Booking trains in advance for late June

I believe that is why the schedules aren't posted yet for June. I could be wrong.

Just to add a note Yes you can purchase the fast train tickets online to save money in advance. You can get fares around 9-29 euro, The one thing with the savings is you are locked into that train departure. You don't have the flexibility to leave later in the day if you miss something you want to see in the morning. You will pay to change your ticket. If you def know you want to say leave on the 8am train then book it in advance.

Freccia high speed trains have already been uploaded in the system and you can purchase tickets till July 20 (120 days window).

You can't board these trains without a seat reservation, that is always included in the ticket.

As a general rule, out of August italian trains do not sell out; from Rome to Florence you can choose between Trenitalia and its private competitor Italotreno.com

Intercity and regional trains schedule after June 11 are still incomplete, check a date before to get an idea of the service. New schedules won't change much.

It's strange you can't find anything at all, you should see the Rome-Florence trains. Are you checking at www.trenitalia.com ? Did you use italian names for cities and stations? The site will recognize only "Roma Termini" and not Rome, "Firenze S.M. Novella" and not Florence.

If you want to save some money you could buy now the Rome-Florence Freccia tickets (note that discounted fares come with restrictions) and get all the regional ones in Italy, at the first Trenitalia station/travel agency you pass by.

I've been booking tickets for July on Trenitalia, June schedules should be completely up now.

The issue was that I was searching for tickets for my entire trip (which includes regional trains) rather than just the fast train portion. Thanks for the help, everyone.

I will search for just the fast train leg of the trip and book that in advance. And I can purchase the regional train tickets right from the station before boarding, correct? No need to get those in advance? If I understand correctly, the schedule for regional trains, that I will need to take in order to connect to the fast trains, shouldn't change too much.

Hi lauren. Good advice given above. To add to it:
- to go from Rome to Pisa, there are two routes: via Florence (Firenze), or the costal route.
- to see the full schedule, look at June 4 on trenitalia.com. Be sure to enter '06' for the hour. You will see over 30 choices. The schedule for a Saturday later in June will be 98% the same, but most of the choices for late June are not shown yet; they will appear later in the coming weeks.
- if route involves a regional train, I suggest you wait and buy that portion in Italy. Buy only the non-regional portion online, and only if the savings vs 'base' price are significant, and you are willing to lock in an exact date an time.
- La Spezia to Firenze, don't buy online as the savings are minimal and you restrict your flexibility.
- yes, if purchase online, you are emailed the ticket, which you can print yourself.
- if you do buy online, I suggest you register / create an account with the trenitalia website. Then it is easy to view your ticket info online at any time.
Enjoy your trip!

Right, you can buy those regional tickets at any train station, whichever is the most convenient timing. Roma Termini station has lots of machines; some take cash and some take credit cards. The regional train schedules are usually the last to be published for the summer schedule change.

Your online tickets usually offer a "ticketless" option for the fast trains, which means you only need to tell the conductor the order code (PNR) that they send you, or show the email on your phone.

Just to clarify because of some contradictory info above. Trenitalia schedules for after mid-June are NOT complete. For example, if you enter Rome to Pisa for June 4, you will see over 30 choices. But enter the same request for June 25, and only two choices show.

Bob mentions an important point that I want to reinforce: schedules are not all loaded yet. I am hunting for June 30 and trying daily right now. The route I want is only open thru June 11. So for anyone trying to buy on a specific date in late June set yourself a daily reminder to try. The super-economy seats sell out pretty fast on some routes.

lauren,

I haven't checked the schedules lately, so don't know what has been uploaded beyond mid-June. You could try and book a Freccia train from Rome to Florence, and if the purchase won't go through then book on Italo which should be working. I wouldn't bother booking the Regionale from Firenze SMN to Pisa Centrale as there are no price breaks for advance purchase. Simply buy the ticket for that segment a few days before you leave Rome using one of the Kiosks at Roma Termini. BE SURE to validate the tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel or you'll risk hefty fines.

You can buy tickets for both Trenitalia and Italo at www.captaintrain.com (it's very user friendly and you should be able to print your tickets at home).