Italy09

A group of us (6) will be traveling in May from Venice to Florence then Florence to Rome, then taking the train in Rome to the airport in Rome. I believe I have heard that it is necessary to make reservations, which is fine; however, my question is, while we are in Florence we are planning day trips to Assisi and Pisa (on two different days of course), do I need to make reservations or can we just hop on?

Thanks
CN

LoveItaly

Hi Italy09, you can buy all of your train tickets for your different trips from the Santa Lucia train station in Venice.

Italy09

Thank you LoveItaly for your response, but I believe we'll be purchasing our boarding passes before hand, but my question was about reservations. I hear that they are necessary, but I was wondering if they were necessary for the day trips as well, like I said, we're going to Pisa and to Assisi.

kybourbon

Some of the trains don't have reservations, especially on the Florence/Pisa route. It depends on the type of train. AV, ES, ICPlus (the faster trains with few stops) all require seat reservations which is included in the ticket price on Trenitalia (not included in the prices on such sites as RailEurope or other resellers - you will have to pay extra). R, IR, D trains (the slower trains with more stops) do not require seat reservations and for most aren't even available to buy. That means even with a ticket you may or may not have somewhere to sit on these trains. Look at the schedules on www.trenitalia.com - enter a date within the next 7 days if you want to price routes.

ira

Hi IT,

>...I believe we'll be purchasing our boarding passes before hand....<

Do you mean that you will buy your tickets in advance, but are concerned about seat reservations?

Are you thinking of buying railpasses - if so don't.

The ES* trains from Venice to Florence to Rome are reserved seat only. There are no separate seat reservations, unless you have a railpass. Don't buy a railpass.

Schedules and prices are at www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html.
1 cl Amica fares Venice/Florence/Rome are 80E pp.

The trains to Assisi and Pisa are locals. No reservations required.

As LoveItaly says, buy all of your tickets in Venice.

<b>Don't get railpasses</b>.

ellenem

I assume you arrive in Venice and will be there a few days before you head to Florence. Buy all your tickets when you first get to Venice. When you buy your ticket for any AV, ES, ICPlus (faster) train, your ticket will be for a specific train on a specific day and time and have the number of your reserved seat printed on it -- no extra purchase. The tickets come with reservations, but unless you are traveling on a holiday or Friday afternoon, you should have no problem if you wait until you arrive to buy tickets -- yours are popular routes with frequent trains.

For your daytrips, you will be on slower regional trains (R, IR, D) on which you can't reserve seats. You just buy a ticket from X to Y and get on any of that same type of train on any day or time--and then search for a seat.

DalaiLlama

To clarify:

When you walk up and buy a ticket for a fast train like the Eurostar ES*, your ticket price includes the cost of the mandatory seat reservation, and the carriage number and the seat number are printed on the ticket.

(Railpasses only buy basic transportation, if you had one and if you then were to choose a ride on a train that requires reserved sats, then you would have to go and stand in line and buy and pay extra for that seat reservation - but in Italy for your plans a pass makes no sense on any level).

As stated earlier - the regional and local trains do not require seat reservations, there you buy a ticket and hop on any train and sit anywhere in the class you bought (but validate the ticket on the way to the platform by sticking it into the yellow box you'll see near the platform access= DO NOT FORGET).

So - how do you know which trains require the reserved seats that lock you into taking the assigned train at the assigned time?

When you're on the www.ferroviedellostato.it site, after you bring up some trains with the intial screen, click on the Details link on the right. If on the right you then see a capital letter R inside a little box (next to the 1 & 2 for first and second class etc.), then that train comes with mandatory seat reservations. Simple as that.

If the letter R has no little box around it, then you may reserve a seat if you wish. A good idea for peak travel times, of course, but not usually necessary otherwise.

If there is no such letter R, then you couldn't reserve a seat even if you tried.

Most Pisa trains from Florence for example require no reservations (an ICPlus trains runs on that route, at 7:51AM, and it does require reservations). Assisi can be similar - there are a couple of ICPlus trains that require reservations, but mostly it's slower trains that do not.

Anyway, when in doubt, look it up, now you know how.

For your plans it only makes sense to buy the tickets on arrival, at the Venice train stations or in town when you see a travel agency displaying the FS sign, for the fast Venice-to-Florence and Florence-to-Rome trips so you can sit together. Look them up so you know which train you want to ask for.

The others, buy them when you're ready to make the trip and hop on.

Palenque

I echo Ira's advise that an Italian Railpass would be a big waste of money for those two trips - esp since even with a pass you must pay 15-25 euros extra to ride the fastest trains which you will have to practically between Venice and Florence and Florence and Rome.

I found the automatic ticketing machines in stations idiot-proof (i could easily use them) and in a matter of a few minutes you can print out your own tickets) - avoid long lines at ticket windows by using the machines IMO

Italy09

Cool...thanks everyone for your posts and advice.

jgliu

Italy09 - sorry in advance for tagging along your thread. I am in the same situation, except for the reverse. I'll be arriving in Rome, then traveling to Florence, Bellagio, then Venice.

I have 7 tickets to purchase:
1. Rome to Naples (for a day trip to Pompeii)
2. Naples to Rome
3. Rome to Florence
4. Florence to Milan (has to connect to Milan to get to Bellagio)
5. Milan to Veranna (to get to Bellagio)
6. Veranna to Milan (has to connect to Milan to get to Venice)
7. Milan to Venice

Having said that, is it worth it to purchase the ItalyRailPass for all these trips?

Thanks in advance everyone!

ellenem

jgliu,

Varenna is the actual spelling of the town you want on Lake Como, and the stop is actually called Varenna-Esino.

No--a pass still won't be worth it for you. For 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, you will probably want to take faster trains (ES or ICplus). To take any of those trains with a pass, you would have to stand in line and purchase a seat reservation since those trains are reserved seats only. Each reservation will cost an additional €20 or so. So add €100 to the price of your pass.

You can check you full itinerary at Railsaver.com--be sure to click "Only if it saves me money"---but I think you'll see that it is still cheaper to buy point-to-point tickets.

kybourbon

jgliu - Your train tickets, if purchased from Trenitalia, will cost about $325 1st cl or $240 2nd cl for all your rail travel and includes seat reservations. A Saver railpass (assuming there are at least two of you so you qualify for this pass) for 4 days is $232 1st cl and $188 2nd cl. That doesn't include seat reservations which you are required to have on the faster trains. Five seat reservations would add at least another $100 to the cost of each railpass.

It's also possible to get a few discounts. Trenitalia is offering a 35% discount for same day round trip which you could use for Rome/Naples. You also might be able to get 20% off for Rome/Florence, Florence/Milan, Milan/Venice if Amica fares are still available. Don't try to book Florence/Varenna and Varenna/Venice on one ticket or it will kick out the discount option since the train between Milan and Varenna is a slow train and doesn't qualify.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD

jgliu

Ellenem - thank you for the correction. Good thing you pointed it out or else I would be elsewhere Thank you for the website too - will check it out now.

Kybourbon - thank you for researching the costs. That was exactly I needed (cost comparison). Thanks for the tips on discounted same day round trip tickets. Seems like I'll have to wait to get there to get the tickets and be hopeful for discounted tickets.

jgliu

Ellenem and Kybourbon - one more question - what is the big difference between 1st class and 2nd class? we are thinking of purchasing 2nd class but just curious what does 1st class have to offer?

ira

Hi jg,

1 cl seats are wider, and there are fewer of them.

We always go 2cl, especially on the high speed trains, for trips under 4 hr.

kybourbon

1st cl
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms-file/v...0_1aclasse.mov

2nd cl - This isn't a very good picture, but 2nd cl has 2 seats on each side of the aisle where 1st has 2 and 1. Both will have tables for most seats. There are 1 or 2 seats at the end of some cars that have a flip-down tray instead of tables.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms-file/v...0_2aclasse.mov

Rome/Naples and Rome/Florence are only 90 minutes travel time. 2nd cl is fine (more room than coach on an airline). The Circumvesuviana for Naples/Pompeii doesn't have class or seats you can reserve. Milan/Varenna might not either.

ellenem

I found 2nd class perfectly comfortable, slightly more comfortable than airline coach seats. I prefer to take a faster train, which costs more than a slower train, but sit in 2nd class. 2nd class on a faster train costs about the same as 1st class on a slower train.

8888mom

Ciao
ok more confused
we are a family of 5 and just ordered thru an agent in Ca. family saver train tickets for Italy
Looking at our schedule we want all ES trains
According to information here...We need to now book reservations for our legs/rom/naples/florence/venice/rom
How do we do this?

If I can cancel our family saver 2nd class tickets...Am I able to purchuse ES tickets in the states that as others have said already include our reservation
thanks so much for HHHEEELLLPPP! Kathy

jgliu

Ira, Kybourbon and Ellenem - thank you for the tips. 2nd class it is! I'm so excited.. 24 days to go..

8888mom

kybourbon

you seem to be a wealth of knowledge
are you able to advise what to do with our family saver train tickets mentioned above

thanks 8888mom