My fellow Fodorites. HELP!!!
Here is the deal. I am going to Italy March 25. Still working out the itinerary but here is the skeleton. Florence 6 nites with 2 or 3 day trips to various areas in the Tuscany region (siena, pisa or something) then taking the train to Rome for 4 nites.

Im trying to figure out if I should get a Euro pass or just buy tickets for hopping on and off the train. Also, the websites are confusing me to no end. A friend told me that I should purchase my train tix now, but everytime I look on a site, it says either I cant purchase the tix or I cant even put in dates beyond 30 days. Can some one please point me in the right direction? Is there a Eurotrain site for Dummies or something. HELP!!!

Hi verbaslt, just buy your tickets when you get to Italy, at least that is what I always do. Point to point tickets are what you want. I assume you have the website but in case you don't it is www.trenitalia.com You can use that to look up train schedules.

Unless your day trips from Florence are to Palermo, Naples, and Lecce, then by all means get point to point tickets and you'll save a lot of money.

Like others said, buy the tickets for the local trains in Tuscany when you're ready to go.

For Florence-Rome on the Eurostar Italia, buy it a few days in advance (or as soon as you arrive in Italy) and you'll be set.

hello all,

I'm new to this site and I honestly have no idea how to post my own message...but my question relates to this topic so I'll just ask in here (sorry).
I've been planning a trip to Italy in late May/early June, and doing some research about train travel in Italy.
I'm also really confused about it all.
This may be a stupid question..but...

**What is the difference between a Trenitalia pass, and a Eurail pass?**

Is it the same thing??

If not, what's the difference and which is better?

Thank you.

A Trenitalia pass is just for trains in Italy. There are a zillion types of Eurail passes -- some for multi countries, some for groups of countries, and some for individual countries.

Regarding posting your own message -- it's easy. See up in the left hand corner where it says "post a new message"? Click on that and it will open a window where you can put a title and then type a message and post. Just make sure you're in the right "forum" -- Europe for European, etc. Also you can click an individual country on that same screen which will make your post come up for those who just click on an individual country to see what messages there are for it.

ttt for NathalieM

ttt for a newcomer

Nathalie & verbaslt, I have done all 3: Eurailpass, Trenitaliapass & point-to-point tickets. Before our last trip, I went to the Trenitalia site & calculated the cost of our itinerary with point-to-point tix, and figured out that we could save by simply buying point-to-point tickets, even if we were to travel only first-class.

Since so many trains require reservations anyway, even with your pass you're going to have to deal with the ticket windows or the machines, so it's not all that much more convenient to have the pass, in some cases.

One thing I would not bother with is purchasing tickets ahead of time. It's so easy to buy them at the train stations once you're there, why lock yourself in to a fixed itinerary if you decide you want to spend another hour (or another couple of days) in Venice or whatever?!

Verbaslt,

I'm in just about the same boat as you are. Go to the Italian train site mentioned above and you should be able to see schedules for late March/early April. You will not be able to see prices more than 60 days in advance. I've been putting in a date about 2 months out, choosing a date on the same day of the week as I will be traveling, to just get an idea of what costs will be. You will just need to select the standard fare from the dropdown. For instance, if I want to travel from Florence to Rome on March 31, I would check prices for March 10. Hope that helps.

Oh...here's what I found several weeks ago for some dates in that time frame. These were for Eurostar (fast train) in 2nd class is supposed to be fine for that train type. It does require a reservation, but supposedly it can be done at the last minute. I was told that around Easter a little more advance purchase may be necessary. Not sure if that is true, but everything I've read says to wait until you get there and buy point to point.

Florence to Rome (Termini)
ES* 9465; 2nd class – E58.88 (11:31 – 13:08)
ES* 9431; 2nd class – E58.88 (11:53 – 13:30)
ES* 9433; 2nd class – E58.88 (12:53 – 14:30)
ES* 9311; 2nd class – E58.88 (13:20 – 14:55)

Deb,
Check your prices again. Florence to Rome second class on ES should be 33 euro.

Deb - When you purchase an ES ticket from Trenitalia, it includes the seat reservation. If you buy a pass and want to travel on an ES train, you must pay an additional fee for the seat reservation. The 2nd cl Florence/Rome ES train is 29.44E per person including seat.

Oops Henry,

You are exactly correct...I was recording prices based on two people and had checked prices prior to the first of the year.