Italian trains

We walked about 15-20 minutes to the Rome Metro and took the subway to Rome's Termini train station, and got the next train to Naples,a very nice ES train. After the serenely quiet and smooth Eurostar to Napoli we then got the noisy bumpy local from Naples to Sorrento, passing by Pompeii which we plan to visit later. Both rides are about an hour - I alternate between watching scenery and writing my blog. Ok, sometimes I sleep...

The trains here have varied a lot. To go from Rome to Naples we had the choice of ES train - expensive and fast (1 hour), IC train- less expensive and almost 2 hours, or R train - cheap and many stops - 3 hours.

Most Trenitalia trains have been quite nice. On one we even had a compartment made for six all to ourselves. Snacks were brought around for sale. The train to Naples we ended up taking first class and it had nice motorized reclining seats, free drinks and snacks. The IC and ES trains require reservations with assigned seating. The R (regional) trains are nice but not quite the comforts if IC(intercity) or ES (eurostar). The Circumvesuviana train we are on now is more like an urban train, small hard seats, bumpy and noisy and full.

Then twice a month at least some areas are on strike and either no trains run or more often they run 1/3 of them withall regional cars and tickets are not checked. But no guarantees you'll get there either.

After awhile we have learned to shrug and say "it's Italia" - we have found most trains to be on time but other things run "on Italian time" - meaning probably late or not at all.

Below the Eurostar we took to Naples from Rome.











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