Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder, on a platform one on Lockery Station, very close to the toe of mainland Italy.

And I'm talking today about the Italian train system and how to get the most of it.

Just waiting for the slightly delayed Cretado 849 to Milito di Porto Salvo and it's just

arriving now beautiful smart glue with flashes of red and green Italian train

and here it comes Reginali 527.

My journey today is 66 kilometres and for that I have paid 5 euros 40 so let's call it about a penny a mile which is a reflection of the very good value that you get on

train Italia services that are running on the so-called classic network. This covers a vast

amount of Italy. It's basically everything apart from the high speed lines. You can be pretty

sure of relatively regular trains although

sometimes there's gaps of maybe four hours between them to travel with a

regional digital ticket it's automatic and the shadowed depart of time and

that's a very good point I'm sitting here with a paper ticket which I got from a

machine the machines are

actually pretty good. You've got instructions in English, which tells you even to beware of

pickpockets in English. And it kind of talks you through the procedure. And it's a very straightforward

transaction. But then the crucial thing is you need to validate that ticket so it's not just enough

that you buy one you then need to stamp it which i've done there's lots of little machines which

look a little bit like post boxes they're dotted around and all you do is you put it in and cancel the ticket.

That's to stop you using it again or indeed seeking a refund.

And if you haven't cancelled it, then you are regarded as travelling with no ticket at all.

And therefore you will be fined a multitude of euros.

It's really important that you get that done or as the lady said book your ticket on

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