Traveling by train

From Florence to Vernazza, you will mostly be on a Regionale or Reginale Veloce class train. The Regionale train is like BART - it makes every stop. And, like BART, no seat reservations. You buy your ticket, get on and then find your own seat. If no seats, you can stand. One big difference between the Regionale and BART is that the Regionale has nicer train seats. More comfortable. You will stop at Pisa and you will stop at La Spezia Centrale before entering the Cinque Terre. You also will change trains 1-2 times to get to Vernazza (Usually once). No way of avoiding the train changes. The Regionales from La Spezia Centrale are locals that go back and forth through the CT. High-speeds rarely stop in the CT stations. You will receive one ticket for each train that you will be on. Also for the Regionale tickets, you will need to validate each one at the little yellow box in the train station (there are several). Hopefully, they work. I suggest that you place your luagge in the overhead racks inside the carriage. And, over your head if you can. There are stands at the ends of the carriages but this is where the theives sometimes grab them and hop off the train. Overhead is just fine. It will take about 3.5 hours to get to Vernazza. I forget which CT station it is but at one of them, you might get off in the tunnel if you are in the rear carriages. It's OK. Just get off and step up to the platform. Fun stuff. Another ticket lesson. For the Reginale trains, your ticket is good for 60 days. On the ticket, you will not see a specific train, travel date or travel time. You can ride any train making the run over that 60-day period. Thus, you can pre-purchase your Vernazza/Siena tickets at the ticket machines in Florence. See next message.

Morgan, a few thoughts. To address "safe", while the advice is to keep your luggage where you can see it, on crowded trains, that's not alway practical. I travel with a very lightweight retractable cable lock (Paksafe brand, I think), which I use to tether my luggage to something solid. It's not much bigger than a padlock and is lighter. Just make sure the cable is long enough. I think mine is at least 18 inches; the little 4 inch ones wouldn't work. And depending on travel schedule/fatigue factor/train transfer time, there are times when 1st class is nice and I've decided it's worth the money. The cars are usually much less crowded, so I can settle in more comfortably and keep my luggage near me. That also makes it easier to get off the train in a hurry when I have a tight transfer time. And the cars are more comfortable. When I bought a pass, the cost difference between 1st and 2nd class wasn't much. That may have changed. And finally, when you are planning/booking, do look at transfer timesthe schedules don't always leave enough time. In some stations, it's a meaningful walk/run (with luggage), it's not always clear where you're supposed to go, and it sometimes takes time to find a rail employee for help (most speak some English). That said, I never succeed with public transportation at home and almost never use it (you know what it's like in the South Bay), but I find the trains in Italy pretty easy to navigate. Enjoy your trip!

As I said in the previous message, you can easily purchase your tickets from Vernazza to Siena in Florence before you depart for Vernazza. A couple of notes. 1) Look carefully at the runs. Some runs have one train change (Pisa) and some have two (Pisa and Empoli). On the two change runs there may be a high-speed as the middle train. This is great but it costs more money and, it's a train with seat reservations. Look for the runs with one train change with both trains being Regionales. These runs are a bit slower but no much slower. It's worth it for the flexibility. 2) At Siena, the train station is just short of a mile slightly downhill from the city. There are buses that will take you up to the city wall and taxis that will take you close to your hotel. From Siena to Rome you have three choices. 1) Regional train to Florence and high-speed to Rome Termini. 2) Regionale to Chiusi and InterCity to Rome. Fare for #1 is 63.70E without mini-fares. Fare for #2 is 28.10E. Interestingly, the travel time is the same. There are mini-fares on both runs but guess which one I'd choose. 3) SENA bus run from Siena to the Rome-Tiburtina train station. Cheapest cost. Takes 3hrs on the bus with a stop a Chiusi. Tiburtina is 4 stops on the metro from Rome Termini.

You use the term, "safe" twice. What do you mean by safe?

Traveling by train is really fast and easy, it is also quite safe. There is not a huge difference between first and second class so don't waste the money. You can use the trenitalia site to find fares and schedules. For the trip from FCO to Florence you'll need to go from FCO to the termini station and then catch the fast train to Florence. I would not book this ticket ahead of time in case your plane is delayed. You can easily buy the express ticket to the termini and the fast train ticket at the airport. For the Florence to Vernazza trip you'll be on regional trains so you won't need to purchase those in advance. There are no seat reservations and they never sell out. Just pick them up the morning you wish to travel. For Vernazza to Siena most of the trips are on regional trains but there are a couple of trips that use the high speed trains. These take less time but cost a lot more. You'll need to decide if you want to book the high speed train portion ahead of time or at the station. For Siena to Rome you'll take a regional train to Florence and change to a high speed train. Again, you can book the high speed portion in advance but not the regional portion. By booking the high speed portion in advance you can save lots of money but you're married to that specific train and time. The tickets have very strict change policies. By buying them at the station you have much more flexibility with your schedule. The trains never sell out, with the exception of an occasional holiday, and there are many trains an hour so you can always find something that works. Donna

By "safe" I mean are the trains normally on time and you can count on getting to and from on a schedule? Is there high theft? Etc etc. I know no matter where you go you should always protect and watch out for your stuff, but do you need to be extra careful? And the second "safe" referring to waiting to buy tickets once you are there... I mean is it a gamble to wait to purchase tickets when you are there and they could be sold out and we'll be stuck? Or is it not a gamble and most trains will have seats available for the two of us? Thanks!

Thank you, Donna! This is so SO helpful. Just what I was looking for and curious about!
:)

Morgan, from Fiumicino airport (Rome-FCO) to Florence, you will be on two trains. The first is the Leonardo Express from in front of Terminal 3 to Rome Termini. This is a Regionale-class train but you pay the first class fare of 14E. Then, you transfer at Rome Termini to the train to Florence. There are about 55 high-speeds a day so don't worry about missing a train. It's a lot more than BART into the City (yes, I'm a native). Now a couple of thoughts. 1) You can buy these tickets in advance but as Dona points out, the ticket for the run from Rome to Florence is locked into a specific train on a specific date and at a specific time. You must be on that train. This is the same with all high-speed and Intercity class trains in Italy. 2) If you are certain of the date and times of your travel, the reserved high-speed tickets are just fine. Besides, it's really the only way to take advantage of the wonderful mini-fares. However, there is one important caution. The worst time to do this is just after you arrive on a plane (as you might be doing). If you plane is late or you incur other obstacles in Immigration or both, you could miss your high-speed and your ticket would be toast. 3) You can easily buy your tickets straight through to Florence at the Terminal 3 ticket booth. Just allow enough time to make the change at Rome Termini as the Leonardo Express arrives on Track 25 at Termini and there is a small hike to the high-speed tracks. Not bad but don't cut it too short. Seeing as how there are about 3 trains an hour departing for Rome, you won't be late. By the way, 480,000 people go through Rome Termini on a typical day. What a hoot. More coming.

Morgan, First of all, congratulations! I have a few comments to add. The other replies have provided good information on which trains to use. For travel in September, it's generally "safe" to just buy tickets in Italy either from the Kiosks or from the staffed ticket windows. I normally try to buy tickets for outgoing trips at least a day or two before I'll be travelling. A good method is to buy ongoing tickets when you arrive in a city, as you'll be at the station anyway. Note that the discounted "Mini" tickets have to purchased prior to midnight at least 48-hours before travel. You can buy your tickets from Roma / FCO to Florence at the airport station. You'll likely be issued two tickets, one for the Leonardo Express to Termini and one for the EuroStar Italia / Alta Velocita from Rome to Florence. One VERY IMPORTANT point - BE SURE to validate your ticket for Regionale trains (including the LE) in the yellow machine PRIOR to boarding, or you could face a hefty fine, which will be collected on the spot! With the high speed ES/AV trains, you'll be assigned a Car No. (Carozza) and a Seat No. (Posti), and it's not necessary to validate these (since they're only good for a particular train and travel time). I sometimes validate anyway, just to be sure! Note that when you arrive in Siena, you'll have to take a Taxi or Bus from the station up to town. When you leave Siena, I'd suggest asking your Hotel to pre-arrange a Taxi. If you have really LARGE bags, you'll have to leave them on the rack at the end of the car. Be sure to watch them! Smaller items can be kept with you, either on the rack above the seat or on the seat beside you. Be sure to wear Money Belts! Happy travels!

One more note about validating: you should validate (put the ticket into the little yellow box at the train track, you'll see lots of other people doing it) on trains that don't have a reservation. The newer validation boxes won't even take the reserved seat tickets, they don't fit, so don't worry about that. If your ticket shows a seat assignment, you don't have to validate. As for luggage safety, most trains have a space between the two opposite-facing (back-to-back) rows that can take a rolling carry on or a flexible duffle bag. Overhead storage is pretty spacious, too. None of the trips you mention is very long.