Italy By Train

marieholmfan

Has anyone travelled around Italy by Train?


I'm especially interested in going from Rome to Syracuse but I can't see how to guarantee that I get an 'Exelsior' cabin.

Geuze

Have you read Seat 61?

https://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm

marieholmfan

Wow thanks!

tabbey

marieholmfan wrote: »

Has anyone travelled around Italy by Train?


I'm especially interested in going from Rome to Syracuse but I can't see how to guarantee that I get an 'Exelsior' cabin.

That would be Syracuse on Sicily?

I went to Sicily and back by rail & sail, but that was in 1992, I am sure much has changed in the interim.

L1011

Only done a bit in Northern Italy - if you book well in advance you can get Super Economy fares in business class that are cheaper than standard fares in standard - you get massive seats and some drinks/snacks for that. Sleeper was Thello so a completely different operator with different stock.

You may find it easier to book a specific class of cabin with one of the aggregators oddly enough

BeardySi

Hopped about the North on the regular services a few years ago. Great way to travel if you're not in a hurry - you'll be well acquainted with the term "ritardo". That said, trains are comfortable and you'll get there.

Don't forget to validate your ticket in the platform - they'll sting you for a fine if you don't, even if your ticket is valid. IIRC high speed services need to be booked in advance...

Good jib!

BeardySi wrote: »

Don't forget to validate your ticket in the platform - they'll sting you for a fine if you don't, even if your ticket is valid.

There's a reason behind this though, assuming it's the same as other countries like France.

You can sometimes get a refund on an unused ticket, you just have to produce said ticket unvalidated.

was there recently

train service was superb, used it several times and the availability, quality, reliability and cost were top notch.

MrAbyss

Excellent 24 hour train services and if you are a railfan the country is still covered in freight trains, yards, sidings and history.

Board Walker

I Flew from Rome to Venice last year... Big mistake. Train would have been 3.45 hours and no where near the bother.

Thargor

Board Walker wrote: »

I Flew from Rome to Venice last year... Big mistake. Train would have been 3.45 hours and no where near the bother.

Did Rome to Naples and back in a day on high speed rail once to see Pompeii and Vesuvius, watching the Italian countryside fly by at crazy speed was the best part of the trip, such a great way to travel.

Charles Babbage

Nowdays there are a variety of classes of train in Italy and different setups. For instance, I was there in November and prebooked an Economy; PREMIUM which involved a free drink on the train and Supereconomy First class, which wasn't much different in price to an economy ticket as I had booked it in advance. My first train was late owing to some general problem. I claimed a partial refund of he ticket but they haven't paid this.

Prebooked tickets do not need to be validated as they have a date, other tickets have no date and must be validated to become valid.

Train travel in Italy is pretty good. You can potter about on regional trains, which are fairly cheap, or prebook the flashy high speed services.

devnull

Having been to Italy a few times in the last couple of years on the main intercity routes and used both Trenitalia Frecciarossa and Italo I found the better far better for a tourist if their times suit you, although neither had serious problems and both of the onboard environments are better than what you would get on Irish Rail for instance, especially above the lowest class - off peak there can be as little as a couple of euro difference.

Service always seemed more personal on Italo, trains a little bit nicer, always happy to go extra mile, seems to be a bilingual company, all staff seem to speak English and if you are in Prima class (their version of Trenitalia's Business) they'll come around every 60-70 minutes or so with a free drink and snack whereas on Trenitalia it's once per journey and I got told off twice by two different crews for not speaking clear enough Italian as they didn't speak English.

Can't really go wrong with either of them much though.

marieholmfan

devnull wrote: »

I got told off twice by two different crews for not speaking clear enough Italian ...

Oh dear -- considering I learned my Italian in Calabria and the only people who think I speak Italian well can't speak Italian at all perhaps I should stick to Italo!