1. Buying a ticket and just having it is not good enough. Once you buy your ticket, look for a small box that says something like ticket validation. Insert your ticket and once inserted, move it to the left. You might get away with not doing this, but if they catch you, expect to fork out 52 Euros.
2. How to find out where you are going and which stations does the train stop at? At every station you will find a large (but not large enough!) sheet of paper. On it, it lists under hourly headings when trains leave, and if you look carefully it will list all the stops, with their times. I wondered what about Sundays? The catch is the asterisk, and you need to learn the word for Sunday, Saturday, and Public Holiday. A listing of the months in Italian is also needed.
3. There is sometimes a small electronic screen showing train times as well. Sometimes this will be at odds with the paper copy. We found the electronic on was more up to date.
4. Another puzzle is the strange case of up to 4 trains leaving at the same time. They are handled by the asterisk as mentioned in 2 above.
5. Watch out for multiple destinations of the city of your choice. It easy to get off out in the suburbs.
6. If travelling on a train that has first and second class, and you are booked on carriage no 2, do NOT get on the carriage that has a big 2 on the side. It means second class. Usually, 1st class is at the end of the train, with a tiny notice near the door saying which carriage it is.
7. Watch out for terribly helpful persons that appear to have official looking shirts on wanting to grab your suitcases out of your hands and lift them on board for you. They expect 5 Euros. Make it a point to say NO thanks!
