travelling around italy

phoenix5

Hi there, we are a family of 5 (kids 15.13.9) and are hoping to visit Italy this summer, specifically Rome, Venice and Florence. Instead of flying we are thinking of going via rail and I have looked at several options of getting around as well as accommodation, which is very confusing, so am hoping for some pointers such as:
Is the rail system in Italy reliable and easy to use?
Would it be best to book rail tickets in advance or buy them at each station?
Also any thoughts on hotels/apartments would be great - our budget is limited so has to be reasonably priced and would maybe spend a week in Rome and a week in Florence and go elsewhere from these bases (although travelling to and from these places from accommodation further away is fine)
Any advice, pointers, opinions would be really gratefully accepted and many thanks in advance.

richardw

phoenix5 wrote: »

Hi there, we are a family of 5 (kids 15.13.9) and are hoping to visit Italy this summer, specifically Rome, Venice and Florence. ... - our budget is limited so has to be reasonably priced ...

Sorry to be blunt, but if you have a limited budget and want reasonably priced, then I'd avoid these three cities.

peachyprice

Travelling around Italy by train is easy and reliable, as long as they are not on strike.

Journey times and tickets can be found https://www.trenitalia.com, there's an English button in the top right corner if it comes up in Italian. You can book tickets in advance, but obviously that wouldn't be as flexible as booking them when you get to the station. Some of the fast Inter-City trains are cheaper if you book in advance, but most routes have slower routes that are charged per km, so it doesn't matter when you book.

I do agree with Richard though, Rome, Florence and Venice is not going to be a cheap holiday in the slightest, the train fares will be the least of your financial worries.

Grumpelstiltskin

I have to agree that even away from the main tourist cities Italy and budget don't go together.


Have you considered camping somewhere like Lake Garda?


Plenty to keep the children occupied and within easy reach of Verona and Venice.


You can get flights to Verona.

lovesgshp

You do not say which month that you are thinking of visiting. August is the peak month for Italians on holiday and the prices reflect that in the areas you are thinking of visiting.
As the comments above, you are looking at some of the higher priced areas for food and hotels.
Train travel is good, just remember to stamp your tickets at the station you board, fines are hefty if you do not.
You could stay out of the cities you mention in lower priced hotels etc and use the bus services to travel into them, for day trips etc. There are many lovely towns close to the places you mention.

Alan_Bowen

Italy is easy to explore with trains, look at www.seat61.com on how to get there by train, Ironically it will almost certainly be more expensive to travel all the way by train than flying to Milan or Venice and starting your rail travel there. As others have said, travelling by train is not 'the cheap option' and the cities you want to visit are expensive, have a look at some accommodation only websites to get a flavour of costs of apartments, if you are planning to travel during the summer school holidays, this will not be an economical holiday at all!

mgdavid

Have you done this sort of thing before? The thought of lugging cases and bags on and off trains around Italy for a couple of weeks sounds to me like a huge PITA, and it won't be cheap.
Surely the MSE option is cheap airline and hire a car?

AlexMac

I've travelled a lot in Italy both by rail and hire-car (and sometimes, my own motor) and I'm with those who recommend the train. Yes- the 'seat61' site is great- and its link to trenitalia seems to lead to more accessible web pages than going direct to that Italian Rail site.

And the train system is much more user-friendly than ours in the UK. For example, when travelling between Rome, Florence and Friends in Tuscany or Umbria, we've found that staff often speak English - and if not, the ticket machines are dual language, and a sight better than those over here- for example they show train times as well as prices.

And much better value; there is none of the variable pricing nonsense you get here, whereby a ticket can cost ten times more if you forget to book in advance or if you travel before lunch, or on a full moon with an 'r' in the month (I only exaggerate slightly- a peak time walk up London - Manchester can cost more than my mortgage, whereas if you book clever, you can get it for the price of a burger).

And although its true what everyone says about the expense of Italian cities - on a par with London - you can get good value places- in Florence, we were really impressed by a small group of town centre self-catering apartments, under 10 mins walk from the main station, the central market and local shops (so you can eat and drink cheap), a few mins from the Duomo and galleries and with an immensely helpful English-speaking French guy in the office - so you can ring him before you arrive!
Florence Apartments Central , Borgo La Noce, 20/r - 50123 Firenze
Office open: from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm
Phone: +39 055 269 7723 Mobile phones: +39 331 942 2363 or +39 320 155 9811
Web: http://www.florenceapartmentscentral.com
E-mail: info@florenceapartmentscentral.com

But wherever you stay have a great time. remember that under 16s (or maybe under 18s) and pensioners don't pay for the Colosseum- in Rome (and many other galleries, etc) but unless you ask, they'll charge you - we saved 40 Euros when visiting with the teenage grand-kids

opinions4u

Fly to Milan or Verona.

Hire a car. Stay in the inside lane if you value your life.

Stay on a campsite at Lake Garda.

Do a day in Venice.

SaveTheEuro

ramkeshplt wrote: »

If I'm in Italy, I'm going to have a cappuccino and two small brioches and then a mix of orange and grapefruit. I don't drink tea in Italy.

There is not much more you need to know about rail travel in Italy than that.

andygb

We did France and Italy for two weeks last year, staying in Sorrento, Siena (Easy to get to Florence) and Burgundy. There were two of us and the whole lot came to a little over £1K.
£70 crossing
£250 fuel
£60 tolls
£500 hotels (breakfast included, and did we stash up on food for the day:D)
Around £250 spending money.
We only ate out a couple of times, and got most of our food, fresh from supermarkets, plus cheapbottles of vino for the evenings - happy days:)