Rail Passes

According to eurail.com, you can buy an Italy Pass in Italy, but you will pay 20% more than if you buy it at home. However, for your trips advance purchase discount fare point-to-point tickets will be cheaper than a pass. Book ASAP (up to 90 days in advance) at trenitalia.com to get the cheapest fares. Rome-Salerno: The cheapest Mini fare on IC trains is €10. The standard 2nd class fare is €25. Salerno-Florence: The cheapest Mini fare on direct high-speed EuroStar Italia trains is €55. The standard 2nd class fare is €69. Cheaper yet would be to book an IC train from Salerno to Rome for a Mini fare of €10 and a ES Italia train from Rome to Florence for a Mini fare of €19. Florence-Rome: The cheapest Mini fare on ES Italia trains is €19. The standard 2nd class fare is €45.

Thanks Tim... I came upon a Eurail Pass First Class Saver pass that allows for 3 days of travel in a 2 month period for a total of $239. U.S. This will take us from Rome to Sorrento to Florence to Venice. Should I purchase from Rick Steves site or wait til I get to Rome?

If you decie to get a Eurail pass you can buy it yourself. Go to Eurail.com. There is a very helpful help email line if you have questions. One warning if you order it yourself using your credit card. The company you will be doing business with is in Netherlands so you should notify your credit card company ahead of time, otherwise the purchase will be rejected right away. If that happens you will be communicationg with the Eurail company and the credit card company. We have bought two Eurail passes this way.

You're welcome, Ken. Oops! I see that I quoted you fares for Florence-Rome rather than Florence-Venice. The best Mini fare for Florence-Venice is €34. The standard 2nd class fare is €43. Important note: The $239 1st class Saver pass price is for one person. Two passes will cost you $478. If you add up the Mini fares I gave you, the total comes to €73 ($96)/person for a total of $192. As I said in my previous post, buying passes at home will be cheaper than buying them when you get to Rome. Here is one other thing you need to know about passes. You'll have to buy seat reservations for every leg on every train that requires them. You can wait to buy them in Italy, but they will cost you €10 for every leg on an ES Italia train and €3 for every leg on an IC train. Now do you still want to buy passes? In your first post you said you were going from Rome to Salerno. In your last post you included Sorrento and didn't mention Salerno. Which is right? A pass will not be good on the Circumvesuviana commuter trains that run from Naples to Sorrento. (However, tickets are less than €5.) A pass will be good on Trenitalia trains from Rome to Salerno.

Ken, in Italy, you will pay a supplemental fee of 10Eu for each high-speed you will be on. You cannot simply hop onto these trains. The pass does not provide you a seat reservation which is required. If you transfer from one high-speed to another, you will pay a supplemental fee for each. Note also, that the train from Naples to Sorrento will not accept your Eurail pass. The mini-fares on the high-speeds mentioned above are really great if you can nail down your precise day and time of travel. You can purchase them online within 90 days of your travel. Buy early as they are limited and they will disappear as you get close to your travel date.