Can you help me understand train travel in Italy?

[eri0o]

So, I am trying to figure out how to travel between cities, and it appears Italy has a pretty good railway system.

But I can't understand the immense amount of different tickets, if I should get some type of pass instead of individual tickets, and if booking in advance is really needed - it seems a lot of different trains are available.

Somehow it's really hard to find good information online. 

[TheFrighter]

Hello Eri0o, I'm italiano and I'll try to help you the best I could!

I not agree about the good railway system, but that's my personal impression.

We have a few of private (no more public) railways, nationals and regionals and even provincials not related between them. So the different tickets.

First at all, where are you planning to go?

_

[eri0o]

Hi @TheFrighter ! Thank you for the help! I want to go to from Milan (Milano) to Venice (Venezia), from Venice (Venezia) to Florence (Firenze), and from Florence (Firenze) to Rome (Roma) and then back to Milan.

And later, I need to also go from Milan to Basel, in Switzerland, and by train it looks like it would be a nice landscape to look at.

[lorenzo]

Hey eri0o!

Passenger trains in Italy have different categories. The big ones are:
- Long-distance trains (treni a lunga percorrenza)
- International trains (treni internazionali)
- Regional trains (treni regionali)

Each train is identified by a 2-3 letters acronym and a number (e.g. REG 18492 or FR 8311).

Long-distance trains
Trains that travel through different regions, usually on longer journeys, skipping most of the small stations and only stopping at big city ones. These often need booking in advance, but not always, and have different classes with different features. They're more expensive than regular regional trains and booking is recommended.
They're good if you want to go from a big city in one region to another (e.g. from Florence to Rome). Which one you choose, probably depends on availability (day/time and how long it takes to reach the destination), cost, and which stations it connects.

- Freccia: these are high-speed trains and come with different names. As far as I know, is better to book them in advance, as they might be full. Frecce are:

- Frecciarossa Alta Velocità (FR AV): painted in red (rosso = red). Fast, expensive trains.

- Frecciargento (FA AV): painted in grey (argento = silver). Slightly slower than the previous one.

- Frecciabianca (FB): painted in white (bianco = white). More of the same, slightly slower than the previous one.

- Italo (NTV): a competitor to Freccia, probably a good alternative to travel quickly between big cities. Never took it myself, but I heard good things about it.

- InterCity (IC): something in between a regional train and a Freccia. Slower than a Freccia (but cheaper), faster than a regional train, with fewer stops.

- InterCity Notte (ICN): same as the Intercity, but during the night (notte), with beds you can sleep in.

Regional trains
Regional trains are the ones I'm more familiar with since I used to commute with them every day some years ago. They're the least expensive ones, do most of the stops, they come in different shapes and forms, but they mostly travel locally, in a specific region.
They're good if you want to move between cities/towns in the same region (e.g. from Florence to Pisa), although a bit messy (they can be very full, especially during peak season).

- Regionale (REG): the regular one, does most of the stops (including smaller stations).

- Regionale veloce (RV): similar to the one above but does fewer stops, so it's a bit faster.

There might be different names for other regional trains, depending on the region.

International trains
They connect with cities outside of Italy. I don't know much about them (I believe I only took one years ago to France and don't remember a lot), but the most important seem to be:

- EuroCity (EC): this one seems to connect to Basel too.

- EuroNight (EN): same as the one above, but works at night.

---

If you have an Android phone or tablet, one thing I've found extremely useful in my days as a commuter is this program, Orario Treni: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.paoloconte.treni_lite

I don't know if it can be set in English, but it's really easy to use. With it, you can look up trains, the platform they're going to stop at, book them and buy the tickets online (through the official sites they send you a QR code to your email, no registration required). It also shows you which trains are late in real-time, warns you about strikes (they can happen often, but they usually don't affect long-distance trains like Frecce), shows you the journey, and so on. Very useful and better than the official Trenitalia program.
You can also drop me a line and I can help you with it if you have any trouble. As I said, I'm not sure if it's only available in Italian or if it can be set to English too.

Your travels seem to be between big cities, so it shouldn't be too hard to find trains for them. Probably the quickest way is by using Frecce/Italo, but it can get more expensive. I've never used a train pass, but there is some information in English here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/trenitalia-pass.html
They seem to be valid for Frecce/Intercity trains.


Also, I hope you'll enjoy your visit to Florence: one of the most beautiful cities in the world, despite my living in it

I hope my information is correct/useful, I have mostly used regional trains and sometimes Intercity, taking very rarely the high-speed ones. They weren't even called Frecce at the time!

[eri0o]

@lorenzo ❤    THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GUIDE! I was looking into trenitalia and it was soo hard to comprehend the differences but yes, things makes sense now!!!

My other half also thanks you profusely and says your information is very much appreciated.

As we like to have things well planned, we are making a little document and I am copying your information directly into it to. 

[lorenzo]

I'm happy my post helped you! Public transport abroad can often be confusing, with its own rules.

One thing to remember about train tickets here is that they need to be validated at the machines at the station before boarding the train. I've seen some tourists in the past that didn't know that: they got on the train and showed the train conductor a non-stamped ticket. If you don't stamp it, they can fine you, although if they're smart they'll just explain the mistake to you and that's it.

If you buy the ticket online, instead, you get emailed a pdf document with a QR code that gets scanned on board, so no need to stamp or print anything. It would be quite hard to stamp a phone anyway!

[eri0o]

Thank you @lorenzo , that is a very good heads-up!!! I had indeed been emailed the Qr code, I am going to print this stuff as a guarantee! I got my tickets early today as there were some discounts that end this afternoon. 

I am now finishing up figuring out the places to stay in each town. Hope to get things all booked this week. 

[lorenzo]

Ah, nice! It usually pays to book plane and train travels earlier, you might get a discount if you're lucky!

I hope you managed to book the places to stay too!

[eri0o]

Thanks! We have booked all places we will stay in Italy! Now we need to figure out if we are indeed going to Basel at the same end of the trip or not and where we will stay there. 

Ah, right, we are still figuring out a rough plan of things to do on each city in Italy.

[cat]

Enjoy your trip, Italy is beautiful!

[Cassiebsg]

Boa viajem e boas ferias
Espero que tenham sorte com o tempo.

[lorenzo]

Ah, right, we are still figuring out a rough plan of things to do on each city in Italy.

Haha, yeah, there's so much to see in these cities, you do need a plan!

[Manu]

Ah, right, we are still figuring out a rough plan of things to do on each city in Italy.

Sorry if I didn't see this post before. Let me know if you need anything, where to go, what to see, trains and so on!