The main train station in Rome, Italy is Termini (Stazione Termini). Located in the heart of Rome it is very convenient to the entire city. There is a taxi line outside the station with cars ready to take you to hotels and tourist sites. Bus service is available to all parts of Rome from Termini.

Termini was renovated in 2000 and is now a city within a city. The station is huge, with 225 square miles of shopping, restaurants, bars and services. There is a little bit of everything in Termini - an information center, banks, travel agencies, a pharmacy, and a health club. There is even a chapel for those who get so lost that there is little to do but pray.

About 800 trains arrive and depart from Rome, Italy's main train station each day. Trains from all over Italy and the rest of Europe come and go from Termini. You can purchase tickets from Trenitalia.

You know where you want to go; now how do you get there? Walking into a train station in Italy, especially in large cities such as Milan, Rome, Florence, and Venice, is like walking into an airport in the United States.

There is a lot of hustle and bustle. People are in a hurry (yes, even in Italy people rush around train stations), there are many different languages being spoken – it can feel like you have been thrown into a boiling pot of confusion.

So……when you walk through the doors of a train station in Italy take a deep breath and look around to get your bearings. Look for the train schedules which are posted in large glass enclosed boxes. These train schedules will tell you everything you need to know.

There are many different types of trains in the Italian train system. Don’t let this intimidate you! The following is an easy guide to the types of trains you may encounter in the Italian train system.

A train ticket in Italy can be confusing to read. So take a minute and look at the ticket. All the information you need will be there – your seat number, which class you purchased, where you are going and the scheduled departure time.

Once you figure out the system; travel by train in Italy is a breeze. It is far easier to travel by train than to drive. Since the trains go to most places it is possible to rely on them as your main form of transportation. A few tips to get you started:

Train travel in Italy is very entertaining. You could spend your whole time reading your book with you MP3 player plugged into your ears. If you do this every trip you will be missing one of your best travel experiences.

Don’t Board the Train Yet!! You have your ticket in hand, now you need to make sure you get on the right train when you are at a train station in Italy. They told you at the biglietteria which track your train would be leaving from, but it is not unusual for the track to change at the last minute much like airports change gates.

A question we all have when we travel by train in Italy is; will there be bathrooms on the train? All trains have bathrooms; the question is are they working and are they clean. The larger faster trains generally have a lot of bathrooms and they are usually clean.