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Purchase Train & Ferry Tickets in Advance?

Posted by (Washington DC) on

My fiance and I will be traveling the north west of Italy next week: Sept 14 - Sept 27. Our high level itinerary is as follows:

9/14: CINQUE TERRE - Land in Milan (MXP); Train Milan Central to Monterosso
9/17: FLORENCE - Train from Monterroso to Florence
9/20: POSITANO - Train from Florence to Salerno; Ferry from Salerno to Positano
9/23: ROME: Ferry from Positano to Salerno; Train from Salerno to Rome
9/27: Fly home from Rome

It looks like ItaliaRail direct trains are available for all train legs, and based on the information available, we should be able to walk to the ferry from the Salerno train station to get the ferry to Positano.

My questions are:
1. Is this the best plan for traveling to the cities we are visiting?
2. Do we have to purchase tickets in advance, or will we be able to walk up and purchase tickets?
3. If the latter, will the tickets cost more than if we had purchased them in advance?

Obviously, the concern with purchasing them in advance is we have to lock times in, so if we get delayed for some reason, or decide to leave later in the day, we will lose our ticket fees.

Posted by
5619 posts

Please note that ItaliaRail is NOT the train company. They are merely a ticket reseller, don't show all trains, and may charge extra fees. To see the actual train times and fees, use the official website. Here's their English version: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

For travel on the day of arrival, it's probably safest to buy your ticket at the station. That way there's no worry about missing a train if your arrival is delayed. Any trip that involves a Freccia (highspeed) train, like the ones to and from Salerno can have savings if you buy the tickets in advance. But you are restricted to a specific train and time. So it's up to you. Look at the website for a train leaving tomorrow. Then compare the cost to the same train leaving 3 months from now. That will tell you what the savings are. Up to you whether the savings are worth the time commitment.

Posted by
3812 posts

Then compare the cost to the same train leaving 3 months from now. That will tell you what the savings are.

What a pointless complication, Trenitalia published the complete September schedules in April: Purchasing On the same day, they will pay the BASE fares that are clearly displayed on the site for each day and each train running from Sept 14 to Sept 27.

Once they have published the top prices, these prices never change and the seats almost never sell out. For sure Top price seats do not sell out after September 15.

The Florence-Rome-Naples-Salerno high speed line is served also by www.italotreno.it/en, the private competitor that runs only high speed trains on major routes. If you subscribe Italo's newsletter next Friday you'll receive their promo codes.

Posted by
5619 posts

Dario, you're absolutely right. I completely overlooked that they were travelling so soon.

Posted by
7303 posts

It’s about a 10 min walk from train station to ferry
Slightly downhill
Shouldn’t be any need to purchase ferry tic in advance

Posted by
6 posts

Thanks for the all of the information. That is exactly what I needed to know. One last question... Does the train station in Milano Centrale accept payment by credit card? I am trying to figure out how much in euro I need to bring with me.

Thanks again!

Posted by
16895 posts

Train stations accept credit cards for lots of things, but since US credit cards sometimes have trouble with automated ticket machines in Europe, it's safer to have cash available. Some merchants can also have a minimum purchase requirement for cards.

We recommend withdrawing euros from an ATM with your debit card, rather than trying to bring them all from home (and paying a probably-worse exchange rate). See also the Travel Tips section of this site, and Money.

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