Train travel on/near Ferragusto in Italy
 

I will be traveling in Italy next month close to Ferragusto. I will be going from Rome to Levico on either the 13th or 14th. Will all trains be running? My understanding is it is a small commuter train that travels to Levico from Trento. Can that be expected to be in use?

Can someone tell me if the trains will be crowded or possibly sold out? I do not know exactly what date and time I will need to travel yet. I looked on the train service website and saw I could buy a ticket online. But how would I get the ticket itself? How does all that work?

Any advice is helpful! Thank you.

That's a long trek from Rome (about 6 hours). Trains will be running although there might be some holiday schedules.

Bus service from Trento to Levico seems more frequent than the train and travel time is the same.

http://www.ttesercizio.it/

>>>Can someone tell me if the trains will be crowded or possibly sold out?<<<

It's likely you would want to take the fast train to Trento which departs Rome at 8:15. Fast trains are reserved seating only so it's possible it could sell out since it's holiday time in Italy. There's also one that departs at 10:15.

Another option is to take a fast train to Padova and change there for a train to Levico.

The R trains that serve Levico do not sell out. No reserved seating, no discounts, no amenities on these trains (often only one class). R train tickets must be validated before boarding.

On Trenitalia, you can buy your ticket for your fast train 120 days in advance. Often there are discounts available. These tickets are train/seat specific. You will get an e-mail PNR you print at home to show for your ticket.

R tickets can only be bought online 7 days in advance and have more restrictions than purchased at the station. I would not buy the R ticket in advance.

This link is a couple of years old, but most of the info is still accurate. It tells you how to register on Trenitalia, buy your ticket, etc. and shows screen-by-screen pics of the process. Trenitalia has updated their site a bit since the pics, but will still be similar. Don't click the links, just keep scrolling down to the part about registering.

http://www.roninrome.com/transportat...ebsite-updated

Excellent. Thank you for all the info!

At Ferragosto, nearly everybody in Italy is on the move, and they are especially interested in looking for cooler resorts.

If you don't mind standing in an overcrowded train, or having the risk of being sold out, then it's no problem not to book all your tickets in advance. I wouldn't want to take those chances.

You can actually get less biased information using the Man in Seat 61 website and checking out ItaliaRail. It is unfortunate, but some people on Fodor's seem to have a bias against the Man in Seat 61, and direct people to using out of date websites, or advise them not to book all their tickets in advance even in the most crowded travel season in Italy. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it's unfortunate.

http://www.seat61.com/

http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

http://www.italiarail.com/

>>>You can actually get less biased information using the Man in Seat 61 website and checking out ItaliaRail.<<<

Explain how a commercial website (not the official Italian train company) that runs ads for other websites (Italiarail) is less biased than the actual official websites?

Man in Seat 61 has a lot of useful info on his website. Roninrome's website was the first to post very helpful screen-by-screen instructions to purchase (several years ago).

Neither of the sites stevewith linked are the actual Italian rail company, Trenitalia. You can book directly with Trenitalia without going through a middleman and paying a fee.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD