The Italian national railway company Trenitalia lets you travel to many destinations. You can get to the main Italian cities in few hours thanks to high speed trains or visit minor destinations traveling on regional trains. Travelling by train in Italy is very common nowadays, as fast trains spread and have competitive prices. Trenitalia offers a wide range of services, from low cost trains to Business Class, from regional to Intercity trains.

As Trenitalia is the national railway company, if there’s a track on the road, it means there’s a Trenitalia train passing on it. Only in the last few years a competitor has appeared on the market: it’ Italo, which is focused on high speed trains connections. If you want to relax for a day in a tiny sea town or a mountain destination, Trenitalia can get you there. There’s plenty of them travelling from Rome, such as Gaeta, Orbetello (that is to say the Mount Argentario), Torvaianica or Sperlonga. Are you a businessman? Get on a Trenitalia Freccia and you’ll be in Milan in less than 3 hours travelling from Rome.

It’s quite hard to define a detailed schedule for Trenitalia, with over 8000 trains moving from one Italian city to another everyday. For the major destinations you can get a train every 30 minutes and regional trains have a pretty high frequency as well.

There are different kind of trains you can travel on with Trenitalia. If you need to move between two important cities, the best choice is to get an high-speed train: tickets for the Frecce Trenitalia can cost as low as € 19.90 and you’re sure to be on one of the newest and most efficient trains of Italy. Among the Frecce, you can choose from different trains. Frecciabianca and Frecciargento connect medium-sized towns. The fastest trains are the Frecciarossa and the Frecciarossa 1000, which get you to the main Italian cities, with routes from Turin to Salerno, from Milan to Bari.

Intercity are a kind of low cost trains, with prices starting from € 9.90; this type of train gets to smaller towns and its schedules are either during the day or the night.

Trenitalia also offers regional trains, which network is really widespread all over the country. They’re high-frequency trains which you can use to get to small but very interesting spots. For instance, if you’re about to visit Lake Garda or you want to go to Pompeii, the best way to get there is definitely a super cheap, regional train.

You can take as many suitcases as you need and place them on the luggage rack or between the seats.

You can carry your bicycle on the train for free on regional trains and on high speed trains, however this should be disassembled or it should be a foldable bike. There are also regional trains on which taking the bicycle is allowed (you can recognize them by the specific pictogram on the windows): in that case, you must pay an extra charge for the bike, but you can take it with you without disassemble it.

On Frecciarossa and Frecciargento trains you can access to a free wifi service, valid for the whole journey.

Like on an Italo train, you can have access to a free online entertainment portal on Trenitalia Frecce as well.

On Frecciabianca and Frecciargento trains, you can find a café on board, while on Frecciarossa there’s also a restaurant you can eat at. If you’re travelling with an Executive service level ticket, taste everything from a menu designed by the greatest Italian chefs.

There are 2 seats reserved to disabled people and their helpers on each Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, Intercity and Eurocity train - these are placed next to the toilets and equipped with a table and an emergency push button. You can get onboard thanks to a lift truck.

There are different ways to buy and use your ticket with Trenitalia. You can purchase your ticket at the ticket office, via the Trenitalia call center or at a travel agency (both in store and online). The ticket for a regional train bought at the ticket office needs to be validated and, from that moment, is valid for four hours. If bought online instead, it doesn’t need validation and is valid for four hours starting from the hour printed on the ticket. In case a ticket controller asks you to show them your ticket, the important thing is that the univocal code of your ticket is perfectly scannable, whether you have an e-ticket or you have printed it out.

The ticket for high speed and Intercity trains is only valid for the day, the hour, the train and the route printed on it; this is mainly because you have an assigned seat on the train (which doesn’t apply to regional trains).

For young travellers aged 7-13 Trenitalia is experimenting a new service for unaccompanied children on some Frecciarossa and Frecciargento trains. Parents need to buy a Base fare ticket in Prima or Business class to benefit from this service.

On high speed and Intercity trains, you can choose from several fares when booking your train. Each fare has specific conditions for changes and cancellations though.

The Base is the full price fare but the most flexible one for sure. With this kind of ticket, you are allowed to change the name or the date on the ticket as many times as you need, for free. You can even ask for a refund in case you can’t travel anymore - Trenitalia will refund you the 80% of the ticket price. Any requests need to be submitted before the train leaves.

This fare lets you change the date or the hour of the departure once (paying the price difference with the new one), but you can’t ask for a refund nor access to a different train.

This is the cheapest fare, but also the less flexible. You can’t ask neither for changes nor for refunds and you are not allowed to get on a different train than the one booked.

Trenitalia also offers special fares like Same day return offer, Weekend return offer and Special 2x1, which let you save quite a lot on your train ticket but in most cases it doesn’t allow you to request any changes or cancellations.

On regional trains there are different conditions based on where you bought your ticket. If you got it at the station, you can request the date to be changed until the day before the departure or you can get a refund up to the 80%; if bought online instead, you are not entitled to request any changes or refunds.

The Standard class lets you travel comfortably at the best price. This includes services like leather seats, individual sockets, free wi-fi and free online entertainment portal.

Travelling in Premium class, you will receive a welcome snack and a newspaper (if travelling in the morning), in addition to the basic services.

With the Business class, you can choose from relaxing in the silence area, where no talks or calls are allowed, or maybe chill on the reclining leather seats, or even book the private room for just four people - anyway, you will be in total relax and maximum privacy.

The most expensive and most exclusive class on the train: there are just ten spots available with reclining seats and the chance to taste excellent local food and recipes ideated by the greatest Italian chefs. Also, a welcome snack is waiting for you on the train.