I take it you just print them at home once you buy them? I feel pretty good about our schedule being locked in.

You know this is one thing I am concerned about as I have almost zero experience with any rail here in the US, let alone a foreign country. And then i read something about your ticket not even being good if its not validated? what the heck is that?

No, no, no. The ticket was quite valid but for another train run by another company. I was jet lagged, saw on the departure board that a train was headed out of Roma Termini in a few minutes and headed for that track without bothering to check whether it was my train. If I had been clear headed, I would have figured it out, but my mental fog combined with a lifetime of American train experience in a mid-sized city where you only asked "when does today's train leave?" rather than understanding that hundreds of trains were departing from the same station to destinations all over Italy every day threw me off.

The Italian train networks are mostly wonderful. In most places, I like to drive, but the Italian system is so good that if your trip is only between cities, it's superior to driving and far superior to flying. My earlier post was attempting to give you perspective on the matters you need to pay attention to when using trains. Please don't be dissuaded from using the system. Just get to the station a little ahead of time so you can get your your bearings and understand how to navigate the terminal.

And then enjoy the view on the express train as you blow by the traffic on the high-speed highways. I love that part!

Read this thread - Perche's comments on trains and ticket validation:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/italy...nice-rome.html

Sorry I was not clear. I was not talking about your specific trouble above I was talking about something else i had read about validating a ticket. Sopiesopies actually proved the link to something i had read a while back and was trying to reference about my validation confusion.

Perche said in that thread...


Ticket validation on trains is very important to understand because 95% of the time someone will come by to check your ticket, and if it is one that is supposed to be validated and you didn't, each passenger will get a big fine.

Pleading ignorance won't sway the conductor. I have only seen that work twice, and I've seen a lot of people get fined. Once there were a number of bilingual passengers in the coach, and an unknowing tourist obviously not trying to rip off the train hadn't validated her ticket. As she tried to explain it to the Italian-speaking only conductor many of the bilingual Italians in the coach started haranguing him, demanding that he let her go, and with great reluctance, he did. The second time was me on a local train from Parma to Modena. I simply forgot. And I think I was the only one in the coach. I had a lengthy argument with the conductor telling him I just forgot, plain and simple, and I'm not paying. He finally said, "I believe you," gave me a stern lecture, and let me go.

The validation rule is simple. On the major trains the ticket has a date, a time, the number of the carriage you are assigned to, and your seat assignment. There is no way you can use that ticket again and again and again because the ticket is for a particular seat on a particular train on a particular date and time. If you try to reuse the ticket the next day the conductor can see that, and will fine you. No need to validate a ticket if it has a date and time on it.




^^^This was what had me confused but i could not remember where i read it. Thanks Perche and Sophiesophie!

1readyset2go, so do you understand the validation process now? It is just a place to insert your ticket to be validated and you will find them around the train station. Once inserted, it will quickly validate it, and you are good to go. Just remove your ticket and keep it with you to show the conductor.

One lesson that I learned when I was there last September and October was to check the train websites ahead of time to see if there will be a strike. We had tickets after church in Milan down to Florence and once we got into the train station, trains started getting canceled one by one. Finally, we saw our train was canceled. We stood in line at the desk for help for about an hour only to be told that we could pay extra for another train but could not get credit for our tickets, and that the other train was full. After much pressing, we were told that we could try at the rebooking office. Once there, we took a number and noticed that the number counter was not moving and there were no agents behind the counter. The rebooking agents had also gone on strike. In the end, a nice agent who was not "working" gave us some advice - get on whatever train you can find that goes to Florence and is not canceled, show your ticket to the conductor, and tell him the situation. He might allow you to pay the upgrade and take the train. We did so and the conductor simply accepted our ticket after we told him the situation. This could all have been avoided if we had watched the news or the website and known that there would be a strike that day. We happened to be lucky but I don't know that it would always go that way.

PWMTrav, when and where will you be in Nov.? I will be in northern Italy (and Croatia) late October and early November!

We'll be in Florence from 6 to ~16/17 Nov. Glad to hear you're headed back to Italy!

I'm so glad you're getting to go back again! Enjoy!

Just wanted to update my thread.

We are actually here in Florence now and I will be posting trip reports over in the trip report forum if anyone is interested in following. So far its awesome! :)

Great! Enjoy!

I'm very interested in your Florence trip report as I am planning a trip. Please let me/us know when you have posted your trip report.

Thank you!

You'll find a ton of info on Florence in this forum if you browse for a bit.