Traveling by Train
 

We are going to Italy for the first time and wanted to know what is the best way to schedule our travels by train. We are going from Cinque Terre to Florence,then on to Sienne then Todi and on to Rome. Any help is appreciated

Hop on the Trenitalia website, www.trenitalia.com. From CT to Florence you can stop in Pisa to see the tower. You can reserve ahead of time to climb the tower. Where are you starting from? Are you staying in Sienna? It might be easier to take the bus to Siena from Florence, as the train station is outside the town (I think). The bus we took let us out right in the middle of Siena, about a 10 minute walk to the historic centre. I'm not sure where Todi is. The trenitilia website is pretty good. I usually print the schedules before we leave, and that way I have an idea of the train times. Have fun!

Do yourself a favor and schedule your train travel & seat assignments where possible ahead of time. It is really a pain not to have a seat assignment where in you can place your bags overhead.

During several train trips I had only one seat reserved and, for the rest, had to keep my bags inbetween the train car connections always keeping an eye on them.

Also, keep your baggage to a minimum - such as, backpack and small roller. Nobody seems to tell you this. As one lady said on my train, if you can't run with it, don't take it!! Good advice.

Ditto Nancy! The reservations and lite luggage are great advice.

I did all of my "planning" on http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en since it seemed to have ALL trains in Europe while some sites only show a portion. Then I ordered passes and tickets and reservations through a railpass site. It was more expensive, but was a pleasure not to have to worry--especially on a few crowded trains.

Todi is in central Umbria but NOT on a main FS rail line. Rather, it is located on a secondary or even "thirdendary" (tertiary?) line that runs between Sansepolcro, Perugia, and Terni. Logistically getting from Siena to Todi by train is going to be a royal pain in the ____ because of the 4 changes of trains you will have to make -- such as Siena-Chiusi-Orte-Terni-Todi or Siena-Florence-Terontola-Perugia-Todi. A quick check of trenitalia.com shows this ordeal taking 4 hours or more.

I would schedule Siena in between Florence and CT. The train connections between CT and Siena, and separately Florence to Todi, are much better (less worse) than Siena to Todi directly. If you have to go to Florence before Siena, I recommend renting a car one-way from Siena to Todi and driving instead.

In any event, get VERY familiar with the www.trenitalia.com website.

No Italian, no idea , never traveled on trains before but it is like riding a bike once you walk in buy the 1st ticket the rest is easy. If you are Estar which is fantastic seats are reserved the rest take a chance but go to the furtherest logical place the engine end will stop. It seems an Italian thing to wait for rear carrages or not to get to far up the platform. We always found luggage space,took along some cheese and bread and a bottle of red wine (or Bombay Saphire)to pas the time away. If you are lucky and have a long trip where you can offer a taste to a needy traveller all sorts of interesting conversations and advantages ensue.We were going to pick up a rental car but stuck with trains and burnt all the miles between major Cities in peace before taking ti=o the highways.