Travelling to Italy in Sept/Oct. and plan to take the train, below is our schedule. Can we buy tickets on the day of travel at train station or should these be bought advance and where? Any suggestions or comments welcomed. 1) Milan to Monterosso 2) Monterosso to Lucca 3) Lucca to Siena 4) Siena to Florence (train or bus) 5) Florence to Bologna 6) Bologna to Verona 7) Verona to Venice 8) Venice to Rome. Thanks
Posted by
Minneapolis
1277 posts
Hi Karen. Use trenitalia.com. The tix for Sept / Oct probably aren't available yet, so use an earlier date to get the idea. Here's the scoop:
- for Regional trains, wait and buy your tix in Italy. For these trains, there are no discounts and it is impossible to sell out, so best to wait and buy there.
- for other trains, you will see that there are discounts to buy in advance, if you are willing to lock in an exact date and time, so up to you whether the discount is worth it, or you would rather remain flexible and buy at last minute. The 'base' fare is what you will pay if you wait and buy at last minute.
- for station names, use Italian names (firenze, venezia, roma, etc.).
Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
1) This route will be a mix of fast trains and regional or all regional trains. You can buy this one ahead of time when the summer schedule are up to take advantage of the discounts
2) also mixed trains. Some times are the fast high speed trains, some also have intercity trains, and other times are all regional trains. Check the schedule to see what time you may want to depart and arrive at. Then book ahead if you want a time using the high speed trains.
3)All regional trains. buy these in Italy
4) Take the bus. buy ticket in Italy
5-8) High Speed trains buy ahead.
The benefit of the high speed trains is the further out you buy you tickets 120/90 days etc you'll get cheaper fares. Say 19 euro vs 57 euro. Only thing is you are locked into that train time so if you miss it you have to pay extra. Research the times you may want to leave the cities, and if you don't mind locking yourself into a specific time buy your tickets ahead for high speed trains.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Karen, the only reason to buy tickets for the fast Freccia trains is to get the nice discounts. These tickets are non-refundable and some cannot be exchanged. Nice discount but you are tied to a specific train, departing on a specific date and at a specific time. Not bad. It's the only way we travel on the nice faster trains in Italy. If you are willing to pay the full base fare, there is no real need to purchase in advance. You can easily purchase the tickets you need at any train station in Italy when you arrive there. For the Regionale tickets (possible Milan/Monterosso, Monterosso/Lucca, Lucca/Siena, Siena/Florence), you can't buy them online farther out than 7 days from the time of travel. Never a discount on Regionale tickets. Again, just buy them in Italy when you get there. 1-2 days in advance is just fine for buying Italian train tickets.