train travel in Italy

Use the trenitalia.com website. Very easy to use, just remember that when you are searching for tickets, you must also enter the time of day in the box next to the date. Don't go through a re-seller for anything that you can purchase directly from trenitalia. They will just cost you more. Your day trips are likely to be on regional train and the routes between major cities can be done on the high speed trains, with reservations, and done in advance if you prefer. I don't know the ins-and-outs of the eurail pass, but have read that you still need to pay for a "seat" reservation for every high speed train that you book, 10 euro I believe. That will add up. You need to spend some time mapping out your point to point tickets and getting a rough idea what they will cost, and that also means figuring out what can be included on a Eurail and what cannot, and then adding back in the "per seat" fee for the high speed trains so that you can get a clearer picture of if it is worth it. What time of the year are you travelling? Eurail pass aside, if it is low season, you needn't worry about booking in advance. Just pay as you go. Here is link to Rick Steve's on train travel: http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/italy.cfm

I hope you've got more than eight days to see all those cities! Carrie has given you some good advice. I'd not buy a Rail Pass... but the only real way to find out is to get out a pencil and paper and work out where you want to go. A pass can be advantageous for frequent travelers. But in most cases, no. Point-to-Point tickets in Italy are very inexpensive, especially on the local or Regionale trains. First you might read this post, Riding Trains in Italy. It can give you some background and pictures. Then, to book online, you might work through this article: Booking on the Trenitalia Website. The best discount going currently is the Trenitalia MINI promotion. You can save up to 60% buying your tickets in advance. Start there and you can click on other links in those articles that may assist you. Good Luck!

Thank you very much for the info. The links helped alot. Especially that Ron in Rome one. Any idea if Visa is accepted at the train stations or kiosks?

Hi Shari. Your Visa card will gladly be accepted at the ticket windows. The machines are hit or miss for your cc card, but they will take cash. Enjoy your trip!

Shari - I think you have been given excellent advice above as far as trains and ticketing is concerned. I have one suggestion, however. I think you should consider a guided bus tour out of Rome for the visit to Naples/Pompei. There are a large number of companies that offer them. I've had good luck in the past with Enjoy Rome which is located about a five minute walk from Termini. You can Google them. It is not that doing that trip by train is difficult, but you are going to need a guide anyway to get the most out of Pompei, so ...

I appreciate the suggestion but I already booked our Pompeii tour. That's why I need to get the trains from/to Rome/Naples/Pompeii. Thank you again though for the suggestion.

Shari, there are automatic ticket machines in most train stations with instructions in lots of languages. I've also gone to the Trenitalia customer care office in the larger cities and bought several separate tickets to avoid lines at each station. The "long" trips you mention are not more than 3 hours, some are even faster on the newer trains (fares are higher than on the Regionale trains). If you are using regional trains, make sure you can get to your destination and back in the same day, allowing the time you want to spend in each city. Ron in Rome is the best!