Rail passes for Italy

On the raileurope and eurail sites it says children are 4-11 for the reduced fare and under 4 are free when sharing a seat with an adult. Just an FYI, rail passes are usually never worth it for travel in Italy. You should check the prices for the pass against point to point tickets on the trenitalia site. http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD Especially with the new "mini" fares you could really save a lot of money buying PTP tickets. donna

We are looking at staying in Florence and bringing our children and grandchildren as they have their Spring Breaks.
They want to travel to Venice for one day returning the same day. Their tickets (if they don't want to spend 3- and -a -half hours on a train) will cost them almost $500.00. So looking at Rick Steve's web site on trains it would be a lot cheaper to buy a rail pass, it seems. They will have to travel to Rome before they leave, another $200.00 for tickets. We were in Italy for two months last year and traveled PTP, and we did fine, but this is a little different since they will have a base to travel from and return the same day.

How many adults and how many kids? I have a hard time believing that a rail pass for each of them will be cheaper then roundtrip fare for the day. The other thing you need to consider is that the railpass does not include the reservation which will cost you another $10 per person.

" They want to travel to Venice for one day returning the same day " Have you really thought this through? It mightl be quite a rough day.

How many people are traveling? You can get tickets with the mini fare for 34 euros each way. If you book a return at the same time the fare goes down to as little as 17 euros depending on the times you choose. I also have to ask if they've thought this through. The trip is a long one and they won't have much time in the city. I would suggest an overnight or passing on this till a later trip. There are many wonderful day trips that can be taken from Florence like Siena which wouldn't take nearly as much travel time. Donna

O.K. We understand that this is a short trip to Venice. But we are paying for all of it and we have a apartment in Florence with three bedrooms and two baths. They only have 10 days because of jobs. We were in Italy in 2007 and stayed in Padova and took a 6 hour trip into Venice. It was something that convinced us to go back. We wish we could spend the money to have them stay in Venice, but we can't. And they certainly can't do this on their own, so this is how we plan on doing it. The simple question was in buying tickets from the Rick Steve's web site, does anyone know what constitutes a Child fare, since it doesn't actually give ages for children. These children are 17 and 13.

Children are 4-11.. They will be considered adults. Donna

So we are looking at two adults and two kids, one 13 and one 17, correct? Then you are looking at two adult rail passes and two youth passes. That is $179 per adult and $171 per youth. Buying roundtrip fare will absolutely be cheaper. Buy the tickets in advance while you are in florence and you should be able to purchase the mini fare. The mini fare is only 34 euros per person each way. At todays exchange rate that is about $44 per person each way or $88 roundtrip. So its not even close, the rail pass would be a huge waste of money. Go here for a good explanation on the mini fare. http://www.roninrome.com/%20transportation/trenitalia-changes-promo-fares-again As for doing this in a day, The trip on the eurostar is only two hours. I just checked trainitalia's website and it looks like the first train to Venice leaves at 8:30 am and the last train back to Florence leaves at 7:30 pm. It will make for a long day, but who cares. That still gives them 9 hours to spend in Venice.

Thank you Scott. That is the kind of information I was hoping to get on this web site.
And just to be in Venice for three hours is enough to make an impression they will never forget.

I'm a little confused. Not to take anything away from Scott but didn't I give you the same information? The base fare is 44 euros with mini fares starting at 17 euros and going up to 34 euros. This is a huge savings over a pass. Check out the trenitalia site before buying the pass to see if you can save even more money on your other travels. Donna