My girlfriend and I will take a train from Venice to the CT in an upcoming trip. I saw several routes listed in an earlier post. One of these passes through Parma and Bologna, two towns we might want to see.
Would we buy a separate ticket for each leg-- or is it possible/less costly to buy a Venice to CT train ticket with some kind of "layover" built in?
Thanks!
You need separate tickets regardless. Some trains you will be taking (the one from Spezia to Parma) are Regionali. You take those at your leisure, but you have to validate them before boarding and they are valid for 6 hours from the time of validation.
The portion from Parma to Bologna and the portion from Bologna to Venice are two separate trains which are likely Freccia (=high speed) trains. Freccia trains must have a separate specific ticket indicating train number, seat number etc. in other words they require specific reservation and you can't just hop on one.
The price doesn't change, whether you stop in Parma (or Bologna) just to change the train, or if you stay 5 hours in town. However you must have a specific reservation for the train you will be taking if it's a Freccia or Intercity train, which will be the case except for La Spezia to Parma, which is a Regionale only.
Thanks again Roberto. I'll do a comparison online, and weigh out discount vs. flexibility.
