Hello, I'm wondering if it is necessary to purchase reserved seats in advance from the U.S. for Pisa to Vernazza. We will be traveling on September 26, 2015. Are the trains ever full? Is there significant savings by advance purchase?
Thanks.
Posted by
Indianapolis
247 posts
Doing a search on Trenitalia there's virtually no difference in price if I try to buy a ticket for September, or for tomorrow morning. These are inter-city and regional trains so there's no need to buy the tickets in advance.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32219 posts
What time does your flight arrive in Pisa? That will have a bearing on which trains you'll be able to connect with. Some of the trains from Pisa Centrale to Vernazza will be Regionale, and some will be a combination of InterCity / Freccia and Regionale. There are compulsory reservations for the InterCity and Freccia trains, but those will be provided with your ticket. Regionale trains don't require reservations, but you MUST validate them prior to boarding the train or risk hefty fines.
It's not generally a good idea to buy advance tickets for trains which require compulsory reservations, when connecting with an inbound flight. Since the reservations are specific to train, date and departure time, if your flight is late and you miss your booked train, your ticket is worthless and you'll have to buy another.
The easiest solution is to simply buy tickets on the next train to Vernazza when you arrive at Pisa Centrale.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
15849 posts
Just adding my vote to all of the above: there's no real advantage to buying tickets in advance for this particular journey so just purchase them at the train station. They will not be expensive but do be aware that your will have to change trains, and most often that occurs in La Spezia.
We've done that trip from Pisa to Monterosso, and it was a nice journey. You'll pass by Carrara where so much of the marble was quarried for the construction of ancient Rome, and many sculptures - including Michelangelo and Bernini's Davids - as well. You can see the white gashes of the quarries in the mountains from the train.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16894 posts
This is a relatively short train ride. Even if you ended up paying full fare in 1st class with a portion by the faster Frecciarossa train, the fare would still only be €21.50 per person. More likely, you'll pay in the range of €10-15 per person for 2nd class on a regional or InterCity train, which is full fare for that class of service and style of train.