Italy train travel - help please

[Over from NZ]

Hello. We're going to need to train from Venice to La Spezia before our cruise as well as La Spezia to Civitavecchia. Am doing my homework and trying to figure out the trains. There seems to be lots of options.. e.g. Omio, italiarail, thetrainline.com, etc. And others. Are they just all re-selling the same rides? Are they all trustworthy.. is there any in particular we should be sticking to? I'm sure once I get my head around it.. we'll be fine.. but it's all a bit overwhelming at present. We'll be carting our luggage if that makes a difference and would want it at least within sight on the train. Any help would be much appreciated! 🙂 

[Over from NZ]

I've got trenitalia written down.. but their web-site is a dogs breakfast. Don't like the look of that. ItaliaRail looks the easiest to navigate. 

[CruiserBruce]

From another thread just down the board: (Thanks @euro cruiser)

 

Italiarail is a reseller, not a train company.

 

The two national train lines in Italy are Trenitalia and Italotreno.  Only Trenitalia serves Civitavecchia.

 

IT - Trenitalia

 

You may not be seeing all the trains because you are choosing a date too far in the future.  Most of the trains to Civitavecchia are regionals and they don't load them into the system more than a few months in advance.  To see what the schedule will look like when you are there, pick the same day of the week for the upcoming week.  Small changes may happen, but you'll get the general idea.

 

You should use only those two websites. The prices will be best about 4 months out when they first load the fares. Anybody else is a reseller, and while easier to use, will cost more. 

[Over from NZ]

10 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

From another thread just down the board: (Thanks @euro cruiser)

 

Italiarail is a reseller, not a train company.

 

The two national train lines in Italy are Trenitalia and Italotreno.  Only Trenitalia serves Civitavecchia.

 

IT - Trenitalia

 

You may not be seeing all the trains because you are choosing a date too far in the future.  Most of the trains to Civitavecchia are regionals and they don't load them into the system more than a few months in advance.  To see what the schedule will look like when you are there, pick the same day of the week for the upcoming week.  Small changes may happen, but you'll get the general idea.

 

You should use only those two websites. The prices will be best about 4 months out when they first load the fares. Anybody else is a reseller, and while easier to use, will cost more. 

Thanks for the advice. We're only talking next month. Trenitalia seems a mess to navigate (trying the Venice to La Spezia option first). So other than the price.. we should be safe to use the likes of italiarail? 

[slidergirl]

What "mess" are you talking about for Trenitalia?  On on the website, click the "Eng" button at the top to get English.  Then on the home page under "Main Solutions", put in "Venezia (tutte le staziones) (means all Venice stations), and your to as "La Spezia Centrale", then dates and the earliest time you'd want to leave.  A bunch of options will pop up.  I picked the first one, which has one change of train, in Florence.  It the Frecce "fast" train to Florence then a change to a regional to La Spezia.  Click on the price at the right and you'll find all the options for class of seats and pricing.  

 

If you use something other than Trenitalia's site, you'll encounter a fee for having them book for you.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by slidergirl

[carlmm]

14 hours ago, slidergirl said:

What "mess" are you talking about for Trenitalia?  On on the website, click the "Eng" button at the top to get English.  Then on the home page under "Main Solutions", put in "Venezia (tutte le staziones) (means all Venice stations), and your to as "La Spezia Centrale", then dates and the earliest time you'd want to leave.  A bunch of options will pop up.  I picked the first one, which has one change of train, in Florence.  It the Frecce "fast" train to Florence then a change to a regional to La Spezia.  Click on the price at the right and you'll find all the options for class of seats and pricing.  

 

If you use something other than Trenitalia's site, you'll encounter a fee for having them book for you.

 

 

This includes a valuable hint for  everybody using the trenitalia site: Even if you use the English language you must use the real Italian names of the stations.

[cruisemom42]

14 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

Thanks for the advice. We're only talking next month. Trenitalia seems a mess to navigate (trying the Venice to La Spezia option first). So other than the price.. we should be safe to use the likes of italiarail? 

Compared to even a few years ago, the Trenitalia site is a model of efficiency. I remember not that long ago, if you wanted to purchase an advance ticket, you had about an 75% chance of any foreign credit card being rejected. 😳 Now it’s just a matter of understanding the train types, using the pull down menus for more info, and using the proper staton names for point to point searching. Tickets can be printed out or you can just show the code on your smartphone.

 

There is a site called seat61.com that gives a lot of basic info on using various European trains. It might be helpful. But still buy your tickets from the actual official websites.

[Over from NZ]

10 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Compared to even a few years ago, the Trenitalia site is a model of efficiency. I remember not that long ago, if you wanted to purchase an advance ticket, you had about an 75% chance of any foreign credit card being rejected. 😳 Now it’s just a matter of understanding the train types, using the pull down menus for more info, and using the proper staton names for point to point searching. Tickets can be printed out or you can just show the code on your smartphone.

 

There is a site called seat61.com that gives a lot of basic info on using various European trains. It might be helpful. But still buy your tickets from the actual official websites.

Thanks for that. I found that seat61 site and it was really good. In the end.. I get fed up with Trenitalia.. it's only a small fee to use italiarail.. so am happy with them. Job done. Bookings made. Thanks for the help. 

[lynncarol]

For an trip throughout Italy in September of 2021, my husband and I used Italiarail  because the Trentalia site, to me, was confusing (despite inputing the Italian names), Meanwhile, our daughter and husband purchased through Trentalia and I think maybe their cost was 5 dollars less.  Both tickets worked perfectly.

[euro cruiser]

The Italiarail tickets work fine if everything goes according to plan, the problems happen if you need to make a change, get a refund or have some other issue.  Purchasing the ticket directly from the train operator works in your favor if there is a problem.