I'm just back from having had a few days each in Rome and Naples, and a train between the two. Our Frecciarossa train was 40 mins late into Naples, mainly because it left Roma Termini late. Like Euston, they post the platform only a few minutes before the (delayed) departure time so there's something of a mad rush to and along the platform when finally announced. After that everything went smoothly, and I've claimed a refund, but all you can get is a credit for a future trip on TrenItalia within 12 months, which I may not be able to use. The train has to be over an hour late to get an actual cash refund, I gather.
The train service from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Roma Termini - the so-called Leonardo Express - is pretty poor. Not only very slow ("Express" being the Italian word for slowest possible service, I understand), but with not enough luggage space and full to overcrowding on both trains we took. The company claims that contactless cards including those from overseas can be used on the ticket gates of this service, but none of ours did and we were redirected to the ticket office to buy paper tickets. It was easy to buy tickets at the airport station from a real person, but at Roma Termini we could find no actual staffed ticket office and had to join one of the very long queues to use a ticket machine and then cope with a moderately baffling user interface.
Within Rome contactless cards worked at all the Metro stations we used, though sometimes you have to search for the one gate which takes Visa/Mastercard. On buses too, and on one bus there suddenly appeared a pair of ticket inspectors. We showed them our cards which they touched on their machine and after 10 seconds or so it gave a green signal - I assume it must be checking their central database to show that we had indeed tapped in on that bus, and that it's all connected up. If so, more connected than on London buses, where I gather that all that ticket inspectors can do is check that your credit/debit card is valid for use. The charges didn't appear on our credit card accounts until the next day, I think because there is a daily cap, which we didn't reach.
In Naples contactless cards worked at several stations on the Circumvesuviana line, but again sometimes one had to search hard to find the one gate that worked. At some stations, e.g. Pompleii and Herculaneum there was no gateline but there were machines on the wall of the ticket hall, one marked "Tap in" and one "Tap out" (in English) which of course we used to avoid having an unterminated journey. It appears that contactless cards should work on the Naples Metro Lines and their funiculars but not on buses, so when necessary we bought one-day travel cards valid on everything from a local tabacco shop. At under 6 Euros/day they seemed fairly good value. You can buy these in advance and they are valid until midnight on the first time of use. If you first use the card on a bus you have to find the validation machine near the rear doors to start the validation period.
The train service from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Roma Termini - the so-called Leonardo Express - is pretty poor. Not only very slow ("Express" being the Italian word for slowest possible service, I understand), but with not enough luggage space and full to overcrowding on both trains we took. The company claims that contactless cards including those from overseas can be used on the ticket gates of this service, but none of ours did and we were redirected to the ticket office to buy paper tickets. It was easy to buy tickets at the airport station from a real person, but at Roma Termini we could find no actual staffed ticket office and had to join one of the very long queues to use a ticket machine and then cope with a moderately baffling user interface.
Within Rome contactless cards worked at all the Metro stations we used, though sometimes you have to search for the one gate which takes Visa/Mastercard. On buses too, and on one bus there suddenly appeared a pair of ticket inspectors. We showed them our cards which they touched on their machine and after 10 seconds or so it gave a green signal - I assume it must be checking their central database to show that we had indeed tapped in on that bus, and that it's all connected up. If so, more connected than on London buses, where I gather that all that ticket inspectors can do is check that your credit/debit card is valid for use. The charges didn't appear on our credit card accounts until the next day, I think because there is a daily cap, which we didn't reach.
In Naples contactless cards worked at several stations on the Circumvesuviana line, but again sometimes one had to search hard to find the one gate that worked. At some stations, e.g. Pompleii and Herculaneum there was no gateline but there were machines on the wall of the ticket hall, one marked "Tap in" and one "Tap out" (in English) which of course we used to avoid having an unterminated journey. It appears that contactless cards should work on the Naples Metro Lines and their funiculars but not on buses, so when necessary we bought one-day travel cards valid on everything from a local tabacco shop. At under 6 Euros/day they seemed fairly good value. You can buy these in advance and they are valid until midnight on the first time of use. If you first use the card on a bus you have to find the validation machine near the rear doors to start the validation period.