Saver Rail Pass

My wife and I will be in Italy for a month, taking a graduate Art History class based in Florence. Our plan was to take a couple of side trips to places not on the class itinerary (Milan, Pompeii). I'd looked on Rick's rail section to guess-timate ticket prices and was thinking of buying a 2nd-class saver pass for 3-4 days; based on his numbers it could save us a couple hundred bucks.

Selectpass - you select ANY specific days you wish to travel within the 2 month period.

Russ, he said "Saver", not Select. A Saver pass is one you buy with one or more other persons for less per person than for an individual pass. They can be " Continuous" for, for instance, 15 consecutive days, or " Flexi", for, for instance, 10 random days in 2 months. A Select pass is for only 3-5 countries instead of all countries ( Global pass). Select passes are always Flexi. Read the Railpasses section (index top of page).

Saverpass saves you money for the reason that you and the companion(s) are traveling together with the one ticket (that covers up to five people). Just a nice gesture on their part really. It's different than ordering individual passes for each traveler. Global vs. Select are different options that affect what days you can travel, as opposed to who can travel.

Thanks for the responses so far. Let me see if've got this straight...when you buy a Saver Pass, you choose whether you want it to be consecutive or flexi?

Actually, that's a bit backwards. You pick a select pass or a global pass - THEN you decide on the regular or the saver version. You want a flexipass, not a global pass, right? So go to the select pass page; the saver version will be listed there: http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/select.htm

What I'm looking at is a single-country pass (I now realize this is a piece of information I should have mentioned initially...) not a multi-country pass.

Single country passes are issued by the country, not Eurail, and vary greatly by country. Some countries issue 2nd class rail passes. In Germany, you don't have consecutive day passes, and instead of a saver, you have "twin" passes, for two people traveling together in either 1st or 2nd class. Three, five, or seven people are out of luck.

Chris, You say you want single country passes. Which country? And what is your itinerary? Booked online well in advance, point-to-point discount fare tickets can be much cheaper than a railpass.

While in Florence, you can easily go online or to the station and possibly get mini-fares for the high-speed trains to Rome and Naples. The fares are about 1/2 prices. I'm looking one month out right now and they are still available. Note that the pass will not be good on the Circumvesuviana train from Naples to Pompei. Nota that a pass will be more expensive for the person who takes the time experiment and learn how to get your tickets online from Trenitalia. Also, a pass is not as convenient as you are led to believe. True, you can pick and choose your times of departure but, you just can't hop on the high-speeds and take a seat. For the high-speeds, you must pay a 10E supplement fee for each high-speed you are on. That means that you either make your reservation online or you stop at the ticket station to buy it. Most trains between Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice are high-speeds.

Chris - if you are going to be there for a month and only want to travel 3 or 4 days, then do as the locals and many tourists do - just buy your 2nd class point-to-point tickets at the train station or from a travel agency in the city your are staying in. You can do this on the day of travel or anytime before (at whatever point you know when you want to travel). Train tickets in Italy, especially in second class are very cheap. Absolutely no reason to try to get them way in advance, from this side of the pond.