Taking trains in Italy is not an expensive option and if you plan prudently, you may not need to purchase the RailPass e.g. Eurail. I personally love the Eurail having used their service for my Europe trip previously but I dropped this option after careful calculation and consideration. One of the major reason is because even with the Eurail pass, I still need to pay (variable) seat reservation charges for those Eurostar trains (EScity). Check here (Eurail website) for the variable seat reservation charges which ranges from €3 to €15.
First and foremost, you can do your homework via Trenitalia website to check what are your available options.
1. What types of train do you want to take?
Depending on your budget and time constraint, you may consider
1.1. EScity
Probably Italy's most luxurious style of train. ES or Eurostar, is fast, the seats are comfortable and the tickets are generally more expensive. It usually runs between the larger cities e.g. Florence to Rome. There are first class and second class options and seat reservations are compulsory. To me second class is perfectly fine but if you have more luggage or you want more leg and elbow space, you may consider the first class which is a teeny bit more.
1.2. R: Regionale
Regional trains which make more frequent stops and thus they are generally slower than the Eurostar trains. Reservations are not required and for some trains, second class carriage is the only option. It is much preferred for shorter journey trips or if you are visiting certain smaller cities.
Thus, if budget is not a constraint, I would recommend paying more to take the EScity to travel to further cities as the duration time may be halved for certain trips. However if the train duration does not matter much, it is cheaper to take the regional trains. Afterall, the cost is halved for these regional trains.
2. How do you want to purchase your train tickets?
After deciding what types of train you wish to board, you may purchase your tickets either
2.1. Online
Highly recommended if you know when you are travelling and if you are taking the EScity trains. And if you can decide way in advance, you may qualify for early bird discounts e.g
Meno30: Allows a reduction of about 30% if you buy at least 15 days beforehand and can be applied for both 1st and 2nd class. The offer has limited seats availability based on the day, train and the class.
Meno15: Allows a reduction of about 15% if you buy at least 7 days beforehand and can be applied for both 1st and 2nd class. The offer has limited seats availability based on the day, train and the class.
After buying online, print your e-ticket and just bring it along. Not other steps is necessary. The train conductor will check this printed e-ticket.
2.2. Train stations
2.2.1 Check timings
If you want to be sure, you may first check for the train departure timings from the board. Departures (in Italian "Partenze") timings are posted on yellow paper.
1) Train number (important if you are buying regional train i.e. open ticket so you must know which train you want to board)
2) Platform number (important because whether your ticket is an open ticket or with seat reservations, the platform number will not be printed on it)
3) Departure time
2.2.2. Buy tickets
First choose those self ticketing machines, preferably those newer looking machines that allows you to pay in cash (unless you wish to pay via credit card).
Choose your preferred language (definitely English in my case).
Choose the destination i.e. which train station you are heading to.
Choose the time slot.
You will be given a list of options. Select the train number you had decided.
Then specify the number of passengers boarding the train. The ticket will print the number of passengers. (Yeah! Less paper wasteage is good for Mother Nature!)
As mentioned, for EScity trains, seat reservations are compulsory and you will be asked to select your seats. If you have a friend who had already bought his/her train ticket and you want to sit besides him/her, you can also specify the seat number.
Ticket with seat reservations will specify the boarding station and alighting station, the train number, carriage number, reserved seats number and the number of passengers.
Ticket for regional trains are usually open ticket thus they will only specify the boarding station and alighting station as well as the number of passengers.
For open ticket, an extra step is required before you can board the train...... TICKET VALIDATION!
This is extremely crucial or you will be penalised heavily by the train conductor. More about the steps later.
3. How to board the train?
If you have bought your ticket online, you can just board the train as long as you have the printed e-ticket.
If you have bought your ticket via train station and it include seat reservations, you can also just board the train as long as you have the ticket.
HOWEVER, if you bought your train ticket and it is an open ticket, you must validate your train ticket first before you can board the train.
Please do not panic if the machine do not stamped the ticket. Just find another machine to do the job. I once had to change a few machines before I finally found one that managed to stamp my ticket. Thus it is really a good idea to be at the train station early.
Last thing to check just in case, is whether your train got delayed or did it change platform last minute. Well it did happen for me for the train to Pisa. Though the yellow paper (Partenze) showed platform X, and I double check twice, the train was at platform Y. Luckily I was alert and daring enough to just board the train (since the train number is correct and the destination looks right).
Alright, now you can safely board your train to the next station. Bon voyage!
One last tip: There might be people near the train machine offering to assist you. Unless you really need help, try to avoid these people. I met one such "good smaritan" who ended up asking for some token of appreciation. This is one reason why I decided to write this article to help others too.
Source:
Lauren Aczon - How to navigate an Italian train station
Trenitalia
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