Advice on buying train tickets

Just wait until you get to Italy to purchase the tickets. Unless it's during holidays, seldom are any Italian trains full. And there are many trains going to popular destinations. I would purchase the tickets the night before leaving from an automatic kiosk--when the station was quiet and uncrowded. I use the internet websites just to get the train schedules.

If you want the great discounts then you do need to buy in advance on the web. Haven't done it myself yet, but I believe you get a code and pick them up at the station in Italy. Or maybe you get to print something the conductor can scan. I hope someone can answer that question for you.

I just did this last night. The first thing you should do on the TrenItalia web site is set up an account. Because you will need your login near the end of the ticketing process. So click on "Customers Area" towards the upper-right; then on the right side of the screen on the page that loads there will be a link for login, and below that a link for "Do you want to register?". Go through the registration process, make a note of your userid and password (I think they email you a temporary password, then you change it -- I THINK, I can't remember because I did it a while back), then go back to the main page and search for the train itinerary you want. So go through the purchase process. I had zero problems with it, but lots of people report difficulty, especially when they try to choose the seats the want instead of just accepting the system-assigned ones. At the end you can pay with Visa, Mastercard, or Amex. I used Amex with no problems whatsoever. Once you have paid, they will send you an email with your tickets as PDF attachments. Print all the PDFs and bring them to the train station with you. These are your tickets, and there is no need to validate them in the validator machines before boarding the train. continued...

...continued If you have a group and you are on a high speed train, all of you will be on the same ticket. So when the ticket-taker comes around you just tell him that you're in a group and point to all the people, so that he doesn't hassle them for their tickets as well. Incidentally, the new Italo train service has a much better web site and often better prices, so you might check them out also and see if they go where you want to go -- could be a smoother booking process. http://www.italotreno.it However, as one commenter said, if you book early on TrenItalia you can often get very good prices. They have started to compete with Italo now and I have seen some very good deals. Good luck. With a little patience you should be able to book your tickets!

Barb, It is possible to save money by pre-purchasing tickets on the Trenitalia website. However, that are a few points to keep in mind.... (1) No savings are possible with tickets on Regionale trains. It's just as easy to buy those in Italy using the automated Kiosks. Check the Trenitalia website to determine which of your travels will be via Regionale trains. BE SURE to validate! (2) Savings are possible on the premium trains such as the Freccia fast trains, IF you can get the Super Economy fares. They typically sell out quickly on many routes, so you may have difficulty getting them. (3) If you are able to get Super Economy tickets, you'll be "locked into" using the train and departure time specified. If you miss that train, you'll have to buy another ticket at full price. The Italo trains mentioned in another reply are certainly one option. However, in many cases those use different stations so some extra transport may be needed to get to your desired destination. For example, if travelling to Rome, Italo stops at Tiburtina rather than Termini. There's an excellent tutorial on purchasing Italian train tickets on the Ron In Rome website. Do a "search" on the site to find the appropriate section. I normally just buy tickets after arrival in Italy, a day or two before I'll be travelling. I use the Kiosks when possible, as the staffed ticket windows usually have a long queue. Happy travels!

Definitely look at the Ron in Rome site. If you buy reserved-seat tickets in advance, and you have faith in technology, you can just show the email confirmation with the ticket code to the conductor (I've seen people do this a lot). For Regionale trains, you may not be able to see their schedules online for the dates you want but you can put in a date within a week of the day you are looking for tickets to get an idea of schedules and prices (schedules change twice a year). Regionale tickets should be bought in Italy, there's no price advantage to buying them ahead of time, and you must validate these tickets at the train station (usually a yellow or gray/blue box near the track) or there's a big fine.

If you buy the tickets online all you need is a print out of your itinerary with the purchase code. You don't need an actual ticket. I had four different reservations over two weeks on one printout. It was no problem. Just make sure you keep track of the paper. I had a backup copy just in case.

Is there a particular way to see Regionale train schedules/fares? When I search on the Trentalia site, I only see the Freccia trains listed, all with the same duration of travel. If cost is less & length of journey is not much more, I'll probably wait till I get to Italy & buy tickets, but I don't know how to find this information.

Kim, The Trenitalia site only shows timetables and fares for Regionale trains up to one week in advance. Enter a date within the next seven days and you'll get complete timetables.

Thanks!

I have purchased several tickets on Trenitalia over the years. I always receive an email just after the purchase and I print my tickets out at home. All you need is the paper with the 6-digit PNR number (for high-speeds). On some runs where you have both a high-speed and a connecting Regionale train, the numbers on the Regionale ticket may be slightly different. Both tickets will be pre-validated. The process has actually improved over the past 12-18 months. First, you register. Please don't buy a ticket without registering. We see too many problems with this choice. Trenitalia will send you a temporary password. Go on immediately and change the password. If you don't do it right away, the temporary PW disappears. The big advantage of buying online is to take advantage of the nice special fare discounts. For the high-speeds, you can book up to 120 days out. Sometimes, the crazy Italian schedule refreshes in mid-June and mid-December make it look like the trains aren't there. But, they are. You just have to play with the system. You can only take advantage of the special fares if you are willing to lock yourself into a specific date and time of travel. If you don't want to lock in future tickets, you don't need to do any of the above. Just buy your tickets a day or two in advance in Italy at the train station. As mentioned above, the trains are rarely full. A day or two in advance will do it. For this level of flexibility, you will most likely pay full fare for everything. The better and best of the limited online discounts will be long gone.

Help! Trying to check out purchasing tickets - I got on Trenitalia website and registered. It was in English. However when I got a response e-mai it is in Italian!! Can't read that. Send another request for confirmation but it came again in Italian. Tried to respond but came back as failure??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Barb

Also, because of the problem above, I wasn't able to change the password. How do you do that?? Probably the instructions are in Italian. Barb

Barb, I use translator google if there is not a lot you can just type in the phrases and wala' you get it in English. It's free and no downloads to use it.

Thanks Valerie. That should help a lot. Barb