WHAT TRAIN PASS IS BEST SUITED FOR TRAVEL IN ITALY

The RS office has folks who deal specifically with railpasses, and I found them to be hugely helpful in sorting out options (see the home page of the RS website for contact info). And buying from them was the same price as other vendors, but they had some nice extras--don't know if that's always the case.

Be sure you use Trenitalia to figure your ticket prices, not RailEurope. Remember that reservations are required on all trains except for the Regional ones, so you muct add the cost of reservations to the cost of the pass. I believe for ES trains it is 10 euros per train. If your trip requires 2 trains that is two separate reservations. For Florence to Siena it is not worth using a day on your pass, as the trip is only 6,40 euros each way by regional train. A 5-day Saver pass for Italy would be $235 per person (accordingl to prices on this website), so each "pass" day costs $47. No point using that for a 12,80 euro round trip. Your 10-year old can travel free on the "Bimbi gratis" offer, so you should look into that. This is only good for families using tickets, not passes. In other words, I don't think passes are the way to go for your travel in Italy.

Im also not sure a pass is better.For the Florence to Siena trip the bus is better.See Steves book for reason why.

For what it is worth, many people on here have done the math, and rarely does a pass pay in Italy. As Lola mentioned, the cost of a pass is about $50 USD a day, and by the time you add on reservation fees, most routes can be cheaper by buying full price Point to Point tickets over there. The only routes that pay would be something like Naples to Venice, then Venice to the CT then, CT to maybe Brindisi, then Brindisi to Florence. Hopping all over the country when shorter more efficient routes would be better. Essentially, the trips just are not long enough to make a pass pay. Add to that, that now you can book more easily on Trenitalia from the US, taking advantage of early purchase, plus discounts available to families and young children. Become aquainted with www.trenitalia.com and recalculate.

thanks for all the much needed advice.

Am in siminlar position and confused by Italian train passes etc, have found the website www.seat61.com invaluable so far. The man in Seat 61. You can email him with any queries.

many thanks. will try that site.

Unfortunately, you don't provide information on where you will be traveling in Italy and how often you expect to be on the train. Many train journeys in Italy are on Regionale trains. It's the only type of train that will permit you to hop on with your pass without first paying a supplemental fee. Florence to the CT and Florence to Siena are two such journeys. The costs for these runs are so cheap that it would never be worth buying a pass. Also, many of the runs in Italy will consist of more than one train. These could be a combination of high-speeds and Regionales. There is a 10E supplemental fee on all of the high-speeds (Eurostar class trains). Next, if you book in advance on www.trenitalia.com, you can take advantage of the great mini-fares. (Note that Trenitalia will not sell tickets for the Regionale train runs more than 7 days out). You won't get any mini-fares with your pass. Next, your 10-year old can ride for 1/2 fare. You won't get that either with your pass. Finally, in Italy, you often have the choice of the high-speed Eurostars or the much slower Regionale trains that run on the same tracks. Yes the Regionales are slower and make more stops but they are also 50% less expensive to ride. If you are willing to do a bit more planning on your dates and times of travel and are willing to commit to specific departure times on the high-speeds, you can save lots of money. There will be no way a travel pass will be able to compete. We can provide better train travel costs if you provide a better travel itinerary.