does anyone know how much the train costs between rome and florence, tried the trenitalia website but it wont give me prices, I would prefer not to use the euro star as I was told it's double the price of the slow train!

All these fares are quoted in trenitalia.com (in Euros):<BR>Eurostar: 42.35 First; 29.44 Second<BR>Intercity: 29.80 First; 21.95 Second<BR>"Slow" train: 22.36 First; 14.31 Second

Trust me on this, Dave. The EuroStar price is worth it, especially during the summer.

Just to fill out the comparison, the Eurostar takes 1:35, the Intercity 2:30, and the slow train 3:37.

Also, if you chose Intercity it is better to book a seat. Seat booking in intercity trains requires a 3 euro suplement for each seat. you can access the train also without booking a seat, but in this case you will probably end up travelling standing in a crowded and very hot corridor (corridors do not have air conditioning).<BR>The "common" trains are far less comfortable, have no air condtioning nor (except for Espresso) allow seats booking. Also, they do not have catering, but you should better use no atering on any italian train: it is costly and foul!<BR><BR>In the very end, IMHO, Eurostar is more convenient for this kind of trip.

I'd like to made an observation about the previous posting concerning "common" trains. Last month in Italy, I had occasion to compare second class on the Eurostar with second class on an <BR>"interregionale" train in northern Italy. To my great surprise, I found that the "interregionale" carriage(where seat booking is not possible) had many fewer seats than the Eurostar. The seats were wider (3 across instead of 4 across), had much more leg room, and reclined much more. However, there is no a/c on "interregionale" or "regionale" or "diretto" trains, and they are not as quiet as the Eurostar. They also stop in many more stations than do the Eurostars.

If the seats were light green or blue, you hit a firts class carriage. Interregionale and Regionale trains us old material from a variety of producers. While fist classes can sometimes be that comfortable, often you will find much less comfortable carriages. In particular the two storey carriages that are used for Regionale trains canbe very uncomfortalbe not only because the seats are cramped, but also because both storeis have wery low ceilings. In some other carriages, the seats ace covered in plastic, and in summer the skin adheres to the seat mahing it very uncomfortable. Some other trains have been refurbished to a degree, but the new seats are very narrow, the head rest is crooked, on one side only, and, since they have placed more eats than there used to be on the carriage, one fourth of the seats have poor sight: no more thin a thin slice of the window.

Alice, you are correct. However, sometimes one is fortunate to come upon an interregionale train which has been refurbished or has newer carriages (as described in my previous posting). In my case, I traveled on such a train from Bologna to Trento.

I insist you were most probably on a first class carriage. Besides, you cannot rely on luck when it's up to travelling.

See my message above - I agree, Eurostar is the only option! I was on a couple of intercity trains between Italian cities, it's like being on your way to a concentration camp! Don't do it.

Good advice. fyi, the carriage I was on had the number "2" painted on it near the doors on both sides. There was a "2" also on the door window. This means that I was traveling in second class! Also, the conducter would have asked me to move (or fine me) had I been seated in first class!

Second class carriages are often old first class carraiges "declassificato": declassed and turned into second classes as they have grown too old for first class service and on these kind of trains often enough conductors just ignore people sitting in firs class carriages, as long as there is enough space in the first class for any other traveller that might have a first class ticket. in a sense, the trouble of asking people to move to anoher carriage is not worth it.

I agree with your comment about "hand-me-down" carriages. In my particular case, however, the second class carriage was nearly new and was extremely comfortable. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that it was an "Interregionale" between the Trentino and Emilia Romagna. Trust me, I was seated in second class!!!!!!

THE NEW TRAINS!<BR>i finally understood, it was one of the brand new TAV trains! I have travelled on one of them a couple of times and I find it very uncomfortable (it's the "crooked headrest" train I wrote about in a previous post). I probably tried it only when at its worst: crowded and with air conditioning raging (I felt I was freezing althugh I was wearing a woollen coat on a hot summer day), but I really felt miserable on that train (an my legs did as well, and I am a bare 1 meter and 65 cm)