Has anyone tried the new Italo Treno (NTV) trains?

I have used it once to date, will probably do so again at the end of the month. I liked it a lot. I paid for the first class fare, had a single seat on one side of the aisle (there are two seats on the other side in first class), they bring a beverage cart through, the staff are friendly and helpful, the trains are new and clean, they run on schedule (so far at least), and they have free wi-fi. * The only problem with the wi-fi is that, depending upon your itinerary, the train might be going through a lot of tunnels. When that happens, the signal is lost, and it takes a few minutes to come back -- sometimes, long enough that you are already in another tunnel. This was the case on my Rome-Florence trip, which involves a lot of successive tunnels. So don't get too excited about the free wi-fi, as there could well be interruptions to the signal.

The Man in Seat 61, seat61.com, was on it recently and seemed to be happy with the experience. We'll try them for at least one journey on our next trip.

Just a note that the new Italo train does not accept Eurail passes at this time. It also doesn't stop at Milan Centrale (Milano Porta Garibaldi) or Rome Termini (Rome Tiburtina). Aside from that, it looks like a really great train ride.

I haven't taken a ride on Italo but I closely follow an infrastructure forum where many people posted feedback. First, a comment: wi-fi doesn't rely on open-air signal as in a normal cell-phone. It's a bit more complicated than that. There is infrastructure to repeat (the technical term) radio signals including wi-fi in the tunnels (that is part of the system that ensure trains circulate safely at very high speeds on the tunnels). However, the has been some glitches in integrating the devices on Italo with the wi-fi signal repeaters from RFI (the company which owns all tracks and most stations in Italy). Now about the trains: feedback has been superbly positive on costumer services. The top-of-the-top Club class has been mostly empty, failing to lure business passengers paying up to € 240/one-way. The Prime Relax has been more of a success, an intermediate service class which is noise-free (cell phone voice use, loud ipod etc. disallowed) The seats on Smart (cheapest) class are a mixed-bag. Some people like him, some feel uncomfortable at it. They have a decent number of daily frequencies now. Some users are complaining about the timing of connections with Trenitalia regional services or other feeder trains, stuck as they are (this is now my opinion) with the mentality of monopolist railways. Hey, it's competition, Italo has nothing do to with Trenitalia, who hates Italo for "skimming" their more lucrative services they used to cross-subsidize lackluster cheaper trains that should be retired anyway. As for the different stations: for passengers not travelling elsewhere, Porta Garibaldi is better located than Milano Centrale. Roma Tiburtina has been extensively retrofitted.

Andre, thanks for this great information. I just figured they were using a Satellite internet signal, didn't realize it was something connected with the railroad itself and that there was a problem with signal repeaters. Good to know. Roma Tiburtina is a very nice station, and reasonably easy to get to via metro. It's a few stops from Termini on the metro, and the metro station exits right into the train station. Since the station burned down a couple of years ago, it has been extensively rebuilt and is actually a lot nicer than Termini, although they don't have much in the way of shops/restaurants there like Termini does. I rode in the Prime Relax class and that was the basis for my prior comments. It doesn't surprise me at all that people do not want to pay for the Club Class. I should also mention that for regular travelers they have a free loyalty card. You would have to take a lot of trips to accumulate enough points for it to be useful for much of anything, but it's there for those who like to collect points.