Trains in Italy
 

My husband and I will be taki8ng the train (with luggage) from Venice to Florence and then a few days later the train from Florence to Rome,. Is it necessary to purchase a first class ticket? What is the difference between first and second class?

We drove from Venice to Tuscany and then dropped our rental car in Florence after a week in Tuscany. We took the train to Rome. If we had to do it over we would take the train from Venice to Florence and rent our car there instead of driving. That is because of our experience on the Rome bound train. We booked our ticket before the trip, just regular class. The train left exactly on time and arrived in Rome exactly on time. We were able to store our bags in the Florence Train Station for half a day. The second class seats were just fine, not special but not bad at all especially since it was not a long ride. The only difficulty was it was a little awkward getting our bags on and off the train but not impossible. The lighter you travel the easier it will be. The train station in Venice is very easy to get to....there is a boat stop right in front.

2nd class is fine; no need to spend money on 1st class IMHO. I think the seats are roomier in 1st class (fewer people in each carriage).

2nd class is more like business class in the airlines. 2nd is four across, 2x2 and first is 2x1. Even on long trips we find 2nd class to be fine.

Here are some pictures of 1st and 2nd class. The faster trains on these routes are the AV/ES trains. 1st has three seats across and 2nd has four. I doubt you will want to take the slower IC trains, but there are pictures of those also. 2nd class is fine and you can slide your luggage in behind your seat because of the way the seats angle. There is also storage overhead and at the end of the car.
http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.h...0trains%20like

Is there more than one train station in Venice? Which one do we want. We are staying at the Westin Europa and Regina

There is a station on the mainland called Venice Mestre, and one right at the city of Venice called Venice Santa Lucia (SL).

You want Venice SL. If the train you want to take only goes to Venice Mestre fear not. There are shuttle trains about every 10min for the 10min ride between the 2 stations.

Hi d,

>Is it necessary to purchase a first class ticket? What is the difference between first and second class?

No
Seats in 1 cl are a little wider and there are fewer people.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

Whether it is necessary to purchase 1st class or not is not necessarily a simple yes or no. It depends on what you value, how much you value them, and when you travel.

I have been on these trains so empty it really did not matter which class I booked. I could have taken four or more seats.

I have also been on these trains between Florence and Rome when the trains were fully booked that they ran out of the luggage space in the 2nd class, and the luggage blocked the aisle. The 1st class had overhead space left.

>>>>when the trains were fully booked that they ran out of the luggage space in the 2nd class<<<<

Without knowing the type of train or year, it would be hard to say whether this would still apply. It used to be you could ride many of the Italian trains without a reserved seat so many trains were quite crowded. That changed about 1 1/2 years ago. I've been on full AV/ES trains, but there was still plenty of room for luggage. Most people don't realize there is space behind their seats. If you scroll down on my link above to the ESCity trains, it shows the area behind the seats a bit better. Notice the two brown seats on the left and the space behind them.

It also depends which car you book as some have more luggage areas than others. This is info for one of the AV/ES trains between Rome/Venice.

ETR 600
Frecciargento is a train with a fixed structure ( 2 first class carriages; 1 special carriage) and is provided with air conditioning and all seats have sockets for pc and other devices.

In 1st class in the carriage n°1 44 seats, 3 luggage spaces 1 toilette; 1 lounge area and 1 LCD touch screen monitor. In the carriage n°2: 56 seats; .2 luggage spaces; 2 toilettes.

In 2nd class in the carriage n°3: 24 seats; 1 toilette equipped, 2 seats for disables and 1 ramp for disabled passengers; 1 area coffee shop/food lounge.

In the carriages 4-5-6: 80 seats; 4 luggage spaces ; 1 Toilette; 1 LCD touch screen monitor.

In the carriage n° 7: 66 seats; 2 lugagge spaces; 1 Toilette; 1 LCD touch screen monitor.

Using the trentitalia.com site. It offers a flessible fare, base fare, and mini fare. Now I am totally confused!

A flessible fare is more flexible in terms of changing or cancelling your reservation than base or mini. Mini is of course the less flexible option. A flessible ticket will give you a full refund if cancelled before the train's departure while the other two will give you a reduced refund, mini is perhaps not refundable at all. I am not aware of the exact rules and regulations but detailed information is available in Englis at trenitalia.com

May want to do a search on this forum for "train" and "GAC" ..... a couple informative threads were recently posted by GAC about train travel in Italy.

The flexible fare is like a full fare airline ticket. You can change your ticket (multiple times) or cancel it (before departure) for a refund. You pay 25% extra for this ticket.

The base fare is the standard fare. You can change it once and if you want a refund, you are dinged 20%.

Mini-fare is a sale fare and has more restrictions.

You can read the details about each fare by clicking more info beside the train/fare choice on Trenitalia.

Thank you everyone. I purchased the tickets yesterday. Now all tickets, tour guides, museum entrances, etc. are booked and I am looking forward to getting on the plane in a few weeks.
Now I am trying to get ideas for restaurants in each city (florence, venice, and rome. We are interested in local type restaurants, not fancy ones.

How safe is it to leave two suitcases on the racks at the end of a first class car? Would it be wise to use a cable to lock them?
We will be travelling from Mestre to Verona by ES, so I am guessing there will be two stops.

In my opinion locks are overkill.

If you are concerned about your bags you can get up twice during trip to keep an eye on your bags at the intermediate stops.

GAC wrote a great article on the differences between 1st and 2nd class trains. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/1st-or-2nd

He also had insights detailed in this article about the MINI tickets: http://tinyurl.com/MINI-fare

Definitly travel as lightly as possible. dont bother with 1st class. 2nd class is grand. check out http://www.trenitalia.com/ for really good cheap fares.

Definitly travel as lightly as possible. dont bother with 1st class. 2nd class is grand. check out http://www.trenitalia.com/ for really good cheap fares.