Getting Around Italy 2026: Trains, Driving, Tolls and Boats

Our travels around Italy began in Rome: Daniel and I flew from Prague with Wizz Air, landed at Fiumicino and headed straight for the train to Termini. No hunting for a taxi. Half an hour later the train had brought us almost right to our accommodation, just 10 minutes from the Colosseum. For me, this train is one of the best things that can happen to you in Rome after landing.

At Lake Garda, we rented a small Fiat through Discover Cars. For me, quite an experience. My two-metre-tall Daniel was only about half happy about it 😀. And as if that weren’t enough: at home we drive a hybrid, and this was a manual. Quite an adjustment for Daniel.

Getting around Italy is actually simpler than it looks once you know what to use for what. For longer distances, take the train or drive; in cities, use public transport; on the lakes and in the Venice lagoon, take a boat. Here’s everything we’ve learned and looked up, with current prices from official sources. For tips on what to see in Italy, check out our guide to Italy.

Quick summary for those in a hurry

• Where to fly: North and Garda = Milan (Malpensa, Bergamo), Rome = Fiumicino or Ciampino, south = Naples and Bari. From Prague, where we fly from, there are direct flights to Venice Treviso, and to Venice Marco Polo from October 2026.
• By car from Prague (our route): to Lake Garda takes roughly 8.5 hours via Germany and the Brenner. Austrian vignette €12.80 for 10 days, Brenner A13 €12.50, in Italy it’s a toll instead of a vignette (Brenner–Verona €16.80).
• From Fiumicino to Rome: Leonardo Express €14, 32 minutes to Termini. Regional FL1 €8, to Trastevere roughly 27 minutes (source: Trenitalia).
• Public transport in Rome: BIT ticket €1.50 for 100 minutes, 24h €8.50, 72h €22 (source: ATAC).
• Boats on Lake Garda: a return from Sirmione to Desenzano cost us €7 per person, and a return to Lazise or Bardolino costs €23 (2026 price list).
• Malcesine–Monte Baldo cable car: €30 return at the ticket office, €28 online (source: Funivie del Baldo).
• Vaporetto in Venice: €9.50 for 75 minutes, a day pass €25 (source: ACTV).
• Parking: white lines = free, blue = paid, yellow = reserved. And watch out for ZTL zones.
• A single national public transport app doesn’t exist in Italy; the closest thing is the commercial app MooneyGo.

How to get to Italy: by plane, train or car

By plane: direct flights from Prague, where we fly from

This overview covers direct flights from Prague, our home airport, to more than ten Italian airports. According to Prague Airport’s destination map, here are the main ones (as of September 2026; seasonal routes change every year):

Where you’re going	Airport	Airlines flying from Prague
Milan, Lombardy, the lakes	Milan Malpensa / Milan Bergamo	easyJet, Neos / Ryanair
Lake Garda	Milan Bergamo, Verona (winter season only)	Ryanair / Volotea
Venice	Treviso / Marco Polo	Ryanair / Smartwings (from October 2026)
Tuscany	Florence / Pisa	Volotea / Ryanair
Emilia-Romagna	Bologna	Ryanair
Rome	Fiumicino / Ciampino	Smartwings, Wizz Air / Ryanair
Naples, Amalfi	Naples Capodichino	easyJet, Ryanair (seasonal)
Puglia	Bari	Ryanair

North: Milan is the safest bet, with the most connections. Verona is actually closer to Lake Garda, but the only direct flight from Prague there is with Volotea, and only in winter.

Venice: There is a direct flight to Venice; you just need to check which airport it lands at. Ryanair flies to Treviso. Smartwings is opening a route to the main airport, Marco Polo, from October, according to Prague Airport’s route map.

Rome: We flew with Wizz Air to Fiumicino, and there’s a direct train from Fiumicino into the centre, see below. Ciampino is the smaller airport, served from Prague by Ryanair.

Naples and Bari: Both airports have direct connections with Prague. Naples is served by easyJet and Ryanair, with Ryanair scheduling flights in October and then from December 2026 to March 2027. Bari is served by Ryanair.

If you’re flying from Prague, we’ve written up where to leave your car in our article Parking at Prague Airport.

By train to Italy

There is no direct train from Prague, where we start, to Italy. You’ll always have to change, most often in Vienna or Munich.

• Venice: take a morning train with one change in Vienna and you’ll be in Venice by evening; the whole journey takes about 13.5 hours. A more comfortable option is the overnight version: an afternoon train to Linz or Vienna, then the Nightjet overnight train, which arrives in Venice at 8:34 in the morning.
• Verona and Lake Garda: with one change in Munich, roughly 13.5 hours.
• Florence and Rome: the best option is the Nightjet overnight train from Vienna. It runs daily at 20:05, arriving in Florence at 6:48 (Campo di Marte station, not Santa Maria Novella) and in Rome at Tiburtina at 10:05.
• Milan: here you can’t avoid two changes.

A one-way Nightjet ticket costs from about €35 per person for a seat, around €55 for a couchette and around €80 for a sleeper (the cheapest non-refundable fares in autumn 2026). ÖBB advertises seats from €24.90, but on ordinary dates they tend to be pricier.

RegioJet doesn’t run trains to Italy, only buses (Prague–Venice, roughly 12.5 hours, from 899 CZK / €37). Its afternoon train from Prague to Vienna does connect with the night train to Venice, though.

By car to Italy

We drive to northern Italy. Getting to Lake Garda takes us roughly 8.5 hours from Prague. We drive via Germany: Plzeň, Rozvadov, around Munich, through Kufstein into Austria and over the Brenner into Italy. It’s about 800 km to the lake. We compared where to stay by the lake in our article Where to Stay at Lake Garda.

We fill up twice along the way:

• Rozvadov (about 175 km from Prague, roughly 2 hours): the last petrol stations on the D5 before the German border, where you can still fill up at Czech prices. We fill the tank right up and stretch our legs. We once tried a petrol station a bit further off the motorway near Rozvadov, and the price was exactly the same, down to the last penny. We won’t bother doing that again – we just fill up right on the motorway.
• Innsbruck Süd (roughly another 390 km, 4 hours): through Germany around Munich and through Kufstein into Austria. Fuel on German and Austrian motorways tends to be very expensive, so we come off the A13 at the Innsbruck Süd exit, just before the Brenner. There’s a petrol station right by the exit in the village of Natters, and petrol is cheaper off the motorway. With a full tank you’ll make it to the lake with fuel to spare for your first days in Italy.

Here’s what you’ll pay for motorways along the way (2026 prices):

• Czechia (if your route crosses it, as ours does): electronic motorway vignette, 230 CZK (about €9.5) for one day, 300 CZK (about €12) for 10 days.
• Germany: cars pay nothing.
• Austria: on the A12 motorway you need a vignette, €9.60 for one day or €12.80 for 10 days. Here’s the catch: the one-day vignette isn’t valid for 24 hours, only until midnight of that calendar day. If you activate it at 13:00, you’ve got it for under 11 hours. Anyone who sets off at 10:00 and is still on an Austrian motorway the following morning is already driving without a valid vignette. That’s why we always buy the 10-day one. It’s insurance in case something happens and we end up travelling a day later than planned. The Brenner motorway (A13) is tolled separately: €12.50.
• Italy: there’s no motorway vignette; you pay tolls instead (more on that in the driving section). From the Brenner to Verona it’s €16.80, to the lake at Affi €15.80. That’s exactly what we paid for the stretch from the Brenner to the lake too.

For Austrian and Italian tolls, budget roughly €40 one way, plus the Czech vignette if you drive through Czechia, as we do. From Prague to Milan, your sat nav will more likely route you through Switzerland, where you need a Swiss vignette costing 40 CHF. Via the Brenner it’s about 100 km longer.

From the airport to the centre: Rome, Naples, Bari

Rome: Leonardo Express or FL1?

Two trains run from Fiumicino into Rome.

Train	Price	Where to, and how long it takes	How often
Leonardo Express	€14 (€40 for 4 people)	Roma Termini, 32 min, no stops	every 15–30 min, from the airport 5:38–23:27
Regional FL1	€8	Trastevere approx. 27 min, continuing to Ostiense, Tiburtina	every 15 min on weekdays, 30 min on Sundays and public holidays

Leonardo Express runs non-stop straight to Termini, the main station, and it took us almost all the way to our accommodation, 10 minutes from the Colosseum. If you’re staying around Termini, Monti or the Colosseum, you won’t find anything better.

Leonardo Express from Fiumicino – buy your ticket online – a mobile ticket that lets you skip the queue at the machine, for €16 (€14 via Trenitalia).

FL1 is more of a local train and stops more often. Another time we took it to Trastevere, where we stayed. We explain why in our article Where to Stay in Rome. If you’re staying in Trastevere or near Ostiense or Tiburtina stations, it’s a cheaper and often more practical choice.

WATCH OUT: you have to validate a paper ticket for the regional train in a validation machine before boarding. At Fiumicino you validate it at the turnstiles. A paper ticket is then valid for 90 minutes. If you buy your ticket online, it’s only valid for the specific train listed on it (source: Trenitalia).

Rome: from Ciampino airport to the centre

Ryanair flies to Ciampino from Prague. There’s no train directly to the airport, so you have these options:

• Ciampino Airlink (bus + train): the bus takes you to Ciampino station, from where a train runs to Termini. A single Trenitalia ticket for €2.70 covers both, and the journey usually takes about 35 minutes. On weekdays the first service runs at 5:55, the last one connecting with a train at 22:40. It’s the cheapest option.
• Bus direct to Termini: Rome Airport Bus for €8 online, around 40 minutes, running from 5:55 to 22:30. Terravision from €6.50 online, 40–45 minutes, but the first service isn’t until around half past eight. SIT only runs three morning services.
• Public transport: ATAC bus 520 to Cinecittà metro station, and then metro line A to Termini. One BIT ticket for €1.50 covers both; count on about an hour.
• Taxi: a fixed rate of €40 per car to the centre within the Aurelian Walls, with surcharges included; the journey takes about half an hour. Some operators’ websites still show the old price of €30, which is no longer valid.

Naples: Alibus

We haven’t been to Naples ourselves yet, so here are just the facts: from Capodichino airport, the Alibus bus runs to Piazza Garibaldi by the main station (15 minutes according to operator ANM) and to the port at Molo Beverello (35 minutes). A ticket costs €5. A ticket bought from the driver only covers one ride; an integrated ticket for the same €5 from a tobacconist’s, or via Tap&Go (tapping a contactless card), is valid for 90 minutes and also covers the rest of Naples’s public transport.

Bari: train from the airport

We haven’t been to Bari yet either. A Ferrotramviaria train runs from Karol Wojtyła airport to Bari Centrale for €5.30, the journey takes 15–17 minutes and there are 34 services a day.

Getting around Italy by train: Trenitalia and Italo

Between major cities, the train is a comfortable option: you don’t have to worry about motorways, ZTL zones or parking. Italy has two main operators:

• Trenitalia – the state operator, running both Frecce high-speed trains and regional trains. App: iOS / Android.
• Italo – private high-speed trains between major cities. App: iOS / Android.

Tickets for high-speed trains are sold for a specific service and tend to be cheaper the earlier you book, so if you know your dates, don’t wait to buy them at the station.

Public transport in Rome: prices, apps and tips

Rome’s public transport (metro, buses, trams) is run by ATAC and tickets work across the whole network. Just watch out: a BIT ticket is valid for 100 minutes on buses and trams, but on the metro you can only use it to get through the gate once.

Ticket	Price	Validity
BIT	€1.50	100 minutes from validation
MULTIBIT	€15	10× BIT
ROMA 24H	€8.50	24 hours from validation
ROMA 48H	€15	48 hours
ROMA 72H	€22	72 hours
CIS	€29	7 days from first validation; not sold via Tap&Go or partner apps

Paying by card: In Rome you can use Tap&Go: just tap your contactless card on the validator or turnstile and you don’t need to buy anything in advance.

Official app: Since late 2025, ATAC has had a new app called Atac Roma with a route planner, real-time arrivals and ticket purchases. You can download it for iOS and Android. Digital ATAC tickets are also sold through partner apps, such as Trenitalia, MooneyGo or Tabnet.

Is a day ticket worth it? With a card, you don’t even have to decide. If you rack up a sixth BIT fare via Tap&Go within 24 hours, the system charges you just the ROMA 24H rate of €8.50 for the whole day, which is less than six BIT tickets. The condition: keep tapping the same device the whole time. If you start with a physical card, don’t switch to the same card on your phone or watch.

With a card, you’ll never pay more than €8.50 for 24 hours of public transport in Rome.

Sightseeing bus, scooter and bike in Rome

Rome is huge and hilly, and if you don’t want to walk everywhere, you have three options that are more fun than the metro.

Hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus – 1-3 day ticket – from €22, audio guide in 12 languages, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Rome by Vespa – 2.5-hour guided ride – from €130 per person, ride solo or as a passenger, small group.

Rome e-bike rental – e-bike for 9 hours – from €45, helmet and lock included, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

You’ll find what else to fit in while you’re in Rome in our complete guide to Rome.

Is there one app for public transport across the whole of Italy?

Short answer: no. There’s no official national public transport app for the whole of Italy – every city has its own operator and often its own app too (ATAC Roma in Rome, AVM Venezia in Venice, ANM Go in Naples).

The closest thing to it is the commercial app MooneyGo (formerly myCicero). It handles public transport tickets for more than 140 operators, Trenitalia and Italo train tickets, paying for blue parking zones, and motorway tolls. You can download it for iOS and Android. If you’re visiting several cities, MooneyGo saves you from downloading five different apps.

Driving around Italy: car hire, tolls and ZTL zones

A car makes the most sense in Italy where the train doesn’t go: around the lakes, through Tuscany (say to San Gimignano), or in the south. We’d avoid driving into big cities – the centres are closed off by ZTL zones (more on that below).

We hire cars through Discover Cars. It’s a rental comparison site: you see offers from different companies in one place and pick based on price and terms. We chose a small Fiat and picked it up near Sirmione. Three days cost us 1,500 CZK (about €62).

What to watch out for: we got a manual, and back home we’re used to a hybrid. If you’re in the same boat, expect the first few kilometres to need some concentration. If you want an automatic, filter for it right at the start when booking. When choosing, we mainly check the size of the excess and make sure the car goes back with the same amount of fuel it had when you picked it up.

Tip: if you’re driving, bring plenty of patience. As foreign drivers, we were struck by how often Italians drive across two lanes, leave their indicator on the whole time, and will even overtake on a roundabout if the road is wide enough. It takes real tolerance and a knack for anticipating what happens next.

We’ve written about where to stay in Italy if you’re driving, and what to watch out for on the way, in our article Italy by car: accommodation and tips.

A motorway vignette in Italy? There isn’t one – you pay tolls instead

You don’t buy a vignette for Italian motorways. On most of them you take a ticket when you enter and pay according to the distance driven when you exit.

• How to pay: a lane marked in blue takes cards only (contactless, no PIN needed), a lane marked in white takes cash. Don’t drive into the yellow lane marked with a T – that’s only for electronic Telepass units.
• How much it costs: in 2026 a car pays roughly 8 cents per kilometre, and over 9 cents on mountain sections. To give you an idea: Brenner – Verona Nord €16.80, Verona – Milan around €12, Florence – Rome €20. The calculator on autostrade.it or autobrennero.it will work out the exact price.
• Lost your ticket? You’ll pay for the journey from the furthest gate. You can then prove your actual entry point online and ask for a recalculation.
• Couldn’t pay? The machine issues a notice of unpaid toll, and you settle the amount online within 15 days. After that, fees get added.
• Sections with no toll gates: the Pedemontana motorway near Milan (A36, A59, A60) has no toll gates at all. The toll is paid online within 15 days, even with a foreign number plate.

ZTL: where not to drive

ZTL (Zona a Traffico Limitato) is a limited-traffic zone, typically the historic centre. Entry is watched by cameras that read number plates, and anyone without a permit gets fined. The times and rules are set by each city individually. And watch out: if you’re driving a rental car, the rental company can re-bill you for the fine plus their own handling fee, so read the terms when you book. Before driving to accommodation in the centre, ask the hotel whether it’s inside the ZTL and whether they’ll register your number plate for you.

Parking in Italy: line colours and apps

What the parking line colours mean

Colour	Meaning
White	Free, sometimes with a time limit (a parking clock, disco orario)
Blue	Paid parking (strisce blu) – meter or app
Yellow	Reserved – disabled permit holders, residents, deliveries, official vehicles. Never park here.

Spaces for pregnant women and parents with a child under 2 (with a permesso rosa permit from the local council) have a yellow border and a pink symbol. Spaces at charging stations are marked with a sign, and the line colour varies by city.

Parking apps

There’s no single app that shows free spaces on the street across the whole of Italy and lets you book them too. Paying for street parking and booking car parks are handled by different apps:

Paying for blue zones from your phone:

• EasyPark – covers more than 650 Italian towns and cities, including Rome, Milan, Naples, Bari and Verona. You can extend your parking time from your phone, and the app warns you when your time is running out. We paid for parking in Italy through EasyPark. iOS / Android
• MooneyGo – blue zones in more than 500 municipalities, plus bookable spaces in car parks at airports, railway stations and ports. iOS / Android

Finding and booking a car park in advance:

• Parclick – book spaces in garages and car parks, in Italy including Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples and Bari. Booking online is usually cheaper than paying on the spot. iOS / Android
• ParkinGO – car parks at airports, railway stations and ports with a shuttle to the terminal, at 19 airports in Italy. iOS / Android

Boats on Lake Garda: our top tip

This is where my eyes light up. We really recommend boats, and we used them the most on Lake Garda. In next to no time, and at a reasonable price, you get to another little town, with no stress and no traffic jams.

Stress and traffic jams? Not a thing on a boat.

What it cost us: from Sirmione to Desenzano, a return ticket was €7 per person. We also went by boat between Lazise and Sirmione. A return on that route costs €23 per person, the same as from Sirmione to Bardolino (Navigazione Laghi 2026 price list). Prices vary by distance and type of boat, and faster services carry a surcharge. You’ll find the current price list and timetables on the operator’s website, Navigazione Laghi.

The lake is served by regular passenger boats, fast catamarans, and one car ferry between Toscolano-Maderno and Torri del Benaco. If you want to cross to the other shore with your car, this is the route to take.

We’ve written about what to look forward to in Desenzano once you’re off the boat, in our article Desenzano del Garda: market, harbour and ferry. We’ve described how to get from Limone across to Malcesine by boat in our guide Limone sul Garda.

Cruise from Desenzano to Sirmione – 3-hour scenic cruise with free time in Sirmione – from €35, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Malcesine from a sailing boat – 2-hour cruise on a historic sailing boat – from €40, the northern part of the lake seen from the water.

Bikes and scooters around Garda

Between Peschiera, Sirmione and Bardolino you can cycle along the lake, with none of the parking worries.

Peschiera-Sirmione-Bardolino-Borghetto e-bike rental – Peschiera-Sirmione-Bardolino-Borghetto e-bike rental – e-bike for a full day – from €35, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Vespa around Garda from Riva – scooter for 8 hours with a route in the app – from €130 for 2 people, helmet and gloves included.

In Riva del Garda, instead of a classic rental, GetYourGuide only offers guided e-bike tours, from €78.

Cable cars, vaporettos and little local buses: fun for a few euros

I’ll keep saying this over and over: if you can, take the cable cars, boats, vaporettos and small local buses. It’s fun for a few euros!

Malcesine – Monte Baldo cable car

From Malcesine, the cable car takes you up to Monte Baldo, to a height of 1,760 m. On the upper section from San Michele, you ride in a cabin that, during the ride, rotates on its own axis, so you get a view in every direction. We’ve written about how the ride works and what to do at the top in a separate article, Monte Baldo: the cable car from Malcesine.

• Price: return for an adult €30 at the ticket office, €28 online; juniors (born 2012 or later) €18, €16 online.
• 2026 season: 4 April – 1 November, first ride 8:15, last ride 18:00 (from 5 October only until 16:00).

Buy your ticket online on the official website – it’s €2 cheaper.

Riva del Garda: the panoramic lift to Bastione

In Riva del Garda it’s not a classic cable car that takes you up to Bastione, the Venetian fortress above the town, but a glass-walled panoramic lift, which climbs 130 vertical metres in about 3 minutes. A one-way ticket costs €6, a return €10 in the main season (1 June – 30 September), and €9 outside it. Children under 120 cm travel free.

Vaporetto in Venice: tickets and prices

In Venice, the vaporetto (water bus) is ordinary public transport. For us, though, it was a scenic cruise at the price of a bus ticket.

ACTV ticket	Price
75 minutes	€9.50
1 day (Venezia Daily Pass)	€25
2 days	€35
3 days	€45
7 days	€65
72 h for young people aged 6-29 (with a Rolling Venice card for €6)	€27

NOTE: since July 2024, you can only pay on board by card or phone, not cash. Just tap a contactless card on the validator, or buy your ticket in the official app, AVM Venezia Official App (iOS / Android), where you can also pay for parking in blue zones.

ACTV vaporetto pass – official ticket for 75 minutes to 7 days – from €10, also valid for Lido, Murano and Burano, no queuing at the ticket office – we recommend it!

We’ve written about where to head by vaporetto in Venice in our article What to see in Venice. If you’re driving to Venice, you’ll find where to leave the car in our article Venice by car.

The biggest mistakes, and who a car isn’t for

• An unvalidated regional train ticket. A paper ticket without a stamp from the validator counts as no ticket at all.
• Driving into the centre. The ZTL cameras don’t wait for you to read the sign. Park on the outskirts and walk into the centre or take public transport.
• Parking on yellow lines. Reserved spaces aren’t ‘just for a minute’.
• Cash on the vaporetto. They won’t take it on board any more – bring a card.
• Relying on the car alone around Garda. A car is useful, but between the little towns on the shore a boat is more comfortable: no traffic jams and no parking to deal with in the next town.

Who a car in Italy isn’t for: if you’re only going to Rome, Venice or Florence, a car will mostly get in your way. The train, public transport and the vaporetto handle it better. A car is worth it for the lakes, the countryside and the south, where trains run infrequently.

Conclusion

Our take: fly to Italy, take the Leonardo Express from Fiumicino, use public transport with a card around Rome, and travel by boat around Garda. Hire a car through Discover Cars, but only where you genuinely can’t manage without one. Have a tall partner? Consider a car one size bigger than the one we had. And whenever you see a cable car, a vaporetto or a small local bus, get on it. For €9.50 on a vaporetto around Venice or €7 on a boat to Desenzano, you get an outing, not just a way to get somewhere.

You’ll find where to go in Italy and what to see there in our guide to Italy.

FAQ

How do I get from Fiumicino Airport to the centre of Rome? The fastest way is the Leonardo Express train for €14 to Termini (32 minutes); the cheapest is the FL1 regional train for €8 to Trastevere, Ostiense or Tiburtina.

How much does public transport cost in Rome? A BIT ticket for 100 minutes costs €1.50, a 24-hour one €8.50, and a 72-hour one €22. You can also pay with a contactless card directly at the validator.

Is there one app for public transport across the whole of Italy? Not an official one. The commercial app MooneyGo (formerly myCicero) covers the most cities and operators.

What do blue lines mean in an Italian car park? Paid parking. White lines are free (sometimes with a time limit), yellow ones are reserved.