Trains in Italy 101

The Train is your friend! I promise!  Here’s a little info on getting your train ticket and finding your train!

Train tickets can be bought at automated machines.  These machines have several language options
to choose from.  If you choose wisely it should be pretty straightforward!  Most machines accept cash and major credit cards. But keep in mind there’s a maximum amount of change it will give you!

There are also usually Travel Agents at bigger train stations, but they tend to have lines, and might not be any more helpful than the machine in the end.

Once you have your ticket, before you get on the train, you must validate it in any of the yellow machines you will find near the tracks (or sometimes on the automatic ticket machines themselves).  Without this your ticket is technically not valid and you could get a fine.  If you are in a rush, or forget to validate it before you get on your train, just take
a pen and write the date on the edge of the ticket and you will be fine!

Consider your options: there are slower “Regionale” or “IC” trains, and there’s fast trains like Eurostar and FrecciaRossa.  If you’re not in a rush, you could save some Euros and take a slower train.  On the other hand, if it’s in the heat of the
summer, you might consider a fast train for its air-conditioning.

Partenze/The Schedule: when you get your ticket, it will not have the “Binario” (track) number on it.  To find this, look at the big schedule (see photo) to see. Make sure you are looking at the side that says “Partenze” (departures) as opposed to “Arrivi” (arrivals).  Look by your train number and time of departure rather than the city/destination,because  the city you are going to might not be your trains final destination. For example I might be taking a train to Florence, but it will be listed as Milano on the schedule (because it stops in Florence and continues on to Milan).
On this schedule you’ll see the track listed under “Binario” or abbreviated to “Bin”.  If it’s blank, which it often is until close to departure time, it means the train isn’t there yet.
If the train is late, you will see the new time written as a note on there under the “ora effetiva” (actual hour) column.
If you are feeling fancy and get a first class ticket, you might see a note at the end of your train’s row that says something like “1 CL CODA”.  The word “Coda” means that the first class cars will be at the far end of the train.

On Your Ticket (see picture!):  It will say the number of people (more than one person can be on the same physical ticket), the hours of departure/arrival, the stations of departure/arrival, sometimes a major stop along with way (“via
Firenze”, for example), the train number, the car you are in, the seat you are assigned where applicable, and the class. To find which car you are in look at the like where it says “Carrozza”, and for the seat where it says “Posti”. In the ticket here you see it says “Carrozza 318, Posti 43,44 mediano” meaning Car number 318, seats number 43 and 44.

Buon Viaggio!