How to Choose the Right Italo Ticket for a Train Trip Across Italy

An Italo ticket is two choices: a class and a fare. How to pick each one, and which offers cut the price for families, under-30s and over-60s.

Rome to Florence by high-speed train takes about the time it takes to read a long magazine. Rome to Milan is a morning. Booking the seat is where most visitors slow down, because an Italo ticket asks two questions at once and the booking page does not explain either of them.

Answer both well and the same train gets cheaper, quieter or easier to change, depending on what your trip needs.

Italo runs high-speed trains between 51 cities and 58 stations in Italy, according to the company, and its own site sells tickets with no service fee. Through its partners, a ticket can also continue by Itabus coach or SNAV ferry towards places like Sorrento, Lake Como, Capri and Ischia.

🚄 Check Italo times and fares for your route

Every ticket is a class plus a fare

The class decides the seat, the space and what happens on board. The fare decides what happens if your plans move.

They are separate choices, and mixing them up is how people overpay. A traveller who wants flexibility does not need Club Executive. A traveller who wants a big seat does not need a Flex fare. Pick each one for its own reason.

Italo sells three classes: Smart, Prima Business and Club Executive, plus a private compartment called the Salotto. It sells three main fares: Low Cost, Economy and Flex.

Smart: the seat most trips need

Smart is Italo’s standard class, and it is a good one. Reclining leather seats with footrests, side tables, individual power outlets and free Wi-Fi are all included, per Italo’s own description.

There is a snack area with vending machines for coffee, cold drinks and Italian snacks rather than at-seat service.

Luggage. Smart allows bags up to 75 x 53 x 30 cm, and you can bring several items at no extra cost. A very large suitcase is the one reason to look higher.

Discounts. Smart is also where Italo’s biggest discounts live. The Family, Young and Senior offers described below are all Smart-class offers.

Prima Business: room to work between cities

Prima Business is the upgrade for people who want to spend the ride doing something. Italo describes wider reclining leather seats with extra legroom, single armrests and power outlets, and a single-row layout on one side that gives more privacy and a dedicated table.

Snacks, coffee, tea and cold drinks come to your seat. Fast Track entry gets you through the station checkpoints faster, and large luggage travels without restriction or extra charge.

On a Milan to Rome business day, that table and the at-seat coffee are the whole point. You arrive with work done.

💼 Compare Smart and Prima on your train

Club Executive and the Salotto: the train as a lounge

Club Executive is the top class. It adds soft leather armchairs, free access to the Italo Club lounges at the station, Fast Track, and Italo’s onboard catering brought to your seat, along with newspapers, magazines and free Wi-Fi.

The Salotto takes the same benefits and puts them inside an enclosed compartment for up to four people. Italo calls it the closest thing to your own private train.

Who it suits. A family of four who want to talk, eat and rest without an audience. Two colleagues who need to hold a meeting. A couple marking a big trip.

Split four ways, the Salotto is worth pricing for your group before you rule it out.

Low Cost, Economy or Flex: price the plans you might change

This is the decision that saves or wastes the most money. The rules below are taken from Italo’s fares page.

Low Cost. The cheapest way to travel. You can still change the date or time up to 72 hours before departure, for a surcharge of 60% of the ticket price plus any fare difference. Best when the date is fixed.

Economy. Unlimited changes to date and time up to 3 minutes before departure, for a 20% fee plus any fare difference. Cancel and you get 40% back. A sensible middle for a holiday where the order of cities might shift.

Flex. Unlimited changes, including the passenger’s name for a fee, up to 3 minutes before departure. Cancel and you get 80% back. Miss the train and you have one hour of Extra Time to get a seat on the next available service, subject to availability.

Two add-ons fill the gaps. The Refund Option, sold on selected offers, gives an 80% refund if you cancel up to 72 hours before departure. Leave Now, at €15 per passenger, lets you take a train up to two hours earlier on the day, where available.

🗓️ See which fares are left on your date

When the cheapest ticket is the wrong one

Low Cost suits a fixed plan. If a connecting flight could be late or a day trip might run long, Economy or Flex usually works out cheaper than paying a 60% change fee on Low Cost.

The same goes the other way. If the date cannot move, paying for Flex buys nothing you will use.

Kids ride free, under-30s pay less, and points come back

Italo’s offers are where a good fare becomes a very good one.

Italo Family. Children under 14 travel free and adults get 50% off, for groups of two to four travellers with at least one adult, in Smart.

Babies and toddlers. Children up to 36 months travel free on an adult’s lap with no ticket needed.

Italo Young and Senior. Travellers aged 14 to 29 can get discounts of up to 70% on Smart tickets, and travellers over 60 up to 60%. There is also an Italo Friends offer for groups, with discounts of up to 60%.

Italo Più. The loyalty programme earns up to 2 points per euro spent on tickets. Italo says new members who sign up by 30 October 2026 get 500 welcome points, worth up to €5 off a later journey.

Join Italo Più before your first booking, check which of these offers applies to your group, and then choose the class. Booking that way round gets you the best seat for the money, on one of the most pleasant ways to cross Italy.

🎟️ Book your Italo seat and apply the right offer