Italo vs Trenitalia: Which Is Best For Italy Tourists?
It all depends on your departure and arrival city
Traveling by train is definitely one of the best ways for tourists to get around Italy. This leads to the question of which one is better than the other when hitting the rails - Italo or Trenitalia.
Italo definitely wins hands down, some of the time. Want to know when? Be sure to read on a bit more.
Italo
Italo is the privately owned competitor to Trenitalia, which is owned by the Italian government.
It definitely features newer trains which are generally cleaner and nicer than the Trenitalia counterparts. It generally costs more than the government run train service. However, from a time perspective, they both essentially run on time and take the same amount of time to get from place to place.
Italo runs on the limited high-speed rail network in Italy which connects most of the major cities travelers visit. That's pretty convenient for tourists in Italy, but it is also Italo's weakness.
Trenitalia
Trenitalia operates on the same high speed rail network across Italy as does Italo. However, it's strength is that it goes more places than Italo. For example, Italo does not operate on the trendy island of Sicily at all.
Through its "regionale" network, Italo connects the medium and small Italian cities not served by Italo. However, the regionale trains are some of the worst maintained in the country, especially as you head south. They are often crowded, dirty, smelly, noisy graffiti covered trains that conveniently connect towns.
That's why Italo wins, some of the time.
Tips for Travelers
When it comes to choosing between the two, if a traveler is simply connecting between cities on the high speed rail line, I would recommend Italo.
However, if a connection to a regionale is needed, say between Florence and Lucca in Tuscany, Trenitalia is recommended because they are responsible for making the connection. Miss the connection with Italo and Trenitalia will not assist.
Have fun riding the rails of Il Bel Paese.