Railpass for Italy?
 

My husband and I are laeving for Italy on 11 July for 2 weeks. Our itinerary is Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, Rapallo, and back to Rome to fly home. Should we buy railpasses before we go? If yes, where should we purchase them? Thanks. --Jen

My husband and I did 3 weeks in Italy last October using the Biglietto Kilimetrico (Kilometric Ticket). It is a single ticket (actually an accordianed piece of paper with different spaces for stamps) that from 1 to 6 people can use for a total of 3000 kilometers. Each passenger is "charged" with the distance from point to point on the ticket and the total is up to 3000 km. We used it to go from Rome to Orvieto (a MUST), then to Perugia, then to Gubbio and Spello, then to Cortona, to Arrezo, to Siena, then to Florence and to the border of Italy/ Switzerland as we left for home from Paris. With all these destinations and stops we still had some room left on the ticket!! Some people will say that this ticket is a pain in the neck because you must get it stamped BEFORE each trip at the departing station - where they put a stamp and add the distances - but we thought it was cool - we now have a souvenir of our trip with stamps from all the towns. This ticket can be purchased in the US with additional fees, but we easily bought ours at the Termini train station in Rome the day we departed(they take credit cards too). It is very inexpensive: around $250. I will also tell you that it is valid on about 75% of the trains with no additional fees. We did have to pay a few dollars here and there to take a direct or express train - really no big deal!! It was well worth the savings. Buon Viaggio!!

Check out <BR> <BR>www.eurail.com/eurail/passes/passlist.htm <BR> <BR>Then click on Italy. For your trip I recommend the Italian Kilometric Pass, which, for $181, gives up to 3000 passenger-km of travel over a 60 day period (i.e., one person could do up to 3000 km of travel or two persons could do up to 1500 km, etc). It may well be cheaper to buy your tickets at the station. But I've found it's SO much easier to just locate the train you want and then jump aboard it; than to locate the ticket counter, wait in line (hoping you won't miss the train!), and then try to specify exactly what you want -- particularly if you barely speak the language of the ticket counter person! <BR> <BR>Enjoy your trip!!

Jennifer, An option you might consider is an Italian Flexipass. These are good for travel for any 4days in a month, $209 1st, $139 2nd or 8 days in a month, $293 1st, $195 2nd. The 4 day would probably be OK for you, and 2nd class is fine, but that's up to you. It's pretty simple, you board the train, the conductor punches the ticket and that's it. You might have to make reservations, Rome to Florence e.g.. We buy our passes from Budget Europe Travel Service (BETS) @ 1.800.441.2387, and they also can provide specific info. <BR>

This is a price correction to my previous posting. I thought my first quote sounded a liitle high so I checked my journal from our trip. The Kilometric Pass actually cost us only around $170 last October. An even better deal for all the places 2 people can travel on 300km.

There is some great info here---thanks to all. What type of rail ticket would you rec.for a family of 4 traveling for 2 weeks? (Rome-Perugia-Florence-Venice-Milan) The kids are <BR>14 and 11. Thanks in advance. <BR>

Cathryn, The Flexipass I mentioned is half fare for children under 12. <BR>