My husband and I are trying to decide if it would pay us to get a Euro Train Pass. We will be traveling in Italy from March 30th until April 19th. We have apartments in Rome, Florence, Venice, Levanto, Lake Como. We plan to travel by train to each location. During our 4 day stay in Levanto we plan on traveling daily to the Cinqua Terra towns on the local trains. My questions are: 1. Can we use the Euro Rail pass when traveling on high speed trains, 2. Can we use Euro rail pass on the local trains from Levanto to Cinqua Terra?
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
To answer both of your questions, yes. You will pay a reservation fee of at least 10 euros on all high speed train so that will add to the cost of your pass. A rail pass usually never pays off in Italy. You might want to do the math by going to the trenitalia site, inputting your cities and getting the costs. The reservation fee is included in those prices so compare those to the rail pass with the additional fees added in. You will probably find out that you'll save a lot of money by buying point to point tickets. http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD Donna
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
You can use the Eurail pass on any of the trains to the cities and towns you mention above. For any Regionale train, the ride is free. For any IC train, you will need to pay a supplemental fee of 3E. For the high-speeds, you pay a supplemental fee of 10E for each train. The question: is the pass cost effective? The answer is usually no. All trains in the CT will be Regionale trains. Two points here. 1) the fare is only about 1.5E between towns. 2) in the CT, you can get the Cinque Terre Treno card in any TI office in that area. The passes come in 1,2,3 & 7 day versions and provides unlimited rides on the trains between Levanto and La Spezia and free access to the trails. Yes, there are trolls with fee booths on the trails. Next, the train from Milan to Lake Como is also a Regionale. Fare is about 7E. Trains from Florence to and from the CT are mostly very inexpensive Regionale trains. These trains are all so cheap that its not worth purchasing a pass. However, you will be on very nice high-speeds between Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. You need to do a bit of homework here. For each high-speed train that you will be on (note you may be on more than one per journey), add 10E to the cost of your pass. Then, look at the fares on www.trenitalia.com. The website does show the fares for the high-speed runs. Only then can you really determine if a pass is cost-effective or not.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32222 posts
Betty Ann, As the others have mentioned, having a Railpass in Italy is not usually the most cost effective method. One point to mention is that if travelling with a Railpass, you'll have to do some research on EACH trip you plan to take. You MUST KNOW which trains require a compulsory reservation and purchase those prior to boarding the train. That means you'll have to make a visit to the station anyway. I can tell you from experience that you DON'T want to be caught without a valid reservation it Italy (even if you have a Railpass) as you'll be fined on the spot (and it won't be cheap)!!! I noticed last year that Conductors in some countries are now carrying wireless Debit / Credit Card terminals, so your fine will be charged to your account before you even get off the train! OTOH, if you purchase P-P tickets, the reservation will be included. However, DON'T forget to validate tickets in the yellow machine. Happy travels!