Hey everybody! I'm planning a trip to Italy in May for about 2 weeks. Right now, I'm using an itinerary I found in Fodor's to start my planning and I'll modify it as need be. My major issue is deciding on how to move about the country. I'm totally lost on the train issue. (FYI - I've read the Italogue hosted by BnA)

I think I have the eurail system figured out but I'm trying to compare the cost of point-2-point ticketing and I'm lost. Can anybody offer up some advice? I'm currently logged onto TrenItalia's website but I see no prices on any of their trains. Below is my rough itinerary stolen from Fodor's:

day 1 - arrive in venice
day 2 - venice
day 3 - train to ferrara (1/2 day) continue to bologna
day 4 - bologna (1/2 day) train to florence
day 5 - florence
day 6 - train to lucca (1/2 day) continue to pisa
day 7 - train to orvieto (1/2 day) continue to rome
day 8 - rome
day 9 - rome/departure

To see the price of the trains in trenitalia you should "pretend" you're buying the ticket: click on the icon on the right, under the writing "acquista" (=buy).

Hi, there - I'm glad you've read my Italy guide, I hope it was at least a little helpful!

What I'd recommend is that you ask one of our resident Eurail experts, Dave & Hayden, to help you figure out whether getting a rail pass or buying point-to-point tickets would be cheaper. You can call the BootsnAll office toll-free in the US at 1-866-549-7614, or you can contact them on Skype (if they're online). If they're not, you can also email them directly at dave (at) bootsnall (dot) com. Give them your itinerary and they can give you a good idea of which option is better for you.

Let me know if you need any more help with your Italy trip!

Jessie, thanks for the info on who contact and yes, your guide has been very helpful. I try to chip away at it every free moment I get. Thanks!

Lia, I tried to fake purchase tickets on TrenItalia but under "Buy" there's always a big "NO" icon. What gives?

...sorry, it usually works...that is, you can buy tickets for most trains via web; probably the trains you chose haven't got the online tickets. Looks like you're quite unlucky...

i had a look on the website and i think maybe its because you are looking too far ahead - try dates in another month - it let me look for february but not for any months after that but it will at least give you some idea.

Michelle

Michelle is right - most of the online booking sites will only let you book a month or so ahead, so you have to "fake" your dates. Just put in something comparable within a month or two, and it will give you the prices for each ticket.

I wanted to bump this with another question.

I did some research on TrenItalia for some of the train passes I'd need. Unfortunately I did my research after a bought a Eurail Italy pass (6day) so I have to figure out if my savings are worth the 15% cancellation fee.

Can anybody confirm that I looked this information up correctly? I looked up Milan to Venice, Venice to Florence, and saw a price of 14.5 and 16.2 euro, respectively. According to my research, these are the most expensive train tickets on my itinerary. Am I better off canceling the Eurail pass and purchasing the tickets in Italy?

Thanks!

Hmm... Those prices seem a bit low to me - I wonder if they're running a sale on tickets purchased online? When I visited last year, I had a Eurail pass, but I had to buy reservations for the trips I took - one from Venice to Milan, & then trips from Milan-Rome, Rome-Florence, & Florence-Milan. The reservations alone were more than the ticket prices you saw on the Trenitalia site.

If there's an online sale going on & you can buy your tickets now (online) & get those prices, go for it. But if you're planning to buy your tickets in person, double-check whether that's an online rate.

When you do the search thingy pretend you are searching for the same day, ie. today's date. Then you get a more accurate price.

Thanks for the input everybody! I decided to just hold on to the passes as Eurail was going to charge me 15% cancellation fee and the cards hadn't even been processed/shipped yet. This is my first time going to Europe and dealing with train systems so I'll chalk it up to a learning experience and I'll be better prepared for next time. Now on to worry about other travel logistics!