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In Italy, can I buy a travel/discount pass that covers trams, metros and intercity travel?

I am traveling with my family to Italy from May 24th to May 29th. We plan to cover Rome, Florence and Venice. Hence our travel will include Tram/Metro travel within these cities as well as intercity train travel between Rome - Florence and Florence - Venice. Are there any travel/discount passes available that I should buy, which can make my travel cheaper? Or should I just buy tickets individually everytime I travel.

Public Comments

1. Yes Train is the best way to go.

2. Hello,

You should buy point to point tickets when you get to Italy. They have a great train network between cities and most have either a metro or bus system within the city. The only exception to this is Venice. No auto traffic at all except on the canals.

As for the specific tickets- go to trenitalia.it/en/index.html. Here you can enter in your cities and the time to see which trains are available. From there you can choose your train and then your rate. You should check the amica rate as well as the familia rate to see which is better. For example- the familia 20% rate for 2 adults and 2 children is 94 euros, the amica rate for same group is 87 euros. This is on a euro star train which is one of the fast ones.

You can pick up all your tickets the first day you are in Italy to qualify for the discounts. If you wait until day of travel the rate goes to about 108 per group. Just go to a train station and use the kiosks to buy the tickets or go to any travel agency in Italy- they don't mark up the prices. They will help you if you need it.

Donna

3. There is no pass that's good for local public transportation in all the cities. In Rome, you can get a Roma Pass: http://www.romapass.it/english/ which includes discounts to the attractions as well as transportation. You can also get day passes or multiple day passes just for the transportation. It's also possible to walk to the tourist attractions, but some of them are quite a distance.

In Florence, you won't need a pass for transportation. The historic area is quite compact and easily walked. Some of the area is pedestrian only anyway.

Venice doesn't have trams or a metro, but they do have the water buses (vaporettos). You can get a giornoliero (day ticket) or passes of multiple days. However, Venice is another city where walking is possible unless you want to go to one of the other islands like Burano or Murano. http://www.actv.it/english/navigazione.php?pagina=tariffe_vaporetto. There's also a Venice Card: http://www.hellovenezia.com/jsp/en/venicecard/index.jsp

On the trains, you will not qualify for some the discount fares unless you're a resident of Italy. You can get the Amica fare on trains where it's available (Eurostar, intercity trains). However, there are limited seats at this fare on any given train.

For travel between cities, you should also look at the trenitalia promotions to see what's available: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/promozioni_offerte/promozioni/offerta_familia.html, http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

You would have to do a lot of travel within Italy to make something like the Eurail passes a bargain compared to point-to-point tickets. You need to be aware that even with the Eurail pass there will be an additional supplement for some trains - particularly the Eurostars, night trains, and many intercity trains.

I've lived in Italy for several years and travel by train frequently.