My family of 7 will be spending a week in Italy in early June. We will arrive in Venice and plan to travel via train to Pisa, Florence and Rome. Is it best to purchase our train tickets a couple months ahead or to buy them at the station the day of travel?
Many thanks!
For tickets on the fast trains, you stand to save quite a bit of money if you buy before all the promo tickets sell out, and that will happen, in most cases, long before you arrive in Italy. But those tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable, so you have to be absolutely sure of your schedule.
Venice to Florence, ticket prices for tomorrow: from €39.90. If you buy on the day it could be the next price level, €50
Ticket prices for mid-June; from €19.90
Your choice!
These prices are from the Italian Railways website: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Advance buying of tickets for the long-distance trains easily comes with a 50 percent discount if you don't mind being tied to a specific train (day and hour). Buy them at Trenitalia (payment by credit card; emailed pdf for printing at home). Don't forget to use the Italian originals of place names!
The Pisa to Florence train is a Regionale. No discount, but cheap anyway.
debbie,
One other point to mention is that Regionale trains are always the same price, so you could certainly buy those on the day of travel. However one important point to note is that locally purchased Regionale tickets must be validated before boarding the train on the day of travel, or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!
Can you please elaborate more on the "validation" part of locally purchased tickets?
Here's a very short video clip showing someone validating a ticket. I'm not sure all the validating machines are exactly that color, but they're a similar size. They are often positioned inside the ticket hall near the doors you will use to walk out to the platform. They may also be on the platform, and at least once I encountered one in the underpass used to cross from one track to another, but I believe the latter is uncommon.
Basically, if the ticket is small enough to fit in the validating machine, you're probably supposed to validate it. Tickets for Freccia trains and other fast trains are already tied to a specific train on a specific date, so those don't need to be stamped. I think you can buy regional tickets online and print them out (or ordinary paper) at home--though there's really no reason to do that. They don't have to be validated either; they are already time-limited.
Thanks acraven! We're planning our first visit to Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice trifecta), and just wanted to get as much info as we can...so we don't look like "those tourists" ;-)
Are regional trains reserved seating? or just pick one and sit down?
No reserved seats on regionale. Just find an empty seat.
Thank you!
I have learned the hard way not to buy tickets right before the train. Lines at agent windows can be long and/or slow. Some ticket machines only take plastic, and not all US credit cards will work, so you may have to find the few that take cash (and have enough cash in small enough bills for everyone's tickets). Also, you'd be surprised how much time some people can spend at a machine - either not being able to figure out how to use it or simply using it to check schedules or both, and not infrequently buying tickets for future travel. Also, on the fast trains, the seats are reserved. Buying tickets last minute, you may not be able to get 7 seats together, or even in the same car.
Thank you for all the great input.
Chani,
did you find that buying last minute tix on regional trains was a problem or was it for the fast longer distance trains? At this point, I have purchased our longer distance tix but was leaving more flexiblity for shorter trips like Pisa to Florence and Rome to the cruise port. Do you think I will encounter problems waiting to purchase those last minute?
Also for anyone interested, I found this site app.italiarail.com for purchasing tix which was much easier than Trenitalia, and same price.
Debbie, I'm not familiar with Italiarail. It may be a Trenitalia subsidiary; I can't tell. But the ticket prices are different. Some are a bit lower, but then it charges a $5.00 service fee, which seems to be per transaction rather than per ticket. I'm not sure what's going on. My quick check suggests that one might actually save some money by using Italiarail for purchase of multiple tickets at the same time, but not necessarily; one would need to double check the pricing on every ticket.
Italiarail also does not sell tickets for all trains, omitting some of the slower connections even when that results (in the case I tested) in a schedule with a 2-hour gap in departures.
Chani's right about running into ticket-purchasing delays at the train station. I missed a train in Italy while I was in line. Most people use the machines (and sometimes they're at the machine for quite a while), so a lot of what happens at staffed counters is complex transactions--groups traveling together, international tickets, etc. If you can buy your tickets for regional trains the day beforehand, you won't have any worries. Earlier on the day of travel is fine, too. Just don't show up at the station 15 or 20 minutes before scheduled departure time if you need to be on that particular train.
Edited to add: I wonder whether the sometimes-lower ticket prices on the italiarail site are related to the weakening dollar. Perhaps they set their prices months ago. I just find it odd for a site that charges a service fee to have prices that are sometimes a few dollars lower than Trenitalia euro prices converted at the current rate.
Acraven,
yes the italiarail site is owned and operated by trenitalia and they do charge $5 service fee per transaction but they also allow you to purchase more than 6 tix at a time and the site is in English, not just translated. I did some cross checking on price and schedule which I recommend before I booked. Loads of great train info can be found on this website: www.seat61.com
According to the italiarail instructions that came with my tix, I do not have to validate and can show the conductor the tix on my phone. It says all tix are now pre-validated. Also of note to anyone trying to figure this all out: if you book regional tix on line, they are valid for 4 hrs after your scheduled departure in case you miss the original tix time. This seems to offer great planning and time efficiency while still offering some flexibility on your day.
Do you know how long before the trains we should show up? Not sure if regional trains vs long distance trains require more and less security check in time.
Many thanks for everyone's input!
I’ve also compared the prices from italiarail vs trenitalia before I purchased our tickets. And trenitalia was $9 cheaper (Rome - Florence) for 4 tickets.
I was also able to download (finally) the trenitalia iPhone app and got our tickets added to our mobile wallet. We’ll most likely use this app later on for our regional trips.
the italiarail site is owned and operated by trenitalia
For what I know - and from what they write on their site - ItaliaRail is partner of trenitalia, it isn't either owned or operated by trenitalia. The site should be owned by a Canada based company called Interarail LLC.
May I ask where did you read they are owned by Trenitalia? It would be quite a shock for many railways addicted.
All regionale tickets purchased online do not need to be validated and can be used on the booked Regionale and on any other similar train departing within the following 4 hours.
On the other hand a regionale ticket locally purchased is much more flexible as the time window is 24 hours long, not 4.
All regionale tickets purchased online do not need to be validated and can be used on the booked Regionale and on any other similar train departing within the following 4 hours.
On the other hand a regionale ticket locally purchased is much more flexible as the time window is 24 hours long, not 4.
Thank you for this info!
"Trenitalia" is mentioned on the Italiarail website in such a way that a person might conclude that there is a sort of family connection. I suspect, based on what Dario reported, that it is done intentionally to make buyers think they are dealing with Trenitalia. I was doubtful because I know this forum recommends trainline.eu and loco2 for folks who have trouble making direct purchases from the European rail companies.
However, saving money is good, and given the odd pricing I saw, it seems like not a bad idea to check the prices on Italiarail, especially for folks buying a bunch of tickets at the same time.
When booking on the Trenitalia website how can you tell if it is a regional train or a long distance one and how do you get cheaper tickets, is it just automatic if you book earlier or do you need a code?
A regional train is called a Regionale, R or RV on smaller monitors.
The Full fare, the only fare available on the day of travel, is called BASE. Whenever you buy, rest assured that you can't pay more than BASE and that it's always displayed up to 120 day in advance.
All the other fares (Economy, SuperEconomy, A/R in giornata etc.) are discounted and have restrictions.
Note that if you buy on trenitalia.com and you miss a connection because of trenitalia you are always protected, discounted fare or not.
Thank you for this info!
You are welcome, but remember to time-stamp locally purchased regionale tickets before boarding.
If you forget and the train has left, look for the conductor. Don't wait for him/her at your seat.
there is a sort of family connection.
For ages italiarail has been the only authorized official re-seller of trenitalia based in North America and the only one who could sell capacity controlled discounted tickets. Now every re-seller can do it.
When booking on the Trenitalia website how can you tell if it is a regional train or a long distance one
If you're on the trenitalia website...it states it right there when you input your trip info (All Trains, Frecce, and Regional). It's also on the description under the "Train" column when you inputted your trip details along with departure/arrival, duration and prices.
Besides the savings which is a huge benefit, these are the other reasons I've found that I like to buy our train tickets on-line ahead of time:
There's no security check before boarding Italian trains.
