I have read Alice Twain's discussion on Italian Trains and was greatly educated when I finished. The Trenitalia website offers no discussion on the variety of fares, but does list them. There are family fares, but I don't know if we qualify.
We are 6 with one under 12. Alice's article said you must purchase at least 15 days in advance at a station. Can I do this online if it is available to me? Is first class worth it? I think our trains are IC.

FYI--Two tickets needed
1. Milan to Levanto
2. Levanto to Firenze

Group travel is now available only to italian reisdents and for groups no smaller than 10 people. Family tickets offer only discounts to children aged 12 or less and are also available only to Italian residents. Children aged 12 or less pay reduced fares.
Personally, I never travel first class. The essential difference between first and second class is a bit more of leg space.

Whenever we've arrived at a station with a family group the fare has always been the reduced family fare and it hasn't been an italian family. I have found that ticket offices are always keen to help reduce the fare and if this fare is only available to italians, the ones we've come across are not obeying the rules, how Italian!

regards

Christine Webb

How very interesting! I think this leads me to buy tickets from a live person instead of the machines. Worth a try!

THank you for the info!

quote:

Originally posted by Christine W:
Whenever we've arrived at a station with a family group the fare has always been the reduced family fare and it hasn't been an italian family.

Italian resident=/Italian. You do not ned to be of Italian citizenship, but you do need to be a resident of italy not to access these fares. Also, you need to have a card that's issued by trenitalia only to Italian residents.