Falguni Jain

Hi,<BR><BR>I was planning to visit Italy in the Thanksgiving weekend in November end.<BR><BR>Can somebody tell me which is the best & most economical train to take to communte within Italy? <BR><BR>Also, please send me the website address for that?<BR><BR>Also, should I take a roundtrip from Paris to Italy as a flight or as a train journey? Which is a better option?<BR><BR>It would be great to receive information on these questions.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Falguni<BR>

Bob C

http://www.trenitalia.com/

well

Where in Italy will you be going? In general it will be much faster if you fly from Paris to one of the airports (Rome is the largest, but there are also airports close to Florence, Venice, Milan, and some smaller cities).

Ben Haines

You save travel time if you use sleepers in overnight trains between Paris and Italy. Separate trains runs between Paris Bercy station in the evening and in the morning Milan at 0845, Venice at 0927, Florence at 0905 and Rome at 0958. The trains have 1, 2 and 3 berth sleeper compartments, some of them with showers en suite, and restaurant cars. By air you spend daylight hours in travel, and pay more.<BR><BR>You ask about the best and most economical train to take to communte within Italy. Few tourists commute, though if you take a cheap hotel near the railway station in Padova and commute the 30 minutes to and from Venice you cut your costs in that expensive city. If you mean the best and most economical trains to travel in Italy, these are the InterCity trains, which go a little slower than Italia Eurostar, so you see the scenery better, and cost less. I like restaurant car meals, which many InterCity trains have, but others like to travel with a picnic and a corkscrew.<BR><BR>The website for Italian Rail is http://www.fs-on-line.com/. My note on getting the best from sleepers and couchettes is on http://www.twenj.com/tipsnighttrains.htm. There are pictures of trains at the foot of Italy on http://www.seat61.com/, but I do not agree with that note s recommendation that you book through Rail Europe, as they take a high fee for booking you. Rather, you can book at the international desk of any big station when you have arrived in Paris. Inside Italy you should book a day or two ahead. I think that the Italian Rail Kilometric ticket will be the cheapest for you.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. If you do, would you please say where you are now ?<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR><BR>

misty

Dear Ben Haines,<BR>You sound extremely familiar with the Italian train thing and I'm thinking your the person I need to ask my question of. We arrive early Sunday morning at FCO and get ourselves to the Termini for a train to Florence. Why do you feel getting tickets in advance is desirable? I'm not sure when we'll be getting to the station or what train we'll be able to catch. I'm not sure I want another piece of important paper to keep track of if not necessary. But if you think booking in advance is the right thing to do would you also make a reservation?

Betsy

Misty, I think Mr. Haines is implying that it may necessary to book a few days ahead for a long journey such as from Paris to Italy, which may include an overnight accommodation. For a short trip from FCO through Rome to Florence, it's not necessary to book ahead. Go back and check my reply on your original message.

Ben Haines

For Misty: I did indeed write that inside Italy you should book a day or two ahead. My idea was and uis that if you can book in that way you are sure of your seat. Italian fares are low, and as a result trains are said to be crowded (I have given a false impression: I travel little in Italy, but read the travel fora and the timetable, so I am no expert). <BR><BR>I used the word should, not must, and in fact you cannot conveniently book your train from Rome to Florence, trains are many, passengers are fewer in late November, and overall I think it safe enough to book only on arrival at Rome airport.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR><BR>

Alice Twain

Misty:<BR><BR>Only some trains in Italy require or allow booking. You must always reserve on Eurostar trains, you can book on Intercity trains or Espresso trains, but on these trains booking is not required. In case you do not book either because you are not sure at what time are you going to leave or because there were no seats available you might end up travelling standing in the corridor for at least part of the trip, which is not a big problem on short trips (such as Florence-Rome) but can be very uncomfortable on longer trips. All the other trains do not allow seat booking at all. Booking costs 3 euro per person, except on Eurostar trains for which it is free. Finally, ticket prices vary according the cathegory of train you are using. Regionale Interregionale and Diretto trains are commeuters trains, which offer very little comfort, are slow but also they are very cheap. Espresso trains are long distance trains, but they are slow too and sometimes not very comfortable; these trains are very cheap too. Intercity train offer a faster and comfortable service, but they connect only the main cities and cost 30% more than ordinary train (those listed above). Finally Eurostar trains are the fastest trains of all and the most comfortable of all, but hey are also the most costly. You can't chose oine cathegory of trains for travelling in Italy: in my thrity years of life in Italy I have found that different cathegories of trains can be more or less useful according on where you want to go and how much time you have to go there. For instance, when I go to Bologna on daytrip I usually make the trip from Milano to Bologna on a cheap, slow and not very comfortable Interregionale, but for the trip back, when I am tired and hungry, I like the plushiness of Eurostar trains.<BR>One last thing. Make sure that you have the right ticket for the train you are travelling on. There is a not-so-small fee for travelling on a high cathegory train with a ticket that was issued for a train of a lower cathegory.

Ben Haines

Ms Twain's helpful note sent me back to the timetable, where I found that on Sunday mornings there are indeed Diretto trains, with no booking possible, that leave Rome Termini at 0612 and 0714, and Rome Tiburtini at 0619 and 0721 and take 2 hours 40 minutes to Florence. Also InterCity trains with restaurant cars that leave Termini at 0647 and 0847 and take 2 hours 29 minutes. So clearly booking from overseas is needless: you simply buy your ticket and at the station in Rome battle a little to have a seat when you board. Ideal pocket picking time, I should guess, so at the airport you might move everything but a hundred euros into the depths of your big suitcase.<BR><BR>Ms Tweain: I often need to tell people: please is there a railway ticket office in Fiumicino airport ?<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

Alice Twain

Mr Haines ^_^<BR><BR>I do not know about train tickets in Fiumicino. As a matter of facts I have never been to Fiumicino (i live in Milano, and as far as I can remember there are no train tickets selling offices or machines in neither of Milano airports, but I can be wrong). One more thing: Italian trains restaurantscars are the mst costly badly procesed food that is on sale in Italy: one meal in one of those cars costs as much as eating out in some good level restaurant (although not the very best ones), but it tastes worse than what you can find in a school canteen.

Betsy

Yes Ben, there is a ticket office at FCO. I have bought a ticket there all the way through to Florence. The train goes from the airport to Termini, where it's necessary to change trains. But if you already have bought your ticket from Rome to Florence at FCO you don't have to stand in a possibly very long line at Termini to buy the ticket for the next part of the journey.