Booking Train Travel In Italy

See if you can book seats across from each other at a table. That's what I do as wifey hates riding "backwards". I just take the other seat. Remember, the train can change directions midway, such as from Rome to Venice where the train changes directions at Florence SMN, which is a terminal type station.

The other purchase option is www.trenitalia.com. I did not test their seat assignment function recently. Trains can and do change directions at dead-end stations in the major cities, but perhaps your trips are short enough that you won't be staying on the train past those points (or will be connecting trains at those points, such as Florence or Milan).

I booked probably six trips for two of us some months ago for Italian train travel earlier this summer. I had the same experience re. the RS site link: it does not give you the option of choosing your own seats. Therefore, I used trenitalia.com (as Laura mentioned) for booking our seats. However, on trenitalia.com, there is absolutely no way to know if the seats booked will face forward or backward, as the trains may change directions for the reasons earlier mentioned. Thus, for all of our bookings, I chose two seats across from each other (at the window, as we prefer), and that way one of us would be able to face forward. I found that website generally fairly easy to navigate. (I did in a few instances look at the italotreno website, but train times and fares were as good or better on trenitalia.) Good luck!

Inhad no trouble selecting the exact seats we wanted on the Italo train from Venice to Rome. If this company serves your destinations( mainly Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome and points in between) this is a good option.

http://www.italotreno.it/en

Their booking site is more user-friendly than Trenitalia.

Also Man in Seat 61 has great advice on choosing seats, including in most cases diagrams of the cars so you can tell the symbols for table,,windows, and which way the seats face.

Do heed the advice about trains changing direction at some stations. No seem to recall doing that at Bologna.

That is because Bologna is a "through" station. Milano Centrale, Florence SMN, and Rome Termini are "terminal" type stations, so trains passing through will reverse directions. So, for instance, the Frecciarosa 9528 leaving Napoli Centrale at 11:00 will have changed directions 3 times by the time it gets to Torino Porta Susa.

The Trenitalia-website offers the possibility of selecting your seats. On the page on which you choose the type of ticket (1st/2nd class, etc.) there is a small box »Choose the seat«. Clicking that gives a diagram of the carriage with the available seats.

On the trenitalia website you can choose your places, but you do not know in which direction they will point. Trains reverse when calling at a few terminal stations, but some may skip at a terminal station and so they do not need to reverse. For example:

Frecciarossa 9606 from Rome at 7.00am to Milan does not stop at intermediate stations, running over a bypass in Florence so does not reverse
Frecciarossa 9608 from Rome at 7.20am to Milan stops at Florence SMN and Bologna so reverses once in Florence

The suggestion of booking opposite seat so than you can exchange them at will is the most sensible one.

Trenitalia does let you select seats, but the configuration may be different than that shown on the seating chart. Best idea is to get seats facing each other, you can switch if the train changes direction.

Once again, thank you RS Community for your feedback, so appreciated. I did manage to contact ItaliaRail, they basically confirmed everything you have said about seat selections and the reasoning behind their policy, but strongly suggested that we speak to the conductor upon boarding, he will be able to help us change seats should that be needed. THANK YOU!

FYI: On a high speed train, traveling forwards and seeing the blur is more unsettling than facing backwards, the opposite effect of riding in a normal speed train.