We just returned from our three week Italy trip beginning October 1. Make sure your train tickets are validated properly as well as any bus tickets. Ask if you are not sure. We found every train we were on had conductors examining tickets (some more than once). One poor fellow did not have proper validation and was fined big time. The ticket examiner yelled at him for about five minutes straight and then brought out his credit card machine to run the passenger’s credit card right there. Big fine! On a bus trip in Siena two ticket examiners boarded and checked everyone’s tickets. We had just inserted our tickets into the validation machine! Some buses had validation machines at front and rear of bus.
The Circumvesuviana line to/from Naples was still extremely crowded in October. No seats anywhere and pretty uncomfortable. Extremely cheap tickets though. We paid extra for the Campania Express leaving Piano di Sorrento to Napoli. Website said we were guaranteed seats! Not true! All seats were taken but standing was not nearly as bad due to lack of crowd. And by the way, we thought the Campania Express would be a totally separate train......NOT! Turns out it was the LAST car on the normal Circumvesuviana train! A woman yelled out from the train when it rolled into the station announcing “Campania Express”! She checked our tickets and only would board those who had paid the extra fare. My husband and I each got to stand in our respective corners!