Train tickets within Italy

Old Mar 31st, 2015, 11:20 PM
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Train tickets within Italy

I have now moved on to booking train tickets for my itinerary. I found raileurope.com much easier to navigate. Rail europe has an option to put my entire itinerary instead of individual legs. But when I put Rome airport to Florence, Florence to Venice, Venice to Naples, Naples back to Rome, it suggests that buying a rail pass might be cheaper and more convenient.

My specific questions:
1. Besides cost which may not be much, is it worthwhile to consider a rail pass?

2. Rome airport to Florence: among several options shown, there was one trenialia option which states departure from Fiumicino to Firenze SMN in the afternoon. All other options are first to Roma Termini and then to Firenze. Does this mean that a direct train from airport to florence station (2 hr 14 min) option exists? Or am i missing something?

3. Again from Venice to Naples, there is a direct train option only from Italo. All trenialia options show transfer - venice to bologna / rome and then another train to naples. Italo option is a bit more expensive but seems worthwhile that we dont have to transfer luggage and ourselves to another train. What do you think?

4. Finally, rail europe site shows shipping and handling charges (about 8 eur). I cant understand this, I am only buying train tickets, what is there to ship?

Many thanks.
shwets is offline  
Old Apr 1st, 2015, 12:00 AM
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Read seat61.com to get an understanding

Trenitalia is a tricky site to read, you have to be very specific about stazione names. I just checked the website and there are directs St Lucia Venezia to Napoli Centrale every few hours as well as changes and double changes.

Luggage; you don't want to go on a train with more than you can carry. The old days of Italian trains having floors that are many feet above the platforms at main stations has long gone, while Italy has almost reached European levels of lifts on platforms (20 years after access legislation was passed), certainly the stations you are going to will have lifts though you may have to queue to use them.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 12:22 AM
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There are 2 daily direct trains from Fiumicino airport to Florence SMN: FCO dp 11.08 and 15.08
Economy fare if you book in the web: 29 EUR; standard fare 51 EUR

Direct trenitallia trains Venice - Naples:
Venice dp 10.25 and 15.25 - Naples ar 15.35 and 20.35
super economy fare available in the web: 37 EUR; standard fare 101 EUR

For how to buy tickets, have a look at http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.h...Trenitalia.com
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 02:30 AM
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1) - a rail pass is a waste of money for what you are doing

2) While there may be a few direct trains from FCO to Florence you will have far more options if you just change in Rome and its not that big a deal. The direct FCO to Roma Termini train is the Leonardo Express, 14€, every half hour, takes a half hour. Then in Rome just switch to a train for Florence -the fast ones takes only 90 minutes and they are frequent. I would not buy those tickets until you get to Italy as you don't know if your flight will be delayed. You can buy both tickets (FCO to Roma Termini, and Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella) at the airport train station so you don't have to wait in another ticket buying line. Give yourself 15 minutes to change trains but I'd actually give yourself an hour so you can get something to eat, plenty of choices in the train station.

3) As long as you pack reasonably (that means one 22 inch or smaller plus a tote/purse/small backpack per person - that is airline carry on regulations anyway) then changing trains in those major stations is not a big deal. Most have escalators. Direct Venice to Naples may sound easier but there are some drawbacks. You will have less choice of times than if you are willing to switch trains. It's a long trip, might be nicer to break it up and use the train station rest rooms (better than the train ones) and get a bite to eat.

4) Do not buy tickets from rail europe, they add a surchage I believe as well as shipping. The trenitalia site is fine if you know how to use it. First you need the actual Italian spelling of the town names (eg Roma not Rome, Napoli not Naples, etc.). The big cities have more than one station so you need to know which one (I told you about Roma and Firenze above, Naples is Napoli Centrale). You can't book more than about 90-120 ahead. The schedules don't change much so if you are planning for months away just pick a day in the next month or so to get an idea of the times, etc. You can get discount prices if you buy 90 days ahead. There is an English language option on the trenitalia site, it's the little British flag in the upper right corner of the main page.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 04:04 AM
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If you're going to Florence, it makes more sense to take the FL1 to Tiburtina station instead of the Leonardo Express to Termini station. All of the fast Frecciarossa trains going to Florence stop at Tiburtina seven minutes after they leave Termini. The FL1 costs €8 whereas the Leonardo Express costs €14.

All of the fast trains in Italy (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, and Frecciabianca) can be booked 120 days ahead. If you want discounted tickets, I advise you to buy them as soon as possible, because on popular routes, the discounts sell out quickly.

The regional trains can't be "booked" because they don't have reserved seats, and they don't "sell out" for the same reason. Trenitalia will sell them online only 7 days ahead, unless you're buying them as part of an itinerary using fast trains. It's best not to buy regional train tickets online at all, as they can't be changed or refunded for any reason whatsoever, even a fault of the railway. If you buy them in the station, they can be used at any time in the next two months or turned in for a full refund.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 04:04 AM
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>>>Rail europe has an option to put my entire itinerary instead of individual legs. But when I put Rome airport to Florence, Florence to Venice, Venice to Naples, Naples back to Rome, it suggests that buying a rail pass might be cheaper and more convenient.>>You can't book more than about 90-120 ahead. >>You can get discount prices if you buy 90 days ahead.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 04:09 AM
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Do not buy tickets from rail europe, they add a surchage I believe as well as shipping.>

No always so - Italo train tickets can be as cheap as on the Italo train site when I've checked and I believe these are e tickets so there is no mailing fee - may be a handling fee per order.

For lots of good geeral info on Italian trains - www.seat61.com - gret info on disconted tickets; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com. and Fodor's two Italian rail gurus bvience and kybourbon are always around to ansser questions.

If not on a starvation budget IME go first class as it is a more relaxed ride in many ways. Cheapest is not always the best on the trip of a lifetime.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 05:20 AM
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What I have learned from my recent foray into Italian trains:

Italo seems to be slightly cheaper than trenitalia, but we are talking a euro or 2 for the most part.

I bought 10 tickets recently on trenitalia. It is simple to use and they pretty regularly are loading fares 120 days in advance (although maybe not so precisely every time, say 118 days in advance can happen and then 2 or 3 days might be loaded at once). Fares seem to load about midnight Italy time so a good time for easily snagging the cheapest fares from North America. There appear to be 8 super economy ticket fares per train, and this is divided into two baskets of 4: 4 tickets at the super low price advertised on their website (say Rome to Florence 17 euros), then 4 more at 2 euros more. After those are gone, fares jump 10 euros to the economy level. Expect the 4 lowest price fares to be gone within 12 hours. You have to decide if it is worth locking in a specific train for the discount, since none of the 2nd class fares ever get that high.

You cannot register for the trenitalia site without having an Italian residence, not sure if you can just make use a hotel address or not as a dummy. The only advantage to registering is it will give you an additional way to access to your PNR booking code that acts as your ticket, in case you lose both your printout and access to your email account somehow.

In order to book online you will need to put in your home phone number with the 4 digit Italian prefix (from North America it's 0001) and no separators. The receipt will come by email in English and it is a beautiful receipt with a very high graphic arts quality. It gives you confidence that all is well.

It's all so simple I wouldn't bother with a travel agent, but do know the stations you want: Florence SM Novella, Venice S Lucia, etc., so you don't make a poor choice.

From the airport it may be easier to get a direct commuter rail train to the Tiburtina station, less than half the price of the Termini train, and then either a trenitalia or Italo train from there. Most Italo trains skip Termini.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 05:40 AM
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On Trenitalia, the only schedules that get loaded at the last minute when there's a schedule change are those for the regional trains. This is because the Italian regions subsidize these trains, so there are always disagreements between Trenitalia (who wish to cut service) and the regional governments (who wish to maintain service and get better equipment). All of the summer schedules for the fast Freccia trains are already loaded, and have been for over a month. The next schedule change will be in early December.

I suspect that Italo is having financial problems. They've already cut out some routes and reduced service on others. I also heard that they're laying off employees.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 06:59 AM
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Maybe Italo don't get the fat subisidies state-owned enterprises are rumored to get in Italy?
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 07:44 AM
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I think you can register as an EU citizen. I did.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 07:53 AM
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It's more a matter of what do you fill in for things, like what goes in the fields "civic" "cap" "district" "VAT code" and such although maybe it doesn't matter what gets filled in and you can register anyway. Too late for me.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 11:07 AM
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Trenitalia is wholly owned by the state company Ferrovia dello Stato, but the Trenitalia part of the company is supposed to be self-sustaining, while the track, stations, and other infrastructure are heavily subsidized, although they should in theory be open to other rail companies, like NTV. In practice, I'm sure Trenitalia is getting a lot of our tax money, too.

Still NTV must have had a business plan that anticipated making a profit, but it just hasn't happened.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 12:10 PM
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bvlenci - interesting article in NYTimes today about the new PM trying to straighten the ship:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/wo...rder.html?_r=0
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 02:05 PM
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Didn't mention that there are discounted tickets for the other classes also, not just 2nd class. Those don't seem to sell out as quickly.

Italo and the top of trenitalia, the frecciarossa, have 4 classes. The second tier frecciargento have 3.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 02:33 PM
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Yes often the discounted first-class fare is not much more than the available 2nd class fares - in fact someone pointed out the other day that on one train a discounted first-class tickets was cheaper than the available 2nd class tickets - and IME and for a traveler with luggage especially first class is much more relaxed than 2nd class, which is not a cattle car at all but often jammed full with smaller seats, less room to store luggage - and in first class you do get on high-speed trains gratis beverage and cheap plastic IME pastry and also a free Italian newspaper - not sure if WI-FI is different in classes but in some countries it is free in first-class and not available in 2nd or there is a charge for it.
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 04:06 PM
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I purchased eurail passes last summer for my student group and it was NOT worth it. It was so much easier to just purchase tickets at the train station. I actually had one unused day on my rail pass. Big waste of money. Italy is not a big country so it just doesn't make sense. I had purchased them because it had been a long time since I used the train in italy, normally I drive.

but, one thing that I would do is download the Eurail app on your smart phone or iPad. It is really helpful. All the train times are available offline. So you can plan your trip easily. If there was a reservation train that I wanted to book, I would simply purchase my ticket when I got into a city for the day I was leaving that city. You are already at the trainstation. Also, if you mark any days wrong on your eurail pass you have to either eat it, or go through a huge process to get a new pass. and if you have been to italy before, you know to avoid anything that requires standing in line!
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Old Apr 1st, 2015, 08:35 PM
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>>>You cannot register for the trenitalia site without having an Italian residence, >>I think you can register as an EU citizen. I did.>>one thing that I would do is download the Eurail app on your smart phone or iPad.
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Old Apr 2nd, 2015, 03:49 AM
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Yes kbourbon - I did and thought I thanked you or was on my mind. Thanks again and go Wildcats - if it matters to you vs Wisconsin a school I detest so much I'm rooting for those Wildcats! and yes that was a nice thread!
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Old Apr 2nd, 2015, 04:29 AM
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>

Completely false as kybourbon is fully aware. This was pointed out in another threads as ky bourbon is fully aware. I do feel that a person could fill in bogus items in the fields and register, for what value that offers I am unsure.

There is no requirement to register to buy tickets, of course.
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