How to Buy the Cheapest Train Tickets in Italy

We will just pretend that I never stopped posting for the two months.  Times get busy, other writing projects require more attention, 1000-page books turned American TV series (hint: the author is George R.R. Martin and I'm proud to be on the bandwagon) make the hours go by like it was seconds and minutes. And who knows, maybe a last minute trip to Venice made up the reasons why I've been away from the VASGO.

But when the national Italian train travel provider, called Trenitalia, offer one way tickets all over the country for as low as 9 euro per person, it's hard to back off.  Seriously, while drifting from item to item on the menu, I realize to myself, "Well, I could order this secondo piatto, the second plate in the multicourse Italian dinner usually consisting of a meat entree like Veal Scaloppine."

Or I could spend that amount to go up to Venice and see this:

Or Milan, Naples, Bologna, Florence, one of the Cinque Terre cities.

It's called Super Economy.  They are only available for purchase online.  And on Trenitalia's website, it's not the easiest to find.  But they are there, you just need to go looking.

First of all, you need to know what the cities are called in Italian, which by default means the name is different in its English form.

For example, if you travel to Rome, you likely want the largest hub station, called ROMA TERMINI.

Venice is tricky too.  If you want to arrive ON the island, you need the last Venice stop, called VENEZIA S. LUCIA. Any earlier, and you'll wonder why people are actually speaking Italian to you!  (The joke is that when you are in Venice, it seems everyone speaks English because it's so heavily toured.)

Really, knowing your precise train station takes just a bit of research on your end if you are unfamiliar with the station names in the Italian language.  I suggest google maps to help out in that case.  Some of my best travels through Belgium were easily navigated because of my prior research.

Next, choose a date, any date.

MOST IMPORTANT - click on the box that says "Find The Best Price", right under the date sections.

This will unveil the multitude of excellent prices, or the higher ones because you were too late on the days you chose.  That's right, you have competition, so get the good prices while you can. Typically, it starts at 9 euro per way for the best price, then 19, 29, 39 and so on.

With a little planning, you can save a lot of money during your tour of Italy.