jec23236

My wife and I are taking a 2-week Med cruise starting in Barcelona April 29, returning May14 after several ports in Italy. Rather than the regimented cruise tours we are thinking about taking TrenItalia from Livorno to Florence & Pisa; and, from Civitavecchia to Rome. We plan to book return trains scheduled to arrive back in port at least 1.5 to 2 hrs before we are due back onboard. Naturally, we do not want to miss our sailing. Are the Italian trains reliable enough that our schedule would be safe? Thanks. Jim in Richmond, VA

ellenem

Yes, the trains are reliable. However, both these trips are on regional trains--commuter trains that don't have reserved seats. You just buy a ticket and get on. You can check schedules at trenitalia.com. The only snafu: a train strike.

PalenQ

ah yes - train strikes like the one happened recently and one forecast soon. usually i believe they are announced in advance. Certain trains are strike immune and run however.

TravMimi

I always have a plan B in case of train strikes. What I hate are taxi strikes. Those are difficult to get around.

Mimar

I wouldn't rely on an Italian train, especially a local train, to get me there in time. I've had problems too often and heard of problems other times.

ira

Hi J,

>We plan to book return trains scheduled to arrive back in port at least 1.5 to 2 hrs before we are due back onboard.

A good idea.

In general, the trains run pretty much on time.

However, our last visit, the IC from Naples to Rome arrived more than 2 hr late.

LucieV

In all the years I've travelled in Italy (almost exclusively by train, since 1970), I've had maybe one or two incidents of a train not being on schedule. Exactly the same as my record for California...where I am a much less frequent train user.

Don't worry about it!

jec23236

Thanks for all your responses. Sometime conflicting; all helpful. The announced strike I've heard about is for later in May. We'll be on our way home.

Thanks again for your contributions.

Jim in Richmond