travelling between france and italy

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  retiredfeline on 02/12/2011 - 23:40

  There are Eurailpasses of various types, some for a fixed period, some for X days in a period of Y days. However rail ticket prices in Italy are cheap, and may not be worth buying a pass for. You may find it cheaper to buy point to point for this part of your holiday. In fact if you are just going from Paris to Milan, a pass may be overkill.

  Other options: Consider a budget airline for a long sector. You could also travel overnight from Paris to Milan, effectively spending your lodging budget on a couchette and saving some time.

  Also you will get a wider range of information and opinions on a travel forum.

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  neil on 03/12/2011 - 00:17

  Just came back from Italy last month. Took a train from Milan to Venice, Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome. Check out http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce141…

  Not worth a pass, much cheaper buying at the station. As greenpossum said, there are different types of train. The fast ones are more expensive, the slowest ones are a lot cheaper. The travel times between Florence, Rome, and Venice are quite short so worth getting the cheap tickets. Remember with the cheapo ones, they are just a regional ticket so you need to validate the ticket in the machine outside the train otherwise you get a fine (It happened to me).

  Compare Florence to Rome tickets,
  FRECCIAROSSA which takes 1 hour 40 minutes is 45€ 2nd class
  IC/EN which takes 2 hours 30 minutes is 30€
  Finally, the regional takes 3 hours 45 minutes but only costs 17.15€

  This gives an explanation of all the trains and things to know, http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

  BTW, the trains all run on time and have power plugs to charge all of your electronics. The regional trains don't have assigned seats while the Frecciarossa does.

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  troyww on 03/12/2011 - 12:24

  I agree with buying separate tickets .
  Good tip on validating your ticket , I saw a couple of people get stung on one train . You get reimbursed but it seems like a giant con to me .
  We went from Paris to Venice in a 3 bed sleeper which could only be booked on the French site which was only in French (typical) . Not all ticket options are available on the International sites . Saved a nights accommodation and it was a lovely trip .
  +1 for seat61 that was a godsend .

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  moooooooo on 04/12/2011 - 18:19

  +1000 for www.seat61.com - it's brillant information!

  You might want to read this bit:

  [EDIT: URL was too long and had spaces so I turned it into a tinyurl]

  http://tinyurl.com/7bcmgwc

  Common railpass mistakes: Italy…

  Many people buy a railpass to tour Italy, but passes seldom make financial sense. A 'Flexi' type Eurail pass typically costs 55-69 euros per day (this is the pass price converted into euros and divided by the number of days of free train travel, it's not rocket science). Perhaps this sounds good value. But all high-speed trains in Italy now require a seat reservation even with a railpass, so there's no 'convenience factor' in having a pass, you still have to make a seat reservation before you can get on a train. And the reservation costs 10 euros per trip, which must be factored into your budget and comparison with normal tickets. So with the passholder surcharge added the pass price per day becomes 65-79 euros per day, 1st class. And you're forced to travel 1st class with a pass, because (unless you're under 26 years old) 2nd class Eurail passes don't exist.

  They then travel from Rome to Florence on day 1, a journey which at full price only costs 44 euros 2nd class or 63 euros 1st class including a reservation, bought at the ticket office even on the day of travel. And bought in advance at www.trenitalia.com, a cheap 'Mini' fare might be only 44 euros 1st class or an amazing 19 euros in 2nd class. Next day they do a day trip to Siena, a 12 euro return ticket. Then they go from Florence to Venice, at full price 43 euros 2nd class or 60 euros 1st class, with discounted Mini fares available if you book online in advance for perhaps 26 euros 2nd class, 42 euros in 1st class. Venice to Verona is 20 euros in 2nd class, 30 euros in 1st class, full price. So why buy a pass? Venice to Rome is 104 euros in 1st class, so now a pass does save money, but you need to do a journey of this length every day of your pass validity to make it pay. You can check normal ticket prices for Italy at www.trenitalia.com. You want 'Base' fares for flexibility, although if you pre-book in advance you can get a 30% or even 60% discount. Advice on using trenitalia.com.

  Conclusion: A railpass seldom makes sense for Italy unless you will do a journey equivalent to Rome-Venice every day you use the pass, because passes are overpriced relative to normal Italian point-to-point fares, especially once the 10 euro passholder surcharge is added for all high-speed trains. Eastern Europe is also cheap, so be careful about buying a pass for those countries, too. Switzerland is just the opposite, where high point-to-point fares and good-value railpasses make railpasses a good bet.

  This year my wife and I travelled Paris to Florence on overnight sleeper, booking through www.scnf.com which is, as troyww notes, in French. My tip is to use Google Chrome as your browser since it detects when the page is written in French, and then offers to convert it to English. It's not perfect English, but it's a booking engine so once you've translated "wednesday", "carriage", "sleeper", etc, that's really all you need.