The Leonardo Express runs to the airport every 30 minutes and is cheap:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=99eb7bd0cfdea110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

Thank you St Cirq!

don't worry about buying tickets as those airport trains never sell out - don't even take reservations I believe. That said to facilitate time you could probably buy that ticket at Ls Spezia's train station - you may have to validate that ticket however before boarding the train like on many regional train services I believe but not sure about.

If buying a La Spezia-Rome Termini ticket just ask for a La Spezia to Rome Fiumicino Airport ticket so you do not have to buy once in Rome and can board the next train.

For lots about Italian trains I always spotlight these fine sources - www.seat61.com (good info about online discounted ticket from www.trenitalia.com - Italian Railways site - note that those tickets are hard to change so it is like locking yourself in stone; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

If you have trouble booking on www.trenitalia.com there are always very helpful Fodorites to walk you thru that at times fickle site for novices - kybourbon is just one who has helped so so many people to get the site to work - and again there are some dandy discounts if you book far enough in advance - they are sold in limited numbers and can typically sell out before the train - two folks could save some euros - quite a few at times over just showing up and buying tickets - but again you are locked in stone pretty much so be sure of your train time.

You have two routes from La Spezia to Rome - one via Florence then changing to high-speed train to Rome and the other via the coast all the way - no high-speed but cheaper and about as quick I think and best of all no changes usually involved - the Florence route may well involve two changes of train - that said check trenitalia.com to see which has the cheapest discounted tickets if any available.

Leonardo Express is 14euros. Bus is much cheaper but slightly longer http://www.terravision.eu/fiumicino_price_timetable.html
Also if I remember correctly there was cheaper local train FM1 from Termini to FCO. Same type of train as Leonardo Express but just with a couple of stops on the way.

I haven't taken a European inter-country train since later era Hippies were walking the same streets as early era Disco'ers, except for the Channel Tunnel Eurostar.

So I'm just throwing this out there as a *possible* option but could be way off base?

I just did a quick google and read 1 2009 site and it said that a Milan-Lyon train was 4:55?

Rostra offers an interesting idea . . .the train. I just checked on bahn.de for a random date in May (May 8) and found a few 11.5 hour options (LaSpezia>Genova>Milano>Geneve>Lyon)
as well as this shorter 9-hour option:

La Spezia Centrale dep 13:48 IC 510 Intercity
Torino Lingotto arr 16:45

Torino Lingotto dep 17:01 R 4523 Regionalzug
Torino Porta Susa arr 17:08

Torino Porta Susa dep 17:35 TGV 9248 TGV
Chambery-Challes-E arr 20:17

Chambery-Challes-E dep 21:02 RE 18520 Regional-Express
Lyon Part Dieu arr 22:41

May seem like a lot of train changing, but by the time you made your way to Rome, the airport, airport waiting, flying, and so forth, on of these train itineraries might tae the same amount of time and connections.

Other airlines fly from Milan to Lyon. Check out www.whichbudget.com and/or www.skyscanner.net. Is budget a consideration? Vueling flies from Genoa to Lyon for $102.

Great suggestions all- I will look into all ideas. It is frustrating on the train websites. A couple months ago I was sure that the TGV website was less expensive, but today the trentatalia website is much less.

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