I would rent a car and drive to Cortona and see something along the way. It is about a 150 mile drive. Cortona is a great little town and if you hotel/apartment has parking all the better. Then you aren't captured by the town itself. It isn't very big and you can see all the sights and sites in short order. A car gives you the freedom to explore more of the countryside.

Renting a car at the airport is not big deal and it is easy access to the main roads so you can avoid Rome traffic.

Are you flying into Rome from North America that day? In that case, I wouldn't be thrilled about getting into a car and driving 150 miles jetlagged.

You can take the train from the airport into Rome, change there, and pick up another train heading torward Camucia. The airport train station should be able to sell you both tickets. Especially if you are arriving on a trans-Atlantic flight, you shouldn't buy the train ticket in advance because of the possibility of flight delays. If you end up with one or more regionale tickets (not train- and time-specific), remember to validate them in the little machine on or near the platform to avoid a heavy fine.

The total duration of the airport-to-Cortona trip varies. There aren't very many single-change itineraries; most require two changes. They aren't hard to manage, but on your first, foggy-brained morning you will prefer something simple.

Another thing to be aware of is that, since Cortona is a hill town, the train station is not right in the city. There are two possible stations for Cortona: Terontola-Cortona and Camucia-Cortona. I don't know whether one is closer than the other or has more convenient bus (or quicker taxi) service up to the town. You can check with your hotel on that.

You can explore the schedule on the TrenItalia site. I've linked to the English-language page, but you must use Italian spellings for the station names. You would be starting at Fiumicino Aeroporto and going to one of the hyphenated destination names in the previous paragraph Alternatively, you can check schedules on the Deutsche Bahn website.

Thank you for the responses. Yes we are flying transatlantic the night before from Toronto, Canada. We definitely don't think we want to navigate the roads with foggy brains.

Acraven. Thank you for all your tips. We did take a train once from Rome to Tivoli. We thought we were going to the bus station but ended up at the huge train station. So we followed our noses and managed by train. Thankfully I had been reading RS guidebooks and knew to validate tickets but had no clue what we were doing. I put the ticket in backwards I think. But didn't create a problem on the train. Phew.
We want to rent a car the second week and just get acclimatized the first few days in Cortona. Exploring by foot.

There are two possible stations for Cortona: Terontola-Cortona and Camucia-Cortona. I don't know whether one is closer than the other

Camucia-Cortona is at the foot of the hilltown. There may be a taxi meeting the train but I wouldn't count on it. Taking the bus isn't hard, you can buy a ticket from a local tabacci. I don't know if you can buy them from the driver. Be sure to stamp it in the machine on the bus. Here is the google map pic showing the stop with the station behind. https://goo.gl/GckBeS

Terontola is in the middle of nowhere and seems to be basically a stop used for people to change trains.

The DB site you have been already given is a great place to research train times.

Just make sure you get on the correct bus. School buses also stop at the Camucia train station and do not go all the way up into Cortona, only to the base of the hill up towards Cortona. Speaking from experience. Certainly walkable up into town, but a pretty steep climb.

I would also rent a car in your shoes. If you think you will be too tired for a 3 hour drive upon arrival, I would spend the first day or two in Rome or near the airport (for example at lake Bracciano) then I'd go with a car. Cortona is not a place where I would base myself without a car. What are you gonna do after the first half day after you have seen everything there is to see in Cortona?

I agree with Roberto. I travel slowly and was looking for something to do in Cortona on the second day. Lots of artists' galleries, though.

Yes. We do plan to rent a car but after a few days in Cortona.
What if we hired a shuttle service from airport to Rome train station? That would eliminate one train.

It's not hard to use the train into the city, even if you are jetlagged. An advantage of doing that, rather than switching transportation modes at Termini station, is that you're much less likely to run into long lines at the airport train-ticket booth. With Cortona ticket already in hand, you'll be able to simply transfer to the right platform at Termini. In a situation like yours, I don't see much value in spending the extra money for a taxi or car service into the city.

If you are staying in Cortona for a few days a rental car is ideal. From Cortona, Sienna or Assisi are only a 1 hour drive

We are leaning to taking the train from the airport to Termini Rome then taking the Regionale train to Camucia-Cortona. Does that make sense? I assume we can buy our tickets for the whole trip at the airport? Where is the train ticket office at the airport? is it difficult to find? Will we need to know some Italian or do they speak English at this ticket office at the airport? Thanks for any advice.

the train ticket office is right at the foot of the tracks (at least as of a few years ago, but it's probably in the same place). Follow the signs in the airport to the train and you've found it.

In our experience the line is pretty short. They generally do speak English, they get a lot of tourists. But its a good idea to learn a few polite Italian phrases such as "hello". As a backup plan I'd bring a piece of paper on which you have written the destination you want and the words in Italian "2 tickets one way" which Google translate tells me is "2 biglietti di sola andata".

I don't remember where the train station is located at Fiumicino, but I arrived in Rome having had virtually no sleep for two nights, bleary-eyed and dead on my feet, and I had no trouble at all following the airport signage. That will not be an issue.

It's a good idea to write down the name of your destination since, as foreigners, we don't know whether there are multiple cities with similar-sounding names and might make an unfortunate error in pronunciation. And take a look at the ticket when it is handed to you, to be sure it says what you want it to say.

Thank you so much for your great information.
Is there a good translator app that I can use on my cell phone without using data? That I can use with my phone on airplane mode?