Traveling to Italy late June 2017 for three weeks, family of 4 - first international trip for us.
Itinerary is Venice-Florence-Lucca-Rome-Amalfi Coast.
I have been digging around trying to get a handle on how much transportation costs. This is what I found, not sure if it is right, hoping to get some general feedback.
Venice to Florence, train, 27 euros each
Florence to Lucca, bus, 7 each
Lucca to Rome, train, 20 each
Rome to Amalfi, train and bus, 23 each
Does this sound about right?
Could be less than that. Family of 4: what are the ages?
You can get rail prices from TrenItalia. Some other websites mark up the prices, in some cases substantially.
Prices for the fast trains (non-regionale) can vary hugely, depending on how far in advance they are purchased. In some cases a slower train may be a less-expensive option. It's always worth looking at the duration of each routing and asking yourself whether it's worth it to pay €X extra to save Y minutes.
You'll need to use the Italian spellings of the station names:
Venezia S. Lucia
Firenze S. M. Novella
Lucca
Roma (Tutte le Stazione -- all stations)
Napoli Centrale
The lowest fast-train prices are for super-economy tickets that can only be used on the train you select; they are non-refundable and non-changeable. Those tickets can and do sell out long before the travel date. Do not buy the super-economy tickets unless you are absolutely certain of the train you want to take.
There may be discounts for your children if they are young enough.
To find a €20 fare for the non-regional part of the trip from Lucca to Rome, I think you'll need to take the slightly slower Frecciabianca from Pisa rather than the Frecciarossa from Florence as well as buy the tickets early. If you wait till the last minute, you may be stuck paying around €50.
Kids will be 12 and 14.
It is complicated, but the kids will get some sort of discount on fast Freccia trains, like Venice to Florence.
Children on the fast trains are 4 to 14. On Regionale trains 4 to 12, over that are considered adults.
For the Venice to Florence route, you get slightly cheaper SuperEconomy (advance purchase non-refundable, non-changeable) if you travel at 11:35, the price for 4 adults is 99.60 EUR, but for 2 adults and 2 children is 73.80 EUR. You have to buy these 90 in advance to be sure you can get these prices. Also, there may be a slight fare increase after December 12.
And for routes that have Regionale connections the pricing is will be a combination. The 14 year-old will be a child on the Freccia, but an adult on the Regionale.
For Florence to Lucca, you could take a Regionale train instead of the bus. So it would be 3 adults at 7.50 EUR each, and one child at 3.80 EUR, so total would be 26.30 EUR.
You can get all the prices at http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
As was already pointed out, you must use the Italian City names, Venezia, not Venice. FI.
There is also another program called Bimbi Gratis (children ride free). Prices are not quite as good as SuperEconomy tickets, but they have fewer restrictions as far as changing the time and travel date..
Trenitalia tickets go on sale 120 days in advance.
Also the private train company Italo covers both Venezia-Firenze and Roma-Napoli.
Check the www.trenitalia.com website for prices. Use the Italian station names as suggested above.
Amalfi has no railway, the closest trenitalia station is Salerno, from which you take a bus or boat. Naples (Napoli Centrale) is another option, but requires another commuter train to Sorrento then a bus.
The full prices Venice to Florence on standard class is €45. Florence to Rome and Rome to Salerno have similar prices. Children under 14 get 50% discounts.
If you prepurchase a Supereconomy ticket, savings are substantial and children get the Bimbo Gratis fare (free) but as mentioned, there are restrictions (un changeable and not refundable).
Lucca can be reached via Regional train from Florence (or also bus). Those are cheap.
A rental car may not be a good idea for your trip since you can't use a car in the locations you mentioned. Those cities have traffic restrictions and only residents with permit can drive in those city centers.
