Local trains in Italy

[bedell]

Planning a trip to Italy.  Need to find info about regional or local trains that serve some of the smaller lines not covered by the usual websites.  Any help would be appreciated.  We have tried Eurorail, Trenitalia etc. but they don't recognize the small towns we want visit.

[schlimm]

bedell

Planning a trip to Italy.  Need to find info about regional or local trains that serve some of the smaller lines not covered by the usual websites.  Any help would be appreciated.  We have tried Eurorail, Trenitalia etc. but they don't recognize the small towns we want visit.

 

Which cities? Trenitalia shows Regionale, Intercity and Autobus services as well as the higher speed, premium Le Frecce services.  Some small towns may no longer have or never had passenger rail services.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_stations_in_Italy

Look here in the section "categories and types of trains."  It lists other operators besides Trenitalia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Italy

[BaltACD]

Must be too small to spell out!

[jcburns]

Trenitalia is very comprehensive, but the user interface can be a bit finicky. Here's another alternative that worked well for us on a trip last fall: use Google maps. Pick your starting and destination cities and pick 'transit' as the way to get there, and you'll find that the Google lists departures even on the smallest regional train line as well as bus lines that are going to the same place, maybe with a better schedule.

If you have a smartphone while over there, this information is at your fingertips, and we found it to be very accurate when hopscotching small towns in Italy (even Sicily.)

[GN_Fan]

bedell

Planning a trip to Italy.  Need to find info about regional or local trains that serve some of the smaller lines not covered by the usual websites.  Any help would be appreciated.  We have tried Eurorail, Trenitalia etc. but they don't recognize the small towns we want visit.

 

I am a retired expat living in Trieste, Italy for the past 10 years, and travel by train as much as possible.  The Trenitalia website is quite comprehensive but has a few shortcomings.  One is a good systemwide map of services and another is a list of station stops.  Without those two, you just have to "know" where you want to go.  For example, there is a station at Miramar, just 7 minutes out of Trieste that serves a big research center as well as the grounds for the Castle of Miramar.  If you don't know of the stop, you'll never find it, even tho 10 trains in each direction stop there daily.  Another problem is you have no clue where the train goes after it leaves Miramar.  So if you're just bumming around, you might not wind up where ypu think you're going to wind up.  Further up the line at Monfalcone the line to Venice splits into 2 routes, one direct, and the other a much longer oute via Udine further north. 

My suggestion is to make a list of place you want to go, then get on Trenitalia (in English) at http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD  then entering your stations.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.