Italy Train Travel Confusion

Even Rick says that rail passes seldom make sense in Italy.

Are rail passes a good value for Italy?
Not for most people — think carefully before buying a rail pass, especially if your trip doesn't extend beyond Italy.

If you want to see point-to-point prices, go to: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
You can see the Base fare and if there are Economy or SuperEconomy tickets available, they will show those prices as well. You can buy the tickets on-line with print-at-home tickets and they will include the seat reservations. If they are Regionale trains, the price never changes and they have no reservations, so you can buy them when you are there.

Hi Jeffrey. Sam gives good advice; do not buy a pass for Italy. For any regional trains, wait and buy when there. For intercity or freccia trains, buy online if the discount shown is worth it for you to lock in an exact date and time, otherwise just buy when there and pay the 'base' fare. Enjoy your trip!

How long are you going to be there where you need a pass?
I hope you are not looking at the point to point prices on the site raileurope.com;
this is where they will be more expensive.

With a rail pass you have to reserve and pay extra for a reservation on the fast trains (the Freccia types) and the IC trains. That can be done at the train station or a travel agency.

Besides Trenitalia, also look at Italo, a private train company. They travel many of the same routes as Trenitalia and have good prices.
http://www.italotreno.it/en

Also, keep in mind that the rail passes typically allow only travel on a certain number of days. Often you will find that travel within a single country is far less expensive buying point-to-point.

Also, keep in mind that the rail passes typically allow only travel on a certain number of days. Often you will find that travel within a single country is far less expensive buying point-to-point.

What? Please explain this?

The only way to be sure which makes more sense is to price each trip on the local rail site - not a reseller. Price both early reservations and walk up fares. Compare that to the price of the pass plus reservation fees where REQUIRED - €10 on high speed trains. Decide which works best for you.

From seat61.com:

Italy
Eurail passes give unlimited travel on...
Trenitalia = Italian State Railways, www.trenitalia.com.
Trenord = a consortium of Trenitalia & LeNord which runs local trains north of Milan, but only on routes formerly operated by Trenitalia including Milan-Varenna-Tirano, not on routes formerly operated by LeNord, although there's no easy way to tell which is which! www.trenord.it.
Eurail passes don't cover the local Circumvesuviana Railway Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento, or Italo high-speed trains run by private operator NTV running Turin/Milan/Venice-Florence-Rome-Naples in competition with Trenitalia.
National trains:
There's no supplement to pay on local or Regional trains.
However, railpass holders must pay a fee and make a seat reservation to travel on almost all high-speed long-distance trains.
Frecciarossa, Frecciargento & Frecciabianca trains: There's a €10 compulsory seat reservation charge for passholders on all high-speed Frecciarossa, Frecciargento and Frecciabianca trains, linking Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, Verona, Turin. You can occasionally find an InterCity train as a cheaper alternative between these cities, but they are far slower and less frequent.
InterCity trains: Since 2010, railpass holders do not need to reserve a seat on InterCity trains, and there's now no supplement. Seat reservation is optional, cost €3.
Passholder reservations for Italian trains can be made in advance online at www.trenitalia.com (fiddly, but no fee) or www.italiarail.com (easy, small fee), see advice on how to make Italian passholder reservations online.
Passholder reservations can easily made at stations using the touch-screen self-service machines, see the step-by-step instructions here.

This is slightly off-topic, but ..... Here is what I have done for Europe several times (including for my next Tuscany trip). Buy tickets in advance before traveling from a USA Web site. It does cost a bit more, but getting your tickets in advance, from https://www.raileurope.com/index.html does make the entire process simple. The search feature is intuitive; it's kind of like finding flights and booking air tickets using Expedia.

In the past, RailEurope have sent tickets to me by courier, but this time, they sent a pdf file attached to an e-mail that I could print at home (or anywhere that I can find a computer/printer).

If on a tight budget, you might need to do some research as to the cost difference of buying it from them vs. direct from the train company (web site or in person at the train station when you are already in Europe). I have not done that to determine the fee they add. For me, the convenience and simplicity are worthwhile.

pkburian
why buy from a re-seller? RailEurope is more expensive because they charge a $18 handling fee!

Trenitalia and Italo "send" your tickets via email. You can print out the pdf that you show the conductor or show the code on you phone/tablet.

I have purchased many tickets from Trenitalia on-line. It was easy and I have saved lot of euros. Just purchased from Italo and was able to use PayPal to purchase my tickets.

Get the Trainline app. No fees and very easy to navigate. And it's in English

I agree with Holly, no need to wait more than 30 seconds for tickets to arrive. Print them, but I also save the email with the PDF ticket.

Right. No need to purchase from raileurope with a big fee. Trenitalia (Italian nat. rail) and Italo (private line for major cities) are the Italian resources for most routes, and Trainline (used to be Captaintrain) is another good one for ease of booking. You don't have to download the app for Trainline if you don't wish to:

https://www.trainline.eu

Eurail Passes are a waste of significant money most of the time as well as a source of frustration for those who "thought" they were getting a good deal only to find that the person sitting next to them on the train paid 19Euros for their first class seat while the Eurail Pass holder just spent an entire day of their rail travel on their overpriced pass...AND had to buy a seat reservation on TOP of their overpriced pass.

Eurail Passes are a waste of significant money most of the time as well as a source of frustration for those who "thought" they were getting a good deal only to find that the person sitting next to them on the train paid 19Euros for their first class seat while the Eurail Pass holder just spent an entire day of their rail travel on their overpriced pass...AND had to buy a seat reservation on TOP of their overpriced pass.

Again, is this based on your personal experience? I get it - you do not like most passes - I promise no one will ever force you to use one. Please provide actual factual info to the OP so they can make an informed decision for their circumstances.

A 5 travel days in one month 2nd class pass costs $418 for 2 adults. add 3 more travel days adds only $140 more - the longer you are traveling the cheaper the pass is - a one month global pass for 2 is $1776 - a two month for 2 $2502 - the second month is only $726 more. If you value the flexibility & spontaneity a pass provides that is one factor to consider. Italy is not necessarily the best use of a pass but is not the financial tragedy that some espouse.

I price 5 trips:

Milan to Venice
Venice to Florence
Florence to Rome
Rome to Naples
Naples to Rome

To purchase in advance for mid June travel the total ticket cost for 2 in 2nd class is $350 - miss one & you are out an average of $75 - no changes allowed.

The cost of the pass plus reservation fees for all 5 trips is $525

The cost of same day tickets $496 - most flexible like the pass -

so to retain the flex of a pass you will save $29 by purchasing point to point tickets.

If you do not mind being locked into a certain train at a certain time you can save $175

This is but one example - that is why it is really important to price your specific dates & routes then decide which works best for you