 A Frecciarossa at Rome's central Stazione Termini... |
Trenitalia is Italy's national train operator, and their premier ETR500 Frecciarossa high-speed trains operate on the main Turin-Milan-Bologna-Florence-Rome-Naples route. Frecciarossa means 'red arrow', and they can reach 300 km/h (186 mph) on Italy's new high-speed lines. Nobody flies between these cities any more: Rome-Milan now takes as little as 2 hours 40 minutes, Rome-Florence as little as 1 hour 23 minutes, with a restaurant car and free WiFi.
Buy
tickets at
www.italiarail.com from €9...
You can buy Frecciarossa tickets online at either www.italiarail.com or www.trenitalia.com. It's ticketless, you simply quote your PNR number on board the train. ItaliaRail.com is an agency which links directly to Trenitalia's ticketing system, easy to use with English-language place names. Their small booking fee will be refunded if you email seat61@italiarail.com with your PNR. Trenitalia.com is Italian railways own website, English button top right. It only recognises Italian-language place names, Firenze for Florence, Roma for Rome, Napoli for Naples, Venezia for Venice and so on and it has a few quirks, but there's no booking fee and it allows you to select a specific seat. Booking opens 120 days ahead, and if you book in advance on a no-refunds, no-changes-to-travel plans basis, super-economy fares start at just €9. Frecciarossa seat numbering plan.
Frecciarossas are being refurbished with 4 classes... Watch the video guide
Frecciarossas originally had 1st and 2nd class seats. However, with private operator NTV's Italo trains now competing with Trenitalia on the Milan-Rome-Naples route, Trenitalia is refurbishing its Frecciarossas with not two but four classes: Standard, Premium, Business and Executive. Which should you choose? Here's an illustrated guide:
Standard class (= 2nd class)...
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Standard class: Cloth seats, arranged in bays of 4 around a table either side of the aisle. Seats are arranged 2+2 across the width of the car. Power sockets at all seats. There's plenty of luggage space on overhead racks, which will take anything up to backpack-size, and space between the seat backs, and racks for larger items at the end of each car. Passengers may use the café-bar & restaurant car. |
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Premium class (= premium 2nd class)
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Premium class: Exactly the same layout and legroom as Standard class, but with leather seats instead of cloth. As in Standard class, seats are arranged in bays of 4 around a table either side of the aisle. Seats are arranged 2+2 across the width of the car. The fare includes a complimentary 'welcome drink' of coffee, soft drink or prosecco, and there are power sockets at all seats. There's plenty of luggage space on overhead racks, which will take anything up to backpack-size, and space between the seat backs, and racks for larger items at the end of each car. Passengers may use the café-bar & restaurant car. The Man in Seat 61 says: "It will depend on what prices you're offered, of course, but the leather seats and 'welcome' drink make premium a nice upgrade from Standard." |
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Business (= 1st class)
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Business class (above left): Significantly more elbow room than Standard or Premium (although legroom is the same), with wider leather seats arranged 2+1 across the width of the car, with tables for four on one side of the aisle and tables for two on the other, the latter ideal for couples. The fare includes a complimentary 'welcome drink' of coffee, soft drink or prosecco, and there are power sockets at all seats. There's plenty of luggage space on overhead racks, which will take anything up to backpack-size, and space between the seat backs, and racks for larger items at the end of each car. Passengers may use the café-bar & restaurant car. One Business class car is designated as a 'quiet car' ('Silenzio'). Business class 'Salottinos' (above right): Each Frecciarossa has two fully-enclosed four-seat 'Salottinos' (= 'little rooms'). Seats can be booked in this if you are a small group travelling together, ideal for private meetings on the move. The Man in Seat 61 says: "There's no need to travel first (Business) class if you're on a budget, as Standard & Premium classes are absolutely fine, and the legroom is exactly the same as in Business class. But the wider seats, extra elbow room and the ability for couples to choose a table for two, make Business class a nice upgrade." |
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Executive class (= premium 1st
class)
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Executive class (above left): Executive class consists of just 8 super-comfortable leather reclining seats at one end of the train, with their own dedicated steward or stewardess. Power sockets at all seats. The fare includes a complimentary cold tray meal and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and all Executive passengers can use the Frecciaclub first class lounges at main stations. Executive meeting room (above right): Executive class also features a 6-seat meeting room. The Man in Seat 61 says: "Executive class is aimed at top executives and priced accordingly, with fully-flexible tickets and no discounted fares. But if your company is paying, Executive is highly recommended, you won't want to get off..." |
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Food & drink on board
the Frecciarossa...
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Executive class meal: Executive class includes a complimentary cold tray meal with wine and prosecco.... |
A Frecciarossa at Milan Centrale.... |
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The restaurant car: Each Frecciarossa has a proper sit-down waiter-service restaurant car, open to all passengers. A 3-course set menu costs around €30. |
The café-bar: At the other end of the restaurant car in the centre of the train is a café-bar serving real Italian coffee, alcoholic & soft drinks, sandwiches and snacks. |
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The set meal... A typical main course... |
A table for two in the Frecciarossa restaurant car... |
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Information screens in each car tell you the train's speed, destination, calling points and next stop... |
Two ETR500 Frecciarossa trains at Milan Centrale... |
Watch the
Frecciarossa video...
Trenitalia's Frecciarossa versus NTV's Italo: Which to take?
On the Milan-Florence-Rome-Naples route you can now choose between Trenitalia's Frecciarossa and NTV's new 'Italo' train - see the Italo page. Which should you choose? Both are excellent trains, but this is my personal take...
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Comfort: NTV's Italo is arguably the newer, brighter and more stylish train. It's carpeted throughout and has top-quality Poltrona Frau leather seats in all classes. Legroom is excellent. One strange feature of the Frecciarossa is that it has hard hospital-style synthetic flooring in all classes, lacking carpet even in Executive class. The Frecciarossa has leather seats in Premium, Business & Executive, but only cloth seats in Standard. On the Frecciarossa you have to like brown decor! However, one plus for the Frecciarossa is the seating layout, as seating mostly consists of bays of 4 seats around a table (ideal for families or groups of friends) and (in Business class) bays of two seats facing each other across a table (ideal for couples), all of which line up correctly with the windows. Italo mainly features unidirectional seating, not always lining up with the windows, although there are a limited number of tables-for-four in Smart class and tables-for-two and tables-for-four in Prima class, which you can select when you book, if they're not already taken.
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WiFi: Both trains have WiFi and plug sockets (European 2-pin) at all seats.
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Catering: Italo has vending machines for coffee & snacks in Smart class, and in Prima and Club class you can buy innovative high-quality packed lunchboxes with cold food in jars, served at your seat. However, there's no restaurant or bar car, and no hot food. If you like dining on the rails, you may prefer the Frecciarossa, as all passengers on the Frecciarossa can use the waiter-service restaurant car serving complete meals with hot food, or buy coffee, tea and snacks from the staffed bar area. Executive class on the Frecciarossa features a simple high-quality cold tray meal included in the price.
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Ease of booking: Italo has put a lot of work into their online booking and self-service ticket machines, and it shows. It's really easy to buy tickets online and self-print your ticket, wherever you live. Trenitalia's Frecciarossa can also be booked online easily enough, but if you go to the main Trenitalia portal www.trenitalia.com you're forced to type the exact Italian-language place name (and in some cases, station name, guessing the exact abbreviation their system uses) even in the English version. However, if you go directly to their fast-train mini-site Lefrecce.it you'll be prompted.
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Frequency: Trenitalia operate the more frequent service, running trains half-hourly at peak times between Milan, Florence and Rome. Italo is still building up its services but will eventually run hourly on the main Milan-Florence-Rome-Naples route, not quite as frequent as Trenitalia. However, both trains operate a 'reservation compulsory' system, so once you've bought a ticket on a specific train frequency is irrelevant as you can only travel on the train you've booked.
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Convenience of the stations: If you're heading to or from Rome, you may prefer the Frecciarossa, as this uses Rome Stazione Termini, the main central station from where you can walk to most of the city sights and to many central hotels. Italo uses Rome Tiburtina station which is a €10 taxi ride from central Rome. However, in Milan, Italo's Porta Garibaldi station is just as central as Trenitalia's Milan Centrale (although admittedly without Milan Centrale's magnificent architecture), and if you're connecting with a French TGV from Paris, Italo is more convenient because the Paris TGVs also use Milan Porta Garibaldi. On the other hand, if you're connecting to or from Switzerland or other locations in northern Italy such as Lake Como, a Frecciarossa to or from Milan Centrale may be more convenient, as most trains come into Milan Centrale including the EuroCity trains to & from Switzerland. At other stations such as Bologna, Florence, Naples and Venice, Italo and Frecciarossa use the same centrally-located stations. Map of Milan showing stations. Map of Rome showing stations. Map of Florence showing stations.
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