Kansas State University

IMPORTANT: You are requested to let us know your travel itinerary before you leave the United States (when you plan to arrive & leave in Italy). Please indicate your air flight number, time of arrival in Rome and planned day/time you’re getting to Orvieto.  It might be good, when you get to Rome (or to Milan), to call Serena (+39 349 4495150) so that she can make an appointment in Orvieto.

Flights to Italy  

• You are responsible for arranging your flights to/from Italy.  
• The nearest airport to fly into is Rome Fiumicino (aka Leonardo Da Vinci).
• STRONGLY ADVISE you to take a flight that lands early in the morning to take the SHUTTLE SERVICE (arranged by the program) LEAVING AT approximately 11:00 am from Fiumicino to Orvieto.  
• If you are arriving in Rome in the afternoon/late afternoon, you will need to arrange travel to Orvieto on your own; see below.
  

Trains to Orvieto

Please read carefully the following instructions (print the instructions and bring them with you when you travel to Italy).

• As soon as you exit customs with your luggage, follow the signs for RAILWAY STATION. If you have a luggage cart, you will have to take the elevator to the second floor of the airport, and follow the signs for the railway station from there.

• Trains to the ROMA TERMINI Station:
  • The train, called the “Leonardo Express,” leaves every 30 minutes, at :08 and :38, starting at 6:38 am, and until 11:38pm.
  • Tickets cost 14 € and can be purchased at the vending machines or at the ticket window.
  • It takes about 40 minutes to get from the Fiumicino airport to the Termini train station in Rome.  
  • Termini can be quite chaotic sometimes. Instead, you may want to take a train from the airport to ROMA TIBURTINA station, which is a much calmer station.
    
    
• Trains to the ROMA TIBURTINA Station:
  • The trains to Tiburtina leave every 15 minutes, at : 12, :27, :42 and :57 of each hour, starting at 5:57am and until 10:42 pm.
  • Tickets cost 8€ and can also be purchased at the vending machines or the ticket window.
  • The trip takes about 45 minutes.  

Whether you get to Termini or Tiburtina station, you will need to take another train from there to Orvieto.

• TRAVEL TIP:  Although you will be taking 2 trains, it might be easiest to purchase both tickets at the airport train station. When you go to the ticket counter, say "Orvieto", and the ticket employee will look up the most logical train for you to take from Roma Termini/Roma Tiburtina. You can even ask what time your train will be leaving from Roma Termini/Roma Tiburtina to Orvieto (the employee can show that information to you on their computer screen). You may be issued one single ticket which would be valid for both your train rides; or you may be issued tow (2) separate tickets.

Updated schedules for the trains from Rome to Orvieto will be sent by email a couple of weeks prior to your arrival.  

Useful Train Information

• Intercity or Eurostar trains are faster trains—it will take about one hour to get to Orvieto—but the ticket is more expensive. A one-way trip to Orvieto, in “seconda classe” (second-class) costs about 15 €. The other trains (REGIONALE) cost around 8 € and take about 1 hour and 20 minutes. 
  
  
• There is the possibility that the train you take from Rome to Orvieto requires a reservation. If this is the case, the ticket employee or the vending machine will simply assign you a seat reservation.  

• Train Platforms
  • When you have your ticket, look for the Departure (“Partenze”) schedule, located at the head or at the side of each platform to find out which track your train is leaving from.
  • Look for a train leaving at one of the times mentioned above. It will have as its final destination FIRENZE or MILANO, or another big city north of Rome (e.g. UDINE, VENEZIA or even a city outside Italy).
  • Always be sure to double-check from what platform your train is leaving. There are young people around the train station, in green uniforms, with a Trenitalia ID, who are there to help you.  

• If you take a “Regionale” it will leave from “binario est”, marked as “PE” on the electronic display. To reach this track you will need to go to track 1 and walk ca. 500 meters to reach the train. If you have purchased a ticket for a “Regionale”, it won’t be valid for a fast train (intercity or Eurostar trains), and you will have to ask for a “Supplemento”.  

• You will arrive in Orvieto after one hour/one hour and 20 minutes after your departure from Rome.
  

• TRAVEL TIP: Before you get on the train, DON'T FORGET to stamp your ticket in a yellow or green validation box (located at the beginning or to the sides of each train track). Also, try and be ready at the door with your luggage, since the train won’t stop long in the Orvieto station. In most trains, you’ll have to push a green button to open the door (it won’t open automatically).  

Arriving In Orvieto

• Once you get off the train at Orvieto, go through the station, out the front door and across the square with the fountain and go to the funicular (“funicolare,” rail cable car)
• Buy a combined ticket (“biglietto completo,” funicular + bus) to Piazza Duomo. Cost is about 1.30 €.
• The funicular will bring you up the hill to Piazza Cahen.
• From there you should take a small yellow or orange bus to Piazza Duomo.

IMPORTANT: Our meeting point will be exactly where you get off the bus, in front of the tourist office in the Piazza Duomo.  

Traveling from Milan to Orvieto

• If you arrive in Milan, from Malpensa International Airport take a bus to the Milano Centrale train station.
• DO NOT take the Nuova Malpensa Treno Express, that goes downtown, but does not stop at the train station. Check out the Malpensa Airport website.
• It will take about an hour (day service only); tickets cost about 8 €. 
• It takes about 5 hours by train to get from Milan to Orvieto; you’ll have to get off the train in Florence or in Bologna and take a second train to Orvieto. Check schedules and timetables at the Trenitalia website. A one-way trip, in “2° classe”, costs about 39 €.  

More Travel Tips

• Note that the schedules in Italy (as you will see in the train station) are on the 24-hour clock (what Americans usually call “military time”). Be sure to acquaint yourself with this system if you are not already familiar with it.  
•  If you need to buy a calling card to use the pay phones in Roma Termini or Tiburtina, you can go to any TABACCHI shop (place where they sell cigarettes, newspapers, magazines, etc.) Ask for a "UNA CARTA TELEFONICA" (just buy one for 5 €). There are silver and orange public phones all around the stations. Just break off the corner of the CARTA TELEFONICA before you insert it into the pay phone (it's very clear on the card which corner to break off). 
• Ask for help, if needed - most people will be nice to you.