Northern Italy Transportation Recommendations/feedback

You’ll want the Trenitalia.com website. Most, if not all, of the trains will be Regionale, which you don’t reserve and which never sell out, so no need to buy in advance. I believe Castelrotto is reached by bus from Bolzano.

When is your trip?
I’ve been to all your proposed destinations except to the Dolomites.

Check train schedules here: Trenitalia.com

You may want to buy your long distance fast train tickets in advance to take advantage of discounted prices, such as from Verona to Florence.

Enjoy your trip!

thank you lnbsig, that is what i was sort of thinking as we are a bit flexible as to when to get on the train and can probably avoid morning crowds.
Priscilla, we are going Sept 2 - Sept 16. i was looking at Bolzano -> Florence route to may be book in advance for business class as that might be our longest train ride.
thank you for suggestions. was it pretty easy to figure it out at the train stations as to what tickets to get and what trains to board?

looking at tickets from Varenna to Castelrotto and it's showing different trains for connections - would all connections be bought as part of "one" train ticket or do we buy each connection separately?

You’d buy as “one” journey and you’ll receive separate tickets, one for each train journey.
In your example, go to trenitalia.com and you’d input the following:

• From: Varenna-Esino
• To: Bolzano Bozen

This journey involves 2 train changes. You’ll receive one ticket for Varenna to Milano Centrale, a separate ticket for Milano Centrale to Verona Porta Nuova, and another for Verona Porta Nuova to Bolzano Bozen.

You’ll then need to take a bus to Castelrotto.

Check this excellent website for detailed information about train travel:Seat61.com

I'd recommend downloading the Trenitalia app or for the route from Malpensa to Milan and Milan to Varenna, the Trenord app. I purchased my Milan to Varenna ticket on the app from my hotel room the morning I left. Since it was in the app the ticket was easy to retrieve.

I tried to go digital this last trip and it worked well. With a digital ticket you don't have to worry about validating, just have it in the app if you have data or if you will not have data, screen shot it to your photos or save to your Notes function in your phone.

A heads up for Castelrotto, when I was there as part of a Rick Steves tour in early October, we were there on a Sunday night. Very few restaurants were open so if Sunday figures in to your plan eat early-ish (6-630), lol.

thank you Priscilla

For Cinque Terre, you’ll need to take the train from Florence (Firenze Santa Maria Novella) to La Spezia, then a different train (or ferry! That’d be fun) to the towns of the Cinque Terre. In the train stations, the track for your train will be posted on the big board ~15 minutes before the train arrives.

You all are awesome with all the helpful advise!! Really appreciate it

was it pretty easy to figure it out at the train stations as to what tickets to get and what trains to board?

There are ticket machines at the stations but I prefer to buy them online now. Also, as someone else mentioned, if you buy your tickets online, you won’t need to validate ( date/time stamp) them before boarding the train.

If you’re planing to go to Varenna on your day of arrival, I’d wait to buy your ticket once you get to Milan. You can take a taxi or a bus from Linate Airport to Milano Centrale.

There are electronic boards at the stations where one checks to find out which platform your train will be arriving at. You’ll look for your train number and the final destination of that train.

The journey from Milano Centrale to Varenna takes about one hour (sit on left side of train for best views of the lake), once you go through the tunnel, gather your bags and get ready to disembark the train because it will only stop for a couple of minutes.

Enjoy your planning!

Great itinerary!

I use google maps ( pick bolzano as destination and varenna as starting point) and then select the “train” option.

If u do that - u will see the train trip is from varenna - milan - verona - bolzano.

use the Train Italia app. Very easy to use.

just enter varenna to bolzano , pick date/time and u should be able to select.

I personally choose point to point, so that I have more control on train times etc.

so in this case I would have 3 tickets. varenna to milan. milan to verona. verona to bolzano

From Bolzano to Florence ( Firenze on the Trenitalia site) I strongly recommend you choose a direct Frecce train ( Frecciarosso or Frecciargento) to avoid having to change trains at Bologna. That station can be very confusing.

You will save a lot on that route by purchasing in advance, probably 2 months ahead. For example, the base fare for that route in First Class if you buy today for travel tomorrow is €79. If you look at prices for 5 January, you will see a Promo ticket in First for €23,90. Those are very limited, but even if you get the Super Economy in First Class for €36,90 that is still a significant savings.