We will be traveling by train throughout Italy, and I am very confused about what trains to take, and if I should reserve a seat or buy tickets as we go as Rick Steves' suggests. We are a family of four and will be on a schedule. Not alot of time to spare between stops. But we want to see scenery along the way so would like to travel on a "slow" train as opposed to a bullet train. Which is which, and what is the best way to buy tickets? Can anyone help? Thanks, Deborah
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
By "reserve a seat" I think you mean should you buy the tickets in advance from the US. There is no need to do that; simply buy the tickets as you go. Use the automated kiosks in most train stations. You might want to spend some time looking up the train times on the trenitalia site from the US before you leave so you have an idea of what times the trains run on the trips you are considering.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Deborah, first of all, you can't "reserve" a seat. You must buy a ticket and the seat reservation comes with it.
Next, there are several categories of trains. The slowest and cheapest are called "regionale" or R trains. No seat reservations are permitted. Just like the MARTA in Atlanta, you buy your ticket, get on a take a seat. R trains generally do the short to medium runs within a region. To go inter-region, you just jump on another R train along the route. If you look at the train schedules on www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html put in short routes and you will see lots of R trains. For example, if you put in Venice to Milan, you won't see many. If you put in Venice to Verona, you will see several. Then, put in Verona to Milan. Again, you will see several.
All other train categories will require seat reservations. Also note that on medium to long runs, an R train takes much longer but they are about half the cost of a Eurostar on the same run.
Posted by
san clemente, ca, usa
2 posts
we are doing the same type of trip
Went to AAA and they sold us Italy Rail passes
for one month This way we just go the the train station and validate the first trip and use everytime we travel within the month. There are people at the stations who are very helpful and can tell u which one to take and tell u when they are scheduled to leave