We are a family of 4 travelling to Italy for 2 weeks in August, landing in Rome but visiting Naples, then Florence, then Assisi and ending in Venice and flying out of Venice. I am thinking a Rail Pass is the best option but I am bit confused between Rail Europe and EuRail. We have been to Italy before and are fine to travel second class. Any suggestions?
Mark
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23667 posts
The rail fares are so cheap in Italy and especially if you can take advantage of the discounted fares that I doubt that a rail pass will save any money at all. But do your homework and compare point to point prices with the total cost of the rail pass. Be sure to add in the required reservation fee of $10/person per leg of your trips.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32405 posts
As Frank mentioned, Rail Passes do NOT include the compulsory seat reservations on the premium trains such as the Freccia high speed versions. You'll have to pay separately out-of-pocket for those. The reservations are specific to train, date and departure time, so can ONLY be used on one specific train. If you're caught without valid reservations for the train you're riding on, you'll face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot. If using P-P tickets on Regionale trains, you MUST validate these prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or again hefty fines (that also applies to Bus or Metro in Rome and elsewhere).
One other point to note is that Rail Passes can not be used on the new Italo trains or the private trains such as the Circumvesuviana in Naples. Especially for such a short trip, I'm not sure a Rail Pass would be the most cost effective method. You'll have to do some number crunching.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To add to the above posts, when you use a railpass, the €10 fee on high speed trains is extra, is mandatory, is specific to one and only one train, and must be purchased before you get on the train. But when you buy a ticket for a high speed train (whether a discounted ticket on line in advance, or a full price ticket at the station), the reservation is included in the price. You can't just hop on high speed trains with a pass; you have to buy a reservation first (you can get these from the ticket machines). This means that a pass, unlike in some other countries, does not give you any added convenience.
That, plus the low cost of trains in Italy in general, plus the fact that you can't use the pass on Italo and Circumvesuviana trains, make a pass a poor deal for almost everyone.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Using our train fare maps at https://ricksteves-cms.herokuapp.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/cost-maps, regular 2nd-class rates add up to roughly $250 per person to connect those 5 cities. A 2nd-class Eurail Italy pass costs $237 per person for 4 travel days, plus the $15 (€10) seat reservations on 3 of those routes, so that doesn't save any money or particularly add any convenience.