Ultimate Guide to Using the Trains in Italy

Italy Train Tickets, Italy Train Map, and Italy Rail Pass Info

Besides being an incredible country filled with breathtaking views, to-die-for food, charming streets, beautiful architecture, friendly people, and la dolce vita, Italy is a great country to travel around because of their amazing train system.

Italy is the perfect country to visit for any kind of traveler: new travelers, budget travelers, luxury travelers, seasoned backpackers, and PTO travelers. You can quite easily get to any city by utilizing the public transportation in Italy. There are trains that go from every major city to nearly every small city. We traveled around Italy for a month and thankfully never needed a car!

So how do you travel around Italy without a car? Buy some Italy Train Tickets or an Italy Train Pass, hop on a train and get exploring! We’ll cover the details below, and tell you how to travel using the train system in Italy.

Train Operators in Italy

The main train operator in Italy is Trenitalia. This company offers high speed trains as well as regional trains. You can find Trenitalia trains for short distance trips, such as between Cinque Terre and Pisa, but you’ll also find them going from one part of the country to another, like Florence and Naples.

Another train operator in Italy is Italo. These are strictly high speed trains for going longer distances. Their main routes are Milan to Salerno (east coast) and Turin to Venice (northern Italy), with stops in between. Trenord is another regional train operator, but we did not end up on any Trenord trains during the whole month we traveled through Italy.

Italy Train Map

The great part about trains in Italy is that they cover so much of the country. It’s very easy to travel around all of Italy simply by utilizing the Italian public transportation. If you are looking for a specific route, you can search for your journey here, or if you need inspiration, take a look at the Italy Train Map.

Italy Train Tickets

Every major train station in Italy has ticket machines or a ticket window, as well as most of the other, smaller train stations. You can purchase Italy train tickets when you arrive at your station, or you can buy them online. If you know your journey ahead of time, we highly recommend buying any Italy train tickets in advance. Many long distance trains only leave a couple of times a day, so you don’t want to arrive at the train station just to find out you actually can’t leave until tomorrow or the next day. If you buy in advance, you can also plan your journey better. You’ll know what time you need to be at the station and can avoid waiting longer than needed.

Our favorite way to buy tickets and keep them all organized was by downloading the Trainline app. This was a lifesaver while we were traveling Italy. You can buy tickets on this app, keep track of your current train ride, store your tickets here, and look at the detailed journey of your rides. If you click on your ticket, you can view your journey to see what stops the train will make as well as around what time you should be arriving at your station. The Trainline app is a must when traveling around Italy by train.

Besides being an amazing country all around, Italy is a great country to travel around or backpack through thanks to their wonderful train system. You can get nearly anywhere in Italy without a car, and you can also save money by utilizing the trains in Italy.

Italy Rail Pass

If you plan on traveling all over the place while in Italy, or even all around Europe, then you might want to look into buying a Eurail or Interrail Pass. The Interrail Pass is only available for European citizens, and the Eurail Pass is available for everyone else. These passes allow you to travel around Europe, including within Italy, as much as you want for a certain number of travel days.

There are a few different kinds of passes. You can buy a Global Eurail Pass, for example, that allows you to travel around 33 different countries in Europe. And you can also buy passes for one country, like Italy for example. These single country passes are cheaper, but only allow for travel within the specified country. There is much more information from Trainline you can read about if you are interested in one of these Italy Rail Passes.

We hope you feel prepared for you train journey around Italy now! If you need help planning your vacation to Italy, reach out to us; we’d love to help you make the most of your time here!

If you’re planning an Italian getaway, check out our favorite parts of Italy! We absolutely love Italy and all there is to explore here. So we hope you have the best time in the land of La Dolce Vita and fall in love with Italy as well.

Are you planning an Italian vacation? What cities are on your list? Let us know in the comments!