Travel Within Italy

Once in Italy, trains, automobiles, and to an extent trains and buses can be the best means to get around. You can arrive at more or less any destination in Italy by train, bus or ferry and services are well-organized and inexpensive; for longer distances there is abundance of home air services. Your own vehicles give you the utmost freedom, but to be aware of that benzina (petrol) and autostrada (highway) tolls are fairly costly and that Italian drivers have a fashion all of their own: the hassle of driving and parking your car in a gigantic Italian city could efface the recreation ingredient of your trip. One key is to take public transport between large cities and use a sedan only for country drives.

Traveling by train is generally the best choice for visiting large and medium-sized cities. The railway structure is of good quality and low-priced. Train journey in Italy is inexpensive compared to neighboring countries. But there's a catch: chief rail lines in Italy lean to have an immense ridership and seating arrangements during "peak hours" and can be tricky to find on Italian trains. In every train station there are two boards - white and yellow/orange train schedules put on. For passing trains, verify the yellow/orange colored placard.