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Italy: What is cheaper? 4 city-to-city vs. Italian railway pass? Reserve?

Posted by (Wesley Chapel, NC, US) on

My wife and I are planning on this itinerary over about eight days:

Train Venice to Firenze
Train Firenze to Cinque Terre (La Spezia?)
(Cinque Terre trains/ferries)
Train from Cinque Terre to Assisi
Train from Assisi to Roma

Is it cheaper to just buy a pass or are these legs so small that it's cheaper to book them a la carte?

I think the RS pages say a 4 day pass is about $200/pp. I used his map (to greatly approximate) and they added up to about $170pp. I guess then it doesn't matter??? :)

Also, should we reserve for mid-July or just take our chances and by the tickets "on the spot?"

Pete & Roby, Italy Mid-July

Posted by
6898 posts

Given the itinerary you describe above, your most expensive ticket will be Venice to Florence. The ride on the Eurostar (your most likely train) is 35.20Euro ($49). Your other journeys will be on tracks that Eurostars do not run on. Florence to the CT is 9.20Euro ($12.70). Monterosso to Assisi is 24Euro ($33.12). Assisi to Rome is 13.55Euro (or less on the R train) ($18.70). That's $113.52.

Next, add in the 15Euro ($20.70) that Trenitalia will charge you to ride the one Eurostar with a Eurail pass. There is also one Eurostar out of Foligno (transfer from Assisi) that could be another $20.70 but most trains to Rome from Assisi are not Eurostars. I quoted the IC trains. I took these fares directly from www.trenitalia.com. You can clearly see that you don't need a railpass in Italy.

Posted by
167 posts

Larry, Thank You! That's great info.

Hey, should we purchase tickets ahead of time? Do the trains ever fill up?

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