Excuse my ignorance, but what is an Amica fare? I am going to be in Italy in January and plan on taking the train from Rome to Florence and from Florence to Venice. Is it best for me to buy seperate tickets or a railpass? Is there any advantage in buying the tickets in advance besides the fact that you wont need to stress over it? How long are the train rides between these cities? Thank you.

Rome-florence 1.5 hrs on EuroStar (ES) trains

Florence-Venice 3.5 hrs or so

You do not even come close to realizing benefits of an Italian railpass - not even close - forget that and i'll let someone more expert like Mimi or Ira or TimS comment on the Amica fares which are discounted over normal full fare but come with restrictions

Here is a description of the Amica fares: http://www.trenitalia.it/en/promozio...ffa_amica.html. I believe it's 20% off the regular fare with a few more restrictions than the standard fare. It did save us some euros on our fare from Florence to Rome.

We booked ahead of time for the Eurostar and had the equivalent of an e-ticket. I found the Trenitalia site easy to use, once I let my credit card company know that I was making an overseas purchase. Other's suggest waiting until you get over there. It's whatever you are comfortable with.

Thanks. This forum is so helpful in planning trips!