I will be traveling in Europe with a global rail pass. I wanted to stay for several days in Verona and take day trips by train from there. After checking the train schedules to Venice & Florence and other places about 1 hr. away. I've learned that all the trains require reservation which can cost $15 or $20 each way. Are there any trains in Italy that don't require this? Any way around this? This money adds up fast.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
You just discovered the big flaw with rail passes. All trains everywhere will charge for reservations and require a premium payment for the high speed trains. In Italy all trains except the Regional trains require a reservation and if it in involved changing trains each leg has the fee, Only way around is to use the Regional train. Unfortunately the Regional trains are so cheap that it hardly makes any sense to burn a day of the rail pass.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Debbie, in Italy, there is a 10E ($15) supplemental fee for each high-speed that you will be on. It's gotten better as it used to be up to 28E). For the IC trains, there is a 3E supplemental fee. You must have seat reservations to jump on these trains and you must pay the supplemental fee first to get the seat reservation. Don't blame Italy alone. All of the countries will charge the Eurail pass users some type of fee to ride their better trains. The Thalys train between France and Belgium is the worse. They charge up to 45E ($65) for 2nd class and up to 71E ($103) for 1st class. Guess what. All of this information is on the Eurail website. It's just that there is no benefit to Eurail to telll you about it. For your last question, you can hop on any Regionale train without a seat reservation or supplemental fee. Ne seat reservations are permitted on the Regionales. Of course, these trains stop at every stop and take twice as long to get where you are going but there is no extra cost. Now another fun part. Most Regionale trains are not really inter-regionale. They do run inter-region but you have to know what you're looking for. The newer Rgionale Veloce train does now make longer Inter-regionale runs. If you look at the www.trenitalia.com website, you won't see a Regionale train run between Venice and Florence. This is not a reginale journey. What you can do is catch the Regionale Veloce train from Venice to Bologna and then change trains for another Regionale Veloce from Bologna to Florence. These trains do run on the same tracks as the high-speeds.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I'll add to Larry's comments. There is frequent regional train service all day between Verona and Venice as well as high-speed train service. Jump on any regional train. The ride takes 2 hours, twice as long as a high-speed EuroStar Italia train, but you won't have to pay for a seat reservation. For Verona-Florence taking a high-speed train, at least one-way, may be worth it for the time saving even though you'll pay €10 for a seat reservation.