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Italy Travel 4 Cities, 2 Weeks Honeymoon!

  • 18 April 2024
  • 5 replies
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J

Hello Everyone!

 

Please excuse some of my dumb questions that I may be asking as I am completely new to this and have been doing some research on the Eurail the past few days and some features on the website. 

 

I am planning my honeymoon and look forward to visiting a country I really only could have dreamed about ever doing while growing up. We are planning to visit all of the places we read about growing up and have seen all over. We are flying into Naples and then going to Sorrento, then to Rome→ Venice→ Lake Como → Milan to go back to America. 

 

I understand I need to buy a pass and then add on reservations but when I fill out the “plan a trip” it suggests I pick up for 4 days. I was wondering really how many days we actually needed, and what may be our best cost based option. 

 

I was also wondering does the Eurail only include the bullet trains or does it include local? If it does do local can I do 2 train trips for 1 day of travel? 

 

If it does do local, would I need 1 for Naples to Sorrento, 1 Sorrento to Naples to Rome, 1 Rome to Venice, 1 Venice to Milan to Como 1, 1 for Como back to Milan (I think if that's right?) 

 

I am really just trying to make sure I understand this all a little better before I start buying our hotel/AirBNB’s. 

 

Thank you so much to whomever can help!

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Best answer by Hektor 18 April 2024, 06:52

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Hektor
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A travel day is a calendar day, e.g. April 18th. 

On this travely day you are allowed to board as many trains as possible (even to another place and back on the same route). So you just need to count on how many calendar days you'd board trains to get you somewhere.

The Eurail pass does include Trenitalia's high speed trains and Trenitalia's regional (local) trains (for Napoli to Sorrento and back there's just an included connection until May 5th as the regional trains aren't operated by Trenitalia; recommend: there's a frequent and fast ferry service - nice trip but going by train is cheaper).

But if you plan well ahead you may also check the price for normal tickets here: https://www.trenitalia.com/. You are not doing that big trips; a normal ticket (that does imclude the mandatory reservation) might be cheaper. But prices are dynamic here and do depend on booking time and travel date. But it never hurts just to check prices.

ralderton
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Naples to Sorrento isn’t covered by the pass. You’ll need to buy a local ticket, €4.50 each way. 

https://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#london-to-sorrento-and-capri-by-train

The rest of your trips are covered by the pass, but in Italy passholders have to pay an extra €13 reservation fee to use each high speed train, €3 for an intercity. Nothing extra for a regional train.

I’d echo @Hektor‘s advice to check the price of regular tickets as well as a pass. It may well be cheaper, if you can book in advance

A pass is more flexible though. You don’t need to make your reservations far in advance at all, you can do it 5 minutes before departure.

As well as the Trenitalia website, you can search prices on https://www.italiarail.com which is a bit easier to use. They will refund their booking fee if you email them and quote ‘Seat 61’.

You should also check the private train operator Italo, who compete with Trenitalia on many long distance routes. https://www.italotreno.it/en (Eurail pass isn't valid on Italo)

ralderton
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Also, the excellent Seat 61 website has a general guide to rail travel in Italy , which includes suggested routes, railpasses, how to buy tickets etc. Very useful!

https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

ralderton
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I’d echo @Hektor‘s advice to check the price of regular tickets as well as a pass. It may well be cheaper, if you can book in advance

As an example for Rome to Venice (a 4 hour journey)

I can book a train departing this afternoon for €105 on Trenitalia, but looking three months ahead, it’s as little as €30 for a non-refundable fare on Italo. Or just €40 in first class!

If you’re able to lock-in your dates in advance, there’s no point in paying for a railpass + €13 reservation fee, when you could just buy a ticket for €30 instead.

J

Hello Everybody, 

 

Thank you so much for your help, this is what I was looking for. 

 

If you ever travel to Chicago just let me know! 

 

Thanks again

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