We will be traveling by train from Venice to Florence in mid-July and are looking into making reservations before we leave using the Trenitalia website. After choosing the class of ticket we want, we're asked to indicate which coach and which seats we want. We have no idea what to put in here. Can anyone help? Have you had good/bad experiences using the web site to reserve in advance?
Thanks!
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
the coach doesn't matter; it's which car in the class you chose you want to ride in. As for seats, you can choose aisle or window. Some trains have mini compartments inside, 2 benches facing each other inside an enclosure. You can decide to ride facing each other, or side to side. Is there a popup that shows you the configuration you are choosing from? Doing it at the automated kiosks in the train station you click on the seats you want (but it picked the car).
Posted by
Scottsdale, AZ, USA
1127 posts
The Trenitalia website is not very user friendly! As stated above you don't need to enter anything for the coach and seat number, let it automatically generate that for you. I was told this option is for travelers wanting to book a ticket near people that have already reserved seats.
Posted by
OP
Whitefish Bay, WI
2 posts
Thanks very much!
Posted by
Wilmington, DE, USA
712 posts
Found this very user friendly site by reading old post...
I have been look at it to plan our trip in Sept.
Have't booked anything yet because you can only purchase 60 days or sooner. I plugged in an earlier date just to see what was available. Haven't bought anything from them yet. Wonder if anyone else has used this site to purchase train tickets.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
For selectitaly.com, you pay for the convenience, just like using RailEurope. A Rome-Venice ticket on 7 August shows there for $72 (plus their shipping charge). Trenitalia offers tickets from between 41 and 61 Euro...$55-82. selectitaly uses a third-party firm for travel agents, railagent.com
Posted by
El Paso, TX
35 posts
I just returned from Italy and it was very crowded; however, three of us had no trouble whatsoever booking train tickets together as we went. We usually made them the day before travel. Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, etc. There were always seats on any trains we wanted. We usually booked Eurostar second class and together.
Even when we landed in Rome, at the airport train counter we booked a Rome to Florence that would depart in two hours.
If we had made reservations in the US, we would have lost them. Our plane arrived late and the Eurostar I was planning on had left. Thus, if we had reservations, that money would be lost!! Make your reservations in Italy as you go...at travel agencies.