italy trip

[trip2016]

Hi,
I am arriving in Milan on the February 12 and have a car, I will be staying at Montecatini, for 5 days, and from there I would like to take day trips to Florence, Venice and Rome. Should i purchase a rail pass? Or what you suggest

How can I get a schedule to each city?

Is there a specific train that I must take with the pass and or can I uses this pass for any and all trains?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Leonardo]

You can check out train schedules using http://www.trenitalia.com/
You could get a weekly train pass but not for all those destinations. You would have to write a departure and arrival station on it and the price would depend on the distance you would be traveling.
Thus, a pass would make sence if you were going to Florence every day but not if you are traveling around so much.

[DonnaDenise]

Buongiorno,

You say you will have a car? Where? In Montecatini?

A Eurail could be an interesting option if you don't want to be driving around...which in light of the destinations you selected, personally I would not want to have a car in those areas.

Were you thinking of driving in to Florence and then cathcing the train to your destinations (Venice and Rome)? is that why you want the car? Because unless your accommodations are far from the train station in Montecatini, you could consider skipping the car and using the train to get to Florence. Even getting from Milan to Florence would be easy with the Eurail pass.

REMEMBER, that the train in Italy has what they call the "Freccia", that is the high speed train which ... if you are thinking of going to Venice or Rome or Milan with the train is the best way to do it...the regional trains will take forever . BUT the high speed trains in Italy require a reservation and all trains requiring a seating reservation also have a reservation fee with the Eurail...so you might want to see if it still works out economically to buy the Eurail as to just doing a normal point-to-point ticket when you are here.

Buon Viaggio,

Donna Denise