Budgetting in Italy?

Question

I'm travelling to Italy on a budget. Are buses cheaper than trains?

Can I use the bus between Rome and Florence? Florence-Venice?

Answer 1

Usually buses are where there is no train service.

There are sometime some special bus services among some cities, even if there is a train service on these route.

However I think that travelling by bus on such long distance will force you to strange timetable (when present this type of bus service are not at all frequent).

My suggestion is to study a way to take the train, but to save money. look if some special offers is present, try to use less expensive train (some time the difference in the time of the journey is little, but the difference in price is hight). You can also consider to buy a card that allow you to take any train you want. There are many type of these cards.

But the first thing I would suggest to you is to do a rough estimation of what you would spend if you bought full price normal type train ticket for you journeys. Look at www.trenitalia.it

Answer 2

go to www.frommers.com. Has budget hotels and transportation.

Answer 3

Get a Euro rail pass and use busses, trains, and even a car.  Check the fares.  

http://www.eurail.com/?gclid=CNvWjpfarZQ...

Save on meals by hitting the morning markets for a loaf of bread, cured meat, cheese, bottle of local table wine, fruits and vegetables for the day. Keep out of the super markets as they are expensive and for restaurants, small ones are just fine and cheap.

Answer 4

It's not easy to travel on a budget in Italy. Generally, buses are cheaper than trains, although if you adapt to long journeys, you can hop on trains and travel on a budget even on those. You might want to look for "Interregionale", marked "IR", whereas InterCity (IC/ICPlus) and EuroStar (ES, B) are much more costy.

As for buses, be especially careful when travelling around Bologna, there is a lot of highway traffic that can slow you down a lot (that applies to the Florence-Venice route, for which I would rather suggest you travel to Bologna, spend a night there, and proceed by train tro Venice, with a possible stopover in Verona).