Travel in Italy

[CharlesBell]

After some advice please.

My daughter (Has FIP card and coupon for Italy) and her BF (normal passenger i.e. no FIP card) are going to Italy in 2 weeks time. She is only 19 and her first time abroad without me, so keen to get her travel sorted in advance if I can.

Planned train travel is:

Pisa Airport - Florence

Florence - Rome / Rome - Florence (day trip)

Florence - Pisa Airport


So about 3 weeks ago, I submitted a quote request to the 'bookmyrst' email service. But heard nothing back as yet and less than 2 weeks till travel.


I am not sure if she needs to make reservations and/or pay supplements.

So can't decide what to do between :-

i) Sit tight and wait to hear back (hopefully) from RST
ii) Book tickets for the BF now (Trainline Europe?) to make sure of getting AP and in the event that daughter doesn't need reservations/supplements then they are sorted for travel - although still the issue that they might not be able to sit together if he has a reservation and she doesn't
iii) Just buy AP tickets for them both and don't bother with the FIP card/coupon. This isn't a great option of course because would rather not spend the cash if not necessary - but train prices for Italy look reasonable and sorts the sitting together issue plus gives me peace of mind that her travel is sorted

Any advice much appreciated. My 2nd post - and received cracking advice for the 1st post - so hoping to strike lucky again!

 

[rvdborgt]

Advance fares can be lower than the FIP price, especially for Frecciarossa (e.g. for Florence-Rome). With a FIP coupon, you're effectively paying the difference between the full regional fare and the full Frecciarossa fare (see the RDG document). You can make an estimation of that using trenitalia.com, where you can select journeys with regional trains only.
Pisa Airport - Florence is with regional trains only and fairly cheap. No reservations needed and price is always the same. FIP reduction should be possible when buying from a local ticket office.

 

[CharlesBell]

Many thanks for the reply and the advice -I will checkout Trenitalia as you have suggested.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Looks like it would be about €80 return for the two of them on either TI Frecce or Italo trains between Florence and Rome.
These are the lowest public fares for early September (there are several levels of accommodation and service, and prices will go up/sell out the later you book).
Italo has Day Return, Group and Young fares, but they all seem to work out at about the same fare.
Remember some trains stop in the suburbs instead of the city centre stations (Firenze SNM and Roma Termini), to avoid reversal.
All easily bookable on these sites:

Home

Travel with Frecciarossa trains at high speed, departing and arriving from the center of the main cities. Buy the tickets online with our offers.

www.trenitalia.com

Italo, Italian high-speed train | Book with no service fee | italotreno.com

Official website of Italo Treno, the best way for travelling in Italy by train from Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples with new, safe bullet trains

www.italotreno.it

 

[CharlesBell]

Thanks for the help - this is great.

 

[bkhtele]

Sometime since I was at Pisa airport, however the people mover to Pisa is in operation. Don't know if still run by Trenitalia. Easy to buy tickets to Florence in Pisa main station. There were lots of unreserved seats available. Agree advance tickets to Florence from Pisa will possibly be best deal.

 

[D6130]

Sometime since I was at Pisa airport, however the people mover to Pisa is in operation. Don't know if still run by Trenitalia. Easy to buy tickets to Florence in Pisa main station.

The Pisamover shuttle from/to the airport is owned and operated by the city council, with an adult one-way fare of 5 Euro last time we used it nearly two years ago. It is however prone to breakdowns, in which case it is usually replaced by a privately-contracted minibus service with very cramped accommodation and limited luggage space. In the event that the Pisamover is not operating, there are three other options to get from the airport to the central station or vice-versa:

(1) City bus - takes about 10 minutes and very cheap (I think about 1 Euro 50, but I haven't used it for a while)
(2) Taxi - takes about 5 minutes, but rather expensive.
(3) Walk - takes about 20 minutes along a direct and fairly straight road (weather- and luggage- dependent)

Agree advance tickets to Florence from Pisa will possibly be best deal.

Be careful! Advance tickets for Trenitalia regional services are only valid on the specified train....which means that if, for example, their flight is delayed, they will end up having to pay again. Far better, IMO, to purchase the Pisa-Florence tickets on the day - either from the booking office (biglietteria) if there's no queue - or from the excellent multi-lingual Trenitalia ticket vending machines on the concourse. In this way, their regional tickets will be valid on any train, as long as that segment of the journey is completed within four hours of the ticket being validated in the green & grey machines on the concourse or platform. Only regional tickets have to be validated in this way. If buying FIP regional tickets from a TVM, we usually select 'ragazzi' (children) as it's the same discount (50%) and we've only once (in Sicily) in hundreds of journeys had it questioned by train conductors on production of our FIP cards.That having been said, as there are no seat reservations on regional services, your daughter would be better-off using her free coupons on those journeys.

 

[Welby]

FS free coupons are only valid on services marked RE on the Trenitalia timetable and even then are not valid on services operated by TrenNord.

FIP tickets and also "advance-purchase" tickets can be purchased through someone like Rail Canterbury (Rail@rail-canterbury.co.uk) who can do the tickets as e-tickets.

 

[D6130]

FS free coupons are only valid on services marked RE on the Trenitalia timetable

....and 'RV' (Regionale Veloce - fast regional).