We are not traveling the Thurs before Easter or Palm Sunday. We arrive on April 7. I will look into both options but it sounds like the train really makes the most sense. we are scheduled to arrive into FCO at 11am.

You can project to take a Naples-bound train from Roma Termini Station at or after 13:30. Your best bets: IC train at 13:39 (22 Euros); ES train at 13:45 (34 Euros); AV train at 14:00 (44 Euros) ; IC train at 14:49 (22 Euros).

BE SURE to allow yourself 15 minutes to connect on foot from your inbound airport train to Roma Termini to the outbound fast train to Naples. The airport train takes at least 31 minutes to reach Roma Termini from the airport. Departures are half-hourly. It could take well over one hour to clear passport control and retrieve checked luggage. That would put you into Roma Termini well after 13:00, assuming the plane arrives on time.

When you purchase the ticket for the airport train to Roma Termini, the ticket agent will also sell you the separate ticket for the connecting fast train to Naples. Absent specific instructions from you, she will automatically put you on the Naples-bound train to which you can comfortably connect, based on the time when you purchase the tickets at the airport train station ticket counter. If you have a different connecting train in mind, you must speak up. Also, the ticket for the airport train must be punched in the little yellow machine by the rail track before boarding. You don't need to punch the ticket for the Naples-bound connecting train, since seats on that train are reserved, and by consequence the ticket is valid only for that train on the specified date and time.

You don't need to go first class to Naples on April 7 unless you have lots and lots of heavy and bulky luggage. Second class is fine. All trains are non-smoking, and all seats on the IC/ES/AV trains to Naples are reserved. Seats on the airport train to Roma Termini are non-reserved.

GAC - Thank you so much!

We are going to Naples and have a flight out of FCO on the 30 of Sept. If I take the train to FCO how hard and long is it to,get into the departure lines for transatalantic departures?
If I fly how reliable is the am flight . The early am flight gets in at 8 am and my flight departs 10:30
3 rd option is to stay in Rome but then there is potential for traffic jams? Any suggestion It will be End of Sept so not as touristy but still?

SCDivers, you really need to be in Rome the night before. Even if all goes well, you'd have to retrieve your luggage (which can take a while), go to the international departures terminal, check in, and go through security. You could very easily miss your flight, and since they're on two separate tickets, you'd just have to buy a new international ticket, which would cost a fortune at the last minute.

I don't understand the bit about traffic jams. There is an express train from Termini station to Fiumicino airport. If you take the train to Roma Termini the day before and stay in a hotel near the station, you can get a train the next morning.

If your flight is to the US, you should be at the airport three hours before the scheduled departure time. I would suggest getting the 7:50 Leonardo Express, which would get you there at the ideal time. The trains run every 15 minutes at that time if day, so the next one would be OK as well.

Italy also has train strikes periodically so yes be in Rome the night before.

Traffic jams have nothing to do with tourist season - in fact in August they may be less as many commuters are on holiday.

But yes ditch the car in Naples and train to Rome the night before.

>>> stay in Rome but then there is potential for traffic jams? Any suggestion It will be End of Sept so not as touristy but still?

Sept 30 is Saturday. Additionally, to make it to your 10:30am flight from FCO, you need to be at the airport at 7:30am, meaning you have to leave Rome well before 7:00am. There is little traffic at this time. Whether Sept is touristy or not is irrelevant for this route. Coast to Rome road is a commuting route for the residents.

From your other thread, you seem to be staying in Rome first. By doing that, you are forced to stay again in Rome at the end. A simple rearrangement of putting Rome last would have eliminated this double stay in Rome as well as probably saving time and money by eliminating one check-in out travel and hotel cycle in Rome.

I agree about putting all of your Rome stay at the end instead of staying there twice.

>>>If I take the train to FCO how hard and long is it to,get into the departure lines for transatalantic departures?<<<

To be clear, you have to take a train from Naples to Rome Termini first and then change to a train from Rome to FCO. Once you reach FCO train station, you have to walk over to the terminal and catch a shuttle bus to the check-in area (this could change as the terminal is still remodeling). Once you reach check-in, you take another shuttle bus to the departure area.

>>>I would suggest getting the 7:50 Leonardo Express, which would get you there at the ideal time. The trains run every 15 minutes at that time if day, so the next one would be OK as well.<<<

Perhaps that would get you there on time, but quite a few of the US carriers state 3 hours in advance. The 7:50 train would not arrive until 8:22 and that's just to the train station. If they have to take a shuttle bus to check-in, it's possible they can't cram on the first bus and have to wait (BTDT). It depends on time of day how many trains per hour to FCO.