Hello,

We are leaving for Italy in about 10 days and are considering purchasing a one-way ticket (1st class, with reservation) from Salerno to Messina prior to our departure from the US. Does anyone know how long it will take to receive the tickets from raileurope.com by mail? Do travel agents sell these as well or are they only available through the internet?

Thanks ever so much for any knowledge!
Jo Ann

The extra expense and wait time for the ticket isn't worth it. You can walk into any station when you get there and get the ticket. Particularly a ticket that's not the high traffic Rome-Florence, Rome-Naples, Florence-Venice, etc. kind of routes.

Hi JoAnn - I saw this posted on
http://www.italywithus.biz/main_pages/services.htm

"8) Train Tickets.
Italian railways are in general a good way to travel around. Booking tickets can be a trial however, with long queues and quite a complex system of surcharges etc. If you wish, we can help by taking care of booking your train tickets for you, sending them to you in advance so you have no worries. You pay the actual price of the ticket + postage (?23.76 for delivery within 92 hours; ?4.40 14+ days) and service charge ($15 for 1 - 4 tickets; $20 for 4+ tickets). All you need to do is email me with details of your itinerary and of the people travelling. I will get back to you with all the prices and times."

maybe this is a cheaper option compared to raileurope?
hope this helps!
Joann

Buy your tickets in Salerno,no probs with queues (always machines)travel plans can always change !

Many cities have American Express Travel offices. Very friendly & good English speakers. I've bought at stations in Italy with few problems, but it's even easier at an AmEx. If no AmEx I'd buy at the station.

If you're flying into Italy and taking a train to your destination, you may want to purchase your train ticket (get a reserved seat in first class) from your travel agent here in the US. You will pay a premium but for the convenience and assurance of a seat, it's worth it. But for all other internal trips, you can easily purchase your train tickets at the station at ATM-like booths or travel agents in Italy. You'll pay "local"prices, not the premium prices that RailEurope makes you pay.

I agree with Wayne and Susjc- I always buy my train tkt in the US as I do NOT speak Italian and the Italian train stations are hard enough for me to figure out WHICH train is on which track-

When we waited in line, it was a long line and the tkt seller did not speak English...

So the next time we went to Europe, we purchased the tkts from Eurail thru out TA= they will Fed Ex them to you to get there overnite if there is not enough time....At least then you can rest assured that you have tkt in hand and 1st class reservations.. and if you need a couchette for overnite, definitely book here in states-

If you decide to buy before you go, check out your local AAA travel office or www.ricksteves instead of RailEurope.