10 Days in Italy, with train tickets purchased day of travel.

Rome2Rio.com is a great resource for different types of travel questions -- find their cost & time estimates to be pretty close. Did a similar trip to yours in 2011 & you've picked a good timetable for each city. Purchased tickets right at the station without a problem. *Remember 2nd class is all you need & be clear about whether the ticket needs to be punched before you get on the train

You can look up all your train times and prices on: http://www.trenitalia.com/

For example "Venezia S. Lucia" to "Firenze S. M. Novella", one train every hour, journey takes 2h05 and if you book today for Monday 10th November it will cost €29 per person second class. First class is €39.
Prices go up nearer the departure date. Full price (ticket purchased on same day) is €45 second class. At that price I wouldn't bother trying to save money by using slower regional trains.

There really is not much in the way of regional trains between Bologna and Florence. It's a narrow valley and the main train route between northern and central Italy, thus pretty much reserved for high speed trains.
No pokey regional trains to slow down the action.

I don't understand why you would want to take a regional train? Just take the normal train.

I would just want to keep the costs down and still have it open in case we want to leave somewhere a day earlier or later. Im not too concerned about how long it might take.

A number of reasons to take Regionale trains. Slower, yes but very cheap. Also provides an opportunity to hop on and off within a five hour window. I think your original plan works. I would save Naples for another visit. As previous suggested, you can schedules at either bahn.de (easier to use but no fare information) or trenitalia.com which will give fare information. There are three levels of tickets in Italy - Super Economy, Economy, and Base. Both economy tickets, especially super, are limited in numbers and trains and come with restrictions. But the discounts can be significant if available and purchased well in advance. There is NO point in purchasing Regionale on line or in advance. Regionale are no never discounted and never sell out because there are no reservations. All seats taken?, you stand till someone gets off.

that sounds like a good idea. Ive been to other parts of europe before and after each trip i lean more and more to no pre paid tickets and keep things a little more open. (plus i pack lighter, im now down to a gym bag!).

Do you know what the costs for the low priced regional trains from venice to florence and then florence to rome might be?

Bryan, the costs are on the trenitalia.com website. For regional trains you need to search under the tutti i treni tab and you can only search for regional trains up to 7 days from the date you are doing the search. However, this will give you an idea of the regional train fares.

For the Trenitalia site, there's a little British flag in the upper right hand corner. Hit it and surprise...
English

thanks for all your help. Now that im looking at these specials they do look tempting. like 19 euro for venice to florence for example even some 9 euro. Maybe its better to not be as spontanious when the whold trip is only 10 days. If im going in May would you want to buy 2 months in advance to catch some of these prices?

But when you hit the "Union Jack", "Tutti I Treni" becomes "Passes". Stick to the Italian, its easy. I see Florence to Rome is 20 euro and change on a Regionale Veloce and takes 3 1/2 hours vs 1 1/2 hours on a Freccia high speed train. Walkup fare is 43 euro.
Edit. Those super cheap prices go on sale 120 days out. When they sell out their limited number, they're gone, so the earlier you buy, the better your chance of grabbing one.

A gym bag? You are my hero.

Regionale tickets can only be purchased up to a week in advance anyway, so you may as well buy them when you are sure you want to travel. Ticket machines with a picture of euro coins and notes on it will take euro and make change; other machines require a chip and pin card. Be sure to validate your regionale ticket before you board the train. To get from Venice to Rome on regionale trains may involve transfers that you can avoid by taking the faster, direct trains. You only have ten days - do you want to spend the better part of a day getting from one city to another? Fast train from Venice to Rome is only 4 hours.

Even if you wait until you travel to buy the freccia (fast train) or intercity train tickets, rail travel in Italy is cheaper than most European countries.

The British flag icon loads all trains run by trenitalia, does not bring up tickets for passes only. You still need to use Italian for station names.

thanks for all your help so far. I guess i'm also trying to get a ballpark figure of a regional train cost from someones personal experience. for example, is it 20 euro from venice to florence and then 20 euro from florence to rome? If i dont buy ahead, i want to be able to buy from a machine a few hours before leaving the station at the machine. LIke i said im okay if its a few hours longer and more stops. I couldnt see anything lower than 40 euros online.

As I said before, there are virtually no regional trains between Venice and Florence unless you go a very long way around. Cheapest would be a regional train to Bologna, then a high speed train to Florence.
That would run about 36 euro and take 3 hours. The direct high speed train from Venice to Florence would cost 45 euro full fare and take 2 hours.

okay i get it, i think im leaning toward the pre booked this trip. thanks alot!

Well Bryan. You have figured out that the advent of High Speed had the effect of Trenitalia figuring out that they can really dive into people's wallet.

When I was growing up in Florence (even working inside the SMN station), when the Freccia Rossa (Red Arrow) to most people would have probably meant the title of a movie with John Wayne, there were plenty of options with only slightly slower trains, but much cheaper. At the time they were called "Locale", "Espresso", "Intercity", "Eurocity", "Rapido", etc. You could go from Florence to Venice for a pittance and be there in 2 hours and 40 min., so just 35 min longer than now.

Now Trenitalia on that segment has eliminated practically all options, bar the Frecce.

There is a way to go around that however.

There are several Regionali (even Veloci, or speedy) from Venice to Bologna.
At Bologna you would need to change and take a Regionale to PRATO CENTRALE. The Regionali across the Apennines still go through the old "direttissima" (super-direct) rail line (built by Mussolini) though Prato. That direttissima line was superseded in 2009 when they opened the high speed line tunneling through the entire mountain range, but it is still used by the freight trains, the regionali and the Intercity trains. Unfortunately Trenitalia has figured out another way to dissuade people from taking it. Basically, except for some rare cases, you will be required to change trains again in Prato, and take another Regionale from Prato to Florence (another 20-30 min, depending on train, on top of the 1hr from Bologna to Prato).

If you are willing to endure a 4hr trip, you can travel all on regionali all the way to Florence for about 20 euro (and no restrictions).
For example you could leave at 7:42 from Venice and reach Bologna at 9:40 (Regionale 2227)
Then you could take the regionale 6549 from Bologna (dep at 10:10) and arrive at Prato at 11:21.
Finally at Prato Centrale to change to regionale 3053 leaving at 11:28 and arriving at FI SMN at 11:50. If you miss that one, don't worry, there are 3 trains every hour between Prato and FI SMN.

There might be some quicker options, but all through Prato (some without having to change in Prato, only in Bologna).

As you can see Trenitalia REALLY wants you to take the Freccia (for pecuniary reasons) and if you don't, they really make you waste a lot of time.

Thanks alot Roberto. I think i have decided to do that route. Me and my friend have both agreed it would be fun to be able to stop off in Bologne for lunch etc. and not be on a pre booked schedule.

We advance purchased Frecciarossa tickets between Rome Tremini and Florence SMN first class for 29 euros each way on the Trenitalia site. Much higher to buy day of travel if the seats are even available. It is nice that he trip is only an hour and 30 minutes.
You might want to skew your days a bit more toward Rome, there is so much more to see there than in Florence and Venice.

I disagree that Rome necessarily deserves more days than Florence. Rome is bigger, but Florence is a concentrate of art and history of the Renaissance and also medieval period.. If your interest is that period Florence has more to offer. Rome has more to offer for the ancient Roman period (obviously) and the Baroque era. So it really depends on your personal interests.
Secondly, Florence is in the middle of Tuscany, and Tuscany is one of the regions that has more to offer in the world. Staying longer in Florence allows you to visit many of Tuscany's world famous sights on day trips from Florence.

Bryan, think about how long each journey is going to take and how much that will eat into your sightseeing time. It's probably going to take you 1/2 hour to get to the Venice train station, and you need to be there a few minutes before the train leaves, or it might just leave without you while you're still looking for the platform. Florence is easy, the train station is in the historic center. Rome is a big city, buses can be slow (lots of traffic) and the metro doesn't always go where you want to go. So a 4-hour train ride from Venice to Florence with a stop in Bologna for lunch (walk from station to center, find restaurant, etc. etc.) will use up most of a day. On the other hand, Bologna can be a very nice day trip if you leave Venice early in the morning and arrive in Florence rather late in the evening.

Yes, i think im leaning towards the venice - bologna - florence route.. yes im treating it like a bologna day trip in a way, just not backtracking!

Just agreeing with Roberto here that Rome doesn't necessarily deserve more time because of its size. Rome, Florence and Venice are very different cities, and Florence is a virtual goldmine of Renaissance art. I love both Florence and Rome for their individual assets, and one could easily spend weeks in either one depending on what interests them.