Buying tickets through Trenitalia while still in US

You can't register on the Trenitalia site even if you wanted to - have to do it as a guest as an American.

You can just buy the ticket and save the PDF at the time of purchase and print it out - but I think they also email it to you. Easy to buy before you get to Italy.

Even so, you don't have to print it out if you can save it to your phone and show that to a conductor on the train. But just print them out at home before you leave, just to be safe.

I used the Trenit app on my phone to buy tickets while in Italy - but you can use it in the US too if you'll have a working phone there. Or do both. I found Trenit to be incredibly useful not just for buying tickets on the spot and showing them on my phone but checking train departure/arrival/delay information, platform numbers, etc.

If you have trouble with credit cards on the Trenitalia site, you might also try the Trainline.eu website - never used it myself but some people who have say good things about it, easier to use than the Trenitalia site, no doubt, just by playing with it.

I have always bought mine from our home before leaving. I get an email and print out the ticket which has a scanner icon on the page. You can also use your cell phone if your confidant about the service you will use for it. I prefer a printed ticket. I did it as a guest, it will give you a code for the ticket and you can go back in to the site and make changes to ticket dates or train times in accordance with the type of ticket you bought.

You don't have to go with Trenitalia, you can look at Italotreno as well. They make the Venice/ Florence trip too. They are the private system and very good, nice trains and comparable to Trenitalia. They are the ones I use when I change locations. For the day I fly in from the US I wait until I get to Italy to buy those tickets, airline issues such as delays(SFO Fog, but so far we have arrived on time) can crop up.

If using the Trenitalia site, the English version is:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

On the screen that appears after you make the payment there is an item called the Retrieval Code. You should make a note of this or print that screen. If it happens that you do not receive the Email from Trenitalia, with the PNR code, confirming your booking, you can use the Retrieval Code to sort out your booking.

Tickets are a lot cheaper if you buy them a few months ahead when the cheap seats are first available. I buy them all ahead and print the tickets at home. They have a reservation code that the train conductor verifies. Also, the on-line printed tickets don't need to be punched or stamped in the machines before boarding because it's only good for one specific train and time, similar to a plane ticket.

it seems many seats are already booked

You got it wrong, discounted tickets (for advance purchases) are selling out, not seats. Discounted tickets are capacity controlled and can not be purchased on the day of travel, so they sell out quickly on some routes/departure hours.
Note that discounted tickets come with restrictions.

I have been registered on Trenitalia for years. Perhaps something has changed? At any rate, you can purchase without registering.

You will get an email confirmation within in a few minutes of purchase; it will have a PDF attachment. The attachment is your ticket. I print them out and take a hard copy. The conductor scans it.

You can also buy regionale tickets online, but there is no price advantage.

No ticket that you buy online needs to be validated, regionale tickets that you buy in Italy do have to be validated.

Just got back from out 3 week trip and we bought some of our tickets from Italiarail. It is easier to understand, they charge a small fee that will be refunded if you email them at [email protected]. Seat 61 was a great resource. I think they only book on trentalia. I liked that when we had multiple train changes all the tickets from one location to another were all on one transaction.

We also did http://www.italotreno.it/en which is not the same as italia rail which is booking agent. We much preferred the Italo trains and used them between longer destinations. We usually booked our tickets in their office at the train station or one of the ticket machines in the train station ahead of time for our next trip out of the city.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post. You all gave me a wealth of information. I will look into the different sites you suggested. Good to know that the seats left on the website are the discounted seats and do not indicate all that is remaining.

Forum members who pass along their experiences and insight make traveling even better.

Debra

Zoe:

I have been registered on Trenitalia for years. Perhaps something has changed?

Yes. They have changed it to not allow Americans (and people from other countries) to register anymore. Try registering again and see what I mean. "United States" isn't in the list of countries you can choose when choosing your country of citizenship. I tried a few months ago, because registering would have saved me time when buying multiple tickets.

Andrew, I don't think "United States" was ever an option; did you try "Stati Uniti"?

I too have been registered on Trenitalia for years, and have a pin code.
Perhaps it is because I live in Canada?
As Zoe says, try Italian spellings for your home country.

Tom, it looks like Zoe might be right. I never saw the United States listed that way before - but I haven't tried to register now. Perhaps I will before I go to Italy again. But I have read several account from people insisting it's not possible for Americans to register on Trenitalia's website anymore...

Not a member of FrecciaClub, registered anyway. But, you can manage tickets without being registered as long as you have the PNR code.

Yeah, you can buy without being registered - I certainly bought plenty of Trenitalia tickets that way in May but it got to be tedious to keep re-entering my name, DOB, etc. each time, even for regional train tickets. This is one reason buying tickets from the machines at the train stations can be more convenient if you are already in country.

I've been registered with Trenitalia for years using some hotel's address...some hotel I stayed in years and years ago. I just bought tix last night for travel Brig->Venice S. Lucia 1st class for about 55E. Full fare 1st class on that route was way more than that.

it got to be tedious to keep re-entering my name

Wouldn't Trenitalia's app solve this problem even without registering?