Could someone please help me find more info on the following excerpt from their site? My two teenage daughters and I will be traveling from Pisa, through Firenze and down to Sorrento; altogether about 10 days time. Would any of these options be fare savers, and how do I go about finding more information on them?
Regional/provincial season tickets For everyone. These allow you to make an unlimited number of journeys on ordinary trains (Express, Regional, Direct and Inter-regional) and for routes included in the fare boundaries of a region or province. Their validity differs depending on the type of season ticket. Weekly, monthly and annual season tickets For everyone. These allow you, for a week, a month or 12 months, to make an unlimited number of journeys, in First or Second class, on ordinary trains (Express, Regional, Direct and Inter-regional) for trips of up to 250 km that cross the fare boundaries of a region or province. Season Tickets and access cards to daytime Intercity trains For everyone. Season tickets are issued for trips of up to 1000 km both in First and Second class. Access cards are issued to support an ordinary season ticket up to 250 km or a regional season ticket for trips of up to 350 km. Both are valid one week (from Monday to Sunday) or one month (calendar) and allow for an unlimited number of journeys on Intercity trains. Unidirectional types can also be purchased. To use Eurostar trains, an access permit must also be purchased for each journey, for Euro 2.00, including the seat reservation, for both First and Second class. Another possibility is the carnet of tickets for season ticket holders, containing 20 vouchers worth Euro 1.55 each for First class and Euro 1.00 for Second class travel, which have no time limits for use but which, prior to departure, must be replaced in order to obtain the seat reservation or stamped to board the train directly if seats are available.
Thank you!
Posts: 126 | Location: Oklahoma City, OK | Registered: 16 June 2003
Trains from Pisa to Firenze are all local and do not accept reservations. Basically you can buy the ticket anytime and use it withing two months from purchase. Trains from Pisa Aeroporto leave every 30 minutes, are second class only, some require to change at Pisa Centrale, some are direct. The ticket costs about 5 euro per person.
Sorrento is not served by any Trenitalia, but ES trains to Naples depart from Florence station every 2 hours. Travel time is 3 hours and a half an the price is 63 eurpo per person in first class and about 42.50 euro in second class. Second class is quite nice on ES trains. ES trains have mandatory reservation, so I suggest you get your tickets one or two days in advance from any station or from a travel agency that displays the Trenitalia logo on the window. You can also travel from Florence to Naples on IC or ICPlus trains at a lower price (48 and 36 euro per person), but the trip is almost 5 hours, one hour and a half longer.
Notice that if you are not spending time in Florence there is no need to get to Florence first! There are direct ICPlus trains from Pisa Centrale to Naples every 2 hours, costing 48 and 35 euro (first and second class, but also in the case of ICPLus trains I always travel second class).
Just to fill in another piece of the question, to get to Sorrento you change levels at the Napoli Centrale station, to take the Circumvesuviana train: www.vesuviana.it .