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In Italy, you can arrive at the station without a ticket, and go to a machine. The machine supports multiple languages. You can buy a ticket in multiple class

by jzwinck 13y ago

In Italy, you can arrive at the station without a ticket, and go to a machine. The machine supports multiple languages. You can buy a ticket in multiple classes on multiple speeds of service (roughly "regular", "fast", "high-speed"). These trains are frequent, well-connected to regional buses, and clean. The high-speed ones are fairly expensive, but the regular ones are fairly cheap. This is the way to do train service. And it's heavily used. P.S.: if you really want a slow night train for cheap, visit Zimbabwe. A "first class" sleeper cabin is about $10 from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls, and it's beautiful. But every part of the 1970's British train has long since been stolen--the lights, the faucets, the toilets, etc. Still, $10, and it goes to interesting places.

colanderman 13y ago
LOL. Last time I was in Italy (on a trip across Europe), I wanted to get a ticket to get to France. I tried one of those machines… wouldn't let me buy tickets for the route I wanted (commuter rail to Paris). Actually tried two or three; there were several kinds. Stood in line for an hour plus. Guy at the desk claims no-one there speaks English (fine, but that was a lie as the attendant next to him was). We use our phrasebook to order tickets. Walking away from the counter, we realize they're for a train that leaves in ONE MINUTE. Of course we don't make it. Eventually we found customer service tucked away in a dirty corner. They were able to right everything, but seriously… my experience getting train tickets in Italy was NOT as rosy as you paint it. (Only place worse was France, where the damn airport tram ticket machines needed 18€ of COINS.)
- ricardobeat 13y ago
  I think the parent was referring to trains within Italy. It's train system is really good, you can go almost everywhere, easily buy a ticket on the spot for a fixed fare, and they are quite comfortable.
  - colanderman 13y ago
    Yes, to be fair, I didn't have trouble within Italy. It was only trying to get out that I had trouble. (And I had been through nearly every country in western Europe by that point without any trouble, despite some convoluted plans.)
    - jacalata 13y ago
      ha, my experience was being charged for adult prices trying to go Milan-Paris because the agent insisted they couldn't take a french student card, despite it working for train trips from Rome through Florence and Venice on the way there. She told me that I could get the difference refunded once I arrived in Paris...as if.
Morgawr 13y ago
I'm sorry but you forgot the other side of the coin there. I am Italian (living abroad now though) and until last year I had been traveling a lot across Italy. Trains are a joke in Italy, every Italian person would be able to tell you that. While we mostly use trains to move around from town to town, the train service itself is abysmal. Dirty trains, missed connections, delays because of problems in the infrastructures/scheduling. I used to take regional trains to go visit my (now ex) girlfriend living in the neighboring city from mine (which is Bologna, a pretty big train exchange/junction between the north and center of Italy). Every single day my train would wait literally 100 meters away from the station, stuck there for an hour or so (outside of its timetable) because somebody messed up the platform and there was another train incoming. Yes, we have a lot of ticketing machines where you can just go there and buy a ticket in 10 minutes, but actually getting to your destination is a whole different deal in Italy. Also, thanks to the new high speed trains (especially connecting Milan and Rome), the fares for normal regional trains have skyrocketed as well (they want to push people on the HS ones). I clearly remember doing Bologna -> Florence for 7 euros 5-6 years ago, last year I checked again and it had skyrocketed to 20-25 euros. That's a massive increase for just a ~1 hour ride. EDIT: Forgot to add that this is all in the North where the infrastructure is more mature and stable. The south is way worse, don't get me started.
- peteretep 13y ago
  Never been able to understand why Italians are so down on their country. I spent a week there a couple of years ago, mostly travelling by train. Italians I had spoken to had me believing I should be bracing myself for North Eritrea in terms of infrastructure, police corruption, and so on... the reality is that it feels just like France. Admittedly I never went south of Rome...
  - olifante 13y ago
    It's a latin thing. I'm Portuguese, and we're also devastatingly critical of our country. Talking to a French colleague yesterday, he also bemoaned the negativity of his countrymen. Spanish people also tend to be suffer from the same problem. I wish I knew how to push people into constructive criticism.
codfrantic 13y ago
Last year I did exactly that. Was in Lucca, wanted to go to Florence for the day. Came to the station, bought a ticket, all very easy, even shows you what trains are available and allows you to choose a specific one, which I did. On the train, conductor came past. Must have been a bad day because this lady was furious at us that we didn't stamp our ticket... No idea we had to (since we chose the specific train on the machine...) She was gonna let it slide this time but next time we would pay a huge fine... 7 seconds later we heard her shout exactly the same story to basically every other tourist in the cabin :P Protip to TrenItalia, when printing the ticket, show a big warning on the screen that you need to stamp the ticket to make it valid ^_^.

by jzwinck 13y ago

colanderman 13y ago

LOL. Last time I was in Italy (on a trip across Europe), I wanted to get a ticket to get to France. I tried one of those machines… wouldn't let me buy tickets for the route I wanted (commuter rail to Paris). Actually tried two or three; there were several kinds. Stood in line for an hour plus. Guy at the desk claims no-one there speaks English (fine, but that was a lie as the attendant next to him was). We use our phrasebook to order tickets. Walking away from the counter, we realize they're for a train that leaves in ONE MINUTE. Of course we don't make it. Eventually we found customer service tucked away in a dirty corner. They were able to right everything, but seriously… my experience getting train tickets in Italy was NOT as rosy as you paint it. (Only place worse was France, where the damn airport tram ticket machines needed 18€ of COINS.)

ricardobeat 13y ago
I think the parent was referring to trains within Italy. It's train system is really good, you can go almost everywhere, easily buy a ticket on the spot for a fixed fare, and they are quite comfortable.
- colanderman 13y ago
  Yes, to be fair, I didn't have trouble within Italy. It was only trying to get out that I had trouble. (And I had been through nearly every country in western Europe by that point without any trouble, despite some convoluted plans.)
  - jacalata 13y ago
    ha, my experience was being charged for adult prices trying to go Milan-Paris because the agent insisted they couldn't take a french student card, despite it working for train trips from Rome through Florence and Venice on the way there. She told me that I could get the difference refunded once I arrived in Paris...as if.

Morgawr 13y ago

I'm sorry but you forgot the other side of the coin there. I am Italian (living abroad now though) and until last year I had been traveling a lot across Italy. Trains are a joke in Italy, every Italian person would be able to tell you that. While we mostly use trains to move around from town to town, the train service itself is abysmal. Dirty trains, missed connections, delays because of problems in the infrastructures/scheduling. I used to take regional trains to go visit my (now ex) girlfriend living in the neighboring city from mine (which is Bologna, a pretty big train exchange/junction between the north and center of Italy). Every single day my train would wait literally 100 meters away from the station, stuck there for an hour or so (outside of its timetable) because somebody messed up the platform and there was another train incoming. Yes, we have a lot of ticketing machines where you can just go there and buy a ticket in 10 minutes, but actually getting to your destination is a whole different deal in Italy. Also, thanks to the new high speed trains (especially connecting Milan and Rome), the fares for normal regional trains have skyrocketed as well (they want to push people on the HS ones). I clearly remember doing Bologna -> Florence for 7 euros 5-6 years ago, last year I checked again and it had skyrocketed to 20-25 euros. That's a massive increase for just a ~1 hour ride. EDIT: Forgot to add that this is all in the North where the infrastructure is more mature and stable. The south is way worse, don't get me started.

peteretep 13y ago
Never been able to understand why Italians are so down on their country. I spent a week there a couple of years ago, mostly travelling by train. Italians I had spoken to had me believing I should be bracing myself for North Eritrea in terms of infrastructure, police corruption, and so on... the reality is that it feels just like France. Admittedly I never went south of Rome...
- olifante 13y ago
  It's a latin thing. I'm Portuguese, and we're also devastatingly critical of our country. Talking to a French colleague yesterday, he also bemoaned the negativity of his countrymen. Spanish people also tend to be suffer from the same problem. I wish I knew how to push people into constructive criticism.

codfrantic 13y ago

Last year I did exactly that. Was in Lucca, wanted to go to Florence for the day. Came to the station, bought a ticket, all very easy, even shows you what trains are available and allows you to choose a specific one, which I did. On the train, conductor came past. Must have been a bad day because this lady was furious at us that we didn't stamp our ticket... No idea we had to (since we chose the specific train on the machine...) She was gonna let it slide this time but next time we would pay a huge fine... 7 seconds later we heard her shout exactly the same story to basically every other tourist in the cabin :P Protip to TrenItalia, when printing the ticket, show a big warning on the screen that you need to stamp the ticket to make it valid ^_^.