Train travel in Italy

Hi Jennie- you are probably looking at a date after mid-December. Treenitalia does not have the new schedule loaded onto the website yet, and does not show complete schedules. Also note that you must indicate a departure time on the chosen date, or it will default to local time, which may be in the middle of the night with no trains. Using a date next week, and starting at 7:00 am, you will see there are departures every hour or two, beginning at 7:39, and after that at 9:27, 11:27, 12:27, etc. You take a fast ES train to Bologna and change there for Revenna. The journey takes 3 hours. Even tho you are looking at a schedule for early December, and you are going later, it will not change much.

Also the german site bahn.de is very good for schedules. Europe train schedules are rarely posted more than about 60 days out. But they change little so just look at the same day of week within the next month.

Bahn.de is NOT a good place to look for schedules in the situation. Looking at a date in late December, one month from now (Dec. 26) Bahn.de shows only one possibility- a ridiculous 9- hour journey down to Rome and from there to Ravenna, both legs on ES trains. That would be enough to discourage anyone from making the trip. Trenitalia also shows only possibility for that date, which is probably the one Jennie found. It is also on all ES trains, but at least it is a more reasonable four hours, not nine! But both answers are wrong, because the schedules for travel dates after mid-December are not yet complete for Trenitalia. Best to the same day of the week but before Dec. 12 to see the schedule ( for general planning purposes.). Then start checking back frequently to see when the complete schedule for the actual day of travel is posted, so you can get the mini fares on the ES leg of the journey. The regional train from Bologna to Ravenna can be purchases any time; there are no discounts on these trains.

As a general rule-of-thumb, for shorter train trips in Italy involving regional trains the most adequate thing to do is to query for a trip the following week from today's date, get an idea of prices and schedule, and then query for trains when the new timetable becomes available.

Andre is exactly right. Often Regional and Regional Veloce schedules won't show up more than a week ahead of time, or if they do they seem "unpurchaseable." However, the schedule is likely to stay the same - enough so that you can get an idea of it. If you are in Italy and purchasing tickets, your Regional or Regional Veloce ticket is valid for the route, not a specific train. You could buy a ticket today and it will last 90 days. So you can still buy a ticket, even if you are more than a week out.

The Bahn site cannot show the new timetables for Trenitalia routes until Trenitalia finishes uploading them to its site. And Trenitalia is notorious for being the last national rail site to post the twice-yearly s that go into effect every June and December throughout Europe. Once Trenitalia gets its act together, the timetables will appear on the Bahn site.

We are also planning to travel through Italy mainly by train for a couple of weeks, and was wondering about the practicality of taking the train from Florence for a layover in Paris then another train trip to London for a few more days and then returning to Paris to catch a return flight to the US. Does this strategy make sense or should we fly from Florence to London and catch a train to Paris and visit that city before flying home? Cost is more of an issue than time required for travels.

If cost is the issue, you would probably do best to fly from Florence to London on one of the low-cost carriers, and then take the Eurostar to Paris. Book that Eurostar train EARLY, like 4 months ahead, to get the best price. Note: sometimes you can find the best price on the Eurostar by traveling round-trip, in which case you might be better off with train the whole way. But you'll need to be diligent about buying the advance-purchase discount tickets for the trip from Florence to Paris.

Thanks, I definitely have a much better idea about what's practical now.