I'm getting ready to buy our first train tickets for Europe-- Milan to Levanto on April 2nd.
The Trenitalia site shows numerous kinds of trains that do this run-- Frecciabianca, Regionale, Intercity. Is there any good reason NOT to go with the 12:10 or 14:05 Intercity?
I thought I read that the Freccia trains were the "major leagues" of trains in Italy-- but the Intercity goes through to Levanto with no changes.
Thanks!
No reason not to go with the IC in my opinion. My decision typically comes down to number of connections, cost and time spent on the train. Would I rather take a slower train and pay less, or pay more for a faster one? The Freccia are very nice, like you mentioned, but I would choose an IC for the reason you mention - no changes. The 12:10 and 14:05 you mention are also shorter time-wise than the Freccia. I would definitely choose a direct IC trip.
Thanks Devon!
Absolutely. The lone Frecciabianca requires you to change to a regional train in Genoa. Take a direct IC. The regional trains are all 2nd class unreserved, and can be a bit rickety, but hey, the price is right.
Sam thanks. You said the Regionals are all unreserved. Is that true of the Intercity as well?
Need to know if this is something I should knock out in my pre-trip "to do" list.
Hi Joe. The InterCity train has reserved seats. But you don't have to do anything separate; the seat reservation is automatically included when you buy the ticket. Enjoy your trip!
OK, I was able to buy the Milan-Levanto ticket without registering. However the site is requiring me to enter a User ID and Password to purchase my next journey, Levanto-Firenze. It doesn't look like I can do that w/o an Italian address.
Am I missing something? Anyone know of a workaround?
Thanks again
It looks like you will be taking a mixture of IC and R from Levanto to Florence. I think that's the reason you're having trouble on the Trenitalia website - I've heard from other people that they can't buy regionale tickets without registering. The good news is you don't need to buy those ahead of time. Just buy your IC ticket and then buy the R segment of the journey once you're in Italy. (And don't forget to validate the regionale ticket or you can be fined!)
Devon, that's just what I did and it worked fine. An added benefit-- we can take a later connection, and see Pisa sites then instead of taking a separate day trip. Thanks again!
Great! The regionale tickets aren't for any specific regional train, so you can buy the ticket for Pisa-Florence a few days in advance and just validate it before you hop on your train. Also, you probably know this, but the train station you'll most likely need (depending on where your hotel is, but this one is closest in to all the sights and such) is Firenze Santa Maria Novella, or Firenze SMN. Not Campo di Marte or some of the others.
