Trains in Italy

There is no point in booking Regional trains as they are unreserved, don't "sell out", and the price is always the same. The IC train Pisa to Rome should be booked ahead to get a good price.

There are different ages for children on Regional trains and Mainline trains. If you bought your hi-speed tickets and put in the correct ages on your travel dates for the kids, you should be OK. Are you using the Bimbi Gratis fares? There the adults pay undiscounted base fare and children under 15 are free. That is for Freccia and IC trains.

Regarding your niece, here’s some info from the man in seat 61:

However, from December 2012 Trenitalia raised the age limit to 4-14 for long-distance trains (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, InterCity, ICN, sleepers) so children under 15 now qualify for the child fare. The child fare is 50% off the Base rate, not off all fares. An adult Economy or Super-economy fare may be cheaper.

Be careful when booking, as the age limit for Regional trains remains under 12.

The Pisa>Rome train is a Regionale from Pisa to Firenze and then an
Intercity or Frecciarosa to Rome. Regionale tickets are always the same price. Definitely purchase the Firenze > Rome ticket in advance to save money. If buying them on line, buy each separately since your niece needs an adult ticket on the Regionale and a child ticket on the fast train. The trip from Firenze to Lucca is a Regionale so no need to purchase in advance.

If buying Regionale tickets at the station, remember to machine validate them before boarding the train. You also might want to download the Trenitalia app to your smartphone.

Pisa to Rome is an IC train, unless you choose to go via Florence.

Thank you, that's good to know. My niece (13) is only traveling with us, from Rome to Florence on a high speed train and when we booked the tickets on the website (italianrail.com), they didn't ask for the children's ages. That's why at the time of booking, we didn't think to check whether she would be considered a child or adult (just assumed she would be a child, as in the USA, under 18 is a child).

I was just booking our Duomo tickets and realized she was an adult for that ticket, and that's when I backtracked and started worrying about the train ticket.

Thank you for the information about the intercity trains. Will go ahead and book those as well.

Traveling from Pisa to Rome...
Is it better to take the intercity directly, or is it better to go from Pisa to Florence, and then switch to the high speed train to Rome? And both ways, better to buy the ticket ahead,correct?

when we booked the tickets on the website (italianrail.com), they didn't ask for the children's ages.

Anothere reason to avoid re-sellers' sites like italianrail.com

Is it better to take the intercity directly, or is it better to go from Pisa to Florence, and then switch to the high speed train to Rome?

It depends on what's more important for you. Saving money? Arriving earlier? Departing later in the morning? Minimize changes?

And both ways, better to buy the ticket ahead,correct?

Again, it's better if your plans are set and you want to purchase a discounted (but non changeable) ticket.

Here is the age and discount info for Trenitalia.
https://www.trenitalia.com/cms-file/html/trenitalia_2014_eng/Info_regionaleENG.html#TRENI%20NAZIONALI

Thank you so much. The link as well as the difference between Intercity and regional trains clarifies all my questions.

Appreciate all the quick responses.

When I'm booking a train trip, I pay attention first to the fare, the total travel time and the departure hour (I am not an early bird). When I find something that seems a good possibility, I look at the transfer time to be sure I'm comfortable with it; there are often stairs involved. I acknowledge that the seats on the express trains are somewhat more comfortable, but I really don't care what sort of train I'm sitting on; it's about the schedule and the money to me.

What I do not want to do is pay a lot of extra money for a routing that includes time on a Freccia train (or other expensive option) that is then frittered away during a long layover as I switch to the regional train that stops at my ultimate destination. I have seen occasions when the Freccia+regional ticket costs something like 20 euros extra (could be more) and saves 5 minutes. It may also increase the number of transfers needed. What's the sense in that? Trips to a lot of smaller cities popular with American tourists can lead to that situation, so I hope travelers pay attention to the travel time as well as the type of train(s) they are selecting.

To clarify: What I am describing above is more likely to happen if tickets are bought close to the date of travel, at which point the Freccia fares are often quite high.

Just for clarity and for other posters who may read this for the first. trenitalia.com is the official site of the train company that actually operates the trains. RailEurope, Italianrail, Eurail, and a bunch of others with rail in the name are just travel agencies reselling rail tickets sometimes at a substantial mark-up. You should use the site for the national railroad in each country

My review of this site a few years back was a great help prior to my trip to Lucca and Cinque Terre. https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

Thank you! That was such an informative and useful post! All set with train tickets and confusion cleared :)

The discounts for Intercity trains sometimes aren't large, but purchasing in advance allows you to select seats together. Be sure to check the box to select your own seats, otherwise it will assign them. If purchasing day of travel for a busy train, it could be difficult or impossible to find a large number of seats together.