You are family of four ( 20 and 17 yr old kids) traveling to Italy for the first time in August 2024. We are in need of some help of which trains to book and whether to book tickets in advance. We have downloaded the tren Italia app And if there’s any other apps we should download please advise.
These other following routes, we are in need of help:
Rome to Amalfi
Sorrento to Florence
Florence to Lake Como
Lake como to Grindelwald
Grindelwald to Zurich
Thank you in advance,
Ana
Hello Anna and welcome to the forum!
We need some more info
Rome to Amalfi- do you mean to AMALFI town or "Amalfi Coast"- need specific town name
Florence to Lake Como- where on Lake Como- name of town?
You'll need to use the Italian station names
Sorrento to Florence-
Circumvesuviana to Napoli Centrale- change to a fast train ( Freccia) to Firenze SM Novella. There are direct trains, others change at Roma Termini. Look for a direct train ( no changes)
Buy Circumvesuviana tix at station - - Validate tix before boarding
You can purchase fast trains tix in advance if you are sure of your dates/times- check restrictions on discounted tix.
Or buy day of at Base Rate.
Thank you for the reply. To clarify
Rome to amalfi town
Florence to Bellagio
Rome to Amalfi
Roma Termini-fast train to Salerno
Then ferry or bus to Amalfi.
Florence to Bellagio
Firenze SM Novella fast train to Milano Centrale
change to Regional to Varenna-Esino
then ferry to Bellagio
Hello wesavelives, and welcome to the forum!
Fast trains between big cities and these come with assigned seats on a specific train and tickets can be purchased early at a (sometimes sizable) discount but come with restrictions. The earlier you buy the cheaper the tickets but you're trading economy for flexibility. Tickets for fast trains are generally available two months ahead.
Local trains called regionale tickets are always the same price - just buy them when you need them. Also if you have a reserved train and you miss it because of the train being late and it's the train companies fault they are required to re-book your ticket even if it is a restricted change ticket. Of course if you just miss a train with a restricted ticket the restrictions apply.
You'll want to use the Italian city names for best results when searching on train sites: Roma for Rome, Firenze for Florence etc.
Get used to using 24 hour "military" time when dealing with trains but it's used less in Italy outside of trains.
The man in seat 61 is a really good basic primer on European train travel: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm
Have a great trip,
=Tod
To get to Grindelwald, and from Grindelwald to Zurich you will need to buy tickets from SBB. From Bellaggio best just travel down to Como town, and travel Como - Luzern - Interlaken - Grindelwald. What are your plans in Switzerland? Based on what you intend to do you may want to get a discount card (the Half Fare Card) or the Swiss Travel Pass even.
To clarify hiredmans’s post
Train schedules are released twice a year June 11, December 11
Tickets for your dates are available now
@wengen in Grindelwald we plan on going up first mountain cliff walk and either taking the flight chairs down or the taboggan. Going to top of schlitterhorn in Murren and lastly to Kandersteg to do the oeschinensee trail to the lake.
I am intimidated by all the train transfers and really appreciate this forum.
Ana
I bought all my tickets in advance and got the “changeable” tickets, they were a bit more but I actually wound up having to change a ticket to a later time. I was buying for multiple people using multiple cards and was shocked to find that after I made the 1st purchase the price suddenly went up for the 2nd purchase. So buy early! I also had to use their customer service 2X and it was fabulous! Handled my problems quickly with zero aggravation.
You might want to discuss your Swiss plans in the Switzerland forum.
Regarding train travel: My advise is to not overthink this. Changing trains is a normal and expected feature of train travel, and is pretty trivial. You step of one train, walk a bit, maybe have to take an underpass, and then step on another train. The nice thing about train travel is how low friction everything is.
Think of Europe's trains as mostly a set of overlapping mass transit systems.
Pack light! No humunga suitcases since you will be carrying them up/down stairs.
Read up on how to avoid scammers and pickpockets. Not to scare you just to warn you. I travel solo most of the time (am 60+ female) and have had no issues with pickpockets but did fall for the guy who offered to take my suitcase for me then demanded money.
Have a wonderful trip.
