Backpackers Guide to Trains in Italy

Contrary to popular belief, walking around isn’t the only way we get where we need to go. If you are planning a trip to Italy, we can’t recommend trains enough. Every major Italian city has a train station, and they are probably the most convenient way to get around the country. Even so, with minimal experience in navigating trains and only about ten Italian words under our belt, the railway system was a major point of stress for us as we began our trip. In this post, we’ll give you all the tips we wish we knew ahead of time, so you can ride the trains like a pro.

Trains Between Cities vs. Regional Trains

When going between the major cities, you will be taking trains that will take more time but are often high speed. These intercity trains usually require seat reservations as they are typically busier than the regional trains. When referring to regional trains, we're talking about the trains that take less than an hour or subways that may take you around a city. We never ran into a regional train where we needed a seat reservation, and we were always able to buy tickets at the station the day we rode.

Eurail vs. Individual Tickets

Almost every traveler we talked to recommended the Eurail pass, although it isn’t the only option. The other way of taking trains in Italy is to buy individual tickets, similar to buying airline tickets. Whatever you decide, I would recommend using the Eurail website to see how much each day of travel will cost you compared to individual tickets booked through the most popular train company, Trenitalia. Here is a handy chart to help you decide between the two.

​Eurail Pass

Individual Tickets

Cheaper if you want a flexible schedule or are prone to missing trains. You redeem a “day” of train travel, so trains between cities and regional trains are both included within that day. Trains between cities often require you to reserve a seat for ~12 euros, so the flexibility is sometimes not as much as you might hope and could be limited to the regional trains where there are almost never seat reservations.

Cheaper if you are good at planning ahead and can buy all of your tickets in advance. You need to book your tickets between cities separately from any regional tickets you may need. Often, you'll buy regional tickets at the station itself the day of travel. If you have a change in itinerary, or are delayed, buying last minute intercity tickets can get pricey.

Train Stations

On our first day of traveling in Italy, we were VERY confused about how to navigate the train system. For both of us, it was our first time in Europe taking trains on our own, and it was especially difficult given neither of us speak Italian. For this reason, we always recommend allocating a full day to travel between cities and not scheduling any major sightseeing on a day of travel if possible.

In every train station, there are automatic kiosks for buying train tickets if you haven't gotten your tickets ahead of time. These are very trustworthy and there are often train employees walking around who can be very helpful if you need some extra assistance.

If you purchased your tickets ahead of time or got them via Eurail, you will take them to the platform security entrances and scan them to be let into the platform where all the trains are located. With this, there are a couple things to keep in mind that we wished we knew:

1. Make sure each member of your party has their own ticket on them. The entrances open once, per person, per ticket, and glass barriers limit you from handing tickets to those behind you if one person accidentally held all the tickets.
   

2. Ask for help. If you misscan your ticket (it happened to us more than we care to admit), and your ticket isn’t scanning properly or won’t let you in, go up to one of the train police officers nearby. If you show them your ticket, they often will give it a quick glance and let you into the platform no questions asked.
   

3. Plan ahead. Once you are on the platform, there are often limited food/bathroom options, so make sure you take care of that ahead of time if you know you'll be waiting a while.
   

4. Allow extra time for regional trains. If you are attempting to board a regional train, there will be a separate section of the station to enter. Depending on the city, this can either be right alongside the intercity trains or could be a long walk in the opposite direction.

Useful Italian Words for the Train System

For the non-Italian English speaker, here are some useful Italian words for your train travels:

1. Stazione (sta-zee-oh-neh) - Station

2. Binario (bee-nah-ree-oh) - Platform/Track

3. Biglietto (bee-lyet-toh) - Ticket

4. Orario (oh-rah-ree-oh) - Timetable/Schedule

5. Partenza (par-ten-tzah) - Departure

6. Arrivo (ah-rree-voh) - Arrival

7. Treno (treh-noh) - Train

8. Uscita (oo-shee-tah) - Exit