Train fares

It is the price, the number of seats available at that price, and the refund and exchange restrictions. The lowest fares sell out quickly and are not refundable or changeable. Read all the details on the screen before completing your purchase.

If you start looking for the Frecciarosa fares 120 days in advance, you will see that the Super Economy fares are a steal. The only problem is, you must take that train or forfeit your $$. You should also consider Italo Treno as an additional option for train travel in Italy. They have newer trains and have good fares. The biggest caveat with them is make sure you know which train station they service as it may be different than Trenitalia.

https://biglietti.italotreno.it/Booking_Acquisto_Ricerca.aspx?Culture=en-US

Meredith,

Here's a brief description of the different classes of train fares in Italy.....

• Base - this is the highest price tier and is the same as if buying on short notice (such as the day of travel). These offer the greatest benefits in terms of changes or refunds.
• Economy - these are a "mid-range" price level for tickets and provide cheaper fares than base but fewer options in terms of changes or refunds. There is a quota for these tickets and once they're sold out, Base is the only option.
• Super Economy - these are the least expensive tickets, there's also a quota and these are non-refundable and non-changeable. Given the really cheap price, these usually sell out really quickly so it's important to be on the ball and buy these as soon as they become available (120 days in advance, as I recall).

Note that these tickets only apply for the "faster" trains such as the *Freccia high speed, InterCity or whatever,* and these include compulsory seat reservations. These tickets do not have to be validated as they are specific for only ONE train, date and departure time and can NOT be used on any other train.

If you'll be travelling on Regionale trains, these only have one ticket class, no seat reservations and are more difficult to buy in advance (nor is there any reason to do so as the price is always the same). For trips on Regionale trains, just buy the tickets locally either at a Kiosk or staffed ticket office, and then validate (time & date stamp) in the track side machines prior to boarding the train on the day of travel. Forgetting to validate will usually result in hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot! Do NOT validate the day before travel as they have a "shelf life" once validated, and by the time you use them on the following day they will have expired (and you'll likely be fined).

Hope this helps.

Meridith,

Ken has given you very detailed information.

Make sure you heed his advice regarding:

Do NOT validate the day before travel as they have a "shelf life" once
validated, and by the time you use them on the following day they will
have expired (and you'll likely be fined).

You only need to validate Regionale train tickets a few minutes before boarding the train.

Once the ticket has been validated, it's good for 6 hours.