Hi all. I plan to be in Italy May of 2007 and I'm trying to figure out what web site (there are SOOOO many!) is a good and trustworthy one for me to buy my rail passes here in the U.S. Have any of you bought passes through www.italiarail.com and have they been any good?

Thanks ya'll!
Ahissa

Ahissa,
This is the offical website http://www.trenitalia.com/ but trains are so cheap in Italy that you must travel way too much to make a pass worthwhile.

Hi Ah,

Before buying any railpasses, enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

FYI, all vendors sell exactly the same railpasses at the same price. The only differences are if they give you extra goodies or provide free S&H.

Thanks Henry and Ira I'll look into those web sites ASAP!

Thanks again,
Ahissa (Ah-eeee-sha)

Ahissa,
Vendors sell the same rail pass but they each decide how much of a markup they want so the prices can be different.

It's my understanding that Italian pass prices are uniform and have to be sold at the same rate - in the US anyway - what can vary are handling and mailing fees but the pass must be sold at a set price - thus there is no shopping around in the US - prices may well be different - more or less thru trenitalia.com. Though like others have said you'd have to have an unusual energetic itinerary for an Italian pass to pay off if doing a lot of training then maybe. The problem with the pass in Italy is that to ride fast trains you often have to pay a $15-20 surcharge for a reservation even with a pass - these charges can add up to make the Italian pass an even more dubious deal.
Give your itinerary here and folks will quickly tell you whether even to consider a pass or not.

Good idea PalQ, I'll post what I hope to be my itinerary (so far):

Fly into Milan and take a train to Vernazza (Cinque Terre), stay two nights;

Take train from Vernazza to Florence (stay two nights);

Take train from Florence to Seina (stay two nights);

Take train from Siena to Rome stay 3 nights; Fly home out of Rome.

I hope this makes sense - thanks ya'll!!!

Ahissa

Ahissa,
It looks like it will cost you less than $100 for point to point tickets, second class.

The bus from Florence to siena is a better option.

Si Ahissa: No pass for you! Much better off with point-points and i wouldn't bother trying to reserve online as you're mainly taking IC and regional trains that are very cheap even at full fare. You can buy all your tickets at once at Milan Airport's rail desk i think or at least in Milan. Note that many tickets sold in Italy require you to date-stamp them yourselves before boarding the train by sticking them into quai-side machines - or else you may be considered to be riding with a valid ticket. (Many trains are on the honor system with spot checks - if you don't date-stamp, or cancel the ticket before boarding and there's no check on your train you could refund it, so that's why this rule is in effect i guess.

These are relatively short journeys in northern Italy. Remember that ordinary fares are calculated from the distance in kilometres. A rail pass is only worthwhile for Italy if you're making a lot of journeys or travelling a long way - if you were taking a roundabout route from the north to Sicily, then back via a different route, then it might be worth checking to see whether a rail pass might be worthwhile.

Gracias PalQ and Geoff (and all the rest) - I guess I was just relly confused about the passes. Everyone was talking about a EuroPass (and they are SOOOO EXPENSIVE!!!) and I was kinda freaking out cus I didn't want to go broke just traveling in northern Italy. Thanks again guys - all this info and advice is really helpful and will make my first solo trip a success

Ahissa