More details on using trains in Italy

Your train number will be listed on the arrival/departure board in the station. Also choose a younger, friendly, intelligent looking person and ask kindly if they can point you to the correct train. Don't sweat it - you'll be fine.

Rshanes,
You can check the electronic departure/arrival board, found in train stations--(similar to the ones in airports but much, much bigger)

You usually find a bunch of people looking up at a wall where the electronic board is located.

The electronic board will list the train number, the time of departure, the final destination & the track number.

La Spezia is your final destination, but not sure what type of train you will be taking, because some trains will continue traveling North.

Is La Spezia your final destination, or are you trying to get to one of the villages in Cinque Terre?

Edit: Here is another helpful site you may want to read: http://www.seat61.com

rshanes,

What are the details written on your tickets and which trains are you using? It's difficult to provide specific suggestions without that information. As someone else mentioned, I assume your ultimate destination is one of the Cinque Terre towns? Do you also have tickets for that segment?

If you're travelling on a single train, the train number will be listed on your ticket (ie: IC-510). When you arrive at the station, check the electronic board and look for that train number along with the other information that will be shown. The electronic board will show which Binario (track) your train will be departing from.

If you're using a Freccia or Intercity train, your ticket will include the compulsory seat reservations, and will also show your Car No. (Carrozza) and Seat No.'s (Posti) which is where you'll need to sit.

rshanes,

Here is a photo of an electronic arrival/departure board so you can get an idea of what to look for: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbell1975/7357900768/in/photostream/lightbox/

This particular electronic board is located in Milano's Central Station.

The photo is not very clear but you can find the, 'Arrivi' (arrivals) on the left side, & the 'Partenze' (departures), on the right side of the board.

As mentioned above, the board will list the type of train, the train number, the destination, departure time & track number.

The track number may not appear till 20 minutes prior to departure, so just keep checking the board.

Don't forget to validate your train ticket prior to boarding the train to avoid hefty fines.

You don't need to validate Freccia or Intercity train tickets, only Regionaletrain tickets (except if purchased online)

Here is a photo of a validating machine usually found in front of the tracks or in a tunnel by the stairs heading to the tracks:https://www.flickr.com/photos/9142374@N05/9191820773/?ytcheck=1

At http://www.e656.net/orario/index.html you can search trains by number - you will get a list of their itinerary and stops, or search stations by name and have a list of arrivals and departures. The website is in Italian but it should not impossible to understand.

e656 is a great link. In addition, you will also see the platform number on the right side in blue (BIN). And you can then click through and on the little house icon and see all the trains in a particular station. Thanks to lachera for posting the link.

A quick and easy way to check, beside the train number, is to look at time of departure - then look at the departure board. This is not 100 percent foolproof as two trains could have the same departure times but it narrows it down immediately. The departure track may not appear until minutes before departure time.

I would not use departure time to find a train. Each stop will scroll across the Partenze electronic board, and will also be listed on the big yellow Partenze poster near the head of the tracks and inside the station.

Do not put absolute faith in track numbers on e656 and printed timetables; while in small station a departure track is likely to be fixed, in large stations they are dynamically allocated and if there are some late trains track assignments for all trains may change. Always check the electronic board - in some stations the track may be assigned only a few minutes before departure time.

The safest way to find the final destination of a train, if you do not already know it, is looking at the printed departure timetables. With train number and departure time you can easily find the final destination. Also the track number, but be careful (see above).

Zoe, I stand corrected. What i meant to say is I have used the departure times to great success to locate the train I was looking for on the Yellow Paper Partenze schedules. That seems to work for me. I don't rely on them, but it helps when your destination is not the final destination as you can locate your destination in the listing of all the stops for that train, then translate that to the electronic boards.

Rshanes,
Not to add more confusion to this issue but...something to be aware of nonetheless...

Once in a while, (has only happened to us a couple of times in smaller train stations) there will be an announcement of a track change & sometimes it's difficult to understand, especially when one is already standing by the track waiting for the train.

So, if you're waiting on the track platform, and you hear an announcement & see a bunch of travelers (on the same side of platform as you) leaving in a big hustle, this may indicate a track change.

There are also small electronic boards on the track platforms that list the train's destination.

Thanks everyone for your help. The e656 web site was especially helpful as I was able to print the entire itinerary for each train number. The picture of the arrival/departure board was also very helpful.
To several questions, yes, we are going from Civitavecchia to La Spezia by intercity train, which we have tickets and seats for. And from La Spezia, we are going on to Cinque Terre by regional train. I think buying that ticket at the station seems straight forward, though watching the videos, it looks like we need cash to buy them? Please let me know if it's not straight forward or if they have updated their ticket machines to take credit cards.

Thanks again

Rick Hanes

Rick,
You should be able to buy your train tickets at the Civitavecchia train station from the automated machines (some take only cash, others also take credit cards) or at the staffed ticket counter. I always carry cash just in case my CC doesn't work, but thus far have not had any trouble using my visa card(Chase).
What village will you be staying in?
We stayed in Monterosso but you can visit all 5 easily via train.
Have a wonderful trip & eat lots of yummy gelato!

jkc, not a correction to your post, I thought you meant the time on the electronic boards; I have literally led myself astray using that method. Sometimes I take a photo of the yellow Partenze poster.