Buying train tickets

Nope. I tried that years ago and then realized it costs more. If you want to save money and have more options buy direct from Trenitalia or its competitor Italotren. I would not buy from Italiarail either.

Trenitalia or Italotreno (there's a "o" on the end). :O)

Italo trains are all "fast" variety and serve mostly bigger cities. Trenitalia is a mix of fast and slow trains to both larger cities and smaller towns.

I haven't used it but some folks here really like Loco2.com for purchasing tickets.

The Trenitalia app for smartphones is amazing and easy to use. It is in English, and they accept my Amex card, unlike many European websites.

I think purchasing train tickets in Europe is confusing with so many options. I always worry I will choose the wrong place to purchase them. I checked on ricksteves.com and found it to be much higher but I received a message from them that it had to do with checking so far in advance before the tickets were actually available … or something like that. We ended up purchasing ours on http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en and had no problems at all. You will love train travel in Italy. The trains are fast and the ride was a nice break after walking all over Venice and then Florence. Just make sure you know the names of the train stations you will need. Here are the ones for Venice, Florence and Rome in case that is where you are heading: Venice - Venezia Santa Lucia (SL), Florence - Firenze Santa Maria Novella (SMN) and Rome - Roma Termini. I also checked out this website for more information regarding train tickets - https://www.seat61.com/. Maybe it will be of some help. I hope you have a wonderful trip!

Here are the sites:

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

https://www.italotreno.it/en

You can compare fares on www.trainlie.com

The app is especially handy for purchases coming off a flight.

Another vote for the trenitalia app for your smartphone. Makes the whole process about as easy as can be, and since you'll have electronic tickets in hand (sent as an attachment to a confirmatory email) you don't need to worry about validating your tickets at the machines before boarding.

If you want Regionale (slower trains for shorter distances, such as Venice-Padua or Padua-Verona) tickets cost the same day-of and can be purchased from machines at the station but you MUST remember to VALIDATE on the platform before entering a train. Adds a little flexibility for day-trips.

If you use the Trenitalia website, be sure to use the Italian name for cities, even on the English version of their site (I don't know about the app, as it's not available in Canada). So use "Firenze" instead of Florence, and "Venezia" instead of Venice (for instance).

Another vote for the trenitalia app for your smartphone. Makes the whole process about as easy as can be, and since you'll have electronic tickets in hand (sent as an attachment to a confirmatory email) you don't need to worry about validating your tickets at the machines before boarding.

Yet another vote for the Trenitalia app. I used it almost exclusively in May to buy Trenitalia tickets on the fly. It's even possible to register with the site, so you don't have to type in your name each time (REALLY worth the time savings later, so you can buy train tickets with just a few taps!!) - but not intuitive for non-Italians, because you have to generate a tax code (Codice Fiscale). It's basically a fake number but you can't register without one.

I followed this guide to generate the tax code

http://www.italychronicles.com/how-to-create-a-codice-fiscale/

I registered my Paypal account in my Trenitalia account, so I could use any credit card I wished with it. I did have to turn off DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) in Paypal to avoid being charged foreign transaction fees of any sort.

The only way for a codice fiscale to be fake is writing a fake name, a fake surname, a fake place and a fake date of birth. Don't worry. The algorithm that calculate those codes has been released as an open source tool years ago precisely because it can't be fake.

If you'll ever feel the need to pay taxes in Italy you'll ask the Italian IRS to check if there is another immigrant with the same and surname who was born in the same country oh the same day.

thanks for all your replies. It seems unanimous to NOT use the link that Rick Steves provides.

So now my question is ... why don't I see identical lists of trains on all the sites? One of the train legs we're planning is Florence to Verona.
When I go here (and the Rick Steves link, too): https://us.trenitalia.it-inter.com/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=299009828&utm_term=trenitalia_b&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImO-OwIGc5AIVD5-fCh3uDgC9EAAYAiAAEgKBTPD_BwE
... I see a direct train (no connection) at 12:03 (and other direct trains as well, in addition to connections)

But when I go here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
Or here: https://www.italiarail.com/?aff=S61U

... I only see trains with connections, no direct trains

Those direct trains to Verona depart from Florence's Campo Di Marte train station, on the east side of town. If that train station is convenient for you by chance, then that might be better for you. But for most people, the more centrally-located Santa Maria Novella (SMN) station is more convenient. If you are taking a taxi to the train station anyway, I guess you could take one to Campo Di Marte station and pick up the direct train. I walked to the S.M.N. station when I was in Florence; couldn't really walk to Campo Di Marte.

Italiarail is an authorised re-seller that's been around for years, but you can fully trust only the official sites of the 2 competing railway companies: Trenitalia.com/en.htm and italotreno.it/en
If you want to see all trains departing from Florence, on trenitalia.com pick Firenze (Tutte le stazioni) as departure station.
For sure you can't trust that us.trenitalia.it page, it's a fake site pretending to be the real one. They have no official agreement with trenitalia and I doubt they have a direct access to the booking system like ItaliaRail.

Dario beat me to it: to my knowledge, that is not the official Trenitalia website you should be using.

Oh, and entering "Tutte le stazioni" for your searches means you want departure or arrival results for ALL stations for a particular city.

The website I normally prefer for buying rail tickets is www.trainline.com, as they sell tickets for not only both major rail companies in Italy, but also other countries throughout Europe. That provides "one stop shopping" which is very convenient. It's necessary to set up an account first, including payment details, but once that's done the process is very easy. I believe they may now add a small surcharge for some purchases but for me that's not a big issue. In the big scheme of a trip to Europe, a few extra Euro here and there is not going to break the bank.

You could also use Italiarail or Loco2. I don't know if those site add a surcharge as I've never used them.

Thanks especially to Andrew H, who noted that the direct trains to Verona go from the "other" Florence train station. Will be easy for us to go there after we return our rental car. And thanks for the tips about which Trenitalia site to use/not use.