Traveling by train to destinations

Hi Megan, Both Trenitalia and its competitor, Italo Treno have high-speed trains running from Ferrara to Rome, Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice. If you only look at Trenitalia’s or the italiarail websites, you will not see Italotreno’s tickets listed. And Trenitalia is prohibited by Italian law from selling tickets before the revised train schedules are issued mid-year on June 9 for trains departing after that date. This is why you might want to take a look at www.TheTrainline.com to see what high-speed train tickets are available. The Trainline is a private company that contracts with Trenitalia to sell train tickets and often is selling the least expensive tickets online before Trenitalia even has them up for sale. And The Trainline sells both Trenitalia and Italotreno tickets, so you can shop the entire marketplace on one website before buying any tickets.
Because local and regional train ticket prices do not fluctuate, you can buy those at the train stations or online just before departure time. You might want to wait until arriving in Venice to buy a regional train ticket for Venice to Ferrara because the regional trains only take 15-20 minutes longer than the high-speed trains and you won’t be under any pressure to make your high-speed train on time. When it comes to high-speed Italian train tickets, the lowest prices are when they first go on sale.

Have a great trip!

The train station in the airport area is Venezia Mestre. There is frequent bus service from the airport to the station, but with 6 people and luggage, you might be better off taking 2 taxis as it will be about the same cost and quicker.

The train you want is a Regionale Veloce that goes at 53 past the hour. Landing at 5 PM, the 6:53 PM train should be makeable. Cost is 9.45 EUR per person and takes 1 hour and 19 minutes to Ferrara. You can buy tickets with the app once you have cleared immigration and got all your luggage and are confident you can make the train.

If you purchase your Trenitalia tickets for Regionale trains with the app - so your tickets are digital - you MUST check in before boarding your train. The process is described here:

https://www.trenitalia.com/en/purchase/digital-regional-ticket.html

You can avoid this process by purchasing paper tickets at the station and validating them manually in the time-stamping machines, usually near the tracks, before boarding. Check-in is NOT needed for "fast" trains for which you have an assigned train, carriage and seat.

A previous thread from a poster wth a firsthand experience:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/new-trenitalia-regionale-ticket-system-report-from-on-the-ground

Even if the plane arrives on time, exiting the airport may go quickly or slowly. Getting to the train station may go quickly or slowly. I would not want to buy tickets in advace for the trip to Ferrara unless they are very cheap and I can absorb the loss in the train is missed.

Both Trenitalia and its competitor, Italorail,

Slight correction needed here-

The 2 train companies in Italy are
Trenitalia
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html

and
Italotreno
https://www.italotreno.it/en

Both have easy to use apps.
ItaloTreno only runs fast trains - some locations. (In OPs case- they do not service Ferrara)

ItaliaRail and Trainline are third party resellers.

Italo Treno
Of course!

LOL!😆

Good day,

For me, an old timer, its much easier to log into Trenitalia (or Italo) on a computer to make my bookings. For me, the interface is much easier to navigate, options easier to compare and seats easier to pick. Of course we do use the app for our tickets, after the purchase, so we can show the train staff. Trenitalia also has Family tickets, which may be a little cheaper if they are available for your particular route. The "journey type" question does not ring a bell for me, may be an app specific issue. I am thinking it may be asking if your trip is one way or round trip (return). I generally use Trenitalia but Italo is fine too. In my experience, Trenitalia offers more early morning options which works for our day trips. Good luck, it looks like you have a wonderful trip planned.

Why don't you fly multi city so you don't have to backtrack? Also, it's easier to fly into Venice and out of Rome. Perhaps flip your itinerary? Have a great trip!

We can't change our flight info now without a fee so I planned to go farthest away and travel back up but I learned from this trip to help for future ones!