My husband, sister and I are planning a trip to Italy and we will be traveling by train. We are familiar with European train travel and we've always booked our rail passes through Eurail.com. But upon reading one of the posts on Fodors.com, someone pointed out that you rail passes are more expensive on Eurail.com so I checked out Seat61.com, and sure enough, it looks like they can issue rail passes much cheaper. I'm just wondering if the passes we get through this site are the same, do they courier the pass to you like Eurail does, and basically are you getting the same thing for less money? Thanks for your comments/insights on this.

A rail pass may be more expensive than point-to-point tickets purchased from the Italian rail company. What is your itinerary?

The cheapest way is to purchase ticket once your in the country. ERail and Seat 61 are not cheap. Also be aware 2nd class is fine unless the trip is overly long. Where do you plan to travel would be helpful to know as well so you can check the countries train sites on line and often you can book with them on line.

It is extremely hard to justify a rail pass on Italy unless you are doing long trips every other day.

You can go to: http://orario.trenitalia.com but you will need to check only a week or so out date wise. Examples
ES Rome to Florence 1.35 hours lst. 63e 2nd 45e
IC Rome to Florence 3.01 hours lst. 39.5 2nd 30e
Regional Rome to Florence 3.10 hours lst. 26.20 2nd. 17
There are also cheaper fares but for the most part to hard to book on line. You should figure out what trips you want to take and price them out.

>>>>There are also cheaper fares but for the most part to hard to book on line<<<

Since Trenitalia updated their website in Dec, I haven't seen any posts where someone couldn't purchase on their website. You can save a lot of money using their website for advance purchase sale fares (mini fares). The prices on Trenitalia include your required seat (required on all, but the slow R trains). Passes do not include your required seat and you must pay extra (10€ each seat/trip) for them.

Well that's good to hear last year it was hell booking those cheaper fares.

As noted, many folks have posted successes in using their VISA or MC credit cards from the US, Australia, etc. on the Trenitalia website. Unfortunately, only Italian AMEX cards are accepted on the Trenitalia website. If you don't mind giving up some of your flexibility, then my suggestion would be to look at the MINI discount ticket options before you purchase a rail pass. In my three+ years of living in Italy, I NEVER used a rail pass. P2P tickets almost always come out cheaper... and with a MINI ticket you can save up to 70%. Read this for more info on the MINI ticket: http://tinyurl.com/MINI-fare

If you've never tried to book online at Trenitalia - and most folks gave up in years past due to their credit card frustrations - then you might read this step-by-step description on booking online: http://tinyurl.com/tren-online

You can always wait until you get to Italy - and if they're still available - score some MINI tickets. A few weeks ago, we were headed to Naples and I went down to Roma Termini the day before and scored MINI tickets that saved me 30% off the base price. The kiosks are very easy to use: http://tinyurl.com/buy-tickets-2011

With the creation of the MINI discounts (they started in late January 2011), and the new found success of purchasing online, the rail pass becomes less viable. Of course, these MINI tickets are LESS FLEXIBLE so you have to committed to your dates, times, and trains of travel. The MINI's are NOT yet viable on Regionale trains as of today. I'd certainly look at this option on the website before buying a pass.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've away and only now got a chance to look at your replies. Good suggestions - I'll check them out.

Just to clarify, as people seem to be talking about it (me?) as a company or agency: Seat61 doesn't sell anything. It's a one-man site written by, er, me, trying to advise people on the different ways to travel by train, preferably as cheaply as possible.

Railpass prices are fixed by the railways, so the only price variation you'll find between different agencies selling them are relatively small differences due to their exact markup, te exchange rate they use, booking fees and so forth.

For travel in Italy,

1) be aware that in Italy with a railpass, EVERY fast train requires a reservation and surcharge, about 4 euros for slow InterCity (IC) trains, 10 euros a trip for all high-speed Eurostar Italia trains.

2) You should always compare normal tickets at www.trenitalia.com before buying a pass. Don't buy a $300 pass (plus 10 euros surcharg a trip) to make two or three $40 train journeys!

3) Be aware that if you buy normal tickets, the 'base' price shown on www.trenitalia.com is what you'd pay on the day at the station, but you can find cheaper 'Meno 30' or 'Mini' fares if you pre-book. Up to you whether you think the 'on the day' rate or the heap advance-purchase rate is the one that you'd want. The price shown includes reservation on the train in question.

4) Judging by the emails I get, the change of payment system in November 2010 at www.trenitalia.com has indeed solve almost all, though not completely all, payment problems for overseas users. It's still the place to start for any Italian ticket sales, as they offer all routes, all trains, all ticket types, at the actual European prices with zero fees or extras and all the cheap deals available if you pre-book.

Hi
This will be my husband and my first time to Italy so we would appreciate all the advice on offer.
We arrive in Rome on 18 July and need to know how to get from there to Rapello by the most convenient train route (where to board, change and final stop as well as approx how long the journey is). We will then travel from there to Venice and on to Sorrento, hopefully all by train, so need info about that too please.

>>>Unfortunately, only Italian AMEX cards are accepted on the Trenitalia website.<<<

Someone reported last week that they were able to use their AmEx on Trenitalia.

>>>need to know how to get from there to Rapello by the most convenient train route <<<

If you don't want any train changes, catch one of the ESCity trains from Rome Termini to Rapallo. Travel time is 4 1/2 hours. There's a snack bar on board, but I would take some drinks/snacks as I've often found the snack bars don't stay open long. To see all trains/prices on your route, you must enter a date within the next 7 days (summer schedules aren't loaded yet). You might be able to snag some discounts once they get the summer schedules loaded.

Capetownlady, your itinerary takes you from central Italy to northwest Italy, then northeast Italy, then to southern Italy. You're crisscrossing the country. If you reorder your stops and do an open jaws flight (into Rome or Naples, out of Venice) you'll save yourself a lot of travel time. And get more sightseeing time. Better to go to Sorrento upon your arrival, then Rome, then Rapallo, and end up in Venice. (Better yet do the whole thing in reverse.)

Thank you for your replies, really helpfull. Will try and reconfigure the itinery!

Go to italy every year and train

Pass always bad value unless training relentlessly daily.

better to just buy point to point on intercity/regional

trains was there recently paid 4 euros per person

on a nice regional train from Orvieto to Florence

super cheap best way to go pricewise had a nice compartment

all too myself.

Also did the fast trains (frecciarosa,frecciargento)

10-15 euros per hour of training still worked out

cheaper than pass cost per day plus fast train supplements.

good discussion of this on seat61.com but few if any

make money on pass in Italy.