Where's the best, most reliable, most economic, place to purchase point-to-point tickets ?
RailEurope looks EASY
EurAide is kinda scary to me ..... I don't get a chance to verify the itinerary before they ship the tickets
we'll get a two county france-italy rail pass
travel from paris, to como to la spezia, to rome and fly from rome back to frankfurt
Thanks,
Mike
RailEurope inflates ticket prices and they don't sell tickets for all trains. Go to www.sncf.fr for French tickets (scroll all the way down and click on the Union Jack in the lower left for English). SNCF will not ship tickets to the US. Either print them out yourself or collect them at a ticket counter in France. Go to www.trenitalia.com for Italian tickets. From reading other postings on the Graffiti Wall, it is next to impossible to purchase tickets on the Trenitalia site. Just purchase them once you are in Italy. There have been more than a few positive comments about the self-service ticket machines in Italy, so you may want to try those.
For complete timetables for most of Europe, go to www.bahn.de. It looks to me like your best route from Paris to Como is the night train to Milan and a regional train from there to Como. Book Paris-Milan at sncf.com up to 90 days in advance to get the best prices. Buy your Como-La Spezia and La Spezia-Rome tickets when you get to Italy. A railpass will not be a good deal for your routes.
You might want to consider flying to Milan from Paris on Easyjet or Vueling. The cost might even be less than the night train and it will probably save you some time. You can purchase the point to point tickets for within Italy when you get there...
