I'm helping friends plan a trip to Italy & Poland. They bought a rail pass for Italy and would like to use to it travel from Rome to Naples and back to Rome.

Does anyone know if the rail pass covers the new high speed ES Italia AV, or is there an extra charge for using it? I'm pretty sure reservations are required. Are reservations also required for the Euro Star line?

Thank you for any information you can provide. Peace, Robyn >-

I do not know about the AV, but yes, reservations are required for Eurostar srvice on trenitalia, and will cost extra. Their purchase strikes me as likely to be excessively expensive for this simple round trip. Is it too late for them to get a refund?

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi Rex -

Thanks for your reply. I thought the Euro Star needed reservations, but I wasn't sure.

My friends are also using the pass to travel to Florence and back, as well as around Tuscany/Umbria. There are 5 of them travelling, 3 of them under age 26 (eligible for the Youth Pass).

They're probably not saving much money, if any, but the ease of using a pass which they have in hand, versus purchasing point-to-point tickets each time they want to travel is worth the little extra money to them.

Does anyone have any info on the high speed AV line? Robyn >-

The pass will not cover the Eurostar, you will need to pay a premium. It WILL be excessively expensive. I would buy point-to-point tickets.

Hi art,

They will have to buy reservations (about $10) for each seat on all of the highspeed trains, ES*, AV, TGV, THALYS, etc, etc.

Sort of reduces the convenience of having a railpass.

Oh my, this is not good news. Most of the trains that they want to travel on are Euro Star, and having to pay extra is a bummer.

Checking the rail schedules from Rome to Florence I find that all trains are Euro Star! There are no other options!

My friend plugged his itinerary into railsaver.com and they suggested the pass as the most economical. Oh well....

Thanks for your reply. Peace, Robyn >-

All trains between Florence and Rome aren't ES. There are IC and R trains but they take as much as an hour longer to get there.

kybourbon -

So right you are. I was using the bahn.de website for schedules and they only list the Euro Stars for travel between Rome and Florence. When I checked the trenitalia.com site, they do list a regional train that leaves every two hours, which takes two hours longer than the Euro Star!

I also checked trenitalia for Rome to Naples and discovered an ICplus that runs every one to two hours. Are reservations required, and is there a surcharge for the ICplus?

Thanks all for your help. Peace, Robyn >-

Hi Robin,

>My friend plugged his itinerary into railsaver.com and they suggested the pass as the most economical. <

It defaults to buying a railpass unless one clicks "only if it saves money".

If they want guaranteed seats on an IC or IC+ they will have to buy reservations - about 3E.

One can get a refund (about 85%, I think) on railpasses.

To ride ES Italia trains with a rail pass requires a surcharge of about $15 i believe in Italy. As mentioned IC trains run each route and they can just board these - doesn't guarantee a seat or they can make reservations for a few euros. ICp - ICPlus trains also require reservations. There are plenty of IC trains Rome-Naples and Florence-Rome so they don't have to take ES train a'tall. regional trains such as in Tuscany don't even take reservations and some are so cheap (Florence-Pisa about $5-7 each way) they may not want to use a day on their pass.