The Swiss are thoroughly professional in dealing with visitors and honest and carefull. Trains run on time, trams in the cities are frequent and functional. In Italy, don't use German. You are more likely to get help if you use English. Italians seem warmhearted, somewhat scatterbrained at times, and a bit more casual. Patience is often a virtue. You can make genuine friends in Italy. Just don't expect or demand perfection. Both places are railfan paradises. If you are a streetcar fan, the Peter Witt trams in MIlan are a real recreation of Philadelphia of 1930 with a different color scheme.
Thanks for the info.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Paul, the European rail websites are easy to use and available in several languages, including English.
For trains in Italy, here is the Trenitalia website (in English):
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD
For Switzerland, the SBB website (in English):
http://www.sbb.ch/en/
Germany (Die Bahn) in English:
http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
The best website for advice on train travel in Europe, period.
The Man in Seat 61
The pages dealing with Italy begin here.
Italy train travel
Be sure to have him look over the whole page because there are many links dealing with all aspects of train travel. Like buying tickets, lost luggage, railpasses, using the main railways website, real-time train information, how to get the cheapest fares, etc.
Cricketeer has covered Switzerland well, but for completeness here is what the Man has to say about train travel in Switzerland
Swiss Train Travel by the Man
If I can start with a website that is quite the best for timetables - http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Tickets can be purchased on line, but if needed ticket offices at major stations will find someone with English. If he's intending to do plenty of travel in Switzerland a rail-pass is good value - it covers almost all trains, buses, trolleybuses and trams. The only exclusions are the strictly tourist services such as to Jungfraujoch (c12,000ft). If there's any kind of "ordinary" passenger need then it's covered - so many rack lines are covered.
On language etc English is more spoken in Switzerland than it is in Italy, though there will be some English in many of the bigger cities in Italy such as Rome. What your friend, or indeed any semi-competent person can do is tell the time, and read a script. With the former he can tell when the train leaves, with the latter he can tell what platform (binario it/Gleis de) and where it's going.
Intercity trains in Switzerland, and the longer distance ones to Italy, have announcements in English as well as French, German and Italian. Local trains in Italy will probabaly be exclusively Italian. I'd advise day trains, especially across the Alps as the scenery is magnificent. All Intercity trains have 1st and 2nd class signalled by a 1 or a 2, and/or by a yellow or green stripe above the windows.
A few things to confuse. Florence is Firenze in Italian, Turin is Torino in Italian, Milan is Milano in Italian and Mailand in German. As a tourist I'd suggest less is more - don't try to do a new place each day, unless what he wants is seriosuly long queues and in the summer some broiling heat in Italy. Think LA without air-conditioning! The consequence of the heat is that ordinary life is much more binary than in the US or northern Europe. Active 08:00 to 13:00 then 17:00 to 20:00 (for shops) and much later for bars and restaurants. Many shops are still shut between 13:00 and 17:00. On that front times are very much 24hr, exclusively on trains but very much so in domestic life as well.
A friend of mine wants to spend two weeks in Italy and Switzerland visiting the major cities and cultural centers: Rome, Florence, Zurich, and he mentioned some other destinations.
He is an American who knows enough German to get by in Zurich, but he does not know any Italian. He is concerned because there are many classes of service and many kinds of train tickets for different lengths of time.
Anyone have experience taking trains in Italy? Will the conductors, ticket agents speak any English (or German, if they get a lot of German travelers), or do you have to know some Italian to get by? Suggestions on booking the train rides in advance here in the U.S.?
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