Another Italy Train Question (Milan/Venice/Florence/Rome)

A Frecce train, whether Frecciarossa or other, is not a Regional train. Those have numbers starting with an “R”.

The Frecce trains between Milan and Venice do tend to make some stops, especially at one or both of the Lago di Garda stations, and Verona,,a major north-south hub.

Thanks Lola. So it sounds like I should not shy away from these trains even with multiple stops.

Just to clarify, these are “direct fast trains”, not nonstop.

Hello jmarkey86,

There will not be any nonstop trains, even fast trains, that cover long distances. Everyone wants the fast train so the fast train stops and serves bigger cities along the way on a long run. For example the train stops in Venezia Mestre - just across the bridge - to collect people who have flown into the airport but don't want travel into the city just to catch the train.

Stops are non-events that will add a couple of minutes to your total time but that's all. You'll have assigned seats and some people will get off and get on and that's about it. Any direct train may make stops in between but it will not affect you so whether one train stops 4 times versus 6 is no reason to choose one train over another.

You do need to be aware of changes where you have to get off one train and onto another. Even these aren't terrible but that is the biggest difference between stops and changes.

Regionale trains are very different - they don't have reserved seats, they can't sell out, and they don't change in price you just walk up and buy the ticket you want, validate it (if it's paper) and get on the train.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Is this a Regionale train?

If it was a Regionale train it would be called Regionale #1234 or R #1234

Is this a high speed train?

The 2nd column on Trenitalia's search results page displays the total journey time in hours and minutes. The train code is written above the departure time. If it begins with "freccia" it's an high speed train.

You can sort the search results by journey time opening the drop down menu next to the printer icon. Otherwise you can open the "filter by" drop-down menu over it and select Frecce. This way you will see only high speed trains.

Should I not book this because of so many stops?

Could you find a better option with less stops? If not... (and why would you care so much, by the way?)

I don’t see a FrecciaRossa 1000 (supposed to be the high speed train)

Frecciarossa 1000 is not the only high speed train, it's the fastest high speed train, the max speed is 380 kph instead of 320. It's mostly used on the main backbone between Rome and Milan via Bologna and Florence. Unfortunately there are too many tunnels and bridges to let it run over 350 kph.

As you have discovered, Venice is a secondary destination for 95% of Trenitalia's customers and trains going there must make some intermediate stops along the way to break-even. Trenitalia will never waste an expensive Frecciarossa1000 on a line where it should stop many times to make profits and where it couldn't run at max speed.

So, why would I book this instead of the Trenitalia version?

Because Italo's complimentary wi-fi works better than Trenitalia's. Food&wine are non-edible on both, bring yours.

Are there any trains that go non-stop for any of my destinations?

Only between Florence and Rome, but most trains to Roma Termini call also at Roma Tiburtina station.

There is no demand and so there is no supply of non stop trains between the other cities you listed. High speed trains must break-even on secondary routes, so they must let paying passengers get on and off.

I just thought the high speed trains were non-stop

They aren't. Any train that can reach a speed over 200 kph is technically an high speed one. I think it will be "over 250" in a few years, but the debate is still open.

The only non-stop service offered on a long distance run is the Milan-Rome that departs in the early morning and is back in the evening. It's mostly used by politicians and managers with an expense account. Not surprisingly tickets are so expensive that Italo's management decided not to offer a similar service.

Thank you hiredman and Dario. This explains a lot. First time to Europe and Italy on this trip. This has all been extremely helpful.