Changing trains???

I bought all my train tickets once I got to Italy, usually the day before the trip. It was a snap and seats were easily available (I always bought from an agent, afraid I would have a problem with the machines). The train information in the stations is good, easy to find the right platform. And if you are on the correct one, you will be on the correct train. I got along in English everywhere. The most important thing to remember is to validate your tickets at the little yellow machines (they are in the stations and on the platforms) before you board.

In Venice, I went specially to the train station the night before going to Florence, to buy the ticket, using my vaporetto pass. It was worth it just to ride the Grand Canal up and back at night, while listening to Rick Steves' audio guide! As a bonus, I had time to suss out the station and find the way in without having to drag my suitcase up the front staircase.

Just use Trenitalia to decide which trains you want.

PS - There are lots of trains daily between Florence and Rome without changing. You won't have a problem.

Jill, don't worry. The high-speed Eurostars run about every 40 minutes between Venice and Florence. The are not non-stops, however. These trains will stop at Venice-Mestre, Padua and Bologna on the way. No train changes. For Florence to Rome, there are 53 trains a day departing Florence. Many are high-speed non-stops.

Chani's suggestion is very good. Use www.trenitalia.com to plan your journeys. Write down the train runs you want. Include date, departure station, destination and time. Use the electronic ticket machines in the station. They will make the seat assignments for you if you can't. If you use the ticket window, give your paper with your travel info to the agent. English is often a third language there so having it written down will help. Note that in Venice, Trenitalia has a separate office across from the tabacchi shop to assist with your travel planning. They don't sell tickets but they will print out itineraries that you can give to the ticket agent.

Venice, Florence and Rome have big electronic sign boards that show which train is departing on which track. You won't have trouble finding your train or track. Just remember, your train to Florence will say Firenze. Your train for Rome will say Roma.

Note that you can buy your Florence/Rome tickets when you first arrive in Venice. If you buy early on the electronic ticket machine, you can try for some of the nice discounts offered by Trenitalia. There's a new one for the Eurostars that you have to buy at least 7 days before travel.

I never had trouble with the machines in Italy. I second the suggestion to go the day before when you aren't stressed and in a hurry. Going the day before will help but it's hard to make yourself take a couple of hours time out of your sightseeing on your last day to do it (sometimes the stations aren't close to the sightseeing areas) but it is worth it for peace of mind.

You can buy all your tickets at once but you don't always know WHEN you want to leave until closer to time.

Another suggestion, which you may know but it took me a while, is to see what the end city is because that is how all the signs will be posted. If the route goes past the city you want to stop at, it won't say your city, it'll say the last city. All the stations had signs showing all the stops--just look at the last city/town.

Give yourself plenty of time. Most stations have lots of stairs you have to go down and back up. Some do have elevators but they aren't always clearly marked and sometimes they are for handicapped only. My friend had a bad hip so I always looked for them. It sure helps when pulling all your luggage--that's when we were really glad we did COO.

I found what caused me the most stress was getting to/from stations and to/from hotels on travel days. Most travel books just say take a certain bus or use a certain metro stop, making it sound like they would be clearly visible. Many times, they were not at all. Next time, I'll have specific directions and maps.

A little Italian would help but you can easily purchase point to point tickets from the self service machines which gives you an English option. Since your ticket will be in Italian here are a few words to know and understand....I'm looking at my Trenitala ticket that I bought in Venice for travel to Florence or Venezia S. Lucia (Venice, Santa Lucia train station) Firenze S.M.N. (Florence, Santa Maria Novella train station)

Treno 9467 = train 9467
Carrozza 009 = car 9
Posti 21 = seat 21

Tariffa Standard Eurostar = bascially translates to 2nd class ticket

If you know your travel schedule you can purchase all of your tickets when you buy your first one or at the very least your return ticket.

Each train car is numbered outside the car so as you walk down the tracks look for your car number, board the train, find your seat and if you can fit your luggage in the compartment above do so, otherwise use the luggage storage that is provided.

Also remember dates in europe are day/month/year Not month first like here in the states.

Lastly check out www.roninrome.com I believe he has a very simple and excellent explanation of train travel in Italy.

Safe Travels

Relax and have a wonderful time. I make lists of things to worry about, and can promise that train travel is a snap. Great advice from other posters. As a habitual worrier I always would double check with locals before boarding. High school aged kids always spoke enough English to help us and were happy to do so. ( I think everyone does, really..often better than they think). The only Italian you may really need is the city name, which you mispronounce while pointing to a train or a platform while mangaging a smiling yet imploring face. And know where your train terminates. The train you want for Padova may be posted for Venezia.

It is normal to be a little nervous using the trains for the first time, but it is not a difficult system to which to get accustomed.

(1) Buy your tickets BEFORE the day you travel, to ease the stress. I second the suggestions above to print the itineraries that you want, using the trenitalia website, and show it to the agent

(2) note that the train boards will only list the final destination, not the towns in between . So for example when going from Venice to Florence, you are actually boarding a train heading to Rome. To be sure you are on the right train, check for the train number on your ticket (example, ES 9647). This train number will be on your platform together with the final destination of the train

(3) Boarding the Eurostar train from Venice to Florence, you are at the start of the service so get on the train a good 20 minutes early and place your bags and find your sears in peace. All of the ES seats are 4x4 facing each other so there is a lot of space to put your bags between seats - I never have the strength to hoist luggage to the compartments overhead. But getting there early means that you can do this with a lot of free space at your disposal.

(4) Boarding the train in Florence, to go to Rome, you are meeting the train en route. So, a good tip is that the platform will have the approximate area to wait in depending on the carriage you are in. The ES trains on this route are very very long, so if you wait at the top for the train to pull in, and THEN make your way to your carriage, you will be dealing with loads of people doing the same thing. To ease the pressure, you can follow the signs to wait in the general area of where your carriage will stop, and then also take immediate advantage of the vacated luggage space of the people who depart the train at this stop.

Enjoy your journey!

One more little detail that hasn't been mentioned - validate your tickets. You'll see yellow boxes at the stations that are like boxes for timecards. Validate your ticket(s) for your journey before boarding; if they check and you haven't there can be a fine. Some people cheat and buy a ticket from A to B on a regional train; that ticket is good on any day until it's validated so they try to catch these people.

You can validate all the ones if you're changing trains at the starting station; that way you don't have to bother finding a box at the change station(s).

It may be pointed out that some tickets don't need to be validated. This is true, but nobody is going to complain if you've validated a ticket that didn't need to be, but you can be fined if you fail to validate one that should. So I play it safe and just validate them on any train I take.

Ciao Jill!

You've got some great advice... Here's a link that has some pictures and explanations of the "departure" boards that may help you when making connections. CLICK HERE

Trenitalia just took my Cap One MC with no problem. Normally I wouldn't bother buying tickets ahead of time but this was the Venice Rome overnight.

I just returned from my trip to Europe, the last few days of which I spent in Italy. Is it that you will be spending some time in Florence before going to Rome? Or will you be going from Venice to Rome? I ask because there is a direct train from Venice to Rome. Another thing when buying train tickets is to bear in mind the time you will have to connect. I had 13 minutes to connect in Florence to a train going to Pisa, but our train arrived in Florence late and we missed the train. Luckily with the tickets for the regional train we could hop on the next one.

The train station in Florence is pretty easy to manage. As soon as you exit the train, keep walking and you will see a board that lists all the departure information. Just remember to look for your time of departure and train number and not necessarily the destination as the final destination of the train will be the one listed and not the stops along the way. Sometimes this information is not posted until 5-10 minutes before your train is meant to depart.

I have found that you come across people who speak english at the train stations, if not there are the self-service ticket machines which give you the option to change language.

One thing I have noted is that you have to be ready to get on or off the train when it pulls into the station. People start taking down their suitcases from the racks and heading toward the doors when they approach their destinations. The train does not wait long, so you have to be ready to get on or off as the case might before. I have seen people jump onto any car just to ensure they get on the train, and then figure out where their proper car and seat might be. Oh and don't forget to validate those train tickets with the yellow machines.

Jill,

I had exactly the same worries prior to travelling by train in Italy, but found it was quite easy for the most part.

Lots of good advice here so far, but a few thoughts based on my experiences....

The large printed charts in the stations showing arrivals & departures are a fairly reliable "guide", but not always completely accurate. I found that especially in Italy these were often just a guideline, as trains seem to get shuffled to a different track on a regular basis. The large electronic sign boards are a more reliable indicator.

As Mike pointed out, don't forget to validate your tickets. I've forgotten a few times, but fortunately remembered in time.

When travelling with reserved seats, I haven't yet figured out a reliable method to "predict" where my car is going to be when the train arrives. I tend to stand about half way along the platform, and watch the numbers of the cars when the train arrives. If I don't see my car no., I start moving towards the back.

Make sure you have a reservation on trains where this is required! If not, you could face a €50 fine on the spot!

If I'm not able to board the train quickly due to passengers disembarking and crowded conditions, and it looks like departure is imminent, I'll board the closest car. I can always find my car and seat later on, but at least I'm on the train!

Happy travels!

A few posts above was the post from Ron. Go the the roninrome site and he's got everything you need to know about purchasing train tickets. We ran off the info and had no trouble buying our tickets from the machine in Rome Termini. He gives you pointers on how to figure out which bin your train is and other things you need to know. We took the train from Rome to CT, from CT to Siena and from Siena back to Rome and never had a problem. Thanks Ron.

We will be traveling to 7 cities by train.

I plan to buy the tickets for the next leg the day we arrive at our first destination.
Figure that will save time going to the station mid-stay.

Thanks, everyone for all your helpful information. I'm leaving for Italy in just a few days and all your help has me a little more relaxed. I won't have to change trains on my Venice to Florence, or Florence to Rome trips. I'm planning a day trip to Pisa from Florence and will try to use the Pisa S. Rossore station as it's much closer to the Field of Miracles. Has anyone done this? This journey will require a change of trains at the central Pisa train station. Anxiety level going up a bit. Since this will be a Regional train if I miss my connection I can take a later train, correct? My other concern is we will be traveling from Florence to Rome that same evening (leaving our luggage at the hotel in Florence rather than storing it at the Pisa train station). If we miss our connection we may then miss our train to Rome and we will have seat reservations as this train will be a ES. What then? Would we need to re-buy tickets? Should I wait until the last minute to buy our tickets to Rome? There will be 4 of us and I'd hate to have to wait for a really late train and arrive in Rome very late in the evening? Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions.

Haven't not done it but it is my understanding that you have three hours to exchange the reservation at a ticket office if you miss the train.

Be sure to get a Eurostar (or "IC" or "Intercity") train. These are the "fast trains" that don't stop at every stop along the way. They are more expensive, but they get you where you want to go faster. They also have, I found out the hard way, all the info you need on your ticket. The regional (marked by an "R" on the Trenitalia site) train tickets don't have very much info on the ticket. We got on the wrong train because of that; we had no problems with any of the Eurostar tickets. There are big reader boards in all the stations I was in in Italy that have the train number and the track ("binario") it will be on. If you have a 1st class ticket, be sure to get on the right car (marked "Carrozza" on your ticket, and on the side of the train cars). If you have any problems, find a station official and ask if they speak English. If not, ask them "quale binario necessito?" ("KWAL-eh bee-NAR-ee-oh netch-eh-SEE-toh") which means "which track do I need". Give them something to write the number on because you won't understand their answer since you don't speak Italian!

I'm preparing for virtually the same tickets as Jill. On the trenitalia website, there is only train listed for our date in late June. I was told to check the same day of the week during the month before (May). Anyone know when the June schedule will be updated? Also, do the train prices listed on the website include the fees for the reservation? Thanks!

One other thing. When I plugged in what I was looking for on the Trenitalia website, it pulled up specific trains. Could some of those be heading to another location, and my destination is just a stop on the way?

Rachel - when you use the trenitalia site, put in the closest date for the day of the week you are traveling. For instance, if you want to go on Monday, June 28, ask for the schedules for next Monday, May 10. Only the trains for which tickets can be purchased are listed - so if advance purchase is no more than 10 days in advance, those trains won't be listed until .... The schedules vary only slightly, if at all, and as noted above, there are lots of trains.