Getting Around Italy

Why the train is the default

For most trips to Italy, the train beats the car and the plane. The high-speed network runs from Turin and Milan through Bologna, Florence and Rome to Naples and Salerno, with branches to Venice and Verona. Trains go city center to city center, so a 1 hr 30 min ride from Rome to Florence really is 1 hr 30 min, with no airport security and no parking.

The rest of the country is covered by slower regional trains, which are cheap, frequent and fine for hops like Florence to Lucca or Naples to Pompeii. Where trains thin out, in the hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria, the Dolomites, inland Sicily and much of Puglia and Sardinia, a bus or a rental car takes over. See Driving in Italy.

Frecciarossa vs Italo

Italy has two high-speed train companies competing on the main routes. Trenitalia, the state railway, runs the red Frecciarossa ("red arrow") trains, plus the slower Frecciargento and Frecciabianca and the Intercity trains. Italo, a private company, runs burgundy trains on the same high-speed lines. Both are modern, clean and fast, and travel times are almost identical.

The practical rule: check both for your date and time and buy whichever is cheaper or better timed. Tickets are not interchangeable, so a Trenitalia ticket is useless on an Italo train and the reverse. Both have English-language apps and websites, and both charge no booking fee on their own sites.

Booking windows and fares

High-speed tickets typically go on sale around four months ahead, with gaps around the timetable changes in mid-December and mid-June. Fares work like airline fares. The cheapest non-refundable tickets (Trenitalia's Super Economy and Economy, Italo's Low Cost and Economy) sell first, and the flexible fares (Trenitalia Base, Italo Flex) can cost two or three times as much on the day.

• Book fast trains as soon as your dates are firm, especially for Fridays, Sundays, holiday weekends and the summer.
• Check the change and refund rules on cheap fares. Some allow a change for a fee before departure; the cheapest allow none.
• Look for family and group offers on both companies' sites, and youth and senior fares on Italo.
• Use the company's official app or website. Third-party resellers add fees and make changes harder.

On board

Your ticket shows a car number (carrozza) and seat (posto). Platform screens show where each car stops, and trains do not wait long, so be on the platform 10 minutes ahead. Luggage goes on racks at the end of the car or overhead; there is no checked baggage, so travel with a bag you can lift.

The departures board (partenze) lists the train number, final destination and platform (binario). The platform is often posted only 10 to 15 minutes before departure. A delay shows as ritardo, with the minutes.

Regional trains and the validation rule

Regional trains (Regionale and Regionale Veloce, shown as R and RV) are the workhorses: stopping trains between nearby towns. The fare is fixed by distance and does not rise as the train fills, and there are no seat reservations. You do not need to book ahead, though in summer the Cinque Terre and Naples–Sorrento lines can be standing room only.

Useful regional routes for visitors: Florence to Pisa, Lucca and Siena; Venice to Padua, Vicenza and Verona; Milan to Como, Bergamo and Varenna; Rome to Orvieto and Tivoli; La Spezia along the Cinque Terre; and the separate Circumvesuviana line from Naples to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Sorrento.

How validation works

This is the rule that catches more Americans than any other. A paper regional ticket has no date or time on it, so you must stamp it in a validation machine before you board. The machines are small green-and-white or yellow boxes on the platform or at the head of the tracks. Insert the ticket and it prints the date, time and station.

1. Buy the regional ticket at a machine, the ticket office, a newsstand or a tabaccheria (tobacco shop, marked with a "T" sign).
2. Stamp it in the validation machine before you get on the train.
3. Keep it until you leave the destination station. Conductors check tickets on board.

Digital regional tickets bought in the Trenitalia app or online are already linked to a date and the time you chose, so there is nothing to stamp. Choose the right date, and on longer trips check the ticket's validity window before you board a later train.

City buses, trams and metros

City transit works on the same idea. Buy a ticket before you board, at a machine, a tabaccheria or in the operator's app, and validate it on the bus or at the metro gate. Rome and Milan also accept contactless bank cards and phones at the metro gates and on many buses: tap in, and the system charges the standard fare. Tap the same card every time. See Rome, Milan and Venice for city tickets and passes.

Strikes and guaranteed services

Transport strikes (sciopero, plural scioperi) are a normal part of Italian life. They are legal, scheduled in advance, usually last 24 hours or less and very rarely come without warning. The next national rail strike affecting Italo runs from 9 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 2026 to 8:59 p.m. on Friday, October 30.

Italian law requires a minimum service during strikes:

• Regional trains: on weekdays, trains scheduled between 6 and 9 a.m. and between 6 and 9 p.m. must run. Outside those bands, many are cancelled.
• Long-distance trains: Trenitalia and Italo each publish a list of guaranteed trains (treni garantiti) a few days ahead. If your train is on the list, it runs.
• Trains already under way when a strike starts generally continue to their destination if they arrive within about an hour.
• Flights: during air strikes, flights scheduled from 7 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. are protected, along with a list published by Italy's civil aviation authority.

Strikes are generally barred during set holiday periods, such as around Christmas and New Year, Easter and the peak of the summer holidays, so they cluster in spring, early summer and autumn.

1. Check the Ministry of Infrastructure's official strike calendar when you plan, and again a few days before each travel day.
2. If a strike hits your day, look up your train on the Trenitalia or Italo guaranteed-trains list.
3. If your train is cancelled, both companies refund or let you change the ticket for free. Do it through the app or at the ticket office.
4. Plan around it: move a travel day, take a guaranteed early train, or book a private transfer for a connection you cannot miss, such as a flight home.

Long-distance and regional buses

Buses fill the gaps the trains leave. They are often the only public transport to hill towns and rural areas, and on a few routes they are faster than the train.

• Intercity coaches: FlixBus and Itabus run cheap long-distance routes between cities and airports, bookable online. Useful for routes like Rome to Puglia or overnight runs.
• Regional buses: each region has its own operators, for example Cotral around Rome, Autolinee Toscane in Tuscany and SITA Sud on the Amalfi Coast. Buy tickets before boarding at a tabaccheria, bar or ticket office, and validate on board.
• Tuscany: Florence to Siena is often quicker by bus than by train, and buses reach San Gimignano (via Poggibonsi), Montepulciano and Montalcino, though connections are thin on Sundays. See Tuscany.
• Amalfi Coast: the SITA bus from Sorrento to Positano and Amalfi is cheap but crowded in summer, and it can pass full stops. See the Amalfi Coast.

Ferries and lake boats

Italy has thousands of miles of coastline and a lot of islands, and ferries are part of normal travel. Fast hydrofoils (aliscafi) carry foot passengers; slower car ferries (traghetti) take vehicles.

Domestic flights

Flying makes sense for long north–south jumps and the islands: Milan or Venice to Sicily, Rome to Sardinia, or northern cities to Puglia. ITA Airways, Ryanair, easyJet, Aeroitalia and Wizz Air all fly domestic routes, and booked early, fares can be lower than the train.

• Count the whole journey. Getting to the airport, security and the transfer at the other end can make a short flight slower than a 3-hour train.
• Read the baggage rules. Budget fares often cover only a small under-seat bag, and checked bags are paid extras.
• Check which airport. Milan has three (Malpensa, Linate and Bergamo), and Venice flights may use Treviso.
• Air strikes follow the same rules as rail strikes, with protected time bands and published guaranteed flights.

Taxis, rideshares and private drivers

Licensed taxis wait at ranks at stations and airports, and you can book them by phone or app. They do not usually cruise for fares, so walk to a rank. Uber in Italy operates mostly as a premium black-car service in the big cities, often pricier than a taxi; apps such as itTaxi and FreeNow call regular licensed taxis.

In tourist areas like the Amalfi Coast and Tuscany, a private car with driver (NCC, noleggio con conducente) is a common choice for a transfer or a day of winery visits. It must be booked in advance.

Putting it together

The classic first trip, Venice to Florence to Rome, needs no car at all: two fast-train rides of about 2 hr and 1 hr 30 min, booked a month or two ahead. Add a regional train day trip to Pisa or Lucca from Florence, and a fast train to Naples for Pompeii from Rome. See Plan your trip and Day trips from Rome.

For Tuscany's countryside, the Dolomites, Puglia or Sicily, use trains between bases and rent a car only for the rural days. Pick it up at a station on the edge of town rather than in a historic center, which is almost certainly a camera-enforced ZTL zone. The trip builder can help you lay out the legs.