Phone and Internet - We opted to use WiTourist.com for our primary source of data. WiTourist has plans at multiple levels and with 2 or more phones becomes more affordable compared to just getting a SIM card and data for each phone. The beauty of their business model is that you know it works and they drop it off at your hotel before you arrive. On the last day of your stay you just leave it at the front desk of your hotel. The battery on the device is decent and lasted anywhere from 6-10 hours depending on how far we were from cell phone towers. I highly recommend keeping a back up battery for your phones and this Wifi Hotspot. We also purchased a Global data plan as a back up which was important because we found we used our phones extensively as maps, trip guides, sources of historical info, event schedulers, and ticket purchasers. We could not have done our own tour as effectively without our phones.
Venice has hot spots across the city you can pay a single price to access.
Larger High Speed Rail trains offer free wifi service.
Rome is said to have many wifi hotspots.
NOTE: Some advise that you need an Italian phone to receive a text code in order to receive free wifi. We weren't able to validate that.
Google translate saved our butts on Italian only sites more than once. Let it translate. It usually does a good job.
SIM Cards are described by many travelers as the way to go. I have to agree we didn't take or make any calls to/from home. We also did need to make a few calls locally and direct dialing would have been nice. This is an Italian SIM wiki that tells you about the networks and their deals.
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Italy
Trains:
I used these two sites exclusively. The first site was initially easier to use and I booked most of my advance tickets from home before I left. However, the second is the Italian site and as a result seemed to have more options in terms of available seating. More than once Italiarail said there were no seats but I found them in the Italian site. I gravitated to trenitalia more once I was in Italy and familiar with the train schedules. Both are trustworthy.
https://www.italiarail.com/
http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
(note: it's not necessarily easy to find the English version of Trenitalia. You may want to copy this link)
Train Tip: Leave yourself more extra time than you think you need!
In one case our train was not assigned a platform number on the schedule display right up to 5 minutes before departure! Depending on travel time, there may not be anyone there to help you, let alone someone who speaks your language. Also, I observed that while some train staff were very helpful, many tried to pretend they didn't see me and were not especially motivated to help even though I was desperately polite.
Ticket Prices: Very reasonable for the high speed rail. Incredibly cheap for the city to city trains though they are not quite as nice. I paid a little of 4 Euro for 2 adult tickets to go from Pompeii to Salerno. Venice to Rome will be more like 50-100 depending on what kind of ticket you are going for and the timing of departure. You can save money by picking a slightly less popular time and still not have to leave at a difficult time.
Train tip: Do not miss your train, but if you do you may be able to get onto another train without additional expense. I had an incident where we used up all our spare time unable to find our train and in the 2 minutes before it departed, I managed to book tickets on a slightly later train at no charge.
Train Tip: The automated ticket machines are confusing as hell but faster than waiting in the customer service line. If you have a travel partner, I suggest one of you wait in line while the other tries to figure out a machine. TAKE A NUMBER. I missed that. They will not take mercy on you without a number. and again, not everyone speaks English. Be patient and when necessary insist on help. Some people know what you need, but maybe because of a million disrespectful tourists before you, really don't want to help you.
Train Tip: Make sure your seats are together if it matters to you. Some trains we were on weren't too busy. However, on popular tracks it was crowded and people insisted on taking their assigned seats separating myself and my daughter.
Train Tip: Beware busy times and book ahead, but not too far ahead. Before we left I booked our train travel between major cities. When I arrived I found I wished I had waited. Trains from major cities like Rome and Venice were actually pretty easy to get a day or two before. I wasted 2 sets of prepaid tickets because our flight was delayed and in the second instance because we wanted to stay in Venice longer. If I had it to do over, I would schedule those just before I wanted to leave or even buy at the train station provided it wasn't a weekend or a holiday. HOWEVER, do not screw around with smaller cities especially on the weekend or high travel periods like holidays. I waited to book a train from Salerno to Rome until the day before and was basically stranded. I had to rent a car for much more than the cost of a ticket. It was an adventure, but you do not need the stress of worrying about whether you can get to your destination. 2 or 3 days in advance should work, but if you want to be safe book them all from home a month in advance and just deal with the schedule lock in.
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