Rail travel in italy?

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ageingcynic

I agree that the trenitalia site is the best one to use (the first link I have given you below takes you to their English language page). You can book online and then pick up your tickets from a machine when you get there, or you can just turn up at the station and buy them (I have done both in the past). Two things to remember if you are booking online - some of the very small stations don't have automated machines to pick up tickets from, and you may have to warn your credit card company in advance (the first time I tried it my transaction was blocked as I hadn't warned the bank I was going to use an Italian website!).
Travelling by train in Italy is a really good way to get about. I have given you a link to another site as well, which is a good one to use if you want to get to Italy by train in the first place.
Make sure you validate your tickets before you get onto the train each time (there is a yellow machine on the platforms for this purpose) - the tickets are not valid until you have done so and you could be fined otherwise.

gabrielalaura74

www.trenitalia.com

conley39

Anna is right. The best source for trains here in Italy is the Italian train website. There's a link to the English language version here: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD . Unless you do a LOT of travel sticking to the slower regional trains, you'll be better off buying point-to-point tickets rather than a railpass. Usually, you can just buy tickets on the day of travel without a problem. One exception is during the Easter period when there's heavy travel. On the faster trains like the Intercity and Eurostar, there's a discounted fare available (called the Amica fare). You need to buy the ticket at least a day in advance.

Tickets bought through an agent like raileurope will be more expensive than just buying the ticket here. The train system is pretty easy to use.

mmciaffa

http://www.hotelfelice.com

Anna M

Best to go straight to www.trenitalia.it. There's an English option at the top of the screen (inglese). I never trust the middleman companies, whether that's justified or not. In any case, it's perfectly easy to travel around Italy, the Automatic Ticket Machines are a breeze to use with their English instructions, and there's no price penalty for buying your tickets at the station itself, while buying them online means risking your reservation getting lost or never getting made, which has certainly happened to me.

IAN D

www.raileurope.com

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