The Eurostar trains in Italy

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Eurostar, Italy’s fastest train

The Eurostar, which travels only by day and only stops in the most important Italian cities, is the fastest and most comfortable train in Italy. Reservations on the Eurostar are obligatory, but free.

There is a restaurant between the first and second class carriages. Eurostar trains have special compartments for your luggage – these compartments are not guarded, though.

Delays on the Eurostar

If a Eurostar train in Italy is delayed by more than one hour, you have a right to be reimbursed. This involves finding the special, hidden, office dealing with reimbursements, lining up there, filling out a form and then hoping that you erally get your money back. By this time you will at least two hours late in stead of at least one.

Outside Italy

The Eurocity and Eurocity Night trains travel on international routes and as soon as you leave Italy, the train tariffs of the countries you are traveling through will apply. You need to find out beforehand whether or not reservations are required for these trains.

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Espresso Trains: Italy’s slowest long distance trains

Espresso trains

Of all the long distance ones, the Espresso trains are the slowest and therefore also the cheapest. Espresso trains travel both inside and outside Italy. The Espresso trains stop far more often than the Eurostar and Intercity trains, though not at the very small stations, unless these are stations where several railway lines meet.

The Night Espresso trains have sleepers you can reserve (though not for free).

No food is sold on the espresso trains, so if you travel a longer distance, make sure to bring enough food and drink with you.

The luggage racks are also above you on the Espresso trains.

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Schedules for Italian Trains

Arrivals and departures

In every italian railway station the yellow schedules indicate the departure times and the white schedules the arrivals.

The yellow schedules indicate the final destination of the trains in big, bold black letters. The smaller major stops are indicated in smaller bold letters, whereas the minor stops (if there are any) are indicated in normal lettering.

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The Italian word for “railway track” is binario and is indicated as “bin” on the schedules. Note that in bigger stations like Rome Termini or Firenze S.M.N. one train’s delay can cause a chain reaction and because of this a change of platform as well. Therefore it is always necessary to make sure that your train will actually be leaving on the track indicated on the yellow schedules by comparing it to the monitors in front of the tracks and, in the big stations, to the big black boards put up high in the railway station’s main hallways.

When studying the schedules you need to keep an eye out for the words festivi (only on Sundays and public holidays) and feriali (only on weekdays, including Saturdays).

It is possible to look up the schedules on the Trenitalia website.