Good news for those travelling May 18 by rail in Italy. The strike was moved today until June 21 9pm - June 22 9pm. May 17/18 is now clear!

Good news for who? What does this mean? My family was planning to travel by train from Vernazza - Pisa - Venice on June 22??? Help??

Where did you get this new information on the train strike date?

Italian strikes are listed here: http://www.commissionegaranziasciopero.it/

I'm not good at Italian, but click on "elenco scioperi" (strike list?) at the bottom of the list on the left-hand side of the scree. It will then show all the strikes. Then, scroll down to "trasporto ferroviario" for info on the train strikes.

Edit: Sorry, hit "post" too soon.

When you find the various train strikes, you can look for the "stato dello sciopero" box that will tell you the "state" of that strike. If there is a date in red in the "revocato" section, that's the date the strike was called off. If there is a new date in green in the "differito al" box just below the "revocato", that's the new date the strike has been moved to.

VeeBee, if you read my post, I was careful to state for whom this was good news. At least you have a month to make alternate plans. On the "news" page of the trenitalia site is a link to "strike news". While this never had any coverage of the actual strike, there are links to trains which run regardless of a strike. It only lists train numbers and starting and ending stations, so to find a train between you destinations you have to match train numbers, but it can be done. So you might be able to book one of these trains in advance and put your mind at ease. I've been told that they will pack these trains with standers if there is a strike. I don't know if they do that in first class, though, so it *might* pay to book that in this case. Maybe someone else knows.

i_am_kane, the site Jolie mentioned is where I found it, but it is in Italian. You might also watch http://www.seekitaly.com/news/from_roma.html#strikes, which also keeps decent, but sometimes slightly delayed watch on major strikes, but in english.

jgrahamiii - I appreciate the your sharing the info - it's just I'm kind of shocked as I leave in two weeks for a month in Europe which has been in the planning forever! Thought all my details had been worked out (and there are lots when travelling with husband, mother and three small kids!) - i even changed our original dep date from Vernazza to give Venice 2.5 days as our last place to explore before returning to US. YOu prompted me to do some research yesterday afternoon on this - and did get some valuable info - like there are certain trains that are guaranteed to run even if there is a strike. But, is a little difficult in Italian. I think I'll call Budget Europe next week - where i got my railpasses - and try to get them to help me figure it out and get reservations...

What is the likelihood that this strike will get cancelled or postponed? Is it very likely the strike will happen as the summer season will be getting into full swing? Opinions on whether i should go ahead and reserve guaranteed train for 6 now - even though won't likely be our preferred trains?

Thanks again for all info - even if it wasn't what i wanted to hear!

I consider myself very fortunate since I just returned Sunday night from Italy using the rail system for two weeks without any problems.

My concern is for friends of mine, who are taking their first trip to Italy, and arriving in Venice on June 22nd.

I will pass this much-appreciated information onto them.

Wow! Guess I need to buy my train tkts. in advance, as we'll be taking trains on the 23rd and 25th (if we can). Anyone willing to tell me how to reserve seats/buy tickets in advance?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

If you're planning on traveling on a possible strike day, make sure you buy tickets ahead for a train that is gaurenteed to run. Go to the trenitalia website, enter the itinerary you want as if you're buying the tickets. Write down the train numbers that are doing your run from the earliest morning onward. Then go the the main page of trenitalia, click on news, then strike news. There will be a link to long distant trains that will run even if there is a strike. Look for a number match to your itinerary. Even though it will likely not say the name of your destination or even of your departute city (it only will list the very start and the final destination of the train), if the number matches, you can buy that ticket for your leg of the journey and the train will be gaurenteed to run.

Another thing to note is that the taxi's can also go on strike. Our last day in Rome (May 8th) there was a taxi strike. I don't know if there is a way to find out if the taxi's will strike, but we were lucky that we had already booked a car to take us and my dad to the airport that day (instead of just relying on grabbing a taxi).

We had booked our last night at the Rome Airport Hilton and they have a bus that takes you back and forth from downtown Rome back to the hotel, so we were already set (our flight left early May 9th). We took the bus back to Rome for our last day and thought we'd take a taxi to some of the other spots we wanted to see, but could not find any taxi's driving around.

I went and asked and found out they were on strike and the person I talked to wasn't sure if the strike was going to last the one day or longer. Luckily we didn't HAVE to get a taxi. That was a close call for us!

Just FYI - the Commissione di Garanzia site shows all the possible upcoming strikes - including all the transportation ones, like air, rail, taxi, local public transport. It also shows, water, gas, legal, schools, general civil service, and many other categories. It will show what regions are affected by the strikes, and the exact hours of the strikes. I know it's difficult because it's in Italian (I'm not good at it either), but it is very comprehensive.

Any ideas how long the train strikes last?

ciao
in italy there are some strike train:
esemplestrike of 24 hour (es:at 9,00pm on day 4 april until 9,00pm 5 april.There's strike only 1 region of italy and some train type IC no work in that region and this type strike start from 9,00pm until 5,00 pm.(es:17may at 9.00pm until 5,00 pm on day18may
w l'Italia

boookmark, ill want that link to keep up on strikes for when i'm in italy

I've checked all of the recommended sites and it doesn't look like the Cisalpino trains that run between Italy and Switzerland are exempt from the strike. We are scheduled to travel from Como to Zurich by rail on June 22. I thought maybe if we could get across the border on the 21st, that we'd be safe traveling in Switzerland on the 22nd. But, the trains that run to Zurich are all the Cisalpino coming from Italy... so, I imagine that means we'll still have a problem. Also, what happens to trains on the 21st that aren't scheduled to reach their destination until a couple hours after the strike starts. Does the train just stop where it is and everyone gets off? Or does it finish the journey? Thanks in advance - I haven't experienced an Italian rail strike yet, so I'm not sure how this works.