Who is italia rail

Thanks for your response. I snagged the discounted fares on Italo to be on the safe side. I know now to be aware of their regular schedule updates in June and December! Thanks again fir your blog and wishing you and your loved ones a happy upcoming holiday season! Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Email me when someone replies to my comment.

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You can also buy me a coffee here! Details here! Italo vs. For that small price difference between Standard and Business, I would definitely go for Business! And ignore Premium, of course. Look for the little yellow flag to find upgrade deals in ItaliaRail. Pin this guide for later! Comments All good info. Good points, Kent! Thanks for sharing and keep in touch! Thanks for this super clear and articulate review of the train system!

Either way, let me know what you decide, and if you have other questions! Buon viaggio! Hi JC, Sorry for my slow reply! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Want to Read More? Subscribe below! Privacy Policy Don't worry, I never send more than one email a week. Often less. Colorful moments from my trip home that seemed to. Look what I found! The best conversion rate usually comes from websites with Italy-related content where webmasters place ads and banners.

Joining the ItaliaRail affiliate program will let you earn on rail tickets with the largest Italian booking platform, offering access to over 80, railway companies. Affiliates can benefit from one of the highest conversion rates in the travel market, especially if they promote the offer on a website related to traveling in Italy, as such blogs convert readers better than others.

Travelpayouts Blog. ItaliaRail: Make money on train tickets and rail passes. Updated: 26 November Reading time: 3 min. From :. Add return. Add Passengers. Senior Over Youngs years. Children years with seat. Infants months no seat. Currency converter Tourist information: www. You simply walk straight from the city centre onto the station concourse, look at the indicator board to find your train and hop on, any time up until departure.

Here, passengers arrive in Rome on a sleek, high-speed Frecciarossa train The main concourse at Florence's classic SMN station. The station is walking distance from the famous Duomo or even the Ponte Vecchio You can check train times and fares for any journey in Italy at the Trenitalia Italian Railways website, or at one of several private agency sites which connect to Trenitalia and which can be easier to use.

The English button is a UK flag top right. Novella for Florence, Napoli for Naples and so on - use Tutte Le Stazione if you don't know which station in a given city to choose. On high-speed trains it'll let you pick specific seats from a numbered seating plan. It happily accepts overseas credit cards but it has a few quirks, so you'll find detailed tips on using Trenitalia. You may find www. After recent improvements it's a better system than Trenitalia in many ways: It shows a whole day's trains in the search results not just an hour or two, it can book up to 20 people at a time, Trenitalia only books up to 5 people, it highlights the cheapest trains and trains where 1st class is cheaper than 2nd as a free upgrade.

In principle, www. Trenitalia can't, so will ignore any remaining tickets at the cheaper price level if there aren't enough for all the passengers travelling.

It's also in plain English and also uses the familiar English place names. However, they now add a small booking fee.

The major advantage of using www. If you use them, feedback would be appreciated. Faster than flying. To understand the different types of train, see the What are Italian trains like? To understand the choice of fares, and the rather poor or non-translation of sleeper types, see the how to use trenitalia. Child age limits: Trenitalia changed its child age limits in December On all trains, children under 4 go free with no ticket required, just bring them along. On regional trains, the old age limit still applies, children under 12 travel at the child rate.

But now, on national trains children under 15 can travel at the child rate. See the train travel with children page. You travel to Naples Centrale with Trenitalia then switch to the frequent local Circumvesuviana Railway, www. This is a local railway, you just buy a ticket at the ticket office and hop on the next train. See the visit to Pompeii page. Milan-Tirano and some other local trains in Northern Italy can be found at www. You can buy Italo tickets at www. Back to top.

Map of the Italian railway network Schematic rail map not all routes shown with real-time train info. For other European train maps see the advice here. Regional trains, no. There's absolutely no need to buy in advance and no advantage in doing so other than saving time at the ticket office. The price is fixed so there's no cost advantage in pre-booking, no reservation is necessary or even possible so the train can never 'sell out'.

In fact, buying in advance is a disadvantage as regional tickets bought online are non-refundable and non-changeable, limited to a 4-hour window from the time of train you book. So just buy a ticket at the station from ticket office or self-service machines when you get there, validate it in the little green validating machines and hop on the next train, sitting in any empty seat.

Long-distance trains, yes. For example, Rome to Florence, Milan to Venice. However, as there are so many trains each with hundreds of seats there are almost always places available on most trains even just before departure.

So yes, there's usually no problem at all buying at the station on the day if you want. The issue is price. Trenitalia ditched the old 'one size fits all' approach to pricing in and introduced cheap advance-purchase fares whilst increasing the fully-flexible base price. It's your call! But remember that this can shrink to as little as 30 days for dates immediately after the two annual Europe-wide timetable changes, on the 2nd Saturday in June and 2nd Saturday in December.

In early , Trenitalia is increasing the booking horizon to up to 6 months ahead. And sometimes they load afternoon trains first and morning trains later. Option 1, buy at ItaliaRail. ItaliaRail are a long-established online agency who link directly to Trenitalia's ticketing system. I recommend them over Trenitalia's own site for domestic Italian train tickets for several reasons:. Italiarail books exactly the same trains at exactly the same prices as Trenitalia's own site, but in plain English with none of Trenitalia's quirky and sometimes confusing translations.

You can use familiar English place-names such as Venice or Florence. Italiarail shows a whole day's trains in the search results and can book up to 20 people at a time. Trenitalia only shows a couple of hours-worth of trains at a time and can only book up to 5 people at a time. A face to face table for two is ideal for couples in 1st class, a table for four is ideal for families in 1st or 2nd class.

For family groups the cost saving can be significant. Currently Italiarail may not be able to book international trains, so use www. Option 2, buy at www. The advantage of www. Again, when you buy Trenitalia tickets from Raileurope. Who are Raileurope. Option 3, buy at www. Trenitalia tickets are also ticketless when booked at Trainline. Who are Thetrainline.

Option 4, buy at Trenitalia. For domestic Italian trains they have a ticketless system where you book online and simply quote your booking reference on board the train, other tickets can be collected at any main Italian station from these self-service machines.

When booking domestic high-speed trains, you'll normally get a chance to select a specific seat from a numbered seating plan. Trenitalia used to have problems accepting non-Italian credit cards, but a new payment system introduced in has resolved this.

For 2 or more people travelling together, you may find Italiarail cheaper, see option 1 above. So Milan-Brig is no problem as that is direct. But if you want say Milan to Zermatt, this involves a change in Brig so you need to split the journey, buy a cheap advance-purchase ticket to Brig online, then buy a local ticket Brig-Zermatt at the station when you get to Brig.

Similarly, Venice to Lucerne on the direct Milan-Lucerne train is no problem, but it can't book all the other departures with a change within Switzerland at Arth Goldau - but Swiss Railways www. Bookings are ticketless for journeys between Switzerland and Italy, so these can all be safely booked on www.

But tickets to or from Austria or Germany aren't ticketless and can't be printed at home, tickets need to be collected, and they can only be collected from the Trenitalia self-service machines or Trenitalia-staffed ticket offices at Italian stations. They cannot be collected in Austria! The solution is simply to book a ticket using www. Or use www. Tickets can usually be emailed to you, so there's no delay or extra postage cost. It's easy to buy tickets at the station on the day of travel or perhaps the day before, even if you don't speak Italian.

Simply go to one of the Fast ticket machines installed at all main stations, these have a touch screen with an English language facility, see an illustrated step-by-step guide to using these ticket machines. The machines will sell both regional and long-distance tickets, including the necessary seat reservation for long-distance trains, for any date you like within the next 90 days. The trains hardly ever sell out, so finding tickets even on the day of travel isn't a problem unless you hit a major holiday period.

The issue is the price you pay, as long-distance tickets are significantly cheaper booked in advance, just like flights.

Bear that in mind when anyone tells you you can easily buy at the station on the day at no extra cost, as you can now save money by pre-booking!

Remember to validate any local or regional ticket by putting it into the small yellow machines at the entrance to every platform - there's a fine if you don't. A pass is unlikely to make sense: By all means check out the Interrail pass for European residents or Eurail passes for non-Europeans at the seat61 rail shop , especially if you are under 26 so qualify for the cheaper youth versions as the youth passes can indeed make financial sense.

However, for most people railpasses are now the gold-plated expensive option. So passes are only worth considering if you demand the flexibility to go as you please. Even here, you need to be doing the equivalent of Rome-Venice every pass travel day to make them pay.

If you are only doing Rome-Florence one day, then Florence-Venice a few days later, it's cheaper to buy fully flexible base-price tickets at the station than to use a pass once the reservation fee is added.

So if you're only going Rome-Florence or Florence-Venice on a typical day, point to point tickets will be cheaper, even on a like-for-like first class fully-flexible basis. If you're happy pre-booking a cheap no-refunds Economy or Super-Economy fare, or are happy going 2nd class and why shouldn't you, it's absolutely fine , you can save vast amounts of money over an expensive railpass.

How to make train reservations online to go with a railpass: The easy way to make reservations to go with a Eurail or Interrail pass is to use www. In some cases it's ticketless, you simply quote the PNR number on board, in other cases you simply collect the reservation ticket from one of the self-service machines at any main Trenitalia station.

You can no longer make passholder reservation at Trenitalia. How to make train reservations with a railpass at the station when it Italy: You can make passholder reservations online at Italiarail. However, you can't currently make them at trenitalia.

On their website you'll find a range of suggested tours which can be varied or customised to your own requirements.

And as you're booking a package, they'll take care of you if anything happens to one part of the itinerary such as a strike or delay. As with all Trenitalia's long-distance trains, tickets always include a seat reservation - in other words, you can't just turn up and hop on, you need to buy a ticket which will include a seat reservation for a specific train, but you can do this right up until departure using the self-service machines or at the ticket office.

Frecciarossa tickets are only valid on the specific date and train you've booked. See seat numbering plans. Above right, business class 1st class. See photos of all classes on the Frecciarossa page. Frecciarossa train. These are gradually entering service in , partly replacing some Frecciarossa s. Above left, standard class 2nd class on a Frecciarossa Watch the Frecciarossa video See the Frecciarossa video.

As with the Frecciarossas, tickets always include a seat reservation, you can't just turn up and hop on. So you need to buy a ticket which will include a seat reservation for a specific train, but you can do this right up until departure using the self-service machines or at the ticket office.

Frecciargento tickets are only valid on the specific date and train you've booked. They are air-conditioned with a refreshment trolley and cafe-bar. The trains reach mph on the high-speed lines and use their tilt to cut journey times through curves when running on classic lines. Second class seats on an ETR Frecciargento, with bays of 4 and many unidirectional seats. Larger photo. First class seats on an ETR Frecciargento, with bays of 4, bays of 2, and many unidirectional seats.

Other Frecciargento services are operated by wedge-nosed ETR tilting trains Frecciabianca - White Arrows One step down from Frecciarossa and Frecciargento, most Frecciabianca FB services use locomotive-hauled ex-InterCity coaches which have been refurbished to modern standards and run at up to mph, either hauled by a locomotive or sandwiched between first-generation ETR power cars.

They are air-conditioned and have a refreshment trolley, some have a bar counter, but no restaurant car. Watch the official Trenitalia Frecciabianca video.

As with the Frecciarossas and Frecciargentos, tickets always include a seat reservation, so you can't just turn up and hop on, you need to buy a ticket with a seat reservation for a specific train before boarding, although you can do this right up until departure. Frecciabianca tickets are only valid on the specific date and train you've booked.

The Eurostar City branding has been dropped, although you'll still see it on the side of some Frecciabianca trains. All seats have power sockets and there's a complimentary coffee from the trolley. A Frecciabianca to Venice, about to leave Milan. A strange train - two modern power cars sandwich former intercity carriages. This shows the latest colour scheme.

A Frecciabianca train at Milan Centrale Many start at Turin InterCity trains IC Next in the pecking order are the InterCity trains, fast trains hauled by locomotives at up to mph, sometimes mph.

Tickets sold online or at stations automatically include the reservation free of charge. Some InterCity cars are open-plan with a centre aisle, others are classic side-corridor-and-compartment cars with 6-seater compartments. Though you don't always find both sorts in both classes on a given train. If you book at trenitalia. If there's a central aisle with 2-abreast seats one side and 1-abreast 1st class or 2-abreast 2nd class on the other, it's an open-plan saloon car.

The interiors are now being refurbished with similar seating to the Frecciabianca cars, as shown below No seat reservation is necessary, you just buy a ticket at the station from the counter or the multi-lingual self-service machines, validate it in the little green machine on the platform and hop on, sitting in any free seat.

Luggage goes on the racks or if necessary on the floor. Remember to validate your ticket at the platform entrance before boarding, your ticket is only valid for 4 or in some cases 6 hours after validation.

There's no supplement for railpass holders, you can just hop on and show your pass.