Italy

Getting around by public transport

Long distance transport in Spain is mostly by train, with air travel serving a few long distance routes, and coaches providing local connections to places not reached by the rail network.

Train travel.

Train travel in Italy is generally a good experience. Trains are all run by Trenitalia, and in general the trains are reliable, comfortable and regular, if not actually all that fast. They are also quite cheap. The staff are generally helpful, and will usually make a pretty good attempt at speaking English, or if all else fails, French. Signs across the rail network are also almost all in English as well as Italian, although the translations can sometimes be more entertaining than informative. Here are some tips for getting the most out of the Italian rail network:

• The Trenitalia website provides timetable and price information for journeys in Italy.
• Use the ticket machines. They have an option to work in English, have less queue than the ticket windows, and will give you all the options including slower trains which the ticket office staff may not offer you.
• Prices are per kilometre, with a simple flat surcharge for using faster trains such as Eurostar, so try to make only significantly longer journeys using these. These surcharges also apply to railpass holders, so the same applies.
• Rail passes can be used pretty flexibly in Italy. Only the fastest trains really incur surcharges. The low price of fares however does still mean that rail passes may not be the cheapest option for the over 26s.
• Validate your ticket. There are machines at the entrance to every platform, and all types of ticket must be validated. If you haven't done this you do not have a valid ticket and may as well not have bought one at all.
• Catch night trains. Although all routes which are served by night trains are also served by normal trains, journeys such as those to Sicily can be very time-consuming, so save the cost of a night's accomodation and don't lose a day. This is usually a better option for long-distance travel than flying.

Air Travel

. Italy is not famous for discount air travel. Until the end of 2004, Volare was the only Italian-based budget operator, and with "taxes and charges" around the 50 euro mark, the budget tagline was probably more of an aspiration than a fact. Either way, they went bankrupt. The moral of the story is that air travel is a way of getting to Italy, rather than around Italy.

Coach Travel.

There are no large national coach operators in Italy. With train fares as low as they are it is best to stick to using coaches and buses only for local journeys or destinations which aren't covered by the rail network.

Ferries and hydrofoils

A few services ply the coastlines of Italy, more as a tourist service than anything else. Details of these are in the local sections. Access to Sicily is easiest done by train, since several services a day are transported there by train ferry. Access to Sardinia by ferry is covered in the relevant local section.