Train ticket prices

Miss B -

It takes a bit of playing around with the Trenitalia website, but you can get fares for your trip by setting the request to "Standard".

Does that help?

Go to www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html. This is the English page. Fill in "Leaving From", "Going To" and the five boxes. Select send. A train schedule will appear. Pick the one you want and select "Buy". (Don't worry, nothing will lock in). The Fares Choice page will appear. In the "Choose Your Fare" window, select "Standard". After you select Standard, the page will refresh and you can see the fare in the 1st class and 2nd class windows. Fill in the number of people and it will refresh again. The 2nd class fare from Rome to Venice for one person is 51 Euro. From Venice to Florence, it's 33 Euro. And so on. Have fun.

Thanks for the info. At the present I'm on raileurope and finding the trains mostly sold out in 2nd class from Venice to Florence on the 23rd Oct. So much for waiting to book your train for the time frame you want. It will be interesting to see when we get out of Venice! I will go to the websites you mentioned. Thanks again.

Miss B -

You may be getting blanked out on Rail Europe because it has a limited number of tickets to sell online. Look on www.trenitalia.it and go through the steps Larry listed. There are plenty of trains from Venice to Florence and I'd be surprised if they are already book.

Miss B, I will guarantee you that the trains from Venice to Florence on 10/23 are not sold out. RailEurope is an agency. Their prices are much higher than I quoted above. Look for yourself. Here's the TRAIN SCHEDULE for the day you want. 4 Eurostars and 1 EuroCity depart within 30 minutes. Many more depart during the day. See any "SOLD OUTS"? You can buy tickets on any one of them right now if Trenitalia had a site friendly to the U.S.- which they don't. Every train trip I've taken in Italy, I buy the tickets 1-3 days before I travel. Just don't walk up to the ticket window without knowing what train you want. Get it all written down - date, time, train number, destination. Hand it to the agent and he'll tell you the price. You give him the money and he prints your tickets - seat reservations and all.

The websites are very interesting to look at. On RailEurope the schedules show quite a few trains sold out for 2nd class. The trenitalia site shows open seats. I will continue "playing around" with the sites but will wait until we get to Rome to purchase our tickets for the segments of our trip. Thank you for enlightening me. I'll keep looking here for help and suggestions.

Way to go. You'll do just fine.

Miss B, one other piece of advice. Instead of waiting in lines for an agent, use the automated machines in most stations. Roma Termini has lots of 'em. If you can use an ATM you can use these. Start by clicking on the British flag and then all the prompts will be in english. You can see the schedule for the current day and the next few days. So instead of having an impatient agent who wants to get you booked and keep the line moving, you can spend a minute or two thinking about it.

About the only catch is to look at the machine before you start using it to make sure it will accept the way you want to pay; some are cash-only, others take credit cards.

Thanks Norm,
I was sure I would hear something from you since you have so many answers on the train issue. I'm just trying to get an "estimate" of what our train transporation will cost us for our trip for two weeks.
thanks again.
I hope you are having a good day.
Bonnie

Mike, Thanks for the heads up to see what type of payment the train ticket machines will take. My husband is the brains of reading the travel schedules, i.e. trains, machines, ATM's, etc. :-)
I just want to remember to validate my ticket BEFORE boarding the trains. Does anyone have the approximate cost of the train from Orvieto to Roma. Since it is a local/regional train the website doesn't show the cost since one can't buy on-line. I'm guessing the train from La Spezia to Vernazza is only a few Euros. Grazie.

Orvieto to Rome is about 13 Euro/pp, second class.

I have been attempting to find the best way to travel from Marseilla-ST Charles station to Florence. The train, overnight in a 3 person sleeper, seems to be the best option for us. I am traveling with a 70 year old Aunt, so unlike my other 3 trips to Italy, I am trying to have firm plans. I have tried repeatedly to use the links that you have suggested but everytime I enter the cities, it request the Stations. I am guessing they want the codes, but I have no way of knowing! The other site keep asking me about my return trip when I want only a one way ticket. FRUSTRATING!
There also seems to be very inexpensive rates compared to Eurail--which I have found to be very expensive.
Finally--any good suggestions for nice hotel near SMN station in Florence? I am looking at Aurora Hotel--any feedback? Many Thanks!