Hello. new to this forum.we will travel round trip rome/florence on the ITALIA RAIL Frecce fast trains in March 2020 with grand child.
Have been on tren italia rail site, but cannot clarify:
1. Do RAIL PASSES guarantee seats, are Rail Passes the same as Tickets?
2. do we need rail Passes **AND ** Reservations, & are these 2 things purchased at the same time, ?
3. Are tickets available prior to 60 days prior to dates of travel , or ONLY 60 days prior to travel?
4. Is there a Senior Discount for 67 & older?
I hope someone can help with these questions!
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2394 posts
Welcome!
The Seat 61 site is a great resource for train travel. Here's the page for Italy:
https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm
Posted by
Wilmington, DE, USA
1046 posts
Rail passes in Italy are not really very helpful. You would still need a reservation. Just go to trenitalia.com. There is an English version that will take you step by step. It's easy: where you travelling from, where you travelling to, what time do you want to travel. A variety of prices will come up and an opportunity to select your seats. Unfortunately you will not qualify for a senior citizen discount (limited to EU members) but there are other discounts for early purchase. You will be able to print out your tickets. 1st class is very nice but so is 2nd class on the Freccia trains! It' really pretty easy.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11194 posts
Unless you are doing extensive rail travel elsewhere in Europe, a rail pass is no benefit in Italy
Here is another site you could use, if the Italo site is not user friendly
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23296 posts
Rail passes are not the same thing as tickets. In Italy all trains except the slowest - Regional - require a seat reservation. (A rail pass on a Regional train would be the ticket) When you buy a ticket the seat reservation is automatic. With a rail pass you have to buy a seat reservation at extra cost -- roughly 10E/leg. It does vary a bit 10E/leg would be the max.
Yes and No. You can purchase a seat reservation later when you know the exact train - day and time - you want to take.
Tickets become available for purchase roughly around the 90 - 120 day period in advance. Again, it varies some depending on the train. The time table for purchase in not that precise.
No senior discount for US tourists.
In general a train pass in Italy is not economically beneficial. It might provide some convenience but if you can take advantage of the Super Econ or even Economy advance purchase tickets, these tickets in total would be much cheaper than a pass.
You should be looking at trenitalia.com. Italia Rail is a re-seller (travel agency) and a train company. Also look at italotreno.it. Italotreno is a private rail company offering limited schedules using the trenitalia tracks and facilities.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
To try and answer your questions.
"on the ITALIA RAIL Frecce fast trains" - Italiarail IS NOT a train company. It is a website reselling train tickets.
Trenitalia is the main national rail company in Italy, they operate Frecce trains, and lots of others.
Italtreno operates in competition on a few local routes. Additionally, there are a number of local operators.
1) Rail passes DO NOT guarantee seats. And they are not the same as a normal ticket.
Normally if you want to travel from A to B, you buy a ticket from A to B. This is the same for any mode of transport, train, plane, bus, ferry, toll road. The price of the ticket often varies, depending on the policy of the transport company.
The other option is to buy a "pass", sometimes called a season ticket, day ticket, weekly ticket etc. This allows unlimited travel (as many times as you like), on certain routes, or within a certain area, and within a limited time (days, weeks).
In Italy, tickets are cheap and Rail Passes are almost always the most expensive way to travel by train.
In Italy, some trains (short distance trains, so-called "regionalle"), you just buy a ticket and get on. Sit in any empty seat. Tickets are valid on any train.
On long distance trains, the ticket is only valid on one train. It says date, train time, train ID and your seat number on the ticket. The ticket is only valid for that seat on that train.
2) Yes. If you have a pass, you need to pay extra to travel on these long distance trains. This is the "reservation fee", think of it as a check-in fee, for which you get assigned your seat number. You do not have to buy the reservation when you buy the pass.
If you have a normal ticket there is no reservation fee, everything is included.
3) Tickets are on sale FROM 30-60 days before travel (It varies), up to the moment the train departs.
For regionalle trains, the price is fixed, no discount for advanced purchase.
For long distance trains, the price starts cheap, and goes up nearer the date.
On the Trenitalia website ( https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html ), Rome (Roma) to Florence (Firenze S. M. Novella), single (one way), for mid March is currently selling at €29.90 per person, 2nd class. That is a bargain.
Tickets for tomorrow (i.e. the price you would pay on the day), is €50
4) Not sure, think not.
Read this webpage to learn about travelling by train in Italy: https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
Tickets are on sale FROM 30-60 days before travel
120-180 for Trenitalia. I think it's only SBB, the Swiss state railways, that still sells tickets 30-60 days in advance.
Tickets for March 2020 have been on sale for months. Same for Italotreno.it/en, the private competitor that runs only high speed trains on a few selected routes.
Posted by
CA
2077 posts
Very simple put, you don’t want to buy a pass.