We leave for Europe on May 14th and would like to book our train tickets. The La Spezia to Rome train seems to only have one 6:30 p.m. train. We want to leave in the morning. Will more trains become available yet? I'm buying from the RailEurope site. Also, there are no routes available from Interlaken to Venice yet. Why are they not available yet. Do I still have time to wait for all routes to become available or should I book what's available right away. I want to buy together so I don't have to pay the booking fee more than once. Thanks for your help.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8050 posts
RailEurope only sells select routes, basically premium trains at a premium price. You would be fine waiting until you are there, but if you are convinced to buy ahead, buy direct from Trenitalia. There, you will see that the most likely route would be a regional train from La Spezia to Pisa, then many options for Pisa to Rome.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8050 posts
Just to add to the previous post, as an example, Trenitalia shows (for May 17th) 11 different departures from La Spezia before noon, and 18 for the day. It looks like there is a departure about every hour through the day, sometimes two. For Interlaken/Venice try the German site Duetsch Bahn, even though you will not be in Germany, they have one of the most comprehensive sites for all of Europe, just can't purchase non-German tickets there.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
A lot of people wait until they are in Italy to buy their tix. Use the automated kiosk in most train stations (I know the Termini station has them, most stations do, but since I've never been to La Spezia I don't know about it). Buy them by midnight the nite before you travel and you get the amici fare (20% discount). On most routes, such as the ones tourists are likely to take, their are many trains each day so they're not going to sell out; especially not in May, which is not peak season.
Tix you might want to purchase for travel within Italy in advance are overnite trains.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
La Spezia has a nice train station where you can easily purchase tickets to Rome. The journey is about 4.5hrs. Some runs have train changes and some don't.
CLICK HERE to see a early morning train schedule for May 17. I don't see a 6:30am train on the Trenitalia website. However, I do see two trains that leave before 6:00am. The first at 5:15am has two train changes. The second at 5:46am has none. The second train goes down the west coast of Italy and then turns East into Rome. The first train goes through Florence and central Italy.
There's a McDonald's in the La Spezia train station. I don't know how early they open. Nice to pick up some breakfast and then jump on the train.