Frecciarossa Classes
Mirtha Hinrichs
The Frecciarossa trains have 4 classes of service, Executive, Business, Premium and Standard. Executive has 1-1 seating, and a cold meal included. Business has 1-2 seating and a light snack and the choice of coffee or prosecco. Premium and Standard share a 2-2 seating arrangement, but Premium passengers get the same snack as in Business. More information on seating options on Frecciarossa trains are available at Seat 61, an excellent site discussing train travel.
The Italian high-speed train routes are available on routes across much of Italy, such as the route I took from Torino to Trieste, but also north to south. See below for a map from the Trenitalia website:
There is free wifi available and power ports at each seat. The wifi portal has some streaming entertainment as well, but the selection is rather limited, especially in English. No problem, as I enjoyed my window view, and I caught up on work on my laptop.
There is a power port at each seat, although in this version of the train, it only fits the Italian plugs, and my generic European power adapter (Schuko) did not fit. I encountered some plug incompatibility in Italy, but in most cases, especially in hotels, the plugs were more universal, accepting my adapter.
Soon after a conductor checked tickets, a trolley came through with a small paper bag of snacks. This included a bottle of water, some tasty breadstick type snacks, a piece of candy, and a wet wipe. Finally there was an offer of coffee or prosecco. Given the evening departure, I happily accepted the bubbly. While this was a nice enough snack, I knew that I wanted a more substantial meal, so I brought my own food on the train for dinner. There is a cafe car with hot food, but I figured I could do better on my own.
Seemingly a fair number of passengers were commuting between Torino and Milano. We stopped at Milano Central for 15 minutes or so and most passengers in my cabin mostly exited. Then it mostly filled up with new travelers heading somewhere further east. There was also a second pass from the snack trolley, and another Prosecco.
Brad is a frequent traveler, based in Milwaukee. He typically travels in around 200,000 miles per year, much of it for business, and often in economy. This blog focuses on experiences and tips from the perspective of a frequent business traveler trying to maximize value. In addition to frequent work trips, he uses miles and points for even more travel with his wife and young child.
In short, they both have much easier websites to use, customer service in English, and no issues with accepting non-Italian credit cards to book train tickets online. (This is a very frequent issue when booking directly with TrenItalia, in my experience.)
But buying train tickets ahead of time will save you money and time, and will help you avoid the possibility of waiting around in case tickets are sold out (which definitely happens). And having your tickets already saved on your phone just simplifies the train station experience.
(This is a major benefit to Omio versus ItaliaRail. You still get the better service, and an English language website that works without translation issues, but you can compare all Italian train options with Omio.)
Waiting will also give you less selection on popular routes. You might end up having to change trains instead of getting a direct route, take a slower train instead of the fastest Freccia Rossa ones, or have only one or two departure times to choose from instead of a dozen.
You cannot cancel Super Economy or Economy tickets, but you can change the date or time for an Economy ticket. Base price tickets can be changed (or refunded for 80% of what you paid) any time until one hour after the train leaves the station.
According to the stats printed on the back of Italian train tickets, taking the train in Italy emits about 75% less CO2 than the same trip in an airplane, and about 65% less than driving, on average.
Hi Ketti
This article about the trains were very helpful. Perhaps I can ask your opinion or suggestion.
My son and I are traveling to Italy for the first time in October.! This is a heritage trip to see where my dad grew up (Bari) and My maternal grandfather (Calabria)
One of the booking sites had a seat choice of upper or lower, we will have some luggage, would lower be easier?
The only other option from Bari is a bus, or rent a car and I drive, which family does not recommend.
I have not done the side by side comparison so I would like to get your thoughts on the benefit of buying an Eurail Italy Pass. We will be in Florence for 2 weeks and then travel to Amalfi by train. However, while in Florence would like to take a few day trips by train so it seems that a pass is good value but not sure and even if it is a good value whether it comes at the expense of losing some flexibility.
When travelling across borders Trenitalia can be more expensive than the Swiss, German or Austrian equal seat on the same train and their apps may allow specific seat reservations or even fixed pricing for daily travel
Italo have different train configuration s that change at short notice rendering car reservations problematic. Very disorganised. Not worth it in my view. Esp out of Venice. Think of cars all backward. Staff just allow anyone to sit anywhere so premium seats are lost. Trenitalia dont do this.
Also, Nicole (further to my post above), when I look in the ItaliaRail site for May 18 from Venice to Monterosso, it only gives me two choices, both leaving in the afternoon. I want a much earlier departure. Is this because their schedule has not opened up this far in advance? Thank you.
This was very informative. Thank you. We are considering a 10 day pass for our travels during the month of June. If we have a 10 day pass, do we still need to book a reservation each time we travel? Can reservations be made at the station?
Thanks !
Hello Ketti, Good information as I try to navigate a trip from Florence to Naples to Sorrento then a return from Sorrento to Naples to Rome. Which train would be best for this? Also, my daughter who will be studying in Florence for 8 weeks will have a very large suitcase. Are there luggage limits?
Thank you!
Ketti, I love your blog!
One question: Can an American traveler use Italo Senior rate? Or would I need to have that Argento card? Their site only says that you must be at least 60 to book it.
Thanks!
Thank you for the helpful tips! We are spending our Honeymoon in Italy in September and knew we wanted to travel via train, but was having a hard time deciding which way to go about booking before reading your post. Grazie!
Thank you very much for all the detailed explanation to clear the italian train related confusion in my head. I found your site very helpful. I was able to figure that there are two main train services but multiple websites and way to buy tickets. I am planning to visit Italy in early April. How far (latest) in advance should I buy train tickets to get a good deal and decent time options? I would like to buy in advance buy not too much in advance just in case my plans change. I am looking for tickets for my family between Rome and Florence, Rome and Naples.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have other questions for your trip, and keep in touch! If you want to help support Tilted Map, buying your tickets through this link (one of the website I use and recommend above) lets me earn a small commission.
And in the meantime, you might find these other articles useful: My list of my favorite restaurants around Italy, all about eating and ordering in Italian restaurants, and my favorite travel booking links (hotels, travel insurance, and more).
Otherwise, have you seen some of my other articles about Italy that might be helpful for your trip? I have one about my favorite restaurants, which includes some in both Florence and Milan, so you should definitely hang on to that one!
Good piece with great tips. After visiting Italy frequently over four decades and now living here for six years, I can say that the train service is measurably more reliable, comfortable, and easier to use.
For long distance trips, I book in advance using trainline.eu.There is no fee and it clearly displays all the choices and gives details if desired. It also automatically calculates my pre-loaded senior discount fare. Even better, it has a cell phone option with a QR code that is simply scanned. No fussing with paper tickets or validation!
RE: Carta Freccia for non-residents
I am Australian and this year, I applied and received the CartaFreccia membership with no problem. It took about 6 weeks. Download the form, complete, scan and email. You then need to sign up and register to lefrecce.it to activate the membership. By the time I received the email and due to time difference of 8 hours, the link had expired, but I just requested a new one and it was not a problem.
I was on Trenitalia and it was horrible. Venice to Rome. 90 minute delay to start and then a 4 hour train ride took just under 5 hours. Never again. I have rode dozens of trains all over Europe and never had such bad service
Hello, I am traveling to Europe for the first time. I am planning to buy Eurail as suggested by my friend. I am taking a train from Rome to Naples and then Florence to Venice. Like to know if I can travel in Frecciarossa or italo trains with Eurail pass.
Thanks
I am planning a trip to this wonderful country for about 2 weeks some time in October 2024. We will be a family of 7, hence we would have a minimum of 7 medium-to-large suitcases and also 7 small strolley bags. To move with so many bags from point to point by train may be a bit inconvenient. We are, therefore, planning to make Florence as a hub, and from there make train trips to Milan, Bologna, Pisa and Cinque Terre. From Florence we intend moving to Verona and stay there for a couple of days. Our actual destination would be Venice, but we would prefer to stay in Verona as hotels there are likely to be a lot cheaper than those in Venice. We would travel to Venice from Verona by train. After Verona we intend to move to Rome and spend 3 days there. From Rome we are planning to move to Naples and spend a couple of days there before heading back to Rome to catch our return flight to Delhi.
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