Individual train tickets instead of passes
 

I am taking my family on a vacation to Europe. We are flying into Paris and spending a week there, then moving on to Venice and Rome. We will stay in Venice 4 nights and Rome for a week.

My problem is that I am researching train tickets from Paris to Venice and Venice to Rome, and all I see are "passes" for a minimum of four days of travel. I just need tickets from Paris to Venice and another set of tickets for Venice to Rome.

Where do I find individual train tickets without having to buy a "pass" worth four trips when I only need two?

Thanks in advance.

A pass is rarely cost effective for Italy and you would need to be traveling enough long distances within Italy on multiple to make it pay off. On the fast trains in Italy, seats are mandatory (comes with your ticket if purchased from the actual rail companies in Italy - Trenitalia or Italo Treno (not to be confused with Italiarail a reseller). Seats are not included with passes and they are 10€ for most seats in Italy.

The fast trains operate between major cities in Italy and don't stop at all the small towns so if you are taking a day trip from Rome to Orvieto there is no fast train service. You would use a regional train which is way cheaper than the cost of a day on a pass.

Rail passes also don't include transportation in cities (and often not to the airports).

On Trenitalia you must use the Italian spelling of the cities. Most fast trains in Italy can be booked 120 days in advance. Schedules change 2nd weekend in June and 2nd weekend in Dec. Regional trains can be bought at the station day of - there is no reserved seating on them and they don't sell out.

For Venice/Rome, buy a ticket on Trenitalia or Italo.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

http://www.italotreno.it/en

For Paris/Venice, buy a flight on a budget airline from Paris Orly or Paris CDG.

Easy Jet flies from both Orly and CDG to Venice.

https://www.easyjet.com/en?link=meganav

As keybourbon said, buy your Venice/Rome train ticket on Italian train website, trenitalia.com

For Paris/Venice, if you prefer train then fly, you may look up train options on seat61's website at
https://www.seat61.com/international...from-Paris.htm

just scroll down a little bit to the section heading
"Paris to Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre & anywhere in Italy"

Oops, "if you prefer train THAN fly ..."

There is also the Thello overnight train Paris-Venice -book a private compartment and kids-if any will have quite a memory. www.thello.com.

For lots on overnight trains and trains in general check www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

discounted tickets also come in first class and at times may not be much more than cheapest available 2nd cl - and if so go for first class- more room for luggage and compl beverage and snacks - most find 2nd class fine but as always first class is finer.

You are seeing passes because of the websites you are using, some specialize in selling passes to tourists. Those are NOT the regular railroad websites because they do not even sell those passes, those passes are a tourist product that is only sold outside a country.

In fact, if you are using Raileurope, they also sell individual tickets so not sure how you couldn't see them (maybe you are using a pass website), but the tickets will be more expensive than buying directly from a railroad (France or Italy).

I am currently doing the Rome Venice train but not until March.
I have signed up on Italo.it for alerts. Right now they are running specials until November. But my travel is beyond that and I must wait until the next set of sales occurs.

Frankly, I found that Italo was much easier to use than Trenitalia. So I have decided to book my tickets with them, I have also found that the prices vary just checking different dates but I must wait for schedule changes around December.
The price varies by time and class of service. The least expensive tickets are in the afternoon. The problem is that the journey takes almost four hours. So I am not even going to consider afternoon tickets.

Except for a trip from Rome to Florence and also from Naples to Rome, I have not used the trains very much. So this is a first for me.

Good Luck. Check out Italo.