Italian railway ticketing

[mrmartin]

Was using the trains recently near Naples (down the coast south - didn't enjoy the city itself at all but loved the coast!).

One issue I had was 'open' returns. It didn't seem to be possible - the ticket machine would just give exact timetables. Some of them were valid after validation (my guess if they were in the naples 'fare zone' of some sort, but it seemed mind numbingly complicated) but others said this exact train/ticket only.

I ended up using trainline for most of them as it was easy to buy them before getting the train, nearly missed one because the ticket machine was out of paper.

But did I miss something - is there anything like an 'open day return' from eg Naples Central to Salerno (or further afield - like Maratea)?

BTW: I'm not looking to particularly save money, just save time buying esp when I am not good at typing in italian station names!

I also noticed contactless readers on nearly all (all?) validation machines. Was wondering what that was for?

 

[Iskra]

There isn't an open return as such, but what you can do on regional services is bulk buy single tickets ahead of time and then use/activate them as you need.

If you want simplicity and flexibility, there is a rover ticket called Italia in Tour that is available in 3 or 5 day versions and is inexpensive but valid on only Trenitalia Regional and Regional Veloce services.

 

[nwales58]

As above, Trenitalia regionals are all single tickets.

Their idea is that you use the Trenitalia app or web site. If bought ahead you can change the booked train up to departure time, to a different day even. 'check in' in the app or web site is the equivalent of validating a paper ticket. Neither electronic not paper tickets can be bought after a few minutes before departure, which is annoying.

If trainline or another third-party allows the change of train you could use that, but I find Trenitalia's app or web site fine. I book the planned trains in the morning and change them as necessary. Booking for multiple people with the app logged in to the same account on everyone's phone so they each can show the tickets works fine too.

One Naples-Maratea return is almost the price of a 3-day Italia in Tour.

On Maratea, you may find you want to co-ordinate train with the Sapri-Maratea bus up to the town. The station is at 80m, town 300m above sea level. Change at Sapri for ease of buying a bus ticket. From Maratea station go down the approach road, turn right under the railway and the bus stop is at the T junction the other side but there isn't a ticket shop. There is a summer local shuttle down to the station and beach, I don't know where that stops.

You pass Paestum which is well worth visiting.