Trenitalia and eurail pass

When is your trip?

Looked at a couple of random dates and it appears the earliest arrival is just before 1PM ( 12:52). Most appear to be closer to 2PM

A 6+ hour train ride ( and train changes) to catch a time critical reservation, is way outside my comfort zone.

If I were doing this, I would plan on a much shorter trip on the day I was taking the Bernina Express

If you go the fastest way, it is an IC train to Milan which requires a reservation. The regional connection from Milan to Tirano does not require reservations. Depending on where you are in the Cinque Terre, you need a local train to Monterosso to get the early morning IC train to Milan, and that does not need a reservation.

Where are the instructions on how to use the pass; often unclear they are to the customers?

mattandkelly,

Given the travel time involved and the fact that the timing doesn't work well, you might consider stopping for at least one night in an intermediate location such as Varenna. If you were to use the 06:54 departure from Monterosso to Tirano, the trip would take about six hours and you'd then have several more on the Bernina Express (time depending on which end destination you choose).

If you were planning to use the direct panoramic Bernina Express coach, note that there's only one departure in each direction every day. The train from Tirano to Chur departs at 14:25, arriving Chur at 18:19. The Bernina Express is operated by Rhätische Bahn and I'm not sure whether they accept Railpasses? Hopefully one of the others can answer that. You should be able to book reservations on their website - https://www.rhb.ch/en/home .

Regarding the Railpass for Italy, these are not usually cost effective as rail tickets in Italy are relatively inexpensive. It's impossible to provide detailed information for the Italian rail trips without knowing which departures you will use. If you choose a departure that uses an Intercity train from Monterosso to Milano Centrale, you WILL require a reservation for that, which you can obtain at local stations for about €8-10 per person. Even with a Railpass, if you're caught without a valid reservation for the train you're riding on, you'll face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! If you were to buy local tickets and not use the Railpass, reservations would be included with the ticket. As others have mentioned, no reservations are necessary for the Regionale train from Milano Centrale to Varenna or Tirano. However if you use locally purchased tickets for those (rather than the Pass), you MUST validate the tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel or again, hefty fines.

All Italian trains except Regional and InterRegional require seat reservations. See also https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/italy-rail-passes. The problem you may be running into is that the usually-reliable DB train schedules use different notation for reservations on Italian trains. Notes that say "Global Price" when you view details for your schedule mean the same as "Subject to Compulsory Reservation."

You can make seat reservations:

• At train station ticket windows and ticket machines in Italy, short notice usually no problem.
• At https://ricksteves.mytraintravel.com/ at the same time that you buy the pass, but it would be a good idea only to request those parts that you know require reservations. Sometimes, a regional train or too many connections can "break" the process.
• At Trenitalia.com, you look at booking a ticket, choose a time, then see prices for "more offers" and choose the rate that says "Global." It's a bit buried.

Thanks to everyone for your help. It seems my worry over making this one specific train would be alleviated by staying in Milan in between. That way I have a little more flexibility and a lot less stress.