Planning
How to Save Money on Train Travel in Italy: 9 Practical Tips
From hitting the right booking window to knowing when a late train owes you a refund, these nine practical tricks can shave meaningful money off getting around Italy by rail.
Near-Venice
Trieste by Train: A Car-Free Guide to Italy's Habsburg Port City
Trieste is reachable by direct train from Venice in 2 hours, a former Habsburg free port on the Adriatic with grand literary cafés, a seafront square, and a history that swings between Vienna, Trieste and Ljubljana.
Venice
Venice by Train: A Car-Free Guide to the Floating City
Venice is the one Italian city where car-free travel isn't a choice - it's the only option. Here's how to arrive by train, get around by foot and vaporetto, and see the city beyond St Mark's Square.
Central Italy
Urbino by Train & Bus: A Car-Free Guide to the Renaissance Hill Town
Urbino has no railway station of its own, but that's never stopped a determined traveller - here's exactly how to reach this walled Renaissance city on the Marche hilltops using nothing but trains and a regional bus.
Near-Venice
How to Get to Padua by Train: Giotto’s Frescoes, a Basilica and Europe’s Oldest University
Under half an hour by train from Venezia Santa Lucia, with no booking needed - here’s how to get to Padua, which ticket to buy and what to see when you arrive.
Near-Bologna
Ravenna by Train: Eight UNESCO Sites and the Finest Byzantine Mosaics in the World
Ravenna was the last capital of the Western Roman Empire, then the seat of Byzantine power in Italy for two centuries more. Eight monuments survive from that era - the finest collection of early Christian mosaics anywhere in the world. An hour from Bologna by direct train.
Near-Bologna
Ferrara by Train: A Renaissance City the Crowds Have Missed
Ferrara has a moated Renaissance castle in the centre of the city, nine kilometres of walls to cycle around, frescoes that rival those in Florence, and almost no tourist crowds. Thirty minutes from Bologna by train.
Bologna
Bologna by Train: The Complete Guide to Italy's Greatest Food City
Bologna has three nicknames - La Rossa for the terracotta rooftops, La Dotta for Europe's oldest university, La Grassa for the food. Thirty-eight minutes from Florence by train and almost entirely absent from the standard Italy itinerary. The best food city in Italy, and one of the least visited.
Southern Italy
Alberobello by Train & Bus from Bari: A Day Trip to Puglia's Trulli Town
Alberobello is one of the most distinctive townscapes in Europe - over 1,500 conical-roofed trulli crowding a Puglian hillside, UNESCO-listed since 1996. The bus from Bari gets you there in an hour and fifteen minutes. No hire car needed.
Southern Italy
Matera Without a Car: How to Get There by Train and Bus
Matera is one of the most extraordinary places in Italy - cave dwellings carved from limestone, an underground cistern the size of a cathedral, and a suspension bridge across a ravine. And entirely reachable without a hire car.
Near-Florence
Pistoia by Train from Florence: Tuscany's Most Overlooked City
Striped Romanesque churches, a cathedral square among the finest in Tuscany, and a medieval hospital decorated with Della Robbia masterpieces — only 30 minutes from Florence by train, and almost entirely overlooked.
Naples
Naples by Train: The Complete City Guide
Naples has one of the finest collections of Roman antiquities in the world, a street plan that has barely changed in 2,500 years, and pizza that needs no introduction. The most misunderstood city in Italy - and one of the most rewarding.