I'm feeling like a dunce because I'm having such a hard time understanding the mechanics of making train reservations online. I don't see a round trip option; maybe you just buy the first leg of the trip and then buy the return separately.
Five of us will be taking the train from Rome to Chiusi on 9/20 and returning on 10/04. I hope someone out there can help me.
Thanks!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
Hi Linda - Don't feel like a dunce! Traveling by train (and purchasing tickets!) is a skill that's learned, that's all.
Typically in Italy train tickets are purchased point-to-point, as there's no financial benefit to purchasing round trip tickets. Does that answer your question?
Posts: 13719 | Location: The Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 06 August 2001
I guess I really had a brain hiccup. I just remembered that every time we've made reservations for the TGV in France we've done it through Rail Europe. Is there any reason not to do this for Italy?
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
If you're okay with paying the high $ markup from RailEurope (over purchasing your tickets in Italy or via the Italian FS-intreno website) then there's no reason not to for Italy.
Posts: 13719 | Location: The Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 06 August 2001
Thanks for the advice but I'm still having trouble. When I go to the Trenitalia website to purchase tickets and click on the English version, I can find the schedule. Then when I click on the "buy" button, the next window comes up in Italian, which unfortumately I can't read.
Another question: If I can figure out how to buy the tickets on this site, are they shipped from Italy or is there a US agent? We're leaving on September 17 and my experience with the post from Italy is that it is very slow.
I know that Rail Europe will be much more expensive but I hate to risk leaving the States without tickets or standing in line at the station in Rome trying to buy them there.
Thanks for any further advice.
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
Linda, to save yourself a minor hassle on the spot -- if that, frankly, any problem is unlikely -- you're putting yourself thru a big hassle now. It's really painful to watch.
Take it from someone who doesn't like problems, and doesn't tolerate them well: much, much easier, to buy your tickets when you get to Italy. at that season there is plenty of room on trains, and not the slightest need for a reservation.
When you arrive in Rome:
1. If you are going to spend time in Rome first, on Day 2 of your stay (i.e., not when you're coming in from the airport, jetlagged and with luggage), go to the the train station and get your tickets.
2. If you are going straight from the airport to Chiusi, do not go to Rome at all. At the little airport station, buy your tickets to Chiusi right at the station, and take, not the train that everyone takes to Rome, but the other train on the other platform -- 2 platforms, that's it -- to Orte, which is usually the end of the line. At Orte, catch your train to Chiusi. Orte is also small. The trains both to Orte and Chiusi are very frequent. This way, there is no worry, no lines, no complications in the huge and very crowded station in Rome; to say nothing about having tickets on a 12:30 train and arrive, due to airline stuff, at 3pm.
Either way, it's very simple -- the cardinal rule of travel.
Well, Bill, you seem to be a font of knowledge on this board, so I'm sure your advice is to be taken seriously.
We're staying in Rome for two nights before going to Tuscany. Should we just plan to go to the train station the morning we want to travel to Chiusi and buy our tickets then? We will be travelling on a Saturday.
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
FWIW, I have no experience buying train tickets in Rome, but I was in Italy last October and traveled point-to-point from Milan to Verona to Venice to Florence to Milan over the course of 3 weeks. We went to the train station about 1 1/2 hours before we wanted to travel (we had a train schedule) and were able to buy tickets (first class, seat reservation, Eurostar - except to Verona) without a hitch.
Linda, trains run from Rome to Chiusi (officially: "Chiusi-Chianciano Terme") about every 45 minutes on the average, and the trip is a couple of hours no more. When in Rome, decide roughly what time of day you'd like to leave on Saturday; then go to the station at some convenient time on Friday, with your hands in your pockets, not rushed, not burdened by luggage, and buy your tickets, and copy down the schedule. If it makes you feel better, get actual reservations for a specific train. Not all 5 of you need go do this, obviously: whoever loses Thursday nite's poker game will do.
The next day, show up at the train station with your luggage, and go to your train. Nuffin to it.
If you feel nervous about communicating at the ticket counter, have your hotel write down on a piece of paper "5 people, Chiusi, date & time etc." Alternately, the automatic ticket machines include instructions in English: make sure you have a purse with crisp new bills and an assortment of coins, just to be on the safe side.
Do arrange to be met at the train station in Chiusi. There are no cabs, or at least I never saw any there.
We're picking up a rental car in Chiusi to drive to San Gim. Did you see my post about a place to eat on the way? We're concerned about our luggage being in the car whilst we're having lunch.
Any thoughts?
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
Yes, dumb of me, I'd forgotten. I'll add my 2c to the pack: don't leave your luggage in an untended car, please.
Now take a deep breath and relax, you'll have a grand trip, really. Simple and sensible, don't overplan, don't worry -- and remember, thanks to the reasonable, practical, helpful, human side of the Italian national temperament, even the bad things, should one happen, are not very bad: it's not France.
But, Bill,I'm such a Francophile and my friends have persuaded me to go to Italy this year. I must tell you that some close friends who happened to be in Provence the same time we were in 9/01 ( as in 9/11) had stopped St Sixte in the UPPER
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
I hit the wrong key and ended that message. My American friends who parked at St Sixte returned after 10 minutes to their parked car and discovered that the trunk had been opened and missing were all their pieces of luggage, including their passports. That's my worst nightmare!
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
Missing passport, yes, ought to be your worst nightmare. A passport should not be left anywhere; always carried with you. (For one thing -- although maybe this is not true, Europeans on the board will correct me if it isn't -- I understand it's the law in many European countries that we are required to carry solid identification with us at all times.) At any rate, passports should never be left in luggage, hotel rooms, car glove compartments, etc.
And I bet Pauline has this somewhere in a Tips section: you should also carry with you, in a different place -- suitcase is fine for this -- a photocopy of the info pages of your passport, in case the original does get stolen; you then use that with your national consulate/embassy to expedite delivery of a replacement passport.
If your whole triplife is in the suitcases, then I guess Bill is right. I, on the other hand, often leave my car with luggage under the little hidey shelf in the rear. If I were at a very busy place I didn't know, I'd probably sit where I could watch it. I usually seek small out of the way places to eat, however. There happens to be a restaurant up in old Chiusi that I liked, called Zaira, and it is famous for its wine list. In the finest of worlds there would be luggage lockers at Chiusi -- are there? Then you could take the car and leave the bags. Otherwise, in non-touristy season you can usually park near the municipale where there are always police around, trying to get people out of the no-entry street. Then you can stroll down that street (check out the really interesting piazza that looks like a medieval film set) and continue until you see the sign for Zaira. I tried to find a plan of Chiusi for you, but ended up with the red kiss sign on one of Bill's webpages! I have a feeling it was of Roman Chiusium anyway.
Posts: 2739 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
buying tickets is easy here now, in the trains stations there is a machine that is easy to use, and you can use your credit card, and it is in English!
Go when you are in Rome, allow yourself sometime, it shows you shedules, seating etc... all on a touch screen. Or travel agencies do this for you too in Italy. In Florence, I have a place that has a special person just to do train tickets and we are only 2 blocks from the station!
Let me get this straight...I can go directly from the airport to Orte on the train? THAT'S were that other train goes? Maybe that would be a nice alternative to a car or hiring a driver each time we return to Italy. Thanks Bill!
Posts: 4755 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
While I do not take trains often when in Italy, I have always bought the tickets at a travel agency. Maybe it was two years ago in Naples when I bought four tickets on the Eurostay for Naples>Rome. The clerk informed me that there was a discount applicable when buying four tickets at the same time. If I had bought the tickets elsewhere I would not have been aware the possibility of a discount.
So ask for the location of a travel agency near your hotel and as you walk around Rome go in it and buy the five tickets to Chiusi. But, ask for a discount as it still may be available.
Peter
Posts: 1344 | Location: Essex Fells, NJ and Longboat Key, Florida | Registered: 21 July 2002
Yes Barb, it's an old trick of mine -- if so small a thing can be called a trick. When I go to Italy, I head straight for my rental, wherever it is. So far, it's been in Umbria, and all the Umbrian trains stop at Orte, so why should I go to Rome? The same applies to all of Tuscany, and to the Marche by the normal route (i.e., the Ancona line). As I've repeated several times on this board, Orte is your friend.
By the way, the little ticket office in the airport station near the newstand -- you have to go there anyway to buy tickets if you go to Rome like everybody else -- is a full ticket counter, and can do anything they can do at the end of a 45-minute line at Termini. For example, Linda can buy her tickets to Chiusi there.
So... Boobykins gets off the plane, walks up to this 2-window ticket counter, and makes outrageous, but successful demands of the person behind it: "I would like to buy a 1-month abbonamento (subscription) from Santa Maria delle Mole to Spello," for example. He tried to correct me with some other Santa Maria, but I told him no, and he had to look up mine, but to his surprise found that the American turista was right, and in 5 minutes I had my pass from Spello to my skating rink (E of Rome on the suburban line to Velletri).
As a general rule, if you know you're going to need train tickets, buy them whenever you see an uncrowded station with the guy at the window reading a novel. Much better than at the last minute in a busy place with hordes of people with bags.
With any money saved on drivers, don't forget: you can always have me over for a nice meal and a bottle of Amarone, of course.
quote:Originally posted by Bill Thayer: By the way, the little ticket office in the airport station near the newstand -- you have to go there anyway to buy tickets if you go to Rome like everybody else -- _is a full ticket counter, and can do anything they can do at the end of a 45-minute line at Termini
We already knew about this part Bill...it's one of MY little secrets! As for the Orte connection, I guess I must have missed it before, or not been thinking in terms of living in Umbria...I'm glad to know about it!
Posts: 4755 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
If I were you I woulldn't be worried about finding a ticket. You should be able to find it plus those type of trains are usually very frequent. The trip time can be 1 hour and half. You don't need to stand in line at the station you can buy train ticket in most of the travel agency in Rome if you want, or there are also those automatic machines in the Train Stations.
Posts: 30 | Location: Scandinavia | Registered: 29 July 2003
OK Bill, fellow-lover-of-Amarone, at such times as I am not taking the bus to C di C, I will use and appreciate your tip. I didn't know that either. Will the $25 bottle do, or must I spring for the $250 bottle? Are you that decorative? For others interested, just outside the area with the red metal benches are buses (pullman) to all kinds of places. One goes to Citta di Castello with a stop and hand-off in Perugia at a gas station/bar. There is normally a stop on the Rome metro as well. It is perfectly possible that wherever you are going, one of those buses is going there, too. If you are a repeat traveler, check it out. Now, when this works out for you, send contributions via Paypal.
Posts: 2739 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
Judith, your Paypal and my Amarone are a "wash" as the IRS would call it: it never occurred to me to check for buses at the airport, and that too is good to know. Mind you my luck with buses has been very poor, but surely those run properly.
For what I think of as Western Umbria -- meaning the part not covered by the FdS train line Orte-Narni-Terni-Spoleto-Foligno-Fossato-Ancona, buses, where they exist, may even save you time, since the Terni-Todi-Umbertide-Città di Castello train line requires you to change in Terni, with a bit of a layover.
I'll bring the corkscrew. (These days, not to worry, tastes quite plebeian; I drink a small glass of
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