Train Travel - Italy

First, R Europe is not a good choice for scheduling. RE is travel agency and not a rail company. They only show schedules for trains that they sell tickets for. Use trenitalia.com. It is easy to use and you can get discount tickets if you are will to commit to a fixed time and schedule. The time between trains is more than adequate. Second I would go with the later time (7:50) You are on vacation why push yourself for a 6:20 departure. The difference is 30 minutes. Is 30 mins really that significant for you.

That is great to know Frank - and like I say, I am a total neophyte to the train systems in Italy! thank you for the feedback, as I will go onto the site now and look at their scheduling. Thank you again.

Bethany, As Frank mentioned, it's not a good idea to use Rail Europe as a source for rail travel information. The Trenitalia website is far more accurate for travel in Italy. For the trip from Venice to the Cinque Terre, you'll need to allow about five hours for the trip. Could you indicate which of the five villages you plan to stay in? Unless there's a specific reason you want to reach the C.T. early, I'd probably leave after 08:00. Using La Spezia as the destination, here's one trip that should work for you: 08:27 - Depart Venezia Santa Lucia 10:30 - Arrive Firenze S.M.N. 10:53 - Depart Firenze 13:00 - Arrive Sarzana
13:07 - Depart Sazana 13:25 - Arrive La Spezia Centrale From La Spezia you can transfer to the local train for the ride to whichever village you'll be staying in. When you buy your tickets in Venice, be sure to specify which village will be your end destination. Note that the trip from Venice to Florence will be with a "reserved" seat, so you'll be assigned a Car No. (Carrozza) and a Seat No. (Posti). The other trains are Regionale, so just sit anywhere (if you have a Second Class ticket, you can only sit in a second class car). The current fare for that route is €52.40. You may be able to qualify for a "Mini" fare if you book a few days in advance. Note that changing trains often involves a trip down stairs to a tunnel (Sottopassagio) and then up stairs to the next platform, so be sure to pack light! Happy travels!

I am amazed at how helpful this has been - thank you for the info on trainitalia - the options are much more conducive to our "tentative" plans.

I am having a really difficult time on Train Italia with purchasing tickets. It is not giving me the ticketless option and the home shipping it is stating does not qualify. Has anyone booked a month in adavnce and had these issues? I would like to avoid waiting in line to get my tickets when i arrive. I read through the instructions and it appears the ticketless option should be available. Thank you

Hi Bethany. I just completed a trip to Italy where I bought several tickets in advance on the trenitalia site ( Florence to Rome, Rome to Ct, Milan to zurich) and it worked very well. A few points: - regional tickets (e.g. la spezia to vernazza) are non reserved and inexpensive, do not try to buy in advance; buy when you get there. - reserved / intercity tickets within Italy I had no problem buying in advance and printing at home.
- tickets between Italy and another country (i.e. milan to Zurich) you can and should buy online, but you can not print them at home, just print them at any Italian station when you get there. If you need more help, just ping me. Bob