Travel from Rome to Lucca

joe, As the others have mentioned...... 1.) Use P-P tickets rather than a Railpass. For the few trips you're taking, a Railpass will not be cost effective. 2.) There's a train station right at FCO, so you won't need a Taxi. You may find it helpful to have a look at the excellent www.roninrome.com/transportation/to-from-leonardo-da-vinci-airport-fco website. You can buy all your tickets through to Lucca at the FCO rail station. The easiest route appears to be: > FR1 train from FCO to Roma Tiburtina. As that's a Regionale train, BE SURE to validate your tickets prior to boarding the train, or you'll be subject to a hefty fine which will be collected on the spot! There are several tracks at the FCO station, and as I recall the FR1 will be on the LEFT when facing with your back to the airport. > Freccia high speed (300 kmH) from Tiburtina to Firenze SMN. > Regionale from Firenze SMN to Lucca (again, be sure to validate your tickets prior to boarding the train). The specifics of the trains you'll be using will depend on which one you can connect with after your flight lands. Use the Trenitalia website to see the options. 3.) As mentioned above. 4.) It's risky to pre-purchase tickets, as if your flight is late and you miss the train, the tickets for the high speed train (which has compulsory reservations) will be worthless and you'll have to buy more at full price. I'd suggest just buying at the FCO rail station, even though the cost will be slighly higher. They do take credit cards. Visa and MasterCard are both accepted in many places, but American Express only in a few places and Discover cards are mostly worthless in Europe (AFAIK). Happy travels!

Joe, A few other points to mention..... On the second leg of your trip, from Roma Tiburtina to Firenze SMN on the Freccia train, you'll be assigned a Car No. (Carrozza) and Seat No's (Posti). You can ONLY sit in the assigned location. The small card/ticket will show that information. With the other trips on the Regionale trains, you can sit wherever there's an empty seat. DON'T FORGET to validate the Regionale tickets! Be sure to check the electronic arrivals/departures board to determine the track number where your train is located. It will be shown as "BIN" (Binario). You could also check the large paper charts in each station, but I've found those are not always accurate. Changing track numbers seem to occur frequently in Italy. Also, in some cases the electronic boards don't display the information until about 20-30 minutes prior to departure. Your trip has two changes and hopefully you won't have any problems dealing with that while in a jet-lagged state. Cheers!

1. Do not get a railpass. 2. While you can save money by buying an advance ticket for the Rome-Florence leg, if you miss it, the money is gone. So unless you have some slack time in Rome, just buy at the station. Full fare 2nd class is 43 Euro. 3. Take the train from the airport to Rome Termini station. that's where you catch the long distance train to Florence. 4. Florence to Lucca is just a regional train, so buy at the station. the fare is 7.10 Euro.
5. You can purchase a through ticket at the airport. For 58.10 Euro or lower.

For train schedule consult the trenitalia website at: www.trenitalia.com Enter: From: FIUMICINO AEROPORTO To: LUCCA Enter a date in the next 7 days since Regional trains' schedules are loaded weekly.
For time enter: 00 to see all trains starting from early morning. As Sam mentioned, since you don't know if your airplane will arrive timely, it is best to buy the tickets at the Fiumicino Aeroporto station (that's the train station right at the Rome Airport, across the street from the terminal. If you are staying in the city of Lucca proper, a car is not necessary. However if your accommodations are in a farmhouse outside of Lucca, then a rental car may be necessary.

Thanks to all who answered my questions on rail travel from Rome to Lucca. Several mentioned the importance of validating our tickets. How/where is that done?

joe, Scroll down to the bottom of THIS web page. This shows both the yellow validation machines as well as the electronic information boards in the station. The machines will be located near the tracks, mounted either on the wall or a pillar. Note that the machines may also be blue and gray rather than yellow. You'll insért the ticket in the front of the machine, and it will be time & date stamped. There's also a link on the website that describes the Leonardo Express and FR1 areas of the station, and there's another photo there showing the yellow Validation machines. If the machine is out of order, try and find another one or speak with a staff member (there's usually a Conductor or whatever on the platform shortly before departure). The small digital display on the front of the unit will show whether it's working or not. Note that Bus tickets in Italy must also be validated, and in that case the machines may be onboard the Bus.