How to buy train and bus tickets in Italian

If you're travelling around Italy, you’ll probably need to buy train and bus tickets, whether it’s to get from the airport to your accommodation, go around the town, or head off and explore the surrounding areas. Find out how in episode 30 of 5 minute Italian.

To help you remember what you learnt in today's lesson, below you'll find bonus materials like word lists, quizzes and flashcards. But first...

Become a 5-minute Italian member (it's free!)

Learn to speak and understand Italian faster by joining the 5 minute Italian club! When you sign up, you'll get:

Mini Italian lessons + bonus materials delivered to your inbox.
Access to the private Facebook group where you can practice chatting in Italian.
Invites to free speaking workshops.

If you'd like to join us, click here to become a member of 5 Minute Italian.

Bonus Materials

Remember and practice using what you learnt with the bonus materials for today's episode.

Today's Italian words

Scusi = excuse me (formal, with people you don’t know)
Si può = is it possible (literally: can one?)
Si può comprare un biglietto = is it possible to buy a ticket? (literally: can one buy a ticket?)
Per = for
Il tram = the tram
Qui = here
Allora = so/in that case
Prendo = I’ll have (literally: I take)
Un biglietto giornaliero = a day travel pass
Mi dispiace = sorry
Bisogna = it’s necessary
Andare = go
A = to
La stazione = the station
A + la = alla (to the)
Alla stazione = to the station
Di = of
La = the
Di + la = della (of the)
La stazione della metro = the metro station (literally = the station of the metro)
Aeroporto di Londra = London Airport
Biglietti = tickets (change o to i for the plural).
Allora, prendo quattro biglietti singoli = In that case, I’ll have 4 single tickets
Sono sei euro = that’s 6 euros (literally: they are 6 euros)

Take the Quiz!

How much did you learn? Find out in the 5-minute Italian quiz!

Click here to take the quiz for this episode: How to buy train and bus tickets in Italian

Italian flashcards

Remember the vocabulary from your 5 Minute Italian lessons by downloading the digital flashcard pack.

Download the flashcards: How to buy train and bus tickets in Italian
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial.

Transcript

Please note, this is not a word for word transcript.

Katie: If you come to Italy on holiday, you’ll probably need to buy travel tickets, whether it’s to get from the airport to your accommodation, go around the town, or head off and explore the surrounding areas. Find out how in episode 30 of 5 minute Italian.

K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 minute Italian. Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 minute Italian, hi everyone and welcome to 5 minute Italian. I’m Katie…

Matteo: And I’m Matteo. Ciao.

K: And this week, you’ll learn how to buy travel tickets for buses and trams. Listen to the conversation:

K: Scusi, si può comprare un biglietto per il tram qui?
M: Si
K: Allora, prendo un biglietto giornaliero.
M: Mi dispiace, per il giornaliero bisogna andare alla stazione della metro.
K: Allora, prendo quattro biglietti singoli.
M: Sono 6 euro.

K: So I’m in Milan, and I’m trying to buy a ticket for the tram. I start with the question:

M: Scusi, si può comprare un biglietto per il tram qui?

K: Literally: “Excuse me, can one buy a ticket for the tram here?” The literal translation sounds quite funny, because we rarely use “one” in this way unless you’re doing an impression of the queen, but in Italian, it’s used all the time.

M: And it’s useful because you can use it to talk about people in general, rather than specifying “me” or “you”.

K: Italians often use si può, “can one” in questions when we’d say something like “is it possible?” Si può comprare un biglietto per il tram qui? “Is it possible to buy a ticket for the tram here?

M: Comprare means “buy”, un biglietto means “a ticket”,

K: Biglietto can be tricky to pronounce because there’s the “gli” sound, which we don’t have in English. For tips on how to make it, check out episode 5: How to pronounce "gli" in Italian.

M: Next, you heard per, which means “for”, followed by il tram, which of course means “the tram”.

K: Finally you heard qui which means “here”.

M: Si può comprare un biglietto per il tram qui?

K: In Italy, you can’t normally buy tickets on the bus or tram.

M: You have to buy them from the tabaccaio

K: Which means “newsagents”.

M: You can also buy tickets from the edicola.

K: Which means newsstand. You can buy them from newsstands and ticket machines in the tube or subway station too, as metro tickets are normally valid for buses and trams as well.

This system can be a bit annoying, especially on Sundays when most of the "tabaccaio(s)" and "edicola(s)" are closed. The best way is to stock up on a few tickets at the same time.

Then, Matteo said si, so we know that in this tabaccaio, they sell biglietti. Next, you heard:

M: Allora, prendo un biglietto giornaliero.

K: Allora, means “so”, or “in that case”. Prendo, which literally means “I take” but we know Italians use it to order things, a bit like saying "I’ll have". Then you heard: un biglietto giornaliero. The word giornaliero means daily, so un biglietto giornaliero is like a 24-hour travel pass.

M: Allora, prendo un biglietto giornaliero.

K: In Milan, un giornaliero costs 4.50 and you can use it on all the metros, trams and buses.

M: Which is good value. Especially compared to London!

K: Then you heard:

M: Mi dispiace, per il giornaliero, bisogna andare alla stazione della metro.

K: Which means sorry, for the day travel pass, you have to go to the metro station.

M: Mi dispiace means “sorry”. Per il giornaliero, for the day pass. Then bisogna, means “it’s necessary”.

K: Andare alla stazione means “go to the station”, della metro means of the metro. Metro, of course, means tube or subway. So he says: "sorry, but for the day pass, you have to go to the metro station".

M: Mi dispiace, per il giornaliero, bisogna andare alla stazione della metro.

Here we’ve got more examples of how those little words like a and la join together. A means “to” and la means "the", for feminine nouns like stazione. A and la combine and we get alla, spelt A, double L, A. You can look in the show notes to see this written down.

We see this again with, della metro, which means "of the metro". Di means of, and la means the, but they combine together to give us della, spelt D, E, DOUBLE L, A.

In Italian, you often express concepts backwards, so instead of saying metro station, you say “the station of the metro”. La stazione della metro.

M: Instead of saying “London Airport” you say: Aeroporto di Londra.

K: Next, you heard:

M: Allora, prendo 4 biglietti singoli.

K: Allora, which we know means “so” or “in that case”. Prendo, which we know means “I’ll have”, (literally I take) then quattro biglietti singoli which I’m sure you can guess means “four normal tickets”. Here, biglietti finishes with an "i" because it’s plural. Italians often put describing words like giornaliero and singlo at the end of the sentence. Next, you heard:

M: Sono 6 euro slow

K: Which literally means “they are 6 euros”. And here’s another example of how Italians use sono (literally "they are", to give a price). Let’s listen to the conversation again.

K: That’s all we have time for today, thanks for listening. And if you’d like to get more mini Italian lessons delivered to your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe by following the link below. Grazie, and ciao for now, see you next time, or as we say in Italian, alla prossima!

Get more 5-minute Italian

To get more 5 minute Italian, including lessons delivered to your inbox, access to the private Facebook group and invites to speaking workshops, click here to become a 5 Minute Italian member.