Northern Italy. Travel by train advice please

[SummerbodyIwish]

Do we have any knowledgeable Italy travellers? We have a family holiday planned doing a tour around Italian cities. Plan is ... Milan to Genoa to cinque terre to Pisa to Florence to Bologna to Venice and finally to lake Garda. Accommodation is booked but not transport. Question is how easy are the Italian trains? Are they expensive? And is it wise to book before we go and leave the U.K. ? Or wait until we travel on the day. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Totally not knowledgeable about this, but did travel a couple of times on trains in the north several years ago. I seem to remember just arriving at the station and asking for a ticket to wherever we wanted to go. It seemed very easy. We went to a few different places on day trips. It can't have been that expensive either.

oh you need www.seat61.com/. Not an agency but a veritable treasure trove of info about worldwide train travel....

The man in seat 61 will give you lots of info on this. We’ve travelled around northern Italy by train and for longer journeys we have always booked before we left the UK. We did Milan to Genoa last year and onto Albenga. On a different holiday we went from Verona to Lake Garda. For days out we have just bought on the day but for longer journeys it is better to guarantee a seat.

Wow. Thankyou for the link. That is just the info I need

check out his twitter feed too - for awesome video of amazing European trains - so much better than UK ones... Some have a separate children's play carriage!!

My Italian teacher said that after purchasing a train ticket it has to be validated before you board the train otherwise you will be fined.

Thankyou for all this helpful advice. First time we have done this type of holiday . Have 2 teenage joys and usually do a package holiday. We all fancied a change but a bit nervous !!

Boys not joys !! Ha ha

There are little yellow machines in the station for validating tickets.

We've travelled through Italy by train before (pre dc so a good few years ago now). We flew into Venice and flew out of naples.

We just turned up at the station and used their ticket machines to buy a ticket - from what I remember we paid a bit more for faster intercity trains but it wasn't outrageously expesive (however we are used to English train prices).

The trains were punctual, and clean and a great way to travel. Plus most stations sold delicious pizza slices!

Very straightforward - did quite a lot of trundling round the Veneto at Easter.

Pitfalls:

As a PP said, you have to validate tickets.

And you buy a ticket for a specific train, so don't cut it fine in terms of finding your platform (or in our case, trying to work out exactly where "opposite the station" the rail replacement bus was leaving from...)

The other thing to bear in mind is there are two types of trains - intercities (very expensive) and stopping trains (really cheap compared to the UK). The stopping trains don't actually take that much longer, to be honest, and are loads cheaper.

I am in Verona at the moment and over the last week have been on trains from Pisa to Florence, Florence to Verona and a day trip to Venice. We booked all tickets direct via trenitalia.com (avoid agencies who will charge fees) and no problems so far apart fom not being able to book seats on some trains. If you book on line no need to validate the ticket at the station. The ticket will be emailed to you and you just need a print out of this or show the ticket on your phone. When you book online need to specify a time but if you miss the real can get any train in the next 4 hrs. So far all trains have been on time. Enjoy Your holiday- I 'm having a fantastic time

We booked ours in advance on Loco2. We didn't have to validate a ticket or print it out, just showed our phones. It was very easy. We did it well in advance when I think the fares are cheaper like here...I think...

It's very easy. You can either book online or buy at the machines at the train station. Tickets bought at the station need to be validated, but that's a very simple process. Do NOT forget to do this!

That sounds like an amazing trip. You are packing a lot in to the trip too, how long you going for?

I've been to all the places you mention apart from Cinque Terre. Not all in one go though!

Hope you have a blast.

Buy your tickets from trenitalia www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en/Purchase/Purchase

The same earlier-you-buy-less-you-pay thing as the UK works here as well.

PPs are correct- if you have a traditional paper ticket, it must be validated in the machine or you will be fined- hasn't happened to me for 25 yrs but it was £40 then. Ticketless tickets obvs don't need validation.

Trip sounds great, I'd stick Verona in as well, as it's a hop over from both Lake Garda and Venice. I stayed in Verona (cheaper) and did both of those from there.