alexwill

I am going to Italy in February. I went to the official website, http://www.trenitalia.com ,
and checked a few fares. I typed in a variety of dates for Rome to Ravenna. The fare was like 65 euro. I tried a variety of dates in December and January. and still none of the "mini" fares came up. How do I find the reduced fare tickets? When are the special fares loaded?
When I was in France last February, the advance train tickets were ridiculously cheap.

For fun, I booked a rental car for two weeks from the airport in Rome, and it was only $200.00 a week!!!!

If a car is only $200 a week and two train tickets are 130 Euro, why would I take the train? I know about gas prices and tolls...but still......

Thanks!!

Alex

kybourbon

Trenitalia is still updating fares which change around the second week of December. I don't imagine all fares will be loaded until early Dec. Also, mini fares are only for the fast trains (AV,ES,ESCity,IC) so you need to enter Rome/Bologna to get a mini fare. The Bologna/Varenna leg is on an R train and doesn't have mini fares.

I imagine there are some good deals on car rentals off season. Does the $200 include the mandatory insurance? If not, insurance might double the price. Add $ for the required IPD also and then you have to factor in parking fees. You aren't allowed to drive in the center of many cities in Italy so you will have to park on the perimeters and taxi/bus/train to the centers. Overnight parking can run at least 30€ per night.

alexwill

Thanks for a speedy first reply.....and thanks for telling me about the ZTLs. I see there is a lot chatter about them on various websites.

The $400 includes the mandatory CDW and theft insurance or so they say.

I'd be keeping the car out of the big cities; however, in a smaller town like Padua, Ravenna or perhaps Vicenza how far does the ZTL extend? Would I be walking several miles? Thanks!!

Ackislander

Padua is the easiest to stay out of ZTLs because it is a business city with an historic district.

I am waiting for a ticket from Vicenza because I stayed in the right lane when I should have gone left for parking (no warning) and wound up driving directly into a pedestrian zone that took some time to get out of.

In Ravenna, you are fine as long as you park in the big lot near the tomb of Galla Placida. It os easy to get into and out of the city from there, and it is within easy walking distance of the Centro Historico. The center of the city between the Duomo and the station is very difficult owing to ZTLs and one-way streets. To get from one side of town to the other to go to St Appolinare in Classe, I had to go out to a kind of peripheral highway and bypass the center of the city -- after much frustration and driving into various dead ends. Others may do better.

kybourbon

You can use mappy.com or via Michelin to determine routes and tolls. You have to get the IDP in the US at AAA.

Even small hill towns have ZTL as do big cities like Rome so you need learn the road signs and not cross in. Small towns usually don't have cameras to snap your license plate though.

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr2.htm

There are also traffic cameras on highways to catch speeders. If everyone seems to be slowing down for no reason, do not speed around as it's likely they know the camera location (some are signed in advance, some aren't).
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/drivin...s_speeding.htm

ZTL info.
http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...ions_italy.htm

Don't expect your credit card to work for tolls or gas pumps if you are from the US as our credit cards are not the chip/pin system.

PalenQ

why take the train cause if going to cities cars are useless and liabilities in many ways - lots of Rome and Florence and obviously Venice are off-limits to private vehicles. And if train prices are high with just a few trips the the Italy Railpass can make them more economical - if traveling more than a few times that is. And as always my decades of train traveling in Italy dictate that i highly encourage the average traveler on the trip of a lifetime to pay the extra and go first class - in many ways IME a much more leisurely ride, especially for folks hauling luggage around.

Great sites for lots about Italian trains - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. I would normally also add www.seat61.com but that sites info on Italian Railpasses and their cost effectiveness has seriously misinformation at least as Man in Seat 61 has posted several times here - comparing the cost of a Eurailpass and not an Italy Railpass to individual fares - the Italy Railpass is much much cheaper per day than the multi-country Eurailpass.

PalenQ

Don't expect your credit card to work for tolls or gas pumps if you are from the US as our credit cards are not the chip/pin system.>

But at gas stations you can always have a clerk do it manually - not sure about toll roads doing this. the chip is only for machines.

PalenQ

and my recent experience with American credit cards used in train station ticket vending machines a similar no go and thus either have to pile cash into the machines or trek thru oft long lines at ticket counters.

Chase apparently is making a British Airways credit card with the required chip in it as they have had so many complaints about c cards not working in European machines.