andreadee

My travel agent suggests we take care of all travel arrangements prior to leaving. I am assuming we will take a train from Venice to florence...any good hints?

What can I expect to spend? I hear we have a fee and then a seat or baggage fee. Prepare me with any info you might offer.

thanks

Peter_S_Aus

Take a look at this web site. Trains go every hour, and cost 42 euro for second class which is fine.

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

You can easily buy tickets from the vending machines (that speak English) at the station.

I would ot book in advance - it is not neccessary and your agent will just mae a mark up.

bookchick

I agree that it's fine to wait until you arrive in Italy to buy the train tickets unless you're planning to travel on a major holiday in which the trains would be crammed--like Christmas Eve or something. It's easy enough to buy tickets once you're there, no worries. If you were to buy here and one of you fell ill or something else happened that caused you to miss the train, you'd be SOL, and Peter's right, your TA just wants the mark-up.

BC

Peter_S_Aus

Travelling by train from Venice.

1. You are travelling from Venice Santa Lucia (V S.L.)
2. If you MUST get a particular train, then it is worth buying the tickets the day prior. Maybe buy them when you arrive if you come by train, otherwise just rock up and buy them. Machines are much faster than standing in line at the ticket window.
3. When you enter the station up the steps, the snack bar is to your right. If you want a coffee, you order it at the cashier, who will give you a ticket. Take ticket to the bar, and ask for your coffee. Ditto if you want a pastry or snack, you’ll get a second ticket to present to the snack counter. There’s pizza available there by the slice, and you pay the pizza guy directly.
4. If you walk past the bar, bearing slightly right, you will encounter a minor miracle for Venice – free toilets. You don’t need to buy a coffee to use them.
5. The vending machines are self explanatory – hit the Union Jack for language, and follow the prompts. The machine will recognise “Florence” as your destination, Firenze also, I guess.
6. When the machine asks you if you have a loyalty card, hit no.
7. Pay by credit card, not cash card, as cash cards are an Italian thing and you won’t have one. You can also feed bank notes into the machine.
8. Take your ticket. You’ll get a single ticket even if two are travelling.
9. Check the departures board. Treno means train number, and it’s shown on your ticket. “Bin” means binari, or platform. Carozza means carriage number, and your ticket will show the seat number. Fenestra for a window seat, Corridor for the aisle seat. Don’t worry about the seat numbers on your ticket being say 47 and 79 – you might think that they are not adjacent seats. I’ve never been able to decipher the seat numbering, it’s a DaVinci code kind of thing, but it does work.
10. Before you board, you stamp your ticket at the yellow machines – size of a shoe box – at the entry to the platform. You can get into trouble if you don’t stamp your ticket, although “Sono Anmericano, piccolo Italiano” can get you out of heaps of difficult spots.
11. There are no additional costs for bags, and a carry on bag will mostly fit in the overhead racks. Trains have a 210 volt outlet at the seat for charging your iPod, Mac or whatever, and travelling by train is great, and totally free of stress. (Or it was a couple of days ago - I'm in Venice right now. It is bucketing rain.)

deedeedee

Peter_S_Aus ... What a wonderful, detailed response you wrote. So helpful for a stress free first time train trip in Venice.

kybourbon

>>>I hear we have a fee and then a seat or baggage fee<<

It's obvious your travel agent doesn't know anything about Italian trains and has never ridden one.

All but the slowest trains in Italy come with a reserved seat included in the ticket price. There isn't a baggage fee, but you are responsible for your own luggage.

It used to be that purchasing online from Trenitalia (which rarely accepts US credit cards), the prices were discounted 5% over walk-up prices. I no longer see this stated on the website, but it may still be the case so you would pay 44€ at a ticket window right before travel instead of 42€.

Scroll down this thread for screen-by-screen pictures of using the ticket machines.

http://www.roninrome.com/%20transpor...a-train-ticket

Mimar

Travel agents in Italy also sell train tickets. If, as you walk around Venice, you see a travel agency with the Trenitalia logo in its window, stop in and buy your ticket then. Almost all travel agents speak English. And this way you avoid those often long lines at the ticket machines.

adail

While buying tickets when you get there is an option, if you book online you can save, if you book ahead. On the Trenitalia website when booking tickets, you have the option to select meno30 or meno15. While these are less flexible with cancellations or changes, you save 30 or 15 % respectively. These work if you book more then 30 or more than 15 days ahead. These are good if your travel plans are set, however if you want more flexibility, then you can pay full price the day you want to travel. Also, I don't know about anyone else, but all the trains from venice to Florence I have found leave from mestre not santa lucia, which require catching an extra train from the island venice train station to the one on the mainland.

Holly_uncasdewar

Actually, most of the trains do leave from Santa Lucia in Venice. If it says VE SL, it leaves from Santa Lucia. If it shows Mestre underneath that in red, it just means Mestre is the first stop from Santa Lucia, meaning you can catch that train in either Santa Lucia station or in Mestre.

sandicran

Listen to the peeps on this site. They KNOW what they are talking about. I just planned my whole 30 day Europe vacation without the travel agent. They will charge you more. Of course if you don't mind handing over your money, that's up to you.

YvonneT

And, one more tip for the Venice train station. When you arrive by train, bear left in front of the train tracks, and you'll find a walkway so you don't have to haul your luggage down the steps. (Reverse for leaving by train, of course.)

The only down side to this is that when you arrive by train, that very first view of Venice as you leave the train station, should make you fall in love, immediately.

When you have tickets with reserved seats, you don't have to validate the tickets. But, if you're like me, you will, anyhow!

CaliNurse

Wow, the details in these replies are AMAZING. Some of you have photographic memories. I'll be doing this train route in June. Thank you all!!

Peter_S_Aus

Nah, it's not not a photographic memory. I caught a train from Venice too Vicenza a few days ago.

This morning, ferry from Chioggia, then the No 11 bus (which went on a ferry at Malomocco) to the Lido, then ferry to Venice (Ca' Rezzonico). The bus ran late by all of two minutes - who says that Italy is chaotic!

Italian trains and buses are so easy to use!

Mimar

Unless there's some new development, the Trenitalia website will not accept US credit cards. So if the OP is from the US and she wants to buy her tickets ahead of time, her options are (1) her travel agent and (2) www.raileurope.com. Both of these options usuallly include some kind of markup.

So the standard advice for Americans is to wait until they get to Italy to buy their train tickets.

layanluvstotravel

What about if us Americans are visiting in July? (I bought all our train tickets in advance online for Spain, it saved us money and was so convenient). It sounds like we can't do that for Italy?

andreadee

You are all amazing. I cannot believe the wealth of info I am getting. Woohoo...thanks. Okay everyone....where should a family of 5 stay in venice? or for that matter?...where should we eat to eat like a local. No touristy junk... the real deal!!!! Any help on these matters? Feel like I need to book accomodations soon. Peter...you are in Venice now....where should i stay. Sorry about your rain..better than what we have...3 inches of snow fell today. ugh! Wish i was in Venice eating a big dish of pasta...

Peter_S_Aus

Andrea, we stay in Dorsoduro in Venice, about fifteen minutes on foot from San Marco and fifteen from the Rialto. Google maps will find us – enter 2878 Calle Lunga San Barnaba Venice into the map search and our location will come up. This is our second time staying here, third time to Venice. First time we stayed at the Al Moro, very close to San Marco, and it was in December. I think that in June it would be horribly crowded.

The apartment selected itself after a heap of internet searching, and we did not really know Dorsoduro when we selected it. I guess we chose on the basis of price, and also the “feel” of the owner’s web site, and it has worked well for us. At the moment we are three staying here (Me, my wife and my mother in law) and it’s OK. MIL is on the sofa bed, which we fold up during the day, and so it is spacious enough. An apartment for five is something else, but they do exist. You might start a topic on Fodors titled “Looking for an apartment for 5 in Venice” and I think that something might come up. Or maybe negotiate with the owner of where we are right now – there are three apartments in the group, and something might be possible. Contact via : http://realvenicevacationflats.com/ - the owner lives in San Francisco.



You can eat well in Venice, despite comments to the contrary. We’ve eaten at La Bitta a few times (Calle Lunga San Barnaba), most recently a week ago. We were three, and a large shared artichoke salad, goose legs times three, bottle of house red wine, bread, cover etc came to 89 euro, and it was very good. They don’t serve fish, and don’t take credit cards – lots of places in Venice don’t take credit cards.

I think that Venice is good for kids – it’s safe, easy to get around, and a lot to see besides the big ticket sights. You see quite young children – aged five and six – getting around by themselves. I did a treasure hunt for kids – it’s here:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-teenagers.cfm