Is there any advantage in purchasing train tickets online prior to going to Italy? I only need train tickets for travel from Giulianova to Venezia. There are four adults traveling together, and I know if you purchase tickets in Italy you sometimes have the option of a family plan or Amico plan. Does this really make a big difference? I would like to hear from someone who actually travels or traveled by train in Italy.
Thanks,
Greg
We have used Italian trains many times and have never bought tix online. In all but a few cases, we were able to purchase tix on the day of travel. If we suspected that the train would be full (rush hours where travel at that time is unavoidable and holidays), we bought from machines a day early. Even when the preferred train was sold out, we found that another (oerhaps an hour later) was not. Generally speaking, the plans you mention are available only with advance purchase but the tradeoff is that you lose flexibility of your schedule.
We always travel by train in Italy -- and just about everywhere, also. Generally buy tickets a day or two in advance at the machines except for cross border travel. Italy train tickets are so reasonable that we seldom worry about the discount tickets. If available we will use the discount but the discount is only in the range of 15%, maybe 20. However, the discounts in England and else where can be significant. We are generally traveling in the month of June.
Yes, you can try to navigate the Italian train website and get discounted tickets. Tim from Minot has good advice about how to do it. But it's so easy to just buy the tickets when you there and you have more flexibility.
