Quick Italy Train Question
 

My fiance and I are heading Italy in March '07. Our itinerary includes a one way train trip from Rome to Venice and a one way train trip from Venice to Milan (due to frequent flyer mile contraints we fly into Rome and fly out of Milan). Based on my quick analysis, it would make more sense to buy those tickets separately rather that to buy the a 3-day Italian rail pass, correct?

One twist, on the way to Venice from Rome, we would like to disembark in Florence (I think you have to change trains there anyway) and spend a couple of hours there before getting back on the train to Venice. Would this be permitted on a one-way ticket from Rome to Venice?

Thanks in advance!
Tom

Rome-Florence-Venice trains are basically all Eurostar Italia with mandatory reservations. Just buy yourself seperate Rome-Florence (29.44 EUR) and Florence-Venice (26.60 EUR) tickets. Since the direct ticket costs 44.93 EUR, your stop in Florence will cost you about 10EUR.

Thanks for the quick response! Where did you get the price quotes? Is the earliest you can buy tickets 60 days in advance?

Tom

Those are standard prices from trenitalia.com. Exact same price when you buy them at a train station in Italy.

We got back from a fabulous Italy trip on Monday the 10th, and here is just a quick reminder...ALWAYS stamp your train ticket at the little yellow boxes before boarding the train. I've read about it often enough on these threads, so I should have known better, but we got fined 5 euros each (could have been 25!)

On the trains with mandatory reservations like the Eurostar Italia, you don't need to validate the tickets. You paid for a specific seat on a specific train, and you can't "reuse" that ticket.