Italy’s Rail Connectivity: The True Story in Liguria and Beyond

Luca: Hi, Anna. Before we start, quick test!

Anna: I'm a bit scared

Luca: If I told you that the best connected region in Italy for trains is Liguria, would you believe me?

Anna: No, absolutely not. Like Liguria, have you ever tried to actually get to Liguria? It's a nightmare!

Luca: Right. Liguria is what our data says. It's the number one region in Italy for rail connectivity

Anna: No, that cannot be right

Luca: It is right, but it's also somehow wrong, and that contradiction is basically this entire episode. Welcome back to Magic Towns Italy. I'm Luca

Anna: And I'm Anna

Luca: this is a weekly podcast where we look at the actual data behind moving to and living in Italy, and we try to figure out what the brochures get wrong

Anna: Which is a lot

Luca: Yes, it's a lot.

And today we talk about trains. have just finished a piece of research that maps every single municipality in [00:01:00] Italy, there's almost 8,000 of them, against the nearest train station, drive time, what kind of trains run there, and how good the station is, the whole thing

Anna: And why are we doing this?

Luca: Because every town in our Town Explorer got a big upgrade this week. We added some new rail filters, we updated the connectivity scores, driving time to station for every town in Italy, so our subscribers can search small town in Italy they want, but they also want within ten minutes of a good train line

Anna: Yeah, exactly. So this episode is the story of what we found while building that

Luca: Exactly. I am sitting with Anna, who is a long-suffering Italian, who has actually been on these trains for many years

Anna: Yeah, the reality check

Luca: The reality check. Let me give you the top line number because this surprised even me, 40% of Italian towns have a train station [00:02:00] within a 10-minute drive, 40%.

Anna: That's high?

Luca: Yeah, it's really high. In terms of road infrastructure, Italy is a country full of rail lines, and for instance, Britain and the US particularly are much sparser by comparison

Anna: Okay. So that's the good news

Luca: Yeah. Here's the bad news. of these almost 8,000 towns, only 38 of them, three eight, have a true high-speed national hub at their doorstep, like a Frecciarossa, Italo, those are the, you know, very fast lines in Italy. The kind of station that gets you to Milan or Rome and Naples without having to change

Anna: So 38 out of almost like 8,000

Luca: Yeah, that's less than half of 1%. And of those 38, only 13 actually sit within a 10-minute drive of such a fast station, and the rest are out in the commuter belt

Anna: So when people say Italy has [00:03:00] amazing trains…

Luca: It has amazing trains between about a dozen major cities. The Frecciarossa from Milan to Rome is genuinely world-class

Anna: It's beautiful. The 8:00 AM from Milano Centrale to Roma Termini, it's like, I don't know, three hours. You have a coffee. The Wi-Fi actually works, so..

Luca: It does work. It does work.

Anna: yeah

Luca: But outside that spine, very often you're on a regional train that shows up every two hours and then stops at every single village between you and the next provincial capital

Anna: And that's where you find out what Italian rail really is.

Luca: So let's go back to Liguria, Northwestern Italy, capital Genoa. Why do you reject the data, Anna?

Anna: I don't reject the data, I just…

Luca: You reject the data.

Anna: Like, have you ever tried to get from, like, Genova to anywhere?

Luca: Genoa to Milan is only an hour and a half

Anna: When the line isn't [00:04:00] closed because of a landslide

Luca: Can you go to Florence?

Anna: Yeah, like Genova to Florence, you essentially have to go via Pisa. Genova to anywhere east, you go through Milan. So basically the whole region is one strip of land between mountains and the sea, and the rail line follows that strip. So when something goes wrong, basically the whole region is stuck.

Luca: Okay. So the data does pick this up. Liguria's towns are very often that coastal line. The line ru- runs practically through every town. So there's a station very often within walking distance, and the stations are mostly decent because it's a main line. And by our score, that does put Liguria first

Anna: Right. So you're measuring "is there a train near you"

Luca: Exactly. The, is the train going somewhere useful is part of the score, but it is not the whole score. Like in our healthcare analysis last week, being 10 minutes from a [00:05:00] decent station beats being 60 minutes from a great station, especially when you can connect from the former to the latter

Anna: Yeah, Calabria has the same problem because, like the trains move, but the speed, the frequency, what you can actually do with them, it's pretty lacking. Like, I would be wary of telling someone to retire to Calabria and rely on rail

Luca: Calabria has, in terms of ranking, it's 14 out of 20 regions in our system, so we are picking up some of that. It is well below the north

Anna: Yeah, but it's above Trentino-Alto Adige, which is gorgeous and well-served

Luca: But it's definitely gorgeous, definitely well served. But Trentino is mountains, so towns are very often far from the stations, and the data penalizes distance. Also, it has a single rail line that goes from Verona up to Austria, and the score reflects that too

Anna: Yeah. And one more thing I want to say here because I think it's important, is that, you know, I grew [00:06:00] up in northeast Italy in a small town with like 18, 20,000 people, and we had plenty of trains every hour to Venezia, Verona, Padua, and I just assumed for years that this was how Italy actually worked.

Luca: And then?

Anna: And then… then I started traveling further South

Luca: Oh more stereotypes

Anna: Yeah, I mean, frequency varies a lot depending on where you are, and you only notice when you leave the place where it's good

Luca: Yeah. And actually that, that's the reason why I wanted both of us to talk about this because, you know, the data's right about what it measures, but then the lived experience, you know, Anna, your lived experience as a commuter

Anna: It's just completely different

Luca: Yeah. Well, it's somewhat different. So, another favourite finding from, the research, little pop quiz. Castelli Romani, the hill towns south of Rome, beautiful, famous for [00:07:00] wine. Where would you go and live if you wanted to live there car-free?

Anna: Frascati. Because it's Frascati. Everyone goes there. I don't know, it has the name, the wine.

Luca: Sì

Anna: Albano is nice, too. Not the singer.

Luca: Sì

Anna: Not the singer, the town. It's…

Luca: Yeah, yeah. I don't know if our listeners know Albano, the singer. And don't listen to him. That's just my opinion. So the regional line that serves Frascati, Albano, and Velletri, it has three branches at Ciampino, and it runs about once every hour

Anna: Once an hour is fine

Luca: Yeah, it's fine now. But if you look just east of those branches, there's the FL6 branch, that's the Roma-Cassino main line that goes to Naples. on that line, there are two towns called Zagarolo and Colonna.

Anna: I've never been to [00:08:00] Zagarolo.

Luca: Yeah, I don't think many people have. It has no brand. There's no pope villa. It's a town. But the train runs about every 30 minutes, and going from Zagarolo to Roma Termini takes 28 minutes.

Anna: 28 minuti

Luca: 28 minutes. And Frascati to Termini is 30 minutes, so you know, you get twice as many trains, and it's a little bit faster, but no one knows about this place

Anna: Yeah, the place nobody goes has a better train than the place everybody goes

Luca: Yeah. Same countryside and the houses cost half as much, and I'm sure no expat has ever heard of this place. And there's no wonders since all the big famous real estate agencies are all over Frascati

Anna: Yeah, this is the kind of thing that's frustrating about how foreigners search for Italian property, because most of them search by name recognition. In this case, name recognition has nothing to do with rail

Luca: Yeah. And that's why, you know, just go and use the Town Explorer. The Frascati and Zagarolo are 20 [00:09:00] minutes apart. They look identical on the relocation map, so that may change your decision

Anna: Yeah. Also Zagarolo is a beautiful name. Zagarolo.

Luca: Right, next one, Puglia

Anna: Beautiful

Luca: Yeah, most of it. Puglia has the best train coverage in the country by drive time. 65% of Puglian towns are within 10 minutes of a station

Anna: 65%

Luca: Italy average is forty.

Anna: Okay. That seems impossible. The South is supposed to be…

Luca: Underserved? Yeah.

Anna: Sì

Luca: Here's what happens. There's a network down there that's called Ferrovie del Sud-Est. It's not the main Italian rail network. regional operator. It goes through the Salento, through all the little towns. Every village has a stop, and they're all close to the center

Anna: E

Luca: And the trains crawl. The average connectivity score for Puglian stations is the worst in the country. It's worse than Sardinia. [00:10:00] It's a dense, slow, and regional network. Lots of stations, very limited usefulness for going anywhere fast

Anna: Yeah, I've taken these trains, and they are slow. But if you live in Polignano a Mare, for example, and you want to, I don't know, take the train to Ostuni for dinner, let's say, they're perfect. Because you walk to the station, you read your book, you arrive

Luca: Sì

Anna: You have your dinner, like-

Luca: Yeah. That, let's hope a train to come back from dinner. Anyway, this is not a commuter use case

Anna: No, no, no, it's completely different. It's a life train, not a commute train.

Luca: Oh, a life train. That's a

great

Anna: Life train.

Luca: Train. And the relocation press confuses a few things all the time. Like they show you Salento, they say, "It has trains." But they don't really tell you what having trains means. It takes you seven or eight hours to go to Bologna.

Anna: With one [00:11:00] change in Bari

Luca: If you're lucky, one change

Anna: Okay. Can I bring up the lakes? Because the lakes are where the lies are worst

Luca: The lies are worse. You're coining one phrase after the other. This is the quote of the episode

Anna: Okay, so Como. Como is two completely different places

Luca: Yeah. So, well, you have Como City, like the southern tip train meets the lake going down to Milan or the other way around. Anyway, that's excellent. The whole southern crescent, the train's every 15 minutes, 20 minutes

Anna: Yeah. And then everyone wants to live in Bellagio

Luca: Of course, which is 25 minutes from any station

Anna: Yeah, the rest of the middle and northern lake averages over 20 minutes drive to any rail, and we are talking about the towns on the postcards, of course

Same thing with Garda. Like, the south of Garda is on the Milan-Venice main line, um, Peschiera, Desenzano, [00:12:00] Sirmione. I love Sirmione. Um, Frecciarossa stops nearby, trains all day, but the north of Garda, like Limone, Riva, Malcesine, and these

Luca: Yeah, 30 minutes to go to any station

Anna: And those are the towns everyone dreams about

Luca: Now there's one lake that no one talks about, Lake Iseo

That's the lake winner. There's a regional train line that goes all around the lake. It stops at every town, every town has a station, and every station scores pretty well

Anna: It's the lake you would actually live on if you didn't have a car

Luca: And no one talks about it. The whole Italian lakes brand is Como, Garda, Como, Garda. And Iseo is the third lake in everyone's mind, but I don't think it should be

Anna: It's also smaller and prettier, I would say.

Luca: Don't tell anyone

Anna: Too late?

Luca: Um, lastly, and this one is a bit sad, the borghi, famous hilltop villages, Pitigliano, Civita di [00:13:00] Bagnoregio, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, beautiful

Anna: Yeah, the Instagram villages.

Luca: The Instagram villages. Those are systematically out of any useful rail

Anna: Of course they are. They are on hilltops

Luca: Yeah, exactly. The main tracks in Italy were laid out in the 1800s, and the planners just cut out the whole Apennines, like, you know, the main chain running through the stem of Italy. So you have this geographical fact that the towns are spectacular, and they are spectacular because they are inaccessible

Anna: Yeah. This is the thing tourists don't understand. Like, the reason the borgo is preserved, it's because nobody bothered to build a road through it for 200 years. So if you wanna live the borgo life, the rail life isn't for you

Luca: Yeah, they're not compatible, which is fine if you know, but the issue is that people don't often know. They go on holiday, they fall in love, they buy a house, and then they realize that they have signed up to drive everywhere for the rest of their [00:14:00] lives

To finish off, practical section, this is about you. I am tired of talking about data, Anna. Talk to us about what it's actually like to take the train all the time in Italy

Anna: Yeah. So let me start with the thing, the thing people miss. Even if you have a car, having a station near you is always, always, always a plus

Luca: Okay, why

Anna: Because it gives you options. I don't know, like, your kids… Let's say that your kids want to go on a day trip on Saturday, you put them on a train. You're going to Bologna and the traffic is nightmare and you don't wanna deal with parking, you take a train. So it's not instead of a car, it's "as well as"

Luca: I can say I have taken the train to Bologna sometimes because of the fog. Much rather get the train to Bologna and not have to worry about the fog. So you're right

Anna: Yeah, it's way better. And another [00:15:00] thing, always book high speed online, never at the station

Luca: I didn't know this. Why?

Anna: Because you'll pay more for no reason. Online, you can find tickets at a fraction of the price if you plan ahead, of course. Uh, yeah, I think high-speed prices are honestly ex- excessive. Like, you can pay, I don't know, 60 euros just for an hour and a half, so if you don't book in advance

Luca: Really? That's crazy. And what about regional trains? It's been a while since I took one. Are they cheap?

Anna: Yeah, yeah, they're cheap, and the price is the same as at the machine and online, so that, that one doesn't matter

Luca: Are there any discounts?

Anna: Yes. If you're under 30 or over 65 and you book, like, weeks ahead, you have 30, 40% off

Luca: Davvero?

Anna: you have to plan

Luca: Wow. And for people that travel the same road a lot

Anna: You're looking to carnet options. Yeah. 10 tickets [00:16:00] on the same route, much better price per journey. I do Roma-Padua on Italo, regularly, I would say, and the carnet is generally worth it

Luca: You're like this Italo fan and you always mention Italo, tell me about Italo versus Frecciarossa

Anna: Italo is way better. Better promotions, more deals, same quality of service. I'm on the Roma-Padua route maybe twice a month, and Italo is just the best for prices. Um, yeah, Frecciarossa, Frecciarossa is iconic, but, um, I think Italo is the better deal more of the time

Luca: Are they as fast as each other?

Anna: Yes, sure

Luca: I'll remember that. And what about apps?

Anna: Um, I think that you should download, Trainline or TrainPal. Basically, they show Italo and, uh, and Trenitalia in one place. I prefer TrainPal because it has more, like, discounts, and it's easier just, just [00:17:00] to use

Luca: What about loyalty programs?

Anna: You should absolutely do that, uh, for both because you accumulate points and then after a while you get free tickets. So yeah, costs nothing

Luca: Br-brilliant. And finally, what about the universal Italian rail experience, strikes

Anna: No, please. The strikes, I, um, I think that delays in Italy are not really the issue because usually it's just 10 minutes maximum. But the thing that ruins your day is a strike, and they happen all the time

Luca: So what do you do about it?

Anna: You just have to Google your route before you buy the tickets always. I mean, there are guaranteed service windows. I think it's before 9:00 AM and after 6:00 PM, not sure, so double check.

Luca: What about safety?

Anna: Mm. Um, high speeds are [00:18:00] fine any hour because they are always busy. Uh, but regional trains, completely different story. I'm talking, like, at night. At night, you can end up with people who didn't buy a ticket, all empty carriages. So if you're a woman traveling alone, I wouldn't recommend you taking a train that hour

And if you do, you should… I personally feel more comfortable sitting in the carriage closest to the driver

Luca: I can see that.

Anna: Yeah. High-speed trains are clean usually, because someone comes through with a bean bag at the end of every trip.

Luca: Hmm.

Anna: with the regional trains, no, no, for the regional trains expect anything

Luca: Any last tips?

Anna: I mean, the Wi-Fi works. Staff speak English almost everywhere now. There's space for luggage, even for bikes. And Italo has lockable storage, which is an, which is something that can be useful

Luca: It's a lot of [00:19:00] practical knowledge from someone who says the data is wrong

Anna: No, no, the da- the data isn't wrong. The data is right about what it measures. I'm just adding the texture.

Luca: Fair enough. So I think the takeaway, if you're listening to this and you're thinking about moving to Italy, or if you just wanna travel around it a little bit more seriously

Anna: Yeah, don't trust the brand

Luca: Don't trust the brand. The places you heard of are not always the places with the best trains. The Frascatis of Italy have the famous names, but the Zagarolos have the trains

Anna: Yeah, and manage your expectations.

Like, if you've ever taken a train in Japan, uh, just know, like, Italy isn't Japan. There will be noise, there will be messier queues, so things will be chaotic, yeah. It reflects the country.

So yeah, embrace it

Luca: Indeed. So all the data we talked about today, the [00:20:00] 7,795 comuni, the drive times, the connectivity scores, and the lake by lake breakdown, it's all live in Magic Towns Italy on the Town Explorer. We've added a lot of cool stuff for you to try out. Um, you can compare these towns side by side. So if you're a subscriber, it's already live in your account

Anna: And if you're not, mm, yeah

Luca: this is the kind of work that the subscription pays for. same thing as last week's healthcare update, um, we you about hospital quality, we tell you about how close the nearest hospital is. Stuff you're not gonna find anywhere else, certainly not from real estate agents. And now we freshened up Rail Europe

Anna: Yeah. We argued less about healthcare

Luca: Because Veneto came out first and we were smug about it

Anna: Okay. Thank you guys

Luca: for Magic Towns Italy, thanks for listening.

Anna: Ciao.