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Bus or Rail In Italy?

Posted by (Rochester, New York, USA) on

Hello,

My family and I are visiting Italy from 27 May - 4 June 2008. There are four in our party, my wife and I and daugthers ages 19 & 21. I'm looking for some input on which is the preferred mode of travel, bus or train, based on cost, convenience. comfort, etc. We are arriving in Milan on 27 May. We will travel to Florence 29 May - 1 June and Rome 1-4 June. We will fly home from Rome on 4 June. I have done some research on rail passes and point to point train travel via the RailEurope website. Bus info seems a little harder to come by. All comments and suggestions from seasoned Italian travelers are welcome. Thanks, John

Posted by
32350 posts

John,

I'd suggest looking at a combination of Bus and Rail, depending on where you'll be travelling. For example, if you're going from Florence to Siena the Bus is a better option as passengers are dropped in the centre of town, rather than the bottom of the hill. Check www.sitabus.it/wps/portal for details (the English link wasn't working for me?).

For rail information, check www.bahn.de for times and schedules or the TrenItalia website. Given the short time frame of your trip, I'd suggest you use high speed trains primarily (reservations will be required!), so that you don't waste a lot of time getting from one city to another.

Happy travels!

Posted by
8700 posts

Point-to-point train tickets are relatively cheap in Italy. A railpass is rarely cost effective, particularly in your case--assuming the only rides you'll be taking are Milan-Florence and Florence-Rome.

Rail Europe's timetables are incomplete and their fares are inflated. Go to www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html. For accurate information, do a dummy booking by entering a date within 60 days from today. Use Italian spellings: Milano, Firenze, Roma.

You could easily wait and buy all your tickets when you get to Milan. If seats are still available, you can get Amica fares (20% discount) by buying your tickets up to midnight of the day before departure. If those seats are gone, just get standard fares.

The ticket machines at major stations have an English option and the machines accept US credit cards.

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